Hellbound | Blue Exorcist/My Hero Academia Crossover

Chapter Forty-One: Equivalent Exchange

BAKUGOU'S P.O.V

"So lemme get this straight- Lucifer used you and your apparently Satanic blood to open a Gehenna Gate, knowing it would lure Rin out. All so Satan could possess you and use your body to throw Rin through the gate? And now he's trapped in Gehenna, and you have no idea how open it up again?" Freckles is quiet. He's sat slumped on Miss Kirigakure's mattress with his head in his hands, glasses threatening to slip off of the end of his nose. He doesn't say anything in response- he doesn't even flinch. He just stares at the booze-stained floorboards.

Can't say I blame him. We ain't really had any time to process the reality of what happened on top of that mountain until we got down from it. And, even then, it still isn't really hitting us. All I know is the place is way quieter without Okumura around, and not a single one of us likes it. At least going by the darkened state of everyone's features. Like we're all in mourning or something.

That damn idiot. Why the hell did he have to run in like that?!

But it wasn't just him. He wasn't the only dumbass around. Quickly enough, my eyes fall to Icy-Hot, watching him stare at his right hand. Almost in disgust. We've been inside for a few minutes now, but the shavings of ice still stick to his forearms, clustering his cuticles and freezing over is fingertips. I don't have to say out loud what he's thinking. 'Cause I'm thinking it too.

This was my fault.

I shoulda grabbed Okumura before he took off. I shoulda grabbed his hand and held on tight. Something in me shoulda gone first, or at least tried to make him see the sense in Boobzilla's plan. Now he's gone, there's nothing we can do to go back, and there might be no way of saving him. It's pointless wasting energy blaming ourselves, but it's all we can do while we wait to hear back from the other half of our class stuck in Japan.

Miss Kirigakure's got her back pressed against the wall of her cabin. Her eyes are fixed with a can of booze, but I don't think she's taken a single sip since she opened it. Glasses finally reaches his hands up and cups his eyes underneath his specs, and his shoulders begin to twitch. And Icy-Hot drops his hand out of sight, a coldness in his eyes that only shows up when he fights with his fire. Jesus, we're all a bunch of losers. All stunned into complete silence.

"I promised my dad I'd protect him," Freckles finally mutters after a couple more seconds of painful silence. His voice barely overtakes the wind outside, but his words split through me like a damn shard of glass. Okumura never spoke much about his old man but- Jeez I don't even wanna know what both of them have been through. The tone of Yukio's voice alone clues me in enough.

"There was nothing you could do. Your old geezer couldn't even stop himself from getting possessed."

"But at least he fought it! He stopped Satan taking my brother, a-and I couldn't! I failed in the one thing I swore to do!" He's standing now, hands gripped into tight fists. His bandaged palm starts to bleed again, and he lets it, not even looking down at the crimson droplets dripping from the edge of his skin.

"Getting upset ain't gonna solve anything, Yukio. There has to be a way to open the gate again, so just calm down and start thinking!" Boobzilla snaps, smacking him upside the head. To say it startles Icy-Hot and I is no understatement; out of everything, I didn't expect her to hit him. "Rin's stronger than you think. He can hold his own, but you'll be letting both him and that old geezer down even more if you just sit here and cry about it. You're not gonna be a damn chicken about this!"

As quickly as he surged up, Four Eyes sinks back down again. With slumped shoulders, he quietly adjusts his glasses and flops back onto her mattress, linking his arms around himself. It's like I can kinda see every cog chugging in that head of his, but the glass is all misted. Like he's got a tonne of fog built up in his brain. "Now think. Do you remember anything? Anything Lucifer might've said, or maybe even the shape of the summoning circle? Anything?"

"If I did I would've tried it already," Glasses quietly mutters, picking at his belt with the edges of his fingernails, twisting his hand around the leather and gripping it tight. "I don't remember anything!" If I've gotta be honest, I don't think I've ever heard someone sound so damn defeated. Okumura's come close a couple times, but this is on a whole new level. Freckles has really fallen to his doubts, huh?

"Right... Alright. Look, why don't we head back to True Cross, yeah? If we explain to Mephisto, he might be able to help," Booty Shorts murmurs, sitting herself down beside Yukio and patting his back, not even glancing up when Todoroki's phone finally buzzes in his left hand. Humming, he raises the device to his ear, wincing most likely at the appalling signal we've got here.

"Midoriya? How are things on your end?" He pauses, raises his eyebrows, and finally cracks the smallest smile I've seen in my life. Why the hell isn't the dumbass putting it on speaker?! "Really? So it was a demon all along. Did you manage to take it out?" Another pause. This is just cruel now. "Well I'm glad most of you are alright. We've had a slight issue on our end- we'll explain when we get back to True Cross. No no it's- Midoriya, can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Okay good. I'll let you know when we make it back- we can all meet and discuss everything that's happened." I half think he's about to hang up. And then- "The sky? No, I didn't see anything happen to the sky. I can't explain what happened over the phone, I just- Midoriya? Midoriya, hello?" He puts down the phone. The signal bar's empty.

Back to True Cross it is.

~

DEKU'S P.O.V

"Todoroki? Can you hear me? Todoroki, hello? The signal must've cut out," I sigh, slumping my shoulders and pocketing my phone. Even though I could only just make out what he was saying, something doesn't feel right. The way he was talking, it was like-... Like something had gone really wrong.

"Well? Did you get anything from him? Are they all okay? You didn't manage to speak to Rin, did you?" Kaminari anxiously bleats, Shinso having taken over the job of helping people get their strength back after that fight. He sounds so hopeful, but I really don't know what to tell him.

"I didn't."

"Oh... Well did you at least find out if he's alright?" Todoroki said we needed to talk in person. You mostly only say that after a mission when you've lost someone.

I just hope for Kaminari's sake that that isn't the case.