The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 25: Shatter

"Why hello Midoriya. Surprise seeing you here," he said in a mocking tone. "Who might that be behind you? A friend? Perhaps something more?" he said with an ever-widening grin.

"That's none of your damn business!" Izuku shouted at the monster, but he carried on as if he couldn't hear him.

"Well, either way, I suppose it doesn't matter. Seize her, too" Suddenly the shadows around them began to move and before she knew it, hands had appeared from them and grabbed the pair. Stepping out from the shadows came the four demons the hands belonged to, two per person.

"Now that we have your attention," said Daku, walking over to Izuku. "Are you ready to join us yet?" Izuku bared his teeth at him.

"Never. I'll never be one of you,"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. But little Midoriya, you already are. But I understand, you probably don't understand what I'm offering you. Now listen, you are special and we need you, so I'll give a demonstration of the power you could acquire should you change your mind," Daku smiled and nodded towards the demons holding Ochako. Izuku felt the demons holding him tighten their grip before realizing what was going to happen and struggling as hard as he could to escape.

"Don't you dare! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!!!" he struggled in vain, however, the demons holding were too strong.

"You know what's super interesting Midoriya?" began Daku as he approached Ochako. "I mentioned to you before that quirks were similar to demon arts, but the truth is they seem to be directly derived from demon arts. Even if they are much much weaker. Rather than run off of demonic force, humans seem to use their abilities at the cost of their body function. Isn't that fascinating? Looking into this further. I learned that we demons can actually block the quirks of humans. Allow me to give you a demonstration," Izuku renewed his efforts to break free of the grasp of the demons behind him. He was filled with desperation now. He knew the pain of being quirkless, and he wouldn't wish that pain on anyone. Ochako looked over at Izuku as Daku approached her.

"This wasn't your fault," she said smiling at him sadly. Daku placed a hand on her face and a weird light began to come from his palms.

"NOOOOOO!" he shouted before the light faded and Ochako slumped over. Izuku could only stare with the tears in his eyes.

"Do you see Midoriya? You could learn to do the same," Izuku did not reply, instead, he only stared at Ochako. She seemed to regain consciousness a moment later and lifted her head. Izuku exhaled in relief which seemed to annoy Daku. A new tone entered his voice.

"It seems that the presence of this human is affecting your ability to concentrate. Let's fix that problem shall we," Daku pointed to the window he had shattered upon entering the building. "Kill her,"

Deku immediately began to shout again and renewed his efforts to break free as one of the demons holding Ochako picked her up by the throat and began to walk her across the room. Ochako grabbed onto the hand wrapped around her neck, trying to pry it open, but to no avail. Deku's efforts got more and more frantic as the demon carrying Ochako got closer and closer to the shattered window. He reached the edge and stuck his arm out. Ochako was being held over open air.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" shouted Izuku. "JUST STOP!" he looked towards Daku desperately. But Daku had a massive grin on his face.

"Drop her," The demon released his grip and she dropped. He could hear her scream as she fell out of sight. The next moment seemed to go in slow motion for Izuku. He pushed his whole body forward as hard as he could before whipping it back again as fast as possible. He heard a sickening crunch as his skull made contact with the faces of the two demons holding him and suddenly he was free. He charged towards the open window, lunging to the left to avoid being grabbed by one of the others. Reaching the opening he flung himself outside without hesitation. He could hear some commotion inside the building, but he didn't care. He tucked his arms and legs in and shot downwards towards the ground below his eyes and Ochako. It only took a couple of seconds to reach her. He flung his arms around her as soon as he did, holding her to him tightly. Ochako's screams were cut off by the surprise.

"Listen to me very carefully," Izuku said as fast as he could looking at her. "I need you to hold onto me as tight as you can. Got it?" In response, he felt Ochako's grip tighten around his midsection. Suddenly Ochako began to hear the sound of something tearing and Izuku began to scream out in pain. The tearing sounds began to be accompanied by a sick snapping which only seemed to put Izuku through even more pain. They had almost reached the ground at that point. Tenth floor, ninth eighth. Suddenly one last horrible loud ripping noise rang out and suddenly a pair of dark wings tore out of Izuku's back ripping straight through his shirt. A black tail followed, sprouting from the base of his spine. Their emergence seemed to have stopped the pain Izuku was feeling and suddenly she felt a lurch in her stomach as Izuku spread his wings and shot forwards. She squeezed her eyes shut as they went, the cold night air whipping past ears. After a moment she gathered the courage to look and opened her eyes a crack. Izuku's face was of pure concentration staring straight ahead and then flew. Ochako peeked behind them and to her dismay could see three other winged figures pursuing them.

"We're being followed!" she shouted trying to make herself heard over the rush of the air around them.

"Make sure to hold on," Izuku said, "This might get rough," Almost immediately after he said it she felt another lurch as Izuku began to flap his wings rapidly to gain altitude. They were soaring between buildings. Suddenly Izuku began to angel them more towards the ground and their speed picked up. Ochako squeezed tighter out of fear and suddenly Izuku carved sharply to the left barely keeping them from running to a building by catching them with his wings before shooting down a new street. Izuku began to turn as often as he could, ducking around corners and down streets. No matter how fast or recklessly he flew however, every time Ochako looked behind them they were right on their tail. After a few minutes of this Izuku was clearly getting exhausted.

"Uraraka, do you trust me?" asked Deku not taking his eyes off the path ahead of them.

"Deku, this doesn't really seem like the best tim-"

"Do you trust me!?" she shouted a bit more forcefully this time. Ochako was thrown off by this for a moment but answered.

"Yes, yes I do," she said.

"Alright," he said. Izuku abruptly began to plummet them towards the ground. The shadow of the building in front of them cast them in a cold darkness and as they fell closer and closer to the ground Ochako felt the darkness swallow them.

Hey everybody, I'm sorry for my lack of uploads these past few weeks. I've been having a lot to deal with between personal issues and finals so it's been hard to find time to keep working on this. But I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

Thanks for reading as always and I'll catch you guys next time.      ^_^