Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy woke up in some dirty alleyway in a server he’d never seen before.

His whole body was electric with pain — it felt like all of his molecules had been ripped apart and put back together again, but wrong. Fuck. It felt like — he groaned, low in his throat, but his ears were ringing so much he felt it more in his throat than heard it.

His head pounded so hard he thought it might explode right off his shoulders. Fragments of memory assaulted him. Dream. Shit, Dream, and the prison — he felt like he couldn’t breathe through all the fear and pain and the death —

When he came back to himself next, he wasn’t getting pummeled to death on some dirty prison floor. Instead, he was just wheezing on some sidestreet, curled up on the ground like an idiot. Swiping definitely-not-tears off his face, Tommy wobbled to his feet on unsteady legs. His hand came away spotted with red. Grimacing, Tommy wiped the blood off into his dirty, matted hair. Well, at least he wasn’t dead.

Sensory details filtered in: the dim light of evening, the dull murmur of people in the distance, the smell of damp pavement. He was alone.

It seemed like he was safe, right now. No one was attacking him. But even if he could clearly use his eyeballs, his brain wasn’t getting the memo, sending trembles all over his limbs and clenching his chest tight-tight-tight like a vice. Stupid lungs. Do your job.

He was supposed to be in the prison, but he wasn’t in the prison. He was in some alleyway, surrounded on all sides by unfamiliar, looming concrete buildings. It didn’t look like the Dream SMP.

Okay, so if he wasn’t in the prison, where was he? There was this odd sense he had, like he was forgetting something. Well, that wasn’t too strange, since he didn’t remember getting here, but more unnerving was the sensation of emptiness. Like there was something there, but instead of seeing it, he just drew a big blank. It was like he was trying to remember back to what got him here and instead he just hit a big wall.

Even his most recent recollection of events was spotty. He was in the prison, Dream was attacking him, then what?

It definitely felt like he’d just got out of the prison, though. Hunger gnawed at his stomach, and he could feel the layer of grime coating his skin and clothing. He’d definitely smelled better. Patting himself down, he noted the lack of anything on his person. Just his regular clothing.

Notably, though, was the lack of major injuries. Some bumps and bruises, sure, a little blood stained around his temple, but none of the brutal injuries he remembered getting. He’d had a healing potion, then? His jaw and ribs were tender with some nasty bruising, and his arms were a little scraped, but that seemed to be the worst of it. Strangely, though, there was a new scar at his temple: when he ran his fingers over the skin, there was a starburst of scar tissue, but no open wound. Just the tackiness of dried blood.

Shrugging, Tommy shook at his arms. Okay, someone had used some glitch, or weird admin bullshit, and he was wherever this was. Fine. He’d find the closest admin and make his way back. Tubbo was definitely freakin’ out, wherever he was.

Tommy ignored the pit in his stomach, and the part of him that didn’t believe that. People were waiting for him. They had to be.

Once he’d gotten on his feet, Tommy decided to wander around and figure out where the hell he was. First stop was the large trash bin he’d woken up next to. It had been a while since his last raccoon-Innit days, but he’s gotten the name for a reason, and there didn’t seem to be any farms close by from what he could tell. Even if there were, there would likely be witnesses around. After he’d gotten a meal, second order of business was to figure out where the hell he was.

All around him stretched a denser cityscape than he’d ever dared to imagine. Remembering his compass, he pulled it out from under his shirt, but the hand was spinning in circles. He frowned. Either is was broken, or a different server it was.

He was pretty sure it was a different server.

Wandering the streets was overwhelming. The sky was dim with early night, but the streets were still awash with light, decorated with lamps in a design Tommy had never seen before. Everything looked to be in an odd industrial style; most of the buildings were towering gray or white concrete structures, although at the street level the roads were lines with colorful shops and signs. The signs made his head feel weird and fuzzy — the letters looked all weird, but when he read them, he somehow felt like he knew their meanings.

“I’m tripping balls. Am I tripping balls?” he muttered. “No. They must just be cosmetics.” A passerby gave him a quizzical look, as if Tommy was the weird one.

A parting gift, floated through his mind.

“Mom?!” He stopped in the middle of the street. She didn’t talk back. Fuck, was he hallucinating again?

Well, he had bigger things to deal with. There were so many people. Tommy could barely keep from running into them, the crowds were so dense.

The people here were strange. Sure, he was used to seeing hybrids around at least somewhat, but they didn’t typically have animal heads. Or skin that looks like rubber, or six arms, or — no, it was fine. Tommy was tolerant. People could have personal taste, or whatever. Even if it was weird.

Not sure why someone would want to look like a walking octopus, but Tommy had seen stranger things. Probably. There was Skeppy and Foolish, he reminded himself. They both had metallic skin.

None of them seemed to bear the scars of war. Meanwhile, Tommy knew it intimately. Some people gave him strange looks as he walked past — though for what reason, he couldn’t be exactly sure. Maybe it was because he was unfamiliar, but with this large of a server, it was probably just because he was all smelly and shit. Judgmental pricks.

Maybe it was also the warped scars he had peppering his face and exposed hands, but that seemed less likely. They were gory, sure, but respawn enough times and anyone would come out like him. I mean, look at Tubbo. While Tommy might have some shiny burn scars singing his jaw and arms from Dream’s TNT addiction, it wasn’t exactly an extreme case. Plus, most of his neck was covered by his bandana, anyway.

But maybe this was a server like Hypixel, where the rich came to just play silly games all day. Who knew.

After a while of wandering the streets, Tommy found what looked to be a small park. Flopping down on the bench, he let out a long groan.

“Fuck me,” he cursed. Blinking, he opened his eyes to see a boy around his age looking down at him with a nearly blank expression.

“The hell are you looking at?” Tommy snapped.

The boy’s expression didn’t change. “I was wondering if you were alright.”

He paused. Of course he was alright, he was Tommyinnit, but he bit back the instinctual yell back. This could be a good chance to ask some questions.

This kid was the most normal person Tommy had seen since he woke up. Similar to Ranboo, his hair was split-colored, as were his eyes. The burn scar on one side of his face could almost rival Tubbo. Dangling from one of his hands was an odd-looking bag made of some semi transparent white material Tommy didn’t recognize.

“I’m always alright. I’m great!” Tommy paused. His brain must still be scrambled, because he was usually smoother than this. He didn’t really know what to ask. Maybe his injuries were getting to him. Even though it wasn’t particularly cold outside, a chill felt like it had seeped into his bones, and his whole body ached with an odd pain.

“You look a bit injured,” the boy said. “Are any of them serious?”

Tommy huffed. “I’ll show you serious. I guess if you think a couple bruises are serious, then sure, I’m at death’s fucking door.”

“How did you get them?”

“A fucking piece of shit bastard. Wanker. Evil–I hope he rots in that—” Tommy griped, shuddering, before catching himself. He looked at the kid sharply. “Doesn’t matter. None of your business.” Tommy stood and stretched. Spreading his wings as far as he could, he rocked from side to side, then touched his toes. Shit, he was sore. Flicking his wings, he scrunched his nose. All the feathers were out of alignment and uncomfortable. Too bad he couldn’t reach his back.

The boy was still looking at him calmly. Sitting down on the bench next to Tommy, he rifled through the bag he was holding. “Would you like a drink?”

“Ayy, now you’re speaking my language. Is it poisoned? If you try to kill me, I’ll kill you first, you know.”

“It’s not poisoned.” Damn, this guy was good. He was nearly better at keeping a blank face that Techno. 

The boy pulled a couple of weird bottles out of the bag he was carrying. Tommy squinted suspiciously. He passed him one—it was cool and smooth to the touch, and coated in a thin layer of condensation. Seeming to sense his hesitation, he pulled out another one as well, twisted off the top and began to drink.

Though the material of the bottle was strange—Tommy had expected it to be glass, since it was partially clear, but it was odd and light—the drink seemed like it could be normal. It was green and had a melon logo on the front. It looked closest to a night vision potion.

Tommy took a sip.

“Holy shit! What the hell?!”

“Hm?”

“This is fuckin’ delicious,” Tommy stared at the drink in amazement. It tasted sort of like a potion, but better, fizzing across his tongue with a rush of sweetness but without any added status effect. “How the hell did you make this? What sort of potion is it?”

“I bought it. My sister likes them.” He rummaged in his bag, passing Tommy another. “If you like, you can have this one, as well.”

Tommy took it eagerly. With a small flex of his magic, the bottle disappeared into his inventory. Perfect. He’d save it for later.

The boy startled, wide eyed. “Where did it go?”

Tommy gave him a funny look. “My inventory? You doing alright?”

Speaking of inventory… his was meant to be empty, but just now it hadn’t felt empty. Frowning, Tommy cast his thoughts inwards.

What the hell?

Last he remembered, he’d cleared his inventory and put it in the prison locker, but his inventory wasn’t empty. He had an odd mix of his ender chest and regular items: a set of used iron armor, a couple ender pearls, a healing potion, and then a set of netherite tools. The sword he had was Nightmare and the axe was The Axe of Peace. He frowned. Other than that, he had a water bucket, a half stack of dirt, and almost a stack of cooked beef. The dumpster-diving earlier had been a bit silly, then.

When he came back to himself, the boy was reaching out a hand towards him. Tommy flinched to his feet so fast he spilled a little of his drink over his hand.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” he shouted. “The hell is wrong with you?! Don’t— fucking — hit me!” Tommy exploded, forgetting for a moment where he was, panic rising in his chest.

The boy also jerked back, cradling his hand to his chest. His eyes were wide. “I’m… I’m sorry. You weren’t responding.”

“What, and that means you can just fucking touch people? You’re gonna make me all panicky and shit!”

“No.” He looked upset, now, his eyebrows pressed together in a sad little frown. “I won’t do it again.” Then, more quietly, “I wasn’t going to hit you.”

“You better not. Try and grab me and I’ll chop your fucking arm off.” God, Tommy was tense. It was all Dream’s fault. The dick. Spending weeks locked up with that guy was enough to make anyone go a bit crazy.

The boy nodded. He glanced at Tommy’s back, seeming deep in thought himself.

“Your wings. Are they your quirk?” The boy asked.

“Huh? You never seen a hybrid before?” Tommy asked testily. He didn’t like being reminded of his stunted wings. They’d never been especially impressive — he was only ever able to glide, they weren’t large enough for real flight — but after Dream had bound them in exile they were basically unusable. His only mercy was that Dream hadn’t just cut them off. He’d definitely threatened it. “And who the hell are you?”

“I’m Todoroki,” the boy said.

“Toad Roki?” Tommy repeated. Wouldn’t be the worst player tag he’d ever heard. He’d met BadBoyHalo. Toad didn’t have any frog-themed elements to his skin, though. Seemed he hadn’t committed to the theme. All he was rocking was the typical heterochromatic edgelord look.

“What’s yours?”

“Tommy.” He yawned. “Anything make you quirky, big man?”

“My quirk is fire and ice.” Toad paused. There was some sort of expectation on his face—was this supposed to have some sort of significance? Tommy, having not seen anything yet, was not impressed.

“Well? Can I see it, big man?”

Raising his arm, Toad sent a wave of crackling ice across the sleeve of his sweater. Tommy watched in amazement as it crept up his hand. Just as quickly, it receded away as if it were never there.

“Quirked up white boy with the sauce,” Tommy muttered. Toad looked bewildered. Tommy added, “Though you’re not white, are you. My apologies. Can you teach me how to do that?”

“No.”

Prick, Tommy thought. Maybe it was some sort of upgrade or plugin he’d never heard of.

“Be that way,” he huffed. “So, Where are we? This is the weirdest fuckin’ server I’ve ever been on, that’s for sure.”

“…Musutafu? In the Shizuoka prefecture.”

“Never heard of it.” Tommy swung his legs carelessly. “Who’s the admin around here?” At the boy’s continued blank expression, he said slowly, as if to a child: “You know? The boss around here? Who runs this stupid country?”

“Like the Prime Minister?”

Tommy could have screamed in excitement. Actually, he did. Finally, something that seemed almost normal, for Prime’s sake! He wasn’t sure why the admin called himself a minister—other than that they administered the rules, wasn’t he funny—but Prime
was blessedly familiar.

“Thank Prime! Yes!” Tommy sat forward eagerly. “I don’t have my comm, so I’ll have to borrow one, but could I message him? Then I’ll be able to get out of here.”

Toad seemed ever more confused than ever before. “I don’t have the Prime Minister’s number.”

“Thanks for nothing, then. What good’s a comm for otherwise?” Tommy sighed. Maybe with this many people on one server, it just didn’t make sense to give private messaging permissions. “Is there any way I could talk with him? Friend of a friend?”

“I’m… not sure.”

“Damn.”

“Where are you from, then?” The boy asked slowly.

Tommy grinned. “I was grown in a lab.”

Satisfied with the way the other boy — Toad something — blanched, Tommy swung off the wall and landed on his feet. That had always been Tommy’s go-to answer for these things.

To be honest, he wasn’t sure how he’d been made: one day he wasn’t around, and the next he was. Considering how Lady Death had sometimes spoken to him as a child, he was pretty sure she’d made him, which was why he’d tried to make a connection with Phil. He was her husband—surely that sort of made them family, right? But Phil had never had any interest in Tommy back. He’d just bombed his country, the right bastard.

Toad didn’t seem to have the answers he needed.

“I’m off.”

“Wait,” Toad said, voice tinged with an odd sort of panic. Tommy sharpened to attention. “You should stay. I’m training to be a hero. If you need help—”

“Fuck off! I don’t need help!” Rapidly backing up, Tommy bared his teeth at Toad, hackles raised.

He never should have talked to this weirdo! What did he want? Clearly, he was bad news. Either he was trying to get something from Tommy, or he was pitying him. He wasn’t sure which was worse. “I bet you’re a fuckin’ pervert or something! Wrong’un!”

“I—”

Seized with an odd panic, Tommy grasped for an ender pearl and then threw it as hard as he could. Landing on some random roof, he dropped down on his back, breathing heavy. What had been his deal? Taking deep breaths, Tommy squeezed his eyes shut, searching for calm. What he wouldn’t do to see Tubbo right now. He didn’t like being alone. He wanted to be home.

Toad’s strange declaration rattled around in his mind. “Training to be a hero”. What exactly did that mean? Was there some weird rp bullshit around here Tommy didn’t know about.

You want to be a hero, Tommy? Then die like one!

Tommy shivered. Maybe a part of him had wanted to be a hero—wanted to be accepted with open arms again by the people who now despised his existence. Who exiled him. But more than anything, he’d just wanted back the place he loved, which was now lost to him.

He wouldn’t abandon it, though. Not ever. Even if L’Manberg had been destroyed, he still had people he needed to get back to.

Todoroki, while not the quietest student Aizawa had, was certainly not the most outgoing. That meant as soon as Todoroki had called him, alarm bells had been going off inside his mind. While the whole class had received Aizawa’s work number after the USJ incident, Aizawa had hoped none of them would ever need to use it — and he expected it from Todoroki least of all.

“Todoroki,” he greeted, voice serious. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing with me, sensei,” was the dutiful reply. “I simply had an… issue I felt I should report to you. I wasn’t sure who else to tell.”

Aizawa resisted the urge to sigh, but it was a near thing. He could already tell this was going to be a hassle.

Chapter Text

An hour after their call, Todoroki and Aizawa were at the station with Naomasa, who had come down to take his statement. Naomasa wasn't pleased — it was late, after all — but after hearing what Todoroki had to say, Aizawa had felt that haste was necessary.

“The boy was around my age and introduced himself as Tommy,” Todoroki began. “Probably around 180 cm tall. He appeared to be European, and had an English accent, with blond hair and blue eyes. There was a streak of white in the front of his hair. I initially approached him because I thought he might be a runaway or abuse victim.”

His expression was as implacable as ever. Naomasa had commandeered one of the conference rooms to interview him, so Todoroki wouldn’t feel quite so much like he was being interrogated, although Aizawa was sure it didn’t help completely. Todoroki sat, straight-backed, in his chair, not betraying any hints of discomfort.

At the very least Aizawa was uncomfortable. The sterile white lights of the station always gave him a headache.

“And why did you think that?” Naomasa asked.

Todoroki frowned slightly, his eyes distant with recollection. “He was young, incredibly disheveled and also injured. Both his clothes, skin and hair were dirty, and he didn’t have anything other than the clothes on his back. And he was sitting on a park bench at night with his eyes closed.”

“And as for his injuries?”

“Most of them were scars,” Todoroki said, “But some were still fresh. There were bruises across his face, with a particularly large one on his jaw, and a black eye. He also had blood in his hair. Other than that he appeared to just have some scratches, but he was mostly covered, so I couldn’t fully tell. But he had some striking scars on his face: one curving across his nose and down his cheek, another through one eyebrow, and some sort of scar from blunt force trauma to the temple. And then he had some burn scars on his neck and below his chin.”

Aizawa raised his eyebrows. “Sounds very distinctive.”

“Yes. I could easily identify him again if needed.”

Aizawa leaned back in his chair. This was all important, but he wanted to make sure that they got to what had really concerned him.

“Moving on to his quirk,” Aizawa said. In the corner of his eye, he saw Naomasa shoot him a glance. Usually, Aizawa just let him conduct interviews. “Over the phone you told me a few details, but I’d like you to repeat everything on record. What was it?”

“He seemed to have multiple quirks,” Todoroki began slowly.

Naomasa’s eyes widened. This is why Aizawa had called him in.

“While he had small red wings on his back, he also showed other abilities. There was one quirk which seemed like some sort of summoning ability. He called it ‘Inventory’. But he also was able to teleport away, or at least I assume that’s what it was. He made a throwing motion with his hand, and less than a second later, he was gone.”

Naomasa leaned forward.

“Please, tell us everything you talked about.”

Tommy stared at the train in fascination for almost an hour that morning. It was yet another new piece of technology he had been acquainted with recently.

It had been a beautiful and frustrating past few days. The weather here was warm and aggressively humid, but the sky was a vibrant blue, spotted with little clouds. The server was lively at all hours, but Tommy had found quiet times in at the night to sleep a bit. It was easy enough to pillar up the side of a building and sleep on one of the flat roofs the big rectangle buildings had here. Even if they weren’t the most comfortable.

Chugging along some of the streets and bridges here were trains like he’d never seen before, sleek and quick. Masses of people went in and out. Tommy had followed tracks until he reached a station, where people hurried to and from the giant machines at intervals. Tommy had never seen travel like this. Nether travel was fast, sure, but you still had to run or ride an ice boat for that. These train lines were incredible.

It was cool, but scary, too — minecarts going fast enough could kill you, and this server just had these hulking machines everywhere? They did look convenient, though.

Standing in front of a little gate, Tommy frowned down. Everyone else seemed to have these little cards they were using to get in, but he didn’t have one of those. Maybe he could just hop over? But there were some guys in police uniforms milling around, and he really didn’t want to go back to prison so soon.

People were getting irritated at him standing for so long by the entrance. He was about to make his choice when someone spoke from behind him.

“You need me to tap you through?”

Tommy spun around. “Yes!”

A boy around his age was standing behind him, a lopsided grin tugging at his lips. He had a shock of purpled hair poofing up from his head in a manner so gravity-defying Tommy wondered if he styled it that way.

“No need to shout,” the boy smirked, pressing his card to the machine. With a little green light, the doors opened. Tommy stepped through. When he turned, the boy was walking off towards the train as if they’d never spoken.

Thankfully, his weird tuft of hair was distinctive enough that Tommy spotted him again easily. Tommy cut through the crowd to come stand next to him by the platform.

“So, who’re you?” Tommy asked. The boy paused, turning his head slowly to give Tommy a very unimpressed look. He pulled a little white cord away from his ear.

“…Shinso,” he responded guardedly. “What do you want?”

“Bored. Has anyone ever told you you look tired?” Tommy swayed back and forth on his feet. It had been so long since he’d had a normal conversation. He was getting stir crazy. Even this short exchange had him grinning. Shinso still seemed confused, but he was picking up on Tommy’s energy, relaxing slightly.

Shinso snorted. “Has anyone ever told you? I think our eyebags match. What was your name, exactly?”

“It’s Tommy,” Tommy sniffed. “And rude. I was just showing some concern.”

“So was I.”

The train arrived, doors sliding open. Shinso slunk through the doors, sliding into a seat, and Tommy flopped down onto the seat beside him. Tommy hoped he didn’t smell too bad, but he wasn’t holding his breath. Shinso might have to, though.

“Headed to school?” Shinso asked. “Your uniform go missing or something?”

“I don’t need to go to school. I’m an a-dult. Very mature. It’s what all the ladies tell me.”

“I'm sure,” Shinso drawled. “Well, I’m a little jealous. I’m headed to school myself. Although, if I didn’t have to go to school, I definitely wouldn’t be waking up this early.”

Tommy felt good about this guy. Maybe he’d made his first friend on this server.

Naomasa glanced up from his notes, frowning. “So? What do you think?”

Aizawa sighed. Sometimes he wished he’d never quit smoking. Those had been the worst few years of his life, but the nicotine habit at least gave him smaller problems to worry about.

Todoroki had left with a request to be informed on updates about the boy he’d met, and Aizawa had told him he’d do what he could. Naomasa looked much more haggard than he had before the interview. Aizawa could understand that. He wasn’t feeling much better. This boy concerned him in more ways that one.

Most damning was the boy’s own admission that he was made in a lab. Shigaraki had admitted to creating the "nomu" which attacked Aizawa. Could this boy be another of their creations as well? The fact that he was apparently completely ignorant of basic facts about the world didn’t help. It seemed to point to some level of confinement in his past.

At least based on what Todoroki had said, he hadn’t seemed aggressive, but he had seemed potentially dangerous and easily startled. That was a bad combination. Was the scared behavior he’d exhibited an act? But if he had all of those scars, he’d been through some horrible things, regardless… and if he was on the run from villains, as Todoroki had suspected, time was of the essence.

“I think we need to find this kid before we know anything for certain,” he started, “But if Todoroki said he used multiple quirks, then I believe that’s what he saw. Maybe there’s some sort of alternate explanation, but it’s all feeling a bit too coincidental, right now.”

“What? Do you think the group who attacked the USJ could have been behind this, as well?”

“That’s the only instance of there having been someone with multiple quirks I can think of,” Aizawa replied.

The incident at the USJ had only been a couple weeks ago (Aizawa still had the bandages to show for it), and the sports festival was next week. Multiple people with multiple quirks within less than a month? It was definitely too much of a coincidence.

Naomasa had an odd, long-suffering look on his face.

“Eraserhead,” he started. “I think there’s something I need to speak with you about. Can you promise absolute secrecy?”

Yeah, Aizawa decided, a cigarette sounded great right about now.

In the following days, Tommy made a habit of meeting with Shinso every morning so they could ride the train together. They’d speak during the ride (quietly, since apparently it was rude to be loud) and then after, Tommy would stay on the train for a while until he found somewhere interesting to get off and walk around.

He still hadn’t made any progress on getting back to his server, yet. Shinso was also confused by any mention of it. Maybe there was some sort of terminology difference. Apparently, Shinso didn’t know the Prime Minister either. Useless, the lot of these people.

He was, however, very entertaining to talk to. Shinso had a dry sense of humor Tommy liked quite a lot. Sometimes, out of the corner of his eye, he’d see that purple hair and think it was a different purpled-loving bastard he was speaking to. That thought made his chest pang a bit, though, so he tried not to think about it.

Over the past few days, and especially after speaking with Shinso, Tommy was starting to get worried that he was really somewhere strange. Shinso didn’t know what an inventory was, or an MLG, or almost anything normal. Apparently, everyone here went to school or work all day and earned money and couldn’t just build wherever they wanted.

And, especially strangely, no attempts at explanation of “servers” had Shinso understanding what he was talking about. He’d just thought Tommy was talking about “video games”, whatever those were. There was no server hopping. There wasn’t even a Nether or an End dimension. Maybe they were secret, on this server? Maybe only the Prime Minister knew how to access them? But it didn’t even seem like people could do the most basic of tasks of mining and crafting. Tommy wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here, but it was so foreign he wasn’t sure if he could count on anything he understood anymore.

If Tommy was the type of guy to get worried, he would be, but he was a Big Man Who Never Worried, so. He was fine.

“How’d you end up in Japan?” Shinso asked. Shinso had warmed up to him considerably the past few days — the train ride was around thirty minutes long, and once he’d seemed sure enough Tommy wasn’t about to shank him, he’d seemed glad enough for the company. Or at least not annoyed enough to tell him to fuck off.

He’d seemed a lot happier with Tommy since he found a fountain yesterday and dunked himself in it. It hadn’t fixed the rips in his clothing (and it had been very uncomfortable waiting for his clothing to dry), but he was a lot less grimy, now. Shinso was still in his normal skin that he called his “school uniform”.

“I just woke up in some alleyway a few days ago. Bet it was Dream, that bastard.” Pursing his lips, Tommy stared at the train ceiling, deep in thought.

Actually, that didn’t sound right. Dream had always wanted to keep Tommy close: under his thumb. But he was the last person Tommy had been with, and the only one with admin powers, so it had to be him, right? Tommy frowned.

He’d been having weird dreams as of late. In the past few days since he’d arrived here, he had been dreaming of the prison—hazy fragments of memory that felt like his own death. But the fragments were all muddy and confusing. They were never the same. Tommy wasn’t sure what to trust. Was any of it his real memory? Was it some stupid trauma shit? That would be just his luck.

“Wait, you don’t know?” Shinso asked. There was a strain of hysteria in his voice. “Aren’t you from overseas? You have an accent. English, right?”

“That’s what I said,” Tommy snapped. He slumped a bit in his seat. “Sorry. Just been a bit on edge. You know how it is.”

He was getting frustrated with just wandering around all day. Only eating beef was getting pretty old. And not having anywhere to properly bathe.

“Do you think you were kidnapped?” Shinso looked really worried all out of of nowhere, which Tommy was a little taken off guard by. His face had paled, he’d leaned forward in his seat towards Tommy, and he was worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

Shrugging, Tommy said, “Hell if I know. Some bullshit like that.”

“Have you tried going to the police? Or heroes?”

Now that was a weird one, as well. Apparently, Shinso was going to the top hero school in the nation. Tommy was still a bit fuzzy on what that meant, exactly, but Shinso had explained it as similar to police officers but they got to use “quirks” (which, apparently, were player-locked abilities). Also, people tended to be obsessed with them a lot more than they were over the police.

Shinso had asked Tommy if he’d sustained a recent head injury during that conversation. Tommy had chosen not to comment.

“Ugh. Fuck the po-lice, that’s what Wilbur used to tell me. No way.” Tommy wrinkled his nose. He remembered when Sapnap had done his stint as a police officer, back at the start of L’Manberg, before the war. He wasn’t so bad these days, but he’d been a right prick then. Police were so annoying. Always telling you what to do, and shit, and that you couldn’t sell drugs.

“They could help you figure out how to get back home, though,” Shinso said. “Are you worried about something? I know foster care sucks, but—”

“Foster care? What’s that?”

“Oh God,” Shinso said, long-suffering. “I can’t believe this. Where have you been staying? Where were you before?”

“Rooftops and shit. Back home I had a perfectly good house. Well, it was a dirt house, but that didn’t make it any worse than any other house. Lived in a tent for a while, and that was a bit shit.”

The city had been an adjustment, that was for sure. Tommy had never lived anywhere so bright at all hours of the day. He could see why they kept it that way — he hadn’t seen a single hostile mob since coming to this server. But he was sorely missing having a roof over his head.

“You sure you don’t want to go to the police?”

“What do you think they’ll do if I do see ‘em?” Tommy asked. Maybe Shinso was right. He did know more about this server, after all.

“Well… they’d probably try and get in contact with anyone who knows you in England, and if they can’t, place you in a different home. If you’re under eighteen, that is. You’d either go to a group home—those are really common here, in Japan—or foster care.”

“Huh?”

“Basically, it’s a house with a bunch of other kids, and they have people watching over you. You’d also have to go to school. But they take care of you, and feed you, and stuff like that. Once you age out of the system you can live on your own.”

“Watching over me?” Tommy asked in alarm. He shuddered. “Like… telling me what to do, and taking my things?”

He was only ever there to watch me, floated through his memory. Freezing water. The biting cold of winter. A pillar to block limit, the resolution that he just couldn’t do this anymore, the chill of the tundra and explosions and blood… no, he didn’t ever want to be in a position like that again.

“Sometimes,” Shinso said uncomfortably. “But they’re only meant to do what’s good for you. It’s really not so bad. Hey, are you alright?”

Tommy wasn’t sure. All his fingers were cold, and his jaw was tight, and it felt a bit hard to breathe. All the noise from the surrounding train had faded out. Instead of the creaking of the train on the tracks, the murmuring of people, the rush of wind, all he could hear was a dense silence. It was bright and sunny outside but suddenly it was cold.

“I don’t want to do that.” Fingers tightening on his knees, Tommy set his jaw. Breathing properly was a struggle. Meeting Shinso’s wide eyes, he said, “I don't—I’m never doing that ever again. I’d rather die.”

“Woah, hey, okay,” raising his hands, alarmed, Shinso said, “Then we won’t. That’s okay. Although… if you really can’t find another way back, I’m not sure what else…”

“Please don’t tell them about me. If I do—do that, please, just let me choose it. I don’t want… that’ll be the absolute last resort.” If that’s what he had to do to find answers, maybe Tommy could live with it for a while, but he’d never let himself be stuck in that situation ever again. He meant it. He’d rather die. Every other option would need to be exhausted first.

The worried look hadn’t left Shinso’s face. Tommy hated the way it made his gut twist. Maybe he was always going to worry anyone who came close enough. The early morning light slanted through the train windows, flickering in little slices across the planes of Shinso’s face. Tommy wondered what he was thinking. Something about this concern came across as personal, but Tommy didn’t understand why.

Whatever Shinso was thinking, he didn’t say it.

“Alright,” Shinso agreed. His gaze was heavy. “I’ll leave it up to you.”

Chapter Text

It was as Aizawa had feared, but it was still frustrating.

The boy Todoroki had met was basically a ghost. No amount of poring over quirk registries had helped – even the British quirk records he’d struggled to get access to had been a dead end. Reports had been slim, as well: apparently, no one had seen a boy with red wings, although some people had potentially seen young blondes. There was no one that had matched Todoroki’s particular description, and he had negatively identified any candidate’s images they had sourced.

The police department was trying to search local CCTV cameras, but it was hard to identify any one person in the massive amounts of footage and crowds of Musutafu, and the station couldn’t spare too many people for the investigation. It seemed like Aizawa was left without any guide.

Frustratingly, Aizawa himself couldn’t spare too much of his own energy on the investigation, either. He still had his regular hero patrols to take care of, and with the Sports Festival approaching and the recent attack on UA, work at the school was busier than ever. He was being pulled in too many directions.

The boy needed to be found, though. Aizawa knew this deep in his chest. A child with his powers, his lack of knowledge of the outside world… Aizawa feared that he would quickly be found by those he was running from, or different people with bad intentions. Homelessness on its own, especially as a teenager, was already dangerous. But with his clear history of experiencing violence – Aizawa feared what could happen if he was found again.

Had he already been dragged back to where he’d come from? Sent to be tortured or experimented on? Had he been raised to be a villain? Did he work for them already? There were too many theories and too many ways for his brain to torture him. He needed to remember what he had told Naomasa: there was no way to truly know the situation until they found the boy himself. Too bad it was easier to give advice than to follow it.

It didn’t help that Naomasa had withheld the information about All For One until now. He begrudgingly understood – if they thought he was gone until now, sure, but Aizawa had been involved at the USJ attack. He had been the main hero involved, actually, and knowing the full scope of possibilities for his attacker seemed important. Things always got messy when they involved All Might, though. Especially when they involved Naomasa as well.

Aizawa didn’t like the idea that someone could be creating people with multiple quirks. And if it was possible to give people multiple quirks like Tommy had, why had the Nomu been unable to communicate? Was there something they were missing?

Well, there was definitely someone they were missing. There was no sign of the boy having ever existed at all. This meant Aizawa’s job was about to get much harder: without a real trail to scour, he would have to search the streets for the boy himself. He’d have to pray he found something about the kid before someone else did.

The train was as crowded as ever. Tommy yawned, slumping in his seat. They’d snagged a good spot today, at the end of the row, so Tommy didn’t have to knock elbows with anyone on one side. He was fine knocking elbows with Shinso. He wasn’t offended.

Last night had been restful, which he appreciated, but the real sleep had apparently reminded his body that yes, it did need the rest he’d been ignoring, and it would continue to remind Tommy of that fact even during the day. It had been nice, though, even if the hours of uninterrupted sleep was odd.

Shinso seemed more alert than normal. Jittery, he kept glancing at Tommy before steeling himself to talk.

“I know we’ve only known each other for, like, a week.” Shinso was uncharacteristically sheepish, doing the little rubbing-the-back-of-his neck thing he liked to do, avoiding Tommy’s eyes. “But would you like to come to the UA Sports Festival, maybe? All the competing students get a plus one, and I don’t really have anyone else to ask.”

Blinking his eyes open, Tommy asked, “What’s that?”

Though they’d only known each other for a short period of time, Shinso had helped Tommy a huge amount. The first breakthrough had been in money. Apparently, the couple of diamonds he’d had in his inventory were worth a lot here. Maybe everything in the area had been mined up already?

Regardless, Shinso had taken him to some shop where a guy had given him a bunch of funny little bills that stacked oddly in his inventory since they were different values. Since he’d been selling it for cash, he apparently hadn’t gotten as much as he could have, but it was more than enough for Tommy. It would last him for a while.

Tommy had already wandered around the shops in the area and purchased a new set of clothing, which had been a learning experience. The currency here was paper bills, instead of diamonds or bartering or just getting shit for yourself. With so many buildings and people crammed in one server, it did make some amount of sense. There wasn’t room enough for everyone to farm, after all.

The second huge thing had been Shinso showing him how to get to a local hotel. Now that had gotten Tommy excited. It felt like he was back on the SMP with Big Innit hotel again! It was a bit of a seedier place than Tommy’s hotel (although, what wasn’t) with a big heart on the sign outside, but they’d taken his cash (via Shinso) for the night and hadn’t asked too many questions. Shinso had been beet red for some reason he’d refused to elaborate on. But Tommy had gotten to discover the wonders of a shower and that made everything worth it.

Unfortunately, Tommy’s normal clothes were too ripped up to wear until he could patch them, so he’d had to settle for new ones. He was wearing a loose fitting long sleeve white shirt and a fresh pair of jeans, as well as a baseball cap he’d bought to protect him from the sun. He’d kept the bandana, at least, which was wrapped around his neck as usual. He’d even gotten a red hoodie for when it wasn’t sweltering outside.

The shirt didn’t have slots for his wings, but Tommy was feeling strangely reluctant to show them. Maybe it was something about Todoroki’s strange reaction. He didn’t like staring and weird looks at his wings, and they were all dirty and unkempt and gross. Apparently, people here counted hybrid traits and within their single alloted “quirk”, so it was a bit strange he also had them and his inventory, which seemed silly to him, but oh well. It was just their asshole admin’s fault for locking off their ability to access it. Shinso had already given him wide-eyed, curious looks when he summoned things in and out of his hotbar.

Shinso’s pursed his lips. “Basically… it’s this big tournament that UA puts on. It’s in a huge stadium, and all the students do different events, and fight, and someone wins… it’s televised. It’s a pretty big deal.”

Wait, Tommy got it! He shot up in his seat, Shinso flinching back in surprise. Shinso wasn’t always the best at explaining things, but Tommy was a genius, so it was okay. It was basically MCC. Tommy loved MCC!

In the early days of the SMP, Dream had used his admin abilities a few times to let them travel and compete in Noxcrew’s competitions. Tommy had even won, once! A bunch of minigames in a tournament sounded fun. Tommy wished he could compete, but that would mean he’d have to be in school. Eugh. He’d love to watch Shinso, though.

“That sounds epic! Of course I’ll come!” A grin split Tommy’s face. This sounded like the most fun thing he’d done since… maybe the first MCC, who knows. A while.

Blinking in surprise, a little smile tugged at Shinso’s mouth. He rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.

“Thanks… I don’t know how well I’ll do, but I want to try my best,” Shinso’s already low voice was rougher than usual. “The hero course will have a big advantage. I’m not really sure what I can do with my limited skills.”

“You’ll beat their fuckin’ ass!” Tommy accidentally shouted. A few people on the train turned to glare. Shinso turned red.

“Sorry,” Tommy whispered. He cupped his hands around his mouth.“You’ll beat their fuckin’ ass.”

“Thanks for that,” Shinso grumbled, still a bit red.

“What games will you be playing?” Tommy was still riding on the high of this server having something like MCC, as well. Maybe they’d have a Sky Battle equivalent? Or Battle Box?

“Well, they change them every year, but there’s a basic format that they always follow. Usually it’s some sort of large every-man-for-themselves event at the start, like a race or an obstacle course with different obstacles. Then it’s a team game, and then it’s some sort of one-on-one bracket,” Shinso counted off on his fingers. “I’ve been reviewing all of the past tournaments recently. There were some cases where it was different, but that’s usually the structure.”

So… Ace Race, and then a team game, maybe like Battle Box or Grid Runners. And then just PVP.

“What are you best at? I’m great at PVP.” Flexing his arm, Tommy grinned. “And strategy, of course.”

Shinso ducked his head. Tommy paused. Shinso seemed more down than usual, which was weird. Maybe he was insecure, or something? “Well… I’ve been trying to do some conditioning. Running and stuff. But mostly I just have my quirk.”

What was his quirk, again? Tommy realized he didn’t know. But Shinso tended to get all shifty and shit when quirks were brought up. He’d wanted to be respectful. Too bad Tommy was going to need to know, if he wanted to get Shinso into tip-top shape for MCC. The Sports Festival. Whatever.

“And what about fighting? How much experience have you got?”

Shinso scuffed the tip of his shoe against the floor, avoiding Tommy’s eyes.

“I don’t really have the money to go to a dojo. I can’t work while attending UA, and my foster placement can’t give me money for it. So… none?”

Tommy was aghast. How was that possible? Everyone had fighting experience. But perhaps Shinso had never experienced mobs before. What a strange life. This server, man. Everyone here must be so soft! Well, that was something Tommy could help with.

“You don’t need money for that! We can go to a park or something. I’ll clobber you. Instruc-tive-ly. I’ll be the best teacher you’ve ever had.”

“Really?” Something fragile had come over Shinso’s face. It made Tommy halfway uncomfortable and halfway kind of touched.

“Of course! What else are friends for?”

“Alright.” Tommy liked the expression Shinso was wearing now better: somewhere between a smile and sharp determination. “Let me walk you to UA today, then. You’ll need to know where to meet me.”

Shinso gave him a watch he’d had strapped against his wrist. Tommy inspected the device. It seemed very useful – without the little handheld comms everyone else had, Tommy hadn’t been able to tell the time for the past few days by anything other than the sun and stars. There weren’t too many visible stars on this server. It unsettled him, but he tried not to pay too much attention.

“When this says 15:30, meet me right here.” Shinso pointed at the spot, right next to his school’s front gate. “There. You got it?”

“Okay, okay, I’m not a fuckin’ dog, man,” Tommy grumbled, half meaning it. He wasn’t dumb.

He ducked his head. “Sorry. I just don’t want to lose you.” Shinso’s shoulders wilted a bit. Tommy got the feeling he meant it, so he was still alright, he guessed. Shinso dithered a bit, shuffling back and forth. “I’ll see you later?”

“I’ll be right here,” Tommy promised.

Later that day, Tommy stood by the front gates, watching in fascination as a sea of students in uniform streamed by him. So this was UA? It was strange to see so many people his age in one place. Tommy had never really seen a real school before. Watching all these teenagers happily chatting with one another, living their lives peacefully, was making a weird feeling rise in his chest.

Shinso found him easily enough, and led him to a park a bit of a walk away where he knew of a clearing they could spar in.

“As long as we don’t really damage anything, we should be fine,” Shinso explained. “Lots of people practice sparring a bit, as kids, since a lot of people want to be heroes. Maybe just don’t be too obvious with your quirk use.”

Tommy shrugged. It sounded weird that anyone would have a problem with people sparring in public – hell, where he was from, people often wouldn’t step in even if you were fighting for your life, preferring to leave it to individuals when at all possible. But apparently, with such a large police force, stuff like selling drugs and arson and killing shit meant a lot of people could get up in your business. Too bad.

“Tell me more about this tournament. Tommy Trusty can’t help too much if you don’t trust me,” Tommy smiled at the rhyme. “So, what do you get for winning? A crown? A coin?”

A coin would be sick. He started to stretch, cracking his back. Ouch. The days of sleeping on random buildings was not doing any good for his back pain.

Shinso fiddled with his hands, eyes lowered. “There is a medal for first, second and third. But mainly… if I win, I could be transferred out of general education into the hero course.”

Tommy paused from where he was touching his toes. “And you wanna be there?”

“I want it more than anything.” Shinso said it like a secret.

“What do you want to focus on first? What was your plan to win?”

The more Shinso explained his half-baked plan to win the tournament, the more Tommy got the impression Shinso had been forcing himself not to think too hard about things, maybe ‘cause he was stressed. Though, maybe he was more of a jump in swinging sort of guy, like Tommy often was, but Tommy didn’t really get that impression.

Maybe it was more that Shinso had limited faith in his own abilities. It was like the solution to everything just had to be the same. All he thought he could do was use his dumb quirk. Why were people here so reliant on one ability? It was all anyone seemed to think about.

“And so I figured I’d use my quirk—“

“No no no, my friend,” Tommy cut in. He swung an arm around Shinso’s shoulders and leant in conspiratorially. “You have to play your cards closer to your chest. Once you give up the element of surprise, you’ve lost your biggest weapon.”

“That… does make a lot of sense,” Shinso said grudgingly.

“Maybe you can come up with a way to disguise it, or something. I dunno. That can be your job. Let’s focus on PVP first. Just try and fight me and we’ll see what we need to do.”

“And you want me to just… attack you?”

Tommy grinned wildly. He dropped into a ready stance, hands by his face, legs bent and ready to leap into action. They wouldn’t need any weapons for this.

“Come at me, bitch!”

Thirty minutes later saw Shinso flat on his back in the grass, panting, sweat already standing on his face. It was sweltering outside. Meanwhile, Tommy was still bouncing from foot to foot, smile on his face.

“You weren’t too horrible,” Tommy allowed. Shinso had been quick to learn, as well. Tommy had done a mix of just letting himself try and get good hits in and giving tips like Techno used to do. “Could have been worse!”

Shinso groaned. “Doesn’t feel like it.”

Tommy had been trained by the Blade. If he’d still been weak, that’d just be embarrassing. For his first time, Shinso had been good. Focused. He’d tried to attack Tommy like he meant it.

Tommy was surprised at his own reactions, though. Since being in the prison, he hadn’t quite realized, but he hadn’t been really injured. The little punches Shinso was throwing were making his heart race in fear. It had taken intense effort not to scream and really start beating the shit out of him – or running away.

But that would be stupid, and a bitch move when he’d told Shinso he’d teach him, so he restrained himself. Barely. As it was, Shinso’s glancing blows had his brain screaming at him in a way that was really annoying. Stupid heart needed to get the memo not to explode in his chest.

He let out a deep breath, trying to shake off his fear. He smiled, strained.

“Well, you’ve never even punched anyone before. Makes sense you’d be shit at it.”

Shinso groaned louder, throwing an arm over his face.

“How are you so good at this?”

“To reach my level, you gotta stare death in the eyes, my friend,” Tommy imparted sagely. “But I’d rather not force a respawn on you, so I guess we’ll skip that for now.”

Shinso muttered, “For now?” Then, baffled, “Respawn?” Tommy graciously ignored it.

“Ready to go again? How about I just show you a better stance for a bit?” Until he could let Shinso near him without ripping his face off, preferably.

Shinso rolled over onto his stomach, pushing himself to his feet. Eyebrows pulled down over the firm line of his mouth, he grinned savagely. “Let’s do it.”

Later that night, Tommy sat on a roof, staring up at this world’s sky and its strange lack of stars. Tommy missed them.

The tundra always had the best view. Tommy missed that brief and sort of shitty period of his life, when Technoblade had felt like a brother and he thought he might be safe for once. He pillowed his chin against his knees, pressing them tight against his chest, like he could disappear if he pulled himself small and tight enough.

Today had been fun. He’d had a good time with Shinso. So why did he still feel like he was falling apart? Why was he still constantly dogged with fear? Why did he feel like him – his body – everything – was somehow wrong?

“Mom, are you there?”

It had been a while since Tommy had prayed.

“I really need you right now,” he confessed. His voice came out hoarse and wet. “I don’t understand what’s happening. Where am I? What are these people? How can I get back?”

Pressing his face into his knees, Tommy tried not to cry. He didn’t want to feel this way. Be this way. Why couldn’t he just let himself be happy?

His face was wet.

Just another way he was a failure.

Chapter Text

The day of the Sports Festival arrived quickly.

Apparently, one of Shinso’s… friends (?) in the group home had a quirk which could alter documents, and had owed him a favor. This had allowed Tommy to get an ID which passed first impressions, although apparently it wouldn’t get him much else, considering he wasn’t actually a citizen of Japan. It had, at the very least, allowed him to pass the officer checking tickets at UA’s gate.

“Why did they have to make my last name English, though?” Tommy griped, looking down at his shiny new ID, emblazoned proudly with “Tommy English” under his grinning picture.

Even after learning that Tommy was his first name and not his last (which had come as a surprise to Shinso), he’d agreed to continue calling him that instead of “Innit”, which Tommy was very glad about. But “English” was stupid. Imagine if he just started calling everyone here just “Japanese”! They’d think he was prejudiced. The pricks.

Shinso turned red. “I couldn’t think of anything else, okay! Innit seemed like it wouldn’t really pass scrutiny.”

“It was you?!” Tommy shouted. Betrayal! From his own new friend! “Innit is a perfectly good name! Chose it myself and everything.”

“I never said it was bad…” Shinso replied, although his face said something different.

They passed into a throng of people outside of the towering stadium, lined with rows of stands with vendors and people in Shinso’s uniform milling about. There were also a few people in costumes who looked like they might be heroes, some of whom had already been accosted by people for photos. It looked fun.

“Holy shit!” Tommy said appreciatively. “It’s nuts! Maybe school isn’t so bad. I thought it would be all books and learning.” He grimaced.

“It’s not usually like this,” Shinso replied, looking amused. “We only get to publicly beat the crap out of each other once a year. At least, on TV. Sort of.”

Tommy was already distracted “This is epic! Are all these people here to watch you compete?”

Shinso looked a little green, but his eyebrows were set in determination. “Yeah. Well, not me exactly, but they’re here for the tournament.” Shinso clenched his hand in a fist. “I need to do well today. I have to.”

“Why’s it so important, anyway?” Tommy asked idly. “Being a hero?”

“It’s always been my dream. But no one has ever really believed I could do it. People tend to think I’m villainous. Because of… my quirk.” Shinso scuffed the ground with his shoe, shifting his eyes to Tommy a lot less casually than he probably hoped.

“What is that? You still haven’t told me yet.” Tommy picked his ear with one finger. He’d forgotten to ask. The past couple days he’d been busy trying to teach Shinso to put up the most basic of fights. They were getting there. He could at least throw a punch, now. Hopefully the other competitors would be equally as shit.

Shinso grimaced. “It’s brainwashing.”

Tommy would later be ashamed to think of it, but Shinso’s words jolted him with white-hot fear.

Brainwashing? He’d had his mind fucked with more than enough even without some freaky power, thank you. And what exactly did that mean? How did it work? Had Shinso been doing something to him, before? Were his thoughts even his own?

His stomach twisted and his hands grew cold thinking of it. When I’m with you, it feels like I’m fucking conditioned to be your friend… Suddenly, he wanted to vomit.

“Brainwashing,” Tommy repeated shakily. “How does that work?”

He couldn’t quite hide his reaction. He was sure his face was pale. Shinso had cast his eyes to the ground again. Tommy wanted to reassure him but he was also feeling distant and shaky.

“If I ask someone a question, and they reply, I can take control,” Shinso said gruffly. “It’s pretty obvious when I do, though.”

“That’s fucking broken!”

Shinso was wilting even more, and Tommy was struck by a pang of guilt.

“I mean, not in a bad way.” C’mon, Tommy. You can salvage this. “It sounds like a good quirk. For hero-ing. And stuff.”

Shinso looked back up, a sardonic smile pulling at his lips. It didn’t really look happy.

“Sure. Thanks.” He shifted from foot to foot. His next words were faux-casual, but Tommy could see the steel in the line of his back. His eyes were far away. “People have always called me a villain because of it. Said I could never help people with a villainous quirk. I want to prove them wrong. I also…” He paused for a moment, meeting Tommy’s eyes. “I haven’t used it on you. I wouldn’t.”

Tommy was coming down from his spike of adrenaline, surreptitiously taking deeper breaths. Shinso was cool. Shinso was fine. He hadn’t done anything to him. Hell, he’d sort of been in Shinso’s position before, except he had kind of done things wrong to have everyone blaming him for shit. So image how that must feel for someone innocent! Not great, probably. Even if he had a freaky quirk.

“You will,” Tommy promised, and Shinso turned to look at him again, face finally breaking through with a little shock. “Prove them wrong, I mean. I told you. You’ll kick their asses today.”

Shinso smiled a wavering smile, hand coming to the back of his neck. “Thanks, Tommy.”

He sounded like he meant it this time.

Tommy had halfway cheered himself hoarse by the first event. It was a parkour and obstacle challenge that felt familiar for Tommy to watch, although the giant robots and mines were slightly out of the ordinary. There wasn’t even any particularly difficult jumps! But it had seemed difficult for most people, regardless. Tommy wasn’t even sure how he would have done. The floor getting covered in ice would be tough without a boat. Though, if he was allowed to place blocks, it would have been a breeze.

It was hard to catch a look at Shinso – the camera rarely focused on him, but the hair made it easier for Tommy to catch glimpses. Thankfully, he had passed into the next round. Would have been a little embarrassing to fail now. Even if Tommy hadn’t showed him the ropes of parkour. They’d have to do that next.

But this server was insane! He couldn’t believe the range of abilities everyone here had. He’d never heard of a server like this. Watching them all in action was giving Tommy the chills. He shivered. Or maybe there was just a draft.

But watching the kids near first place had freaked Tommy right the fuck out. There was a boy who literally could make explosions from his hands. Without any TNT! Privately, Tommy was glad he was up in the stands, and not next to him. The sound of explosions still spooked him. (He could handle it, though. He was a Big Man.)

Toad was even there, and when he had said he could make fire and ice, he wasn’t kidding. Well, maybe he was about the fire bit, because Tommy had yet to see any proof of it. But the amount of ice he was making was no joke. How was that even allowed? It seemed totally unfair.

Tommy tried to deny the fear it sent crawling through his gut. Everyone was too powerful here. It wasn’t something he understood. How was he meant to keep himself safe when he didn’t even understand how quirks worked? When people held this much power in the palms of their hands? The quirks seemed totally random, as well, which didn’t seem fair. Why was it one person could have overwhelming power while others had to deal? It wasn’t balanced at all.

Thankfully, Shinso was moving on to the next event, and Tommy could actually see him in the arena now. It was a better thing to think about.

It was funny watching him try and interact with everyone else. Tommy watched as he awkwardly struck up conversation with some of the other competitors. Tommy hoped that he had taken his advice to heart about not revealing his abilities too soon. No one he was talking to looked brainwashed, but who knew. He ended up paired up with a couple of blonde guys and one short dude with pale blue hair.

The second phase of the tournament went well, at least from where Tommy was sitting. It seemed like Shinso had taken Tommy’s advice on disguising his quirk to heart — from what Tommy could see, he was waiting until he had touched someone to take control, and even then he was just making them pass out.

And his team passed! Tommy cheered, whooping and clapping so loud he got a couple weird looks. Shinso seemed to be on good terms with his teammates as well, shaking hands with them when he was done.

After the round, Tommy and Shinso met up for the lunch break. Shinso decided to lead Tommy down to the student cafeteria, which he wasn’t sure was allowed, but no one had called him on it yet. They wound their way through the tunnels below the school. Shinso was in a bright mood, a small smile on his face.

His happiness was contagious. “You’re fucking killing it, man!”

Shinso turned a bit pink, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thanks. You really helped. Without you, I think I might have just thrown myself in there with my quirk and not really thought about it. Then I would probably be screwed on the next round. The combat training helped me keep my cool a little bit, too. Hopefully I’m able to use it the next round…”

“Well, you were a great pupil, so it’s at least half your win,” Tommy said imperiously. “And you’re gonna kick ass. How many times do I have to say it?”

Turning the corner, they came across a group of other students, who paused.

The group was made up of three boys, with red, yellow and black hair respectively, and a girl with bright pink skin.

“Hey! It’s you!” The pink girl cheered. Tommy tried not to stare. He wasn’t rude. The skins on this server never failed to surprise him. “You’re—sorry, what was your name again?”

Shinso blinked. Tommy elbowed him.

“Oh. You mean me? Shinso Hitoshi, I guess. Who’s asking?”

The girl pouted. “I’m Mina Ashido. Cold! We’re going to be in the final tournament together, I feel like we should at least say hi!”

One of the boys at her side leaned in to wave.

“I’m Kirishima! Nice moves during the Cavalry Battle. I haven’t seen you since the other day outside of our class.”

Tommy thought Shinso looked a little embarrassed. What was that about? Maybe he could find out later. Kirishima was still grinning, though, so it couldn’t have been too bad.

“What’s your quirk, again? I asked Ojiro, but he wouldn’t tell me. The guy’s got too much honor for that, I guess! It’s manly.”

“It’s a secret,” Tommy proclaimed before Shinso could respond.

Shinso shrugged loosely in agreement. “Yeah. That.”

Kirishima laughed. “I guess it couldn’t be that easy. Fair enough! I hope we get to go head-to-head soon.”

Shinso winced, but he was also smiling a little. “As long as it’s not literally, I’d like that. I think your head is probably a lot harder than mine.”

“C’mon, it was clearly a sleep quirk,” a blond boy whined. He gave Shinso another once-over. “Do you have to sacrifice your own sleep to use it? Is that the secret?”

Tommy laughed so hard he had to clutch his stomach, wheezing. “He fucking got you, man!”

“Yes! I knew it!” The blonde pumped a fist. “I haven’t seen you around here before...” Tommy realized he was talking to him. “I’m Denki Kaminari! You go to UA?”

“Nope.”

“What high school do you go to, then?”

“That is also a secret.”

Thankfully, the boy looked more amused than annoyed.

“Well, you wanna eat lunch with us? We were just about to go to the cafeteria.”

Shinso blinked in surprise.

“This would be a good time for information gathering,” Tommy advised sagely, whispering with his hands cupped around his mouth. “And shit. We’ll figure it out.”

Shinso straighted, turning back to the group. “Yeah, why not?”

“So, what’s your name?” The black-haired boy asked Tommy as they began to walk. He had an easy-going smile on his face, but it was a little more restrained than the other members of his group. “I’m Sero Hanta.”

“I’m Tommy.”

“Is that your family name?”

“No. But my last name is stupid.” Tommy shot a glare at Shinso, who raised his hands in a “don’t look at me” gesture. Well, too bad, because Tommy was looking.

“He’s from England,” Shinso said by way of explanation. The other group nodded like that made everything make sense.

They made their way to the cafeteria, where their group grabbed lunch before they sat down at a table. Tommy was pleasantly surprised when Shinso grabbed him a tray as well. He technically did have food on him, but the only steak was definitely giving him a vitamin deficiency somewhere. Or maybe a vitamin um — efficiency? Super power? He was probably eating enough iron and protein to get new powers somewhere.

The cafeteria was full and bursting with other students, some of whom their group waved to, shouting hellos. Shinso had a grimace plastered on his face. Tommy nudged him with an elbow. 

Apparently their group was missing a usual person, Bakugo, but Tommy was privately glad. He was pretty sure that was the explosion guy. He did not want to eat a meal with him. No thank you. 

“What’s this for?” He asked as Shinso slid the tray down in front of him. There was some odd white grain that everyone else was eating, along with some fish and a bowl of clear soup with vegetables.

“Well, I wanted to thank you for everything again,” Shinso looked away. “And it would be kind of awkward if you didn’t have food and everyone else did.”

“Well, alright then.” Tommy attempted to grab the sticks and eat, copying everyone else, but they kept sliding out of his hands. He swore under his breath. Before anyone could offer help, he started to eat with his bare hands.

Kaminari’s face was frozen in shock.

“What?” Tommy grumbled, mouth full.

“Uhh, nothing!” Kaminari hurriedly turned back to his food.

“I guess it makes sense you can’t use chopsticks,” Kirishima smiled. “Maybe they have forks?”

“I can too,” Tommy shot back, now devouring the fish. “I just like my hands better.”

“Sure.” Shinso’s dry expression was not convinced.

“What’s this white stuff?” Tommy raised a handful and shook it for emphasis.

“Rice?” Sero looked baffled. “Have you never had rice?”

Tommy puffed up defensively. “I just forgot the name.”

No one looked particularly convinced. More confused. Shinso seemed pained for some reason.

“So, how did you guys become friends?” Mina recovered quickly, placing both hands on the table and leaning forward in excitement. “You guys must be close if Shinso brought you as his plus-one!”

“The—”

“Internet!” Shinso half-shouted, cutting over Tommy with a wide grin plastered on his face. His eyes were a little wild. “We’ve been internet friends for a few years now. But now Tommy is studying abroad, so we got to meet in person. He’s only been here for a couple of weeks.”

“Ohmygosh! That is so cool! I wish I had some cool foreign friends like that. It would be awesome to go to England.” She sighed dreamily. “So far, though.”

“Yeah! It’s awesome you guys are such good friends. Glad you’re here to support Shinso, Tommy! Super manly of you.”

Tommy nodded in satisfaction. “I’m the biggest man.”

“I’m so nervous for the next round,” Kaminari whined, leaning back in his chair. “I’m up against Yaoyorozu. She’ll kick my ass for sure.”

“You never know! I’m super pumped. I’m against Tetsutetsu.” Kirishima clenched his fist.

Sero slumped in his plastic chair. “You think you got it bad, Kaminari? I’m against Todoroki. Talk about screwed.”

“Shinso, you excited for our match?” Mina grinned wolfishly at Shinso.

He shrunk back a little for a moment before steeling himself and smiling back.

“Don’t hold back on me.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it!”

Shinso was up against the pink girl first. Tommy was a little nervous for a second, since the way she was sliding around and splashing acid at him seemed a little scary, but Shinso eventually got up in her face (or she got up in his, more accurately) and he used the opportunity to use his quirk on her. He was still disguising it, then. Good! Tommy was getting excited.

The second round he was up against someone Tommy hadn’t met, some robot looking dude with glasses on. Basically as soon as their match started it was clear Shinso had insulted him based on the way he started shouting. But Shinso won that as well. Thankfully, the other boy needed to get in close to fight, since his quirk was just going fast, so Shinso was able to continue to disguise his quirk there too.

The other matches were entertaining. Tommy’s eyes were especially glued to the match between Bakugou and a brunette girl, though he wasn’t sure if it was out of fear or fascination. The girl’s quirk was so cool. He’d never seen someone be able to make gravity change before. Exploding hands? Lame. He was disappointed when she lost. 

The other highlight were Toad’s matches. The first one he destroyed Sero with a mountain of ice. Tommy was flabbergasted. How on Earth was that fair?

His second match was a little more even — he was up against some green-haired boy who could? Punch hard? Seemed like he was doing a really good job of beating himself up, too.

They went in for the final blows, Todoroki’s side finally sparking with fire, the other boy’s ragged grin followed by his curled fist.

Right before Todoroki’s hand connected, he cast his gaze over the crowd for a split second.

Tommy noticed the moment Todoroki saw him. Even from far away, his eyes widened in shock for a split second, as his body and his mind rushed to keep up with the situation.

Tommy grinned and waved.

They met, and the ring exploded.

When the dust cleared, both Todoroki and the other boy were knocked down on the floor. Tommy couldn’t help feeling a little guilty. Maybe he’d been distracting? However, Toad was still in the ring, so it wasn’t too bad. He moved on in the tournament. Hopefully he’d be awake enough to compete. It was going to be the semifinals.

For Shinso, the next round would be more difficult. Tommy could tell immediately. For one, Shinso was up against an opponent who didn’t have to get in close. It was that explosion boy he’d been unnerved by earlier. He seemed brutal. The way he’d destroyed his opponents, like that brunette girl who could make shit float, was like nothing Tommy had ever seen before. Total destruction without even needing to rely on weapons or TNT. Just his hands were enough. It made something cold and horrified trickle down his spine.

The two of them made their way to the ring. Bakugou was sure of himself. That much was clear. Tommy could see from his puffed up chest he was bragging somehow.

As soon as the match began, Bakugo leapt back while Shinso dove forward. Shinso’s face was a mask of determination, but Bakugo detonated his quirk, blasting Shinso back every time he came close.

He was getting pretty beat up. Shinso skidded across the ground, rolling, before shakily pushing himself back up on his hands.

Tommy was pretty sure he said something. Then he was very sure, because Bakugo stopped stock-still mid yell, hands falling loosely to his sides, eyes blank.

“WOAH!” One of the announcers crowed. “AND BAKUGO FREEZES IN PLACE! COULD THIS BE SHINSO’S QUIRK? But he’s not falling asleep! Can people sleep standing up?”

“Shinso didn’t touch him, either. Looks like his ability may not be what everyone assumed.” The dry announcer said. “Of course, I have everyone’s quirks in front of me. But I’ll let everyone else figure that part out for themselves.”

“Aww, Eraser, you’re so mean,” the other announcer whined. “Wait! BAKUGO IS MOVING! AND HE—HE WALKS OUT OF THE RING! IT’S AN UPSET, FOLKS! SHINSO MOVES ON TO THE FINALS!”

The entire stadium was going nuts.

Tommy laughed in pure elation. Surprising himself, he surged to his feet, shouting “GO SHINSO!” Then he yelled a bunch more.

Tommy didn’t think he was able to hear him, but he could see the way Shinso turned his disbelieving eyes to the stadium, face slack and somehow relieved. There was something fervent about it. Precious and fragile. Overjoyed but almost not able to accept this cheering was for him.

Tommy hoped Shinso got to keep that feeling. That the world wouldn’t crush the things most important to him.

In the end, Shinso didn’t win the final. Toad froze him to the floor immediately. But he seemed happy enough standing on the second-place podium.

Tommy was nice and didn’t mention the tears in his eyes later.

Tommy had had a good day. Which might have been why it came as such a surprise when things immediately went wrong after.

He was just walking down an alleyway, debating where to sleep for the night, when a monster showed up. Now this wouldn’t be too odd. But it wasn’t a mob Tommy had ever seen.

Launching himself down into the alley from a nearby rooftop, a mummy with stringy black hair and bandages wrapped around itself landed right in front of him.

It turned its red-eyed gaze on Tommy.

“Ahh! What the fuck?” Tommy shrieked, scrambling back. “I didn’t think mummies actually existed!”

Zombies were normal, but maybe this server had mummies, instead? This was definitely the weirdest mummy had ever seen (and, well, the only). The creature had long, unruly black hair and bright red eyes, which were practically boring into him. It was terrifying.

He was wrapped in bandages, both around his limbs and face as well as larger ones wrapped around his neck. Strangely, he was wearing a pretty normal black outfit. Maybe Tommy’s stereotypes about mummies were wrong? He was like some mix between a mummy and a vengeful ghost.

Oh, fuck. Did this server have ghosts as well? Except this ghost looked less friendly than Ghostbur and more menacing.

“Look, if you’re a vengeful spirit, I haven’t done nothing,” Tommy insisted, taking a step back. “I haven’t opened any tombs, and I don’t even know who you are, alright! I don’t have any blue on me so you’ll have to find it somewhere else.”

“Are you Tommy?” The spirit asked. His voice was gravelly, like a chain smoker’s – or a ghosts’. “I’m not a ghost. I’m pro hero Eraserhead.”

“You look like a ghost to me,” Tommy said stubbornly. Actually, on closer inspection, the man didn’t appear translucent in the way Ghostbur was, but also it was dark. Maybe it was just hard to tell. The mummy theory still wasn’t out the window, either. “And how do you know my name, anyway? You been stalking me or some shit?”

“Todoroki spoke to me. He wanted to make sure you got help, if you needed it.”

“That snitch,” Tommy muttered. Sue him for being friendly. He should’ve known as soon as he offered free food that something was up. “Well, I don’t need help. I’m all good. Unless you know a way off this server? I’m trying to get back to my own SMP.”

“Away from Japan?”

Tommy sighed gustily. “Of course. You’re clueless as well. Well, I’m alright. Thanks for checking in, but I’m good. You can fuck off.”

“We’d still like to speak with you.”

Maybe this guy was haunted as well? Could ghosts be haunted by other ghosts? Tommy wasn’t sure why he kept saying “we”.

“What do you want to know?” Tommy narrowed his eyes suspiciously. This guy was giving off bad vibes.

“We’d like to ask you some questions about where you came from, and where you’ve been staying.”

Tommy chuckled nervously. He began to back away. This ghost really was a stalker! “It’s really not all that interesting, big man.”

“Why were you at the Sports Festival today?”

“To watch? Are you stupid?”

“So no one told you to come? To watch?”

Tommy clammed up. He didn’t want to give Shinso’s name to this guy. The man’s eyes seemed to darken, as if Tommy’s silence confirmed something. His face grew more intense and heavy with some emotion Tommy couldn’t place.

“If you come with me, we can give you the help and protection you need. Like I said, I’m a hero.”

Tommy bristled. “Fuck you! I haven’t done anything wrong! And I don’t need protection from anybody! I’m independent.”

“You’re not in trouble,” Eraserhead said placatingly, like a liar. “We just want to understand your situation.”

“You can understand this dick, bitch!”

“Tommy. If you’re running from villains, we can help. Please, just come with me.”

“Stop talking to me like that!” Tommy kind-of shrieked, which he didn’t appreciate. Now it sounded like he was freaking out, which he wasn’t. He was extremely calm. “You don’t even know me!”

This prick was pissing him off. The way he kept saying his name was all soft and condescending, like he was talking to a wild animal.

So this guy wanted Tommy to hand himself in? Tommy would not be doing that. No way. What the hell was he talking about, anyway? Villains? Who had Tommy been with who could be called a villain?

Suddenly, it all made sense.

Shinso. Hadn’t he said people were suspicious of him? Called him villainous? Had the “heroes” seen them together and wanted to bring him in? Tommy hadn’t committed any crimes. Why else?

Or was it deeper than that? Was it all a front? The man was insisting they wanted to “help” Tommy, but to help him, they wanted to take him to the police and lock him up. Tommy knew well enough now not to go to a second location.

Tommy had been locked up “for his own good” before, told he needed to stay in exile for everyone’s benefit, and he wasn’t falling for it. It was always just because people wanted control. He wasn’t sure how these people had found him, but whatever they wanted, it couldn’t be good.

“He’s not a villain, you bitch!” Tommy shouted. “Prick! You don’t know anything. I don’t need help, least of all from you! You just want to lock me up, don’t you? Well, I’m not falling for this shit. Not again. I’m not stupid! You wanna keep me in a cage? You’re gonna have to kill me first.” That was a promise.

He grinned wildly. It was a bit manic. His body and his mind were going haywire, and he felt like he was all the way back in exile again, facing Dream. He remembered how he had felt back then—how he’d described Dream as his owner. Some part of him wanted to accept it, because it was easier than knowing it was wrong and knowing he had no escape all the same.

He remembered the prison—how he’d felt like he was in a nightmare, and he was trapped with the person who he feared most all over again. How it had felt like there was no escape.

But he did. He escaped. No one else. His life was his own, and he’d never be anyone’s captive ever again.

Eraserhead tensed. Tommy readied himself, one hand clenched in a guard in front of his face and the other hovering over his belt where he could summon his sword into his hand. He fell into an athletic crouch, prepared to run.

“I don’t want to fight,” Eraserhead made a last-ditch effort. Well, tough shit. Tommy couldn’t be so easily manipulated.

Instead of a sword, Tommy summoned a block of dirt into his offhand, leaping for the closest wall. He barely caught sight of the shocked look on Eraserhead’s face as he began to sprint up the wall, spamming blocks below him the whole time.

Eraserhead was quick to react. Some of the weird mummy-bandages he had shot through the air, latching around Tommy’s ankle. Tommy shrieked in fear and Eraserhead tugged him to a stop, almost throwing him off the platform already three meters off the ground.

Summoning his sword into his hand, Tommy slashed just in time to slice the fabric trapping him and the new bandages which had come flying towards him as well. Through the corner of his eye, Tommy could see that Eraserhead’s hair was now floating into the air, his eyes glowing red, which made him even more terrifying. He was probably a demon or some shit.

His heart was racing in his ears. The man yelled something, but it was muffled and distant. It was life or death now. Even as the fabric slipped away, Tommy felt the phantom press of it around his ankles like a hand had once, tearing him from the sky before keeping him tethered to the ground.

Spamming blocks below him to create a tower Eraserhead couldn’t follow him on, Tommy leapt onto the roof of the building and broke into a sprint.

Eraserhead was quick to react—Tommy heard the sound of him pursuing, but he was a little slower. Only by a few precious seconds. Quickly blocking up a wall at the end of the roof, Tommy dropped into the next alleyway, quickly digging below himself and placing blocks behind him. He crouched and waited.

Heart thundering in his chest, Tommy struggled to breathe. He was back in the hole—the box, cowering from Dream—the final control room—and he needed to get away. He needed to keep digging, but—would Eraserhead be able to hear the blocks breaking? Would that give away his position? He wanted to move, but he was frozen between choices, hand sweaty and trembling against the handle of his pickaxe.

Tommy was fighting against time; Eraserhead would just dig through and in mere seconds and he would be done—before he could next collapse and just need to breathe-breathe-breathe fuck he couldn’t breathe, he was going to die, he was going to–

And then, like other times before, Tommy began to calm down. He always felt silly after one of his freakouts. But this time, more than silly, he felt shocked.

It was still dark. He was still in his dirt hole. Eraserhead hadn’t broken the blocks. Maybe he didn’t realize Tommy could dig? It was a silly explanation, but it might be the only one that made sense.

Not sure how long it had been, he waited as long as he could stand before coming back to the surface and slipping away.

Chapter Text

“I found the boy,” Eraserhead said grimly into the phone.

Crouched on the edge of a roof, Aizawa stared restlessly into the Musutafu night. His limbs carried a heaviness that came more from his own dour mood than the late hour.

Even at this time, the Musutafu skyline shone with pockets of light in windows or cast across pavement by streetlights. A few partygoers were out to celebrate the beginning of the weekend, the echo of bass carrying faintly from the streets.

On the other end of the line, Tsukauchi sounded tired. Aizawa wondered if he’d woken him up, but didn’t really have the bandwidth to care. He’d feel a little guilty later. Maybe.

“By the tone of your voice, I’m guessing it didn’t go well?” There was a movement on the other end of the line, like Tsukauchi had straightened to attention.

“He got away. But it’s more than that.”

Aizawa had been surprised to run into Tommy tonight. He’d simply been patrolling the area and keeping an eye out when he’d seen a glimpse of a blonde in an alleyway.

Tommy looked exactly as Todoroki had described. Somehow, facing him directly, he seemed even more worn down than Todoroki had described. Staring Aizawa straight down, his defiant blue eyes seemed heavy with something, ringed with eyebags so deep they were more like bruises. He was around the age of Aizawa’s first years—maybe a year difference, give or take. He was tall, but his face carried a youthfulness that was hard to deny.

He seemed cleaner than Todoroki had described, somewhat, but the scars tearing themselves across his face and the exposed skin of his hands didn’t tell a good story. Neither did the way he assessed Aizawa, alert, wary, and too comfortable with combat. He was fast, with good reflexes and obvious experience in how to use his quirk in a fight. The way he easily switched between items and traversed the city with it spoke of years of use.

All the same—their interaction had only made Aizawa more worried.

Aizawa didn’t like scaring children. But he had. It was clear that boy was terrified.

Tommy had been anxious, speaking quickly and somewhat incoherently at times. Aizawa didn’t understand parts of what he was trying to say. But he’d immediately been on alert. Ready to fight for his life. Though, notably, he didn’t attack, only running.

He was gaunt, and despite his height, he kept himself curled inwards with his shoulders hunched. Aizawa could still see the shine of his wide blue eyes in the dark. The bandana around his neck was like a shield, and he’d almost immediately dipped his face into it when they started talking, like he could use it to hide.

It didn’t paint a good picture, that terror. The fact that Aizawa was a hero hadn’t seemed to calm him at all. In fact, it might have even made it worse.

“He was scared,” Aizawa let out a heavy exhale. “Scared of me. Scared of heroes. And especially, he seemed afraid of being ‘locked up’. At one point he even said he wouldn’t be ‘put in a cage’. ‘Not again’. He was surprisingly talkative. His demeanor has a lot more bravado than I was expecting, but maybe I should have anticipated a kid like that to have his guard up.”

“Hm. So he was kept captive, at least by his account,” Tsukauchi didn’t sound pleased at the confirmation. “The question is by who. Do you believe he was told heroes would put him in prison if he ever asked for help?”

“I think it’s likely. It may be the case that he was an accomplice to villains, or is currently working with them now.” Aizawa shifted, sighing deeply. “I’m afraid I may have scared him away from heroes for good. I was too impatient. I shouldn’t have gone for the capture. Maybe if I’d just taken my time, and hoped I could build a rapport…”

“But this isn’t an ordinary case, or an ordinary street kid,” Tsukauchi replied. “And you know that. If you let him go, he could be taken away at any moment. You made the right choice.”

“Hard to feel that way when he isn’t even here to show for it.”

Aizawa’s self-reproaching mood was not totally abated. However, he knew Tsukauchi was right. It was why he had gone for the capture in the first place. Taking a deep breath, he tried to center himself. It wouldn’t do any good to become frustrated now.

“We’ll find him.” Aizawa wasn’t sure if Tsukauchi was trying to convince him or himself.

“It was strange, though,” Aizawa said, diverting the subject. “He seemed to deny that he had any associations with villains. I said we could help him, get him away, but he looked confused before realizing something. And then he became angry and claimed a person he referred to as ‘he’ wasn’t a villain. When I asked him why he was at the Sports Festival, he clammed up in a way that set off about a million red flags. I think someone put him there, though for surveillance, intimidation or something else is yet to be seen.”

“So he’s either with someone new, who isn’t a villain, or he doesn’t consider this ‘he’ to be villainous?”

“It’s difficult to know which it is without more context. But if it’s that white-haired man from the USJ…”

“It would be bad,” Tsukauchi finished. “But we don’t know that for sure. Not yet. But we can definitely look into the possibility. Considering his multiple quirks, it could very well be the truth.”

“I thought he’d perhaps escaped from villains, but it seems likely he’s still collaborating with someone, although he isn’t currently confined anywhere from what I can tell. It’s strange. Based on how it seems likely he’s sleeping outside, he appears homeless, but yet is likely still with some sort of group. Maybe they’re helping him in other ways?

“Or maybe they have something they’re using against him.”

Aizawa frowned deeply. “That is another possibility. Or, it could be something different entirely—some sort of emotional blackmail or manipulation, based on how strongly he defended whoever it is.”

“Anything else notable you managed to learn?”

“He hasn’t been keeping a very low profile. For a possible villain, his demeanor is very strange. At least now that we know those dirt blocks are his, we’ll been able to connect them with the series of other similar structures placed around town. It looks as though he’s primarily using them for climbing up the sides of buildings. I’m currently unsure if he’s just climbing to roofs for transport or if he’s sleeping there. But at least now we have an answer for that recent mystery.”

“So that was him. Good to know. So is this part of the ‘Inventory’ quirk Todoroki mentioned? Did you see him display any other quirks?”

“No, which was strange. I figured he would use the teleportation or wings but I didn’t see either. However, he did escape from me extremely quickly—I lost sight of him for a few seconds and he was completely gone. So I think he could have used his teleportation then. It’s strange he would even try to get distance from me to use it, though. If he uses it by making a throwing motion, like Todoroki said, then maybe he didn’t want me to see the direction he left in. All he left behind were the dirt structures we’ve been seeing.”

“So that’s how he got away? He broke line of sight so he could use his quirk?”

Aizawa slumped.

“About that… my quirk didn’t work on him.”

“…That may be a problem.”

While Tommy had withheld his strange alleyway interaction from Shinso on the ride to school, letting Shinso bask in his happiness about the Sports Festival, he decided he should bring it up on the train back. Subtly.

“Have you seen any strange men recently?” Tommy asked.

Shinso blinked at him in surprise. “Like… strange how?”

“Like mummies. Or perhaps ghosts. Or even a demon,” Tommy imparted seriously. “Haunting you?”

“I don’t think I’m being haunted,” Shinso replied slowly, flabbergasted. Tommy didn’t appreciate it. This was a serious warning!

“Well, let me know,” Tommy leaned back in seat. “I gave him the slip, but I don’t know if he’ll haunt someone else next.”

Shinso straightened up so fast Tommy worried for his back. There had been a crack that did not sound good. Turning on Tommy, eyes uncomfortably intense, he said, “Wait, what? Did someone attack you?”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry about it. I beat ‘im. I have experience with ghosts. Usually they’re not such pricks, though.”

“O…kay?”

“Not like. That kind of experience. Ugh. You’re such a wrongun.”

“I didn’t say anything?” Shinso’s voice raised into incredulity at the end of his sentence. “You brought it up first. Projecting, much?” At least now he had a slight smile on his face. Mission success. If Shinso hadn’t seen weird ghost man, then maybe there was no need to worry.

“Anyways! The Sports Festival!” Tommy clapped. “You kicked ass like I said you would! Which makes sense, since you were trained by the master of the blade himself. Or at least close enough. His protege. Master of PVP at least. So did you get into the hero school or what?”

Shinso smiled shyly.

“Eraserhead approached me after class today. He said we could start training after school together, and after an assessment period for the next month or two I could be moved up to the hero course. I even get to participate in the internship period next week! I’ll just be training with Eraserhead at the school rather than going to an outside agency.”

Now, Tommy didn’t really understand half of what Shinso was talking about—he’d never really heard of internships, and school was barely understandable at the best of times— but something about that name was familiar.

“Eraserhead? Who’s that?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. He’s one of the hero course teachers. You might not have heard of him, but he’s a pro. He was one of the announcers at the Sports Festival, actually.”

Hm. Maybe that’s where Tommy had heard the name. But somehow that didn’t feel quite right.

“What’s he look like?”

“Um. Kind of scruffy. Long black hair. He has bandages around his neck like a scarf.”

Tommy broke into a cold sweat.

Shit. Fuck. Balls. Shit. What does he do? Does he say something?

Clearly, Eraserhead was the mummy from the other night. So he was undercover at the hero school? As a teacher? Or maybe he was undercover as a mummy yesterday. Either way, it was sketchy. Whoever he was, he was not only stalking Tommy, but Shinso as well!

All the same, it seemed like Eraserhead was the one who controlled the future of Shinso’s dream in his hands. But did he see Shinso as a villain? If so, why was he helping him? Was he just trying to gather information? And if he was after Shinso, why did he come after Tommy? The two of them had already met.

Nothing was adding up. For a moment, Tommy felt suspicious of Shinso, as well. Maybe they were in cahoots, and he’d been pulling the wool over Tommy’s eyes, all this time. But then why would he mention Eraserhead so casually? And why wouldn’t he have just trapped Tommy at some other point?

Tommy chose to trust Shinso. For now. He seemed alright, and he needed to have someone in all of this confusing mess or he might actually go insane.

He’d keep an eye on it. But continue to warn Shinso. Subtly.

“He sounds like a creep.”

“He’s not.”

“You sure?”

“Very.”

“Just… be careful. You never know. You know.”

Shinso rolled his eyes. “Wow, judgy.”

“I have perfect judgement!”

“We’ll have after school training Monday-Wednesday-Friday from now on, so I’ll be a bit late on those days. I just wanted to let you know. Plus, I’m not sure what my internship hours are for next week, but I probably will be too busy to see you.”

“I have no idea what day of the week it is.”

“You know what? Let’s go get you a phone.”

A few hours later found Tommy and Shinso sitting at a “boba shop”, Tommy’s new flip phone safely in his inventory. He was excited to look at it later. Shinso had explained a little bit about how it worked, but Tommy was sure he would be able to figure everything out.

Phones were expensive, Tommy had learned. Shinso had helped him find a cheap model in a type he called a flip phone, but it had still eaten up a sizeable chunk of Tommy’s remaining money. More than any other purchase had so far. It seemed worth it when Shinso explained how it worked, though.

The day was slanting towards evening, rays of light peeking over the tall buildings of Hosu. Tommy realized suddenly that he was beginning to become accustomed to living in this city. It was bittersweet. At least he wasn’t as damn freaked out all the time as he used to be, but he knew that he needed to go back at some point. This would only ever be temporary.

He and Shinso were sitting out front. The evening was quiet. There were a few passers-by, but no one else was sitting out front of the store with them. The moment was relaxed.

Shinso seemed to thinking something over himself, staring deeply into his taro boba, which hilariously matched with his hair. Tommy had gone with one the closest to red he could find—a clear-ish strawberry fruit tea he was very much enjoying. After learning not to choke on the little death balls floating in the liquid, at least.

Shinso finally spoke. “You’re not… a villain, are you, Tommy?”

That was not what Tommy had expected him to say. To be honest, it hurt a little bit, but he tucked the pang in his chest away with practiced ease. He’d had people call him a lot of things—annoying, a traitor, a liability—but never a villain before. It felt so definitive. An inescapable classification once you were inside it. 

“I don’t think so…” he said mutedly. “But what would you classify as a villain?”

“Uh… the usual definition is someone who uses their quirk to break the law or hurt people.”

“Um,” Tommy wasn’t sure what to make of that. He still didn’t fully understand the whole “quirks” thing, let alone “villains” and “heroes”. Did he even count as having a quirk if basically everyone had the same ones? But here, people did say he had one. On top of that, actions that were frowned upon back home but permitted were really bad to do here, apparently, since heroes and government loved to get up in your business.

So. He didn’t want to be a villain. But was he? Eraserhead seemed to think he was, based on how he hunted him down.

“I don’t know. I think basically everyone I know would be considered villains by the rules here. Technically there were laws against griefing and stealing and shit but everyone still did it. So maybe?” Tommy avoided Shinso’s eyes. “I don’t think I’m a villain, though. I get up to some… mischief, but I don’t like being too shitty.”

“And,” he perked up. “If we’re counting just on this server, I haven’t committed any crimes! I think. I haven’t stolen anything since coming to Japan.” Tommy grinned, nodding to himself. If there were any small crimes he’d done on accident, he was sure they were minor enough to not be a big deal. It was hard to keep up on the rules here if no one told you what they were. “Stayed out of trouble an’ everything. Tommy Trusty has turned over a new leaf.”

“I… do I want to know what you did in the past?” Shinso sounded a little strained, but less down than before. His face was a little less pinched and he’d straightened up a bit.

Tommy took a long sip of his tea, assessing him. “Do you?”

“I want to know more about you. As a person. Not just… what you’ve done. But at the same time… I am curious.”

“For the record, I don’t like hurting people,” Tommy said sullenly. “Not really. There are a lot of things that I’m not proud of. But where I was everyone was kind of hurting each other all the time. Even if you cared, or didn’t want to.. It’s how it was. Everyone was trying to kill each other or burn down each other’s houses or bombing each other. But I never tried to kill someone who didn’t try to kill me first.”

“Oh.” Shinso paused. “Did you… ever succeed?”

Tommy rolled his cold drink between his hands. Condensation made the plastic slick, freezing his skin. There was a cold pit in his stomach that had nothing to do with his drink.

“Just the once. He deserved it though.” This, of all things, he was sure about. For Dream, there had been no other way. Even on one life, he was still dangerous. Though he hadn’t perma-killed Dream—which he questioned more and more. Had he made a mistake keeping him alive? He shook his head. “He really, really deserved it.”

Shinso’s pause this time was even longer. He seemed to be mulling something over, stirring the melting ice in his boba with a drawn expression on his face, mouth pinched and eyebrows knit low over his eyes.

“I… for some reason, I trust that. I don’t think you’re a bad guy. And I don’t know if that makes me a bad hero. I don’t feel good about that you did that, but I also don’t think you would have done that unless you had to. And I think… whatever life you were living before, it didn’t play by the same rules as my life.” Shinso curled an arm around himself, looking troubled. “I’m just glad you get a chance to be here, now, where maybe you won’t have to fight and defend yourself. And… I know we’ve only known each other for a short while, but if there’s anything I can ever do to help, let me know. Because I want to. I haven’t had any real friends in a long time. But… I feel like we are… right?”

Tommy blinked at the conclusion to Shinso’s oddly sappy speech. Hiding his own disconcerted feelings, he brushed it off with, “Yeah, we’re friends. Non-friends don’t take each other to hotels, right?”

Shinso flushed red, covering his face with his hands. “Shut the fuck up. You ruined it. The love hotel was the cheapest option, okay.”

Leaning back in his chair, Tommy fell into a slightly more considering mood. Maybe Shinso’s own honestly had inspired him to open up a bit. Just a bit!

“But… yeah. Things are different here. People don’t just kill each other. I guess every life is important, here. I dunno.” Placing a hand over his heart, he said, “But I swear that if someone doesn’t try and kill me first, I won’t try and kill them.”

Shinso smiled weakly. “Well, that’s good. I prefer you stay out of prison. Who else would I get boba with? Or teach about modern technology? It’s been a good ego boost, having someone like you around. Makes me feel a lot smarter than I am.”

“Fucking dickhead, I’m 10,000 IQ. You wouldn’t last a day where I came from.”

“Maybe so.” Shinso took a another long sip of his boba.

After a moment of consideration, Tommy added, “The drugs and stealing were kind of fun, though. Miss those a bit. Tried to kick the habit but I haven’t had the good stuff in way too long.” After one gapple—or enchanted gapple, even better—it was hard to forget that rush. Tommy had a little bit of the problem, in the past, when he was… recovering… from exile. It wasn’t a solution to everything, but man, it was a nice way to cope.

Shinso groaned, putting his face down on the table. “Don’t even tell me any more.”

Tommy loved his new phone. It was basically just a comm! Maybe he could find a way to message the Prime Minister with this.

Although, it didn’t have public channel permissions. He did have Shinso’s number, now, though! He could text him whenever he wanted. They could even call! Shinso had warned him against using all of his data, but it was too fun to not use for now. Shinso had left Tommy a couple hours ago, heading back to his group home, but Tommy hadn’t grown bored of it yet.

Tommy snickered to himself, sending his next spam text to Shinso. He’d discovered a feature where he could send little drawn faces to Shinso and it was incredibly entertaining. Laying upside-down on a bench, face glued to his phone, he didn’t notice the person standing in front of him until they spoke.

“Tommy. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“Agh, Prime! What are you doing here? Can you all stop fuckin’ following me?” Leaping to his feet, Tommy puffed up, glaring at Toad. What an arsehole! Couldn’t he see Tommy was having a fun time over here? And here he was, ruining it all. Prime. This could not be good for his blood pressure.

Toad looked much the same as when Tommy had seen him first. He was wearing a loose long-sleeve shirt over a t-shirt despite the balminess of the night, his expression placid besides the slight curious tilt of his eyebrows. There was even a plastic bag hanging from his hands.

“My apologies. I wasn’t following you. I just live in the area.” Even his voice was perfectly calm. “Would you like another melon soda? I enjoy going on snack runs for my siblings. It’s a good reason to leave the house. However, I bought extra.”

“You won’t get me with that this time, bitch,” Tommy sniffed. “I know your tricks. I don’t want any more of your pity shit.”

Tommy had been willing to accept the gift before, in a strange new land as he was, but he should have been more on his guard. It had been too long. He’d forgotten what it was like to mistrust everything, and to know that every “gift” came with hidden strings. Everyone wanted something from him. Always. It was just figuring out what they wanted that was the hard part.

Even Dream had given him gifts, back in exile. Armor to appease him after weeks of destroying every set that he made. Tommy had been miserably grateful back then. It repulsed him to think about—eating the barest scraps from Dream’s hand, appeased like a dog more than a human. He never wanted to be like that again. He would be his own man! He liked people, sure. But he didn’t need them. Not anymore.

It was difficult being in this server, where he was forced to trust the words of other about how the world worked. But he wouldn’t let himself rely on anyone, despite that.

“Alright. I’ll keep them then. Can I sit?”

“Sure. Do what you fucking want.”

Tommy kept his arms crossed over his chest, shoulders tense, while Toad sat down beside him. Tommy glowered out at the street, keeping his eye on Toad out of the corner of his eye.

“Is someone following you?” Toad asked.

“Huh?”

“You said earlier. That other people were following you.” If Tommy were stupid, he’d say that Toad was acting concerned for him, instead of—information gathering, or whatever.

“You’d know better that me, so stop fuckin’ pretending. That mummy guy found me the other night and said you told him to look for me. What the fuck did I ever do? Fucking bastard! You ratted me out!”

“Oh. You met Eraserhead, then.” Toad looked down at the floor. Pondering maybe? His face was basically the same all the time. “I was just worried. That man is my teacher at UA, and a pro hero. He’s trustworthy.”

“He fucking attacked me!”

This finally made his expression change, more than anything else—a flash of shock passed over his face, visible in the widening on his eyes. Tommy felt a little satisfaction. That’s right. Tommy wasn’t the prick here.

Toad’s voice came out a little quieter than before, eyes sweeping over Tommy briefly. “I’m… sorry. I didn’t think he would do that. Are you injured?”

“Not this time. I’m huge. I clobbered him.”

Tommy wasn’t sure Todoroki knew what “clobbered” meant. Regardless, he didn’t ask.

“I’m glad I ran into you, tonight. I saw you at the Sports Festival and I wanted to talk to you. If we can, I’d like to speak to you again.”

“Why? You gonna lead me straight to your evil ghost teacher again?”

“I want to know more about you.”

“Are you asking me out?”

“To… go somewhere? Yes.”

“Hm.” Sue Tommy, but he was bored. And curious. “Well, I guess I don’t have anything better to do. And no freaky ghost teacher. Don’t tell him you ran into me, neither. I don’t want him stalking me no more. That’s a boun-da-ry.”

“I won’t tell him about this if you don’t want me to. I promise.”

Maybe Tommy was an absolute idiot, but Toad seemed sincere.

“We have internships starting next week. If you’d like, we could meet in Hosu. My father has his hero agency there. I could show you around the city. We could eat something.”

“You’re paying.”

Toad nodded placidly. “That’s no problem. We can go wherever you like.”

God. He reminded Tommy of another introverted half-and-half dick he knew. He was surrounded by pretentious rich bastards.

“Just pick somewhere expensive.”

“Do you have a phone?”

“I just got one today!”

By the end of the night, Tommy had another number in his phone and a promise to meet in Hosu in a week’s time. Despite himself, he was a little excited.

Chapter Text

The week of UA’s internships approached rapidly.

Tommy couldn’t deny he was a little excited. He wanted to see Toad in Hosu and, surprisingly, hear what being a hero was like. Everyone was talking about it all the time — might as well get to understand it a bit more.

It was too bad he wouldn’t be able to see Shinso, though. Whatever. Who needed that guy? Toad was gonna be his friend now. As long as he didn’t become a snitch.

He’d become more accustomed to seeing heroes in action and the way this server revolved much of life around them. Tommy basically blended in like a pro, now.

The only thing that made him stick out was, apparently, his wings. It had become so hot Tommy had finally cut slots in his shirt for them. Stretched out behind him, they were a lot more comfortable and slightly less cramped. They were still really disheveled, but whatever. That wasn’t the part Shinso had been surprised by.

When he’d first seen them on the train a few days ago, he’d stared at Tommy like he’d grown a new head. Craning his neck, he (rather rudely) started inspecting Tommy’s back, eyes wide.

“You have wings,” Shinso said in amazement. “How do you have two quirks? Have you always had those?”

“They’ve always been there. Not my fault you're unobservant. As for quirks, the wings don’t even really work, so I feel like it shouldn’t count,” Tommy said very reasonably. “And I don’t know. I just woke up this way. That Toad kid has two, doesn’t he?”

“Toad?”

“With all the ice and fire?”

“I guess I never really thought about it,” Shinso’s voice was considering. “I guess it doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to be the same thing. I mean, fire is fire. And ice is ice.”

Tommy nodded sagely along. “Exactly. So what’s an extra pair of wings between two friends?”

“Hold on. I feel like wings and your quirk are just too different, though.”

“Well, they’re here, and they’re not going away.” Against his own wishes, Tommy shuddered. Dream had threatened to cut off his wings more than once. The way he’d damaged them was close enough.

Shinso looked defeated. “I guess you’re right.”

Their conversation had swiftly moved on from there. But it still had Tommy a bit unsettled. He didn’t like the fact that he was considered strange, here, and he didn’t know if that strangeness was something important enough to hide.

Whatever. It was fucking hot. And he wasn’t going to be different anytime soon, so might as well be who he was.

The train to Hosu was longer than the train Shinso usually took. He was supposed to be meeting Toad in a couple hours, so he was heading over now.

In the past few days, Tommy had discovered the wonders of the internet and public phone numbers. He’d been harassing anyone in government to try and get the Prime Minister on the line for the past few days, which had been largely unsuccessful but at least a little funny. Tommy was trying to decide who he should call next when he was interrupted.

First the train shuddered and stopped as a huge force ran into it, throwing Tommy out of his seat and into the wall. Then a monster crashed into the train.

Barely a second later, a huge claw tore through the metal wall opposite him like it was paper, a beast crawling into the train car.

It was pandemonium. Everyone was screaming and cowering. Tommy kind of understood—the mob was ugly, with an exposed brain and wild eyes, twice as tall as any other person. He’d never seen a Warden before but he kind of imagined they were similar size.

Unfortunately, no one else seemed ready to fend it off, so Tommy would have to step up. Not a problem. Surely fighting mobs was allowed on this server, right? Tommy didn’t remember Shinso ever mentioning it.

There was a couple directly in front of the monster. The beast reared back, moving to swipe them—the couple was frozen in fear, cowering uselessly—but Tommy was quick.

Barely faster enough, he sprinted in front of the beast, tanking a hit that sliced across his arms, slamming his back into the train car seats. He blocked up a wall, shielding the people from the monster’s line of sight.

“Go! If you’re not gonna fight, fuckin’ run!” He barked. The couple broke out of their shock quickly enough to stagger to their feet, moving away. Tommy ducked away from another swipe of the monster, who was now focused on him. Great.

Within just a few moments, Tommy recovered, summoning the Axe of Peace into his hands. Dashing forward, he evaded a swipe of the hulking mob’s claws, sliding low, popping up next to it and slashing its arm. Its skin was thick; he left behind a gash but didn’t sever the arm. He stared in shock as the gash began to heal before his eyes.

Cursing, Tommy blocked a blow with his sword just in time, but he was thrown against the wall once again. That would leave a nasty bruise.

He was next to the hole in the train, now. He could run. But if he left, all of these people would probably die.

Maybe the monster could heal. But if it lost its head, it would die, right? Tommy grinned savagely. Deftly, he used dirt to block up the monster’s face, trapping it. Then Tommy sliced through one of its legs at the knee.

It dropped lopsidedly, head exposed—its leg was already regrowing (what the fuck?) but Tommy took his chance. Leaping onto its back, he chopped at its thick neck, then again, until its head fell off its shoulders and the monster was still.

Breathing heavily, Tommy let his arms fall to his sides. Strangely, the mob didn’t disappear like a usual kill, leaving loot behind; its body stayed on the floor like a final kill. It was unsettling, but Tommy had bigger issues to contend with.

His ribs and back felt bruised to shit, and his sword arm had a nasty gash across it, making his grip weak and trembly. Adding insult to injury, the mob had sprayed gross, hot blood all over Tommy’s front when he was killing it, and Tommy was not a fan of all the gore on his face. The thick smell of iron and death made his stomach turn. He wasn’t exactly restaurant ready right now.

Plus, he was getting a lot of stares from the other occupants of the train. Many of them were still cowering and crying, but others were looking at him, some with their phones raised in front of them.

The train wasn’t moving anymore. Well, thankfully he’d been nearly at the station. Maybe he could just leap out the side onto the tracks? Humming, Tommy looked at the hole consideringly.

A woman walked up to him, a weak smile on her face.

“Young man, are you a hero? Or a hero student? Thank you so much for saving us… I don’t know what I would have done. I would have died if you weren’t here. I can’t thank you enough.” Her voice warbled. Her eyes were intense, like she was trying to bore her gratitude into him, and it was a little uncomfortable.

Tommy did not think he should tell the truth.

“Uh, you know… just doing my duty to the people and all that. You doing alright? Got all your limbs and shit?”

The woman nodded, looking a little lost, and Tommy took that as his opportunity to leap out the side of the train and start to run, ignoring the calls behind him.

The city of Hosu wasn’t much better than the train.

The streets were in chaos. More of the monsters were attacking the rest of the city, people running and screaming everywhere Tommy looked. He could see fire in the distance.

Tommy wasn’t really sure how he was meant to find Toad like this.

Turning onto a street, Tommy stopped short at the destruction in front of him. The street was glowing with molten footprints and smoldering flames on one of the buildings. The building itself also wasn’t looking so hot (metaphorically, obviously). It seemed to be some sort of office building, but a few of the windows were broken, and people were still trying to leave.

The burning building was looking unstable. One of the upper floors was listing to the side, the wood creaking ominously. One man in a silly outfit was trying to hold up the doorframe to let people out, but he looked like he was having a hard time, considering he was just using his hands. Tommy jogged up to the building.

“Kid, get back—” the man started, but Tommy ignored him. Placing blocks on the doorframe to stabilize it, he ducked inside. There were a couple other holes he quickly patched before climbing up to the second floor. There was one main area caving in, which was easy enough to block up with dirt. Perfect.

Then, Tommy heard a noise. Like a gasp. Tommy scanned the room.

A man was trapped beneath a wall which had crumbled on the far side of the room. Darting over, Tommy whipped out his axe and quickly broke the blocks which had fallen on him.

“You alright?”

The man just wheezed. Tommy squinted. He was middle aged, with a suit on, and had some blood near his temple. Hopefully he hadn’t gotten his ribs crushed or something. Either he was in mortal danger or just panicking.

Well, there was nothing for it. Tommy shoved a steak into his hands.

“Eat this,” he said sagely, and lifted the man up into his arms. “Please don’t die. I don’t want that on my conscience. Or to go back to jail.”

It was quick work to run to the window. Both hands occupied by Adult Man, Tommy couldn’t take out his water bucket, so he just jumped out and tanked the extra hearts of damage.

Ouch. Hitting the ground reverberated pain up through his legs. That couldn’t be good for his knees.

Thankfully, by the time he came outside, it looked like everyone had evacuated. A few emergency personnel had showed up too, including a little white car with people who looked like medical staff, judging by the way they were treating the injured out on the street. One of them waved Tommy over, and he gently deposited the man he was carrying over with the medics. Perfectly done.

“Kid, that was brave but very stupid.”

Tommy turned to see the weird costume guy from earlier. He had little horns on the front of his hat. Tommy could only assume this was another hero, as it seemed that everyone here in costume was a hero.

“Excuse me, bitch. What are you getting rude with me for? Isn’t there more important shit right now?”

“Well—”

“And what’s up with over there?” Tommy gestures towards the noise and chaos in the distance.

“The heroes are taking care of it.” The man said firmly. “Stay away from there.”

“Wasn’t planning on going over there, so that’s easy enough.”

The man sighed. “Look, kid. Again. I appreciate it, but you can’t just be—”

Tommy let out a gusty sigh, rolling his eyes. “Well, I’d love to chat, but I’m supposed to be getting dinner right now, so I’ll be on my way. Gotta make sure my friend didn’t get squished by one of these weird monsters.” Backing up, Tommy turned tail and started to run from the scene.

“Kid!” The man yelled after him, but didn’t chase, so Tommy would count that as a win. He still had someone to find.

Tommy’s feet pounded across roofs.

Toad hadn’t picked up his calls, the bastard, so Tommy was just running around like a dumbass. Considering how insane the city was, it was a little difficult to find a quiet spot to stay the next few hours, so Tommy had decided to just run away from all the noise. He was getting to a pretty good area for peace and quiet until he noticed a familiar head of hair in an alleyway.

He stopped short at the edge of a roof.

“Toad?” He asked, baffled. “What are you doing over here? Aren’t you meant to be working?”

Toad was in the alleyway, strangely–but even more strange was the other company he had. There was a man facing him, crouched low, holding swords who looked very menacing. Not that Tommy liked to judge. But the other bodies in the alley and the blood on his swords didn’t paint a great picture.

“It’s you,” Todoroki breathed. “Tommy.”

“This was the worst dinner location ever!” Tommy shouted. He pointed an accusing finger at the weird noseless guy. “And who the hell are you?! Did you choose to look like that, or were you born that way?”.

“This is Stain,” Todoroki replied, voice low and serious. “Stay back, Tommy. I can handle this.”

Tommy had serious doubts that Todoroki could handle it. A shallow gash sliced across his cheek. There were multiple knives stabbing into his left arm, which was bleeding freely and hanging limp by his side.

Another boy—the robot legs one from the Sports Festival—was moving but also injured. Behind him were two separate people, shielded by ice, who were all also bleeding. Either injuries or perma-deaths, then. Tommy didn’t like the look of their still bodies.

He squinted. Wait, did he know one of them? Well, he had bigger problems. Like the noseless wonder with all the knives.

He looked to Todoroki again, incredulous. “You know this fucking freak?!” Tommy shrieked.

“Not particularly.”

“Get out of here, little hero,” Stain hissed. He licked his lips. Eugh. “This isn’t your fight. If you leave now, I’ll even let you live.”

“You talking to me? Are you trying to kill him?” Tommy demanded. “I thought that was illegal here!”

Stain narrowed his eyes at Robot Boy. Or Toad. They were both kind of in the same direction. “He is not worthy of being called a hero. I must cleanse this world of false heroes.”

“Alright, well that’s just not on,” Tommy said slowly. “Not sure how many lives he’s got left but I’d prefer you didn’t take any of them.”

“Tommy, get out of here,” Todoroki snapped. “It’s not safe. He’s killed a lot of people.”

“Yeah, yeah. Not the first time I’ve fought a mass murdering maniac,” Tommy said. In the blink of an eye, the Axe of Peace appeared in his hands. “Let’s just take care of this bastard.”

“Don’t let him cut you!” A green-haired boy shouted from the floor. “If he drinks your blood, you’ll be paralyzed!”

“Good to know. Not to brag, but you might want to run away now.”

Tommy leaped from the roof with a yell, swinging his axe over his head, right at Stain. Stain apparently wasn’t an idiot and stepped neatly to the side, slashing right back with his sword. Tommy parried just in time as he hit the ground, backing up to be closer to Toad.

Shit, he was fast. Tommy hadn’t expected anyone else here to be as good at sword fighting as on his old server—Stain could give Techno a run for his money. Maybe.

The axe was too slow. Buying himself time, Tommy placed dirt blocks in a wall between them, swapping his axe for a sword in a split-second. By the time Stain rounded the wall, Tommy was ducking low, slicing at Stain’s legs. But instead of blocking, Stain leapt in the air, slicing down at Tommy.

Todoroki sent a burst of fire between them just in time. Tommy scrambled a few steps back. Shit! What he’d do for a bow and arrows right now!

“Fuck! This guy is quick!”

“Let me handle this,” said Toad, sending out another burst of fire, but Stain dodged.

Stain made an expression which could generously be called a smile. It looked a bit too bloodthirsty for that. “You’re too reliant on your quirk.”

With a yell, Robot Boy launched himself forward with a wild kick. This proved to be idiotic considering all the knives he had sticking out of him. His kick landed, but Stain took advantage, ripping one of the knives out of his arm while they were close. Robot Boy shouted in pain and Stain licked the blade. Then he fell right down to the ground. Like a dumbass.

Stain shot towards Tommy again, dodging another wave of ice from Toad. Their blades clashed, Tommy’s foot slipped—and Stain’s sword sliced across Tommy’s shoulder. Twisting his sword, Tommy knocked Stain’s sword away just in time for Toad to send another burst of fire. The sword clattered to the ground, and Tommy lunged forward at Stain as Todoroki sent out a wall of ice to block Stain’s escape.

Tommy expected Stain to run, but he spun back around, drawing a knife.

Tommy’s sword came down just as Stain buried his sword in Tommy’s gut.

The green-haired kid flashed by Tommy in shower of sparks, kicking Stain in the face hard enough to send him slamming into the ice headfirst, but it was already over. Tommy was pretty sure he’d lopped Stain’s sword hand right off. Unless he had healing, he would likely bleed out. His body was also suspiciously still.

Speaking of bleeding out… Tommy glanced down.

“Oh fuck.”

There was a knife sticking into his stomach. And through his stomach, out his back. Now that Tommy noticed it, it really, really hurt.

He staggered. He fell. The falling was not fun, because it jostled the huge knife in his stomach, and now it hurt even more than it had before. He’d barely caught himself against the wall of the alleyway, slumped awkwardly, arm slung over his stomach.

“Penis,” Tommy said plaintively. “Dick. Balls.”

He didn’t have any healing potions. There wasn’t much he could do. Uselessly, he hovered his hands over the hilt of the blade. Tommy was having trouble moving his hands right. Pulling it out would only make him die more quickly. Even with the blade in his stomach, blood was still rapidly pooling on his shirt, soaking his shirt.

And… Tommy went cold with fear. This was his last death—right? He couldn’t die here. It wasn’t supposed to be his time yet. He still had to find his way back home. What would Tubbo think, if he just disappeared?

Suddenly, there was a face in front of him—Toad.

Toad wasn’t looking too hot himself. His arm was still all stabbed and shit, dripping blood down his arm, and he staggered down to kneel in front of Tommy.

But more than that, Toad’s face was twisted in something close to horror. He was wan, eyes wide, and his hand trembled a little when it reached towards Tommy.

Tommy couldn’t help flinching when Toad’s hand drew close to his stomach, and he made a low noise of pain when the Big Stupid Knife shifted a bit in his guts. Toad blanched even more.

“Tommy…?”

“I know I already said so, but this really was the worst dinner location ever,” Tommy informed him.

Toad still had that dumb heartbroken look on his face. Tommy didn’t understand. Why was he looking at him like that, when they’d barely known each other at all? Why had Toad wanted so badly to help, to learn more?

At least he would have someone by him when he died, he thought. It was some consolation.

Toad pressed a gentle hand to his shoulder. “That’s… we can talk about that later. The heroes are coming. They’ll be able to help you.”

Tommy smiled thinly. He may have a crazy quirk and a good poker face, but he was not a good liar.

“Sorry… I think this is it for me. I’m on my last life. If you can, can you find Tubbo? You can… use this…” with shaking fingers, Tommy reached below his shirt. Bloody fingers trembled, closing around his compass, barely pulling it out. “Tell ‘im I finally bit the dust. He deserves to know.”

“You’re going to survive,” Toad said. Unconvincingly.

“No, I’m pretty sure this is it. You ever been stabbed this bad before? Not fun.”

“I wouldn’t imagine so.”

Toad was getting more difficult to keep his eyes on. Tommy’s eyes were getting harder and harder to keep open. Tommy struggled, but it was a losing battle.

His whole body felt weak, ill, hot-and-cold. He hadn’t expected to finally die in some grimy alleyway who-knows-where, but such is life and death, he supposed. He tried to believe it wasn’t breaking his heart, and the moisture on his face was just from the day’s sweat and blood. That the catch in his breath was a coincidence.

Next time his eyes blinked open—when had they closed?—the other people from the fight were surrounding him. Toad had grabbed Tommy more firmly by the shoulder, shaking him to consciousness. Rude. Didn’t he see Tommy was feeling quite uncomfortable, here? Let a man sleep.

“We have to stop the bleeding! He’s going to die!” The green-haired boy was frantic.

“Already covered that bit,” Tommy informed him. His voice was weak and gravelly. “It’s alright. I’ll be with… mum soon…”

Then his eyes slipped shut and Tommy knew only darkness.

Chapter Text

Tommy could hear his mum.

It was so dark. Her words were indistinguishable, opaque. Tommy felt like he could hear her echo across a vast chasm he was standing at the edge of. He wanted to move, to run closer or—

He tried to struggle—but he couldn’t, couldn’t even feel a body to struggle with. But she was so close. Her voice was just a murmur… reverberating across a gap he couldn’t quite cross. He was reaching, reaching—

“Mum? Mum!”

Tommy startled awake with a shout. First came the wave of loss—he’d been so close—but then came panic. Eyes darting frantically around the room, his confusion and fear only grew with every passing second. Where was he?

His head was foggy and swimming with confusion. Was he fucking drugged or some shit? All the sensations that came with living slammed back into him full force, and basically none of them he was feeling right now were good. Pain reverberated through his body from his stomach, a deep, sharp kind of pain.

Oh yeah. He’d been stabbed. But there were more important things to worry about. Most importantly: he was somewhere unfamiliar. Trapped.

“Mom?” He called again, though he couldn’t feel her presence anywhere. “Can you hear me? Where am I?”

He was in a white room, strapped down with thick cuffs on his wrists, wings pressed awkwardly against his back. At least he’d been sort of propped up with his wings given a little space on his sides, but it wasn’t a perfect solution. An uncomfortable tube was stabbing into his arm. He wanted to rip it out, but it was taped down and he couldn't reach it with his hands chained.

At least his feet weren’t strapped down, but even when he pressed the soles of his feet against the cot and bucked, he couldn’t get much momentum. To his additional horror, he’d been changed out of his normal clothing into a flimsy dress that seemed like it was made of paper.

His compass was absent from its usual place around his neck. So was his bandana. That, more than anything, felt like a deeply personal loss.

He was still alone in the room. There was no response from anyone.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” Tommy tried to start out easy. “Can you let me out? Right now?”

His negotiations were met with more silence. A band of tension steadily tightened around Tommy’s lungs, and despite himself, he bit deep into his cheek.

“I said let me out! What the fuck did I ever do to you?”

Never let it be said Tommy was a quitter, though. Tommy thrashed with all of his strength. When the cuffs didn’t budge, he only grew more panicked. There was a beeping sound that grew faster and faster and it was pissing him off. Who had him? Where was he?

“Let me the fuck out!” He screamed, tears stinging his eyes. “What the fuck is this! This isn’t fair! Let me go!”

Breath coming faster and faster, Tommy rode out the waves of all-consuming fear. He couldn’t be sure for how long. But when he started to come down from it, there was still no one there. The room was empty aside from the bright sterile lights and the mechanical tone beeping over and over.

“Hello?” He called, voice cracking. “Is anyone there?”

This was something like his worst nightmare. He was so confused. Who had taken him here? And why?

“I don’t like being alone,” Tommy said. It was barely a murmur.

No one answered.

Tsukauchi didn’t know whether to be relieved.

They had Tommy… but the way in which they’d found him only proved to be even more troubling. Both he and Stain had been apprehended, but all of them were in a complete mess. Tommy could potentially be taken in for vigilantism… as could the UA students, which was a whole other matter—and Tommy had taken off Stain’s hand. The man would have died if paramedics hadn’t arrived.

As would Tommy.

When the paramedics found him, he’d almost lost too much blood to be saved. Tsukauchi had been told that his heart had stopped in the ambulance. Even now, he was still in poor condition. The hospital had been forced to rush one of their best healers to seal the wound in his stomach. On top of that, some of Eraserhead’s students had witnessed the entire thing. He couldn’t imagine seeing that at their age.

After a day, the boy had finally regained consciousness, but Tsukauchi could tell that this was going to be difficult. He’d only been awake for about an hour, but that hour had been hectic. So far, the boy had panicked, and then attempted to bite the only nurse who went into his room before passing out again. And, unfortunately, he and Eraserhead would need to speak to him soon.

However, considering how they’d been forced to restrain him due to his status as a flight risk and his documented negative history with authority, Tsukauchi was anticipating an uphill battle with gaining his trust. He could hardly blame him. The situation wasn’t looking good.

Eraserhead had been on the scene soon after the first responders were on the scene—both for Tommy’s case and for that of his students.

Tsukauchi frowned a little at his haggard appearance. Well, more haggard than normal.

Both of them were standing in the observation deck of Tommy’s room. They’d been located in a side of the hospital built for students to observe surgeries, but over the years it had been adapted into a sort of holding room for patients with strong quirks or otherwise at risk for confrontation.

They could watch Tommy from the other side of a two-way mirror and even had audio of the inside of the room. So far, Tommy hadn’t displayed any suspicion or sign of knowing he was being observed, although who knew if that was the truth.

Tsukauchi glanced at Aizawa, who was staring at the boy with an exhausted expression.

“What do you think? Is he still not dangerous?”

Aizawa’s expression might have held a tinge of reproach. Tsukaichi almost felt bad about forcing him here, but they had a job to do. There was never a dull day in their line of work.

“I never said he wasn’t dangerous. He just wasn’t aggressive when I met him. I think that if he was met with someone he could trust, he would be cooperative.”

Tsukauchi hummed. “For the record, I don’t think he’s a bad kid either. But the fact he cut off someone’s hand won’t be ignored. Along with him killing one of the Nomu. That level of brutality is very unusual. Regardless of the situation, a crime is still a crime. Whether Tommy can be reformed or not is the question.”

“So we’re treating him as a villain?.”

“I’m not saying I agree with it. However, the law is the law. The HPSC is definitely already aware of this. We’re running out of time if we want to come up with a solution that doesn’t end up with him disappearing somewhere with them. It doesn’t help that videos of Tommy fighting the Nomu are public.”

That had been a surprise.

Tommy wasn’t just a vigilante in the case with Stain—it appeared he was a vigilante a few times over. He hadn’t committed any crimes with malicious intent, or at least so it appeared, but he was definitely in hot water legally. Despite his protests—and probable emotional over-investment in the case—Eraserhead had to agree. This was a mes.

“By the way—where’s your intern?”

Aizawa grunted. “I told him to come later today. He’ll be here to observe soon.”

Tsukauchi smiled wryly. “Had to change your lesson plan?”

“It’ll be a good exposure to other sides of hero work. Although I wanted to work with him on some of the basics first.”

“I’m sure you’ll get more chances in the future.”

As if one cue, the door to the observation room creaked open. A hesitant teenager walked through the door who Tsukauchi would bet money was Aizawa’s intern. He even looked a little like Aizawa, he noted with mild amusement, with his wild hair and bags under his eyes. His shoulders were hunched, but there was a level of steel in his eyes.

“There you are,” Aizawa greeted. “Shinso. We’re observing a recent arrest from last night.”

Shinso creeped forward, mouth firming into a line, stepping up next to Aizawa. Tsukauchi smiled a little, observing his nervousness. Shinso looked out into the room.

Then he stopped short, his mouth dropping open, face pale.

“Tommy?”

Shinso was officially a moron.

Everyone in the observation room was staring at him like he’d grown a new head. Both Eraserhead and the detective looked surprised, and Tommy was strapped down inside the observation room like some sort of animal.

Great. Any chance of him playing off their connection was officially dead in the water. Why couldn’t he just shut his mouth? Was Tommy going to jail?

Shit. How had Tommy ended up here? What had he done? Shinso had only been away from him for a couple days! How did he already end up in police custody?

Despite knowing there wasn’t anything he could have done, Shinso felt oddly guilty looking at him. Tommy had been terrified of going into the custody of anyone, police or heroes alike. Now he was strapped down in a creepy white room looking like he’d been abducted like aliens. Did Tommy even know where he was? Did he understand what was happening to him?

The detective standing next to Eraserhead reacted first.

“You two know each other?”

“I…” Shinso’s throat had gone bone-dry at the expression on Eraserhead’s face. Well, he was already fucked, so. “Yeah. We’ve met. Is he gonna be okay?”

“He’ll recover from his injuries.” Conspicuously, the detective didn’t mention what Tommy had done to end up in cuffs. Shinso bristled.

“What happened?"

Eraserhead and the detective exchanged glances. Shinso had the feeling he was coming off as way too desperate. Would Eraserhead let him observe this case now that he knew of their connection? What would happen to Shinso? And more importantly, what would happen to Tommy?

“Is he in trouble? Please, just tell me. He’s not a bad person,” Shinso was definitely coming on too strong. With great effort, he forced himself to shut up.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Eraserhead finally spoke. “Shinso. We’ll have to properly interview you because of this. Do you understand?”

Shinso’s mouth grew dry. He was so fucked.

“And Tommy? Is he going to jail? Did he do something?”

Eraserhead’s expression didn’t promise good things. Shinso felt his stomach turn. Fuck.

“Tommy committed several acts of vigilantism. We’re still in the process of investigation. As for jail… we’re not yet sure where he’ll end up.” Eraserhead and the detective exchanged a look that seemed heavy with hidden meaning. Shinso wished he knew what the hell was going on.

“Eraserhead—”

The door to the observation room opened once more. Shinso cut himself off, turning to look. Then it was his turn to be shocked as Principal Nezu walked into the observation deck.

Shinso must be hallucinating from stress. That was the only explanation. This day was already completely absurd, and every second was getting more insane. Was this a dream? Surreptitiously, he pinched his arm. The scene in front of his eyes didn’t change.

“Well, it’s a good thing he’s already in police custody!” Nezu announced cheerfully. “How are you, Eraserhead? Detective? It’s wonderful to see you, Shinso. I’m Principal Nezu!”

He gave a jaunty wave. Shinso felt a little faint.

“I know who you are,” he said mindlessly. Then he caught himself. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you. Principal.”

“Why are you here?” Eraserhead cut to the chase. “You’re not involved in this case.”

“Well, it seemed like you boys had a problem! And here I have a solution!” Nezu clapped his hands. “We are in a bit of a bind, as you know. Poor Tommy seems to have been acting out of a misguided sense of justice, but as things are, there is a chance he could be whisked away before anyone is able to guide him in the way I believe he needs! I believe that would be a great loss for everyone involved. It would be no good for him to be lost to juvenile detention or other places.”

For a moment, Nezu’s aloof grin looked more sinister. Shinso felt his stomach sinking like a stone throughout the whole speech.

Nezu looked to Eraserhead. “Tommy’s around the same age as your students, isn’t he, Aizawa?”

“Yes, but what—”

“Tommy can become a student at UA! I think being a part of your class would be a good fit.”

Everyone paused. Shinso thought Eraserhead and the detective might be even more shocked than when he’d said Tommy’s name. For a second, the only sound in the observation room was the slow beep of Tommy’s heart monitor and the hum of air conditioning.

“Join my class?” Eraserhead asked in disbelief. “That’s… unheard of. I don’t think—”

“It would be more similar to protective custody than being a true student. This way, we can protect young Tommy, and protect the rest of the world from him, if need be.”

Eraserhead still looked completely flabbergasted. Shinso was reeling himself. He’d never considered something like that. But if Tommy needed to be a regular kid, and also needed protection… it did make sense, in a way. But it was hard to picture. An image of Tommy beside him, walking through the halls of UA, flashed through his mind. Suddenly, Shinso wanted it so badly he could barely breathe.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Tsukauchi said finally. “I know you and Tommy may have had a rocky start, but I have faith you can overcome that. Plus, he already has a bond with multiple of your students. I think it would be good for him.”

“Detective—” Aizawa started, before cutting himself off. “Principal. I… see your point. That said… I don’t know if Tommy is ready to be a normal student. I’m not even sure he’s ever interacted with society.”

“Eraserhead. I understand your concerns. But do you think anywhere else would do a better job of helping him adjust? If he hasn’t experienced normal life, it could be what he needs—not more confinement. And with his skills, we are the best option to cultivate his abilities, and hopefully channel his desire to save people into a more legal path. Of course, there is always a chance Tommy cannot be rehabilitated. But if there’s any way, I believe the heroic thing to do would be to try.”

Eraserhead still didn’t look entirely convinced, but his expression fell through into resignation. “If you say so, Principal. Let me know what I need to do. Though remember that I warned you this will likely be more difficult than it seems.”

Shinso stood frozen, mouth agape. What had just happened? Tommy was going to be coming to UA, just like that?

“What about all of the crimes?” Shinso asked weakly. “Like… didn’t he do something?”

“Let the adults worry about the legal parts, Shinso,” Nezu smiled brightly. “Rest assured, we will find a way to understand Tommy’s situation, and will take action as needed. But right now, he likely just needs a guiding hand—one we can give, and no one else.” A dark expression flicked across his face for a moment. “But, of course, the safety of our other students will always be our top priority.”

“Um. Sounds good, I guess…” Shinso replied weakly.

“And it seems you’ve met Tommy before. In your opinion, would he be a good fit for UA?”

Shinso thought for a long moment. Looking out over the observation room—where Tommy had fallen into a listless sleep—he thought of Tommy’s extreme capability. But more than that, he was reminded of Tommy’s immense generosity, his willingness to help him learn, and his ability to connect with others. The way he had been able to adapt with his horrible situation and turn into a kind person despite it.

“Yeah,” he said firmly. “I think so. He deserves it.”

In the room, Tommy began to stir. His head turned from side to side listlessly, his heart monitor picking up in pace.

“We should call for another nurse,” the detective said, but Shinso was pushing up close to the glass, eyes on Tommy. His face screwed up as he grew more awake.

In the room, Tommy started to speak. Everyone froze, listening intently.

“Mum?” he called. “Mum?” His eyes cracked open, squinting blearily. A line of stress creased his forehead. Weakly, he pulled against the restraints binding him.

“He was calling for her earlier, as well. It seems he’s coming down for the heavier drugs that had him on, so he’s more lucid, but not completely off them yet. He wasn’t making much sense before.”

The room grew cold as Tommy began to speak.

Tommy’s head was swimming, confusion wiping his recent memory, but he had a strong feeling he was missing something. He was sure he’d seen his mom. But where was she now?

“Mum, can you come back? Please? I don’t care if we have to talk through Phil. I just want to see you.” He knew his voice was coming out plaintive.

The sensation in the rest of his body was coming back. The strange room, the restraints… he was in some sort of prison again. But this time, he was alone. No one was coming to help him. There was no Sam. There wasn’t even purgatory, where he was closer with his mother than ever before.

“Mum, I need your guidance right now.” Tommy was growing more panicked the more he spoke, words rushing out. “Please. I need help. I don’t know where I am, I don’t know these people. Please. Take me back! Take me back, mum!”

He realized the perfect solution. She was the Goddess of Death. Surely she could kill him. He didn’t know if he had any more lives after being revived, but it should be worth a shot, right? And even if he died… maybe they could be together again. More permanently. Rest together in the darkness of death.

(There was a faint sense he had that he was missing something. Some memory that itched at the back of his mind. Something about that blackness was familiar.)

“Just kill me. Either I go back to where I came from, or I’m with you. I know you can do it. Just do it! Please! Get it over with!”

There was no answer. She was still so quiet. Why wouldn’t she talk to him anymore? He just wanted something. Some sort of sign. Tommy fell back against the bed in defeat. All throughout his life, she'd always been there, a caress on his hair or a faint laugh in his ears. But now she was silent. He missed her comfort like a lost limb.

“I know you can hear me. Mum, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do. I just want to talk to you again.”

He squeezed his eyes shut against tears. His next words came out more quietly.

“Why did you abandon me? What did I do?”

The observation room was silent for a long moment.

“Hm,” Nezu frowned. “It seems we may need to protect Tommy from himself, after all.”

Shinso’s stomach turned. He wanted to vomit. What had happened that Tommy wanted to be dead? They hadn’t really talked about their parents much, but Shinso knew that Tommy didn’t have any. Looked like they were dead, after all. But he wanted to join them?

Shinso wouldn’t let that happen.