"...Some of you also have powers that can be dangerous..." "...Please don't forget that if you lose focus or make the wrong move, your powers can be deadly, even if you're to do something virtuous like rescue someone..."
Ever since the pro hero, Thirteen, had told us that, it's been repeating in my head over and over again. Don't get the wrong idea though. It's a discomforting fact I've known ever since sixth grade.
My quirk is called Shadow Shark. I can sink into the shadows and travel along them at ridiculous speeds. Along with that, I can pull down anything with me as long as it's smaller than the shade I'm going down into and I'm tightly gripping or wearing it. Interestingly enough, I can even take people with me, but there are some enormous drawbacks.
I'm not sure how to perfectly describe the void I plunge into, but I'll try to give something brief. The shadows I sink into lead into a vast ocean of nothingness. Nothing but black for miles and miles. I mean, thanks to a secondary function of my quirk, night vision, I can see past the surface of the ground and spy above me, but that's beside the point. The abyss itself has nothing in it, and that includes air. I'm sure you know where this is going, so I'll skip to it.
Back in sixth grade, I was your average, doing-okay student. My friends and I had some pretty sick quirks that we liked to explore and dream about what we can do with them. One of my friends, Kirishima, (of course you know him,) was among our group, but this was when he had black hair and all that. There were also a few others like Josuko and Timasha, but I won't get into any detail about them.
During recess at school, it was pretty freaking hot, so we just hung out in the shade being casted down from the building and talking about our quirks. Timasha had just won a bet about being able to hurt Kirishima while we was hardened, but I don't think it was that fair cuz his move was kneeing him in the crotch.
It was then that Josuko looked up at me and casually dared me to show him what it was like to swim in the shadows. I joked to him about just taking a midnight plunge but then realized what he was really asking. I teased him, acting unsure if he could take it and exaggerated what I do when I go down. Still, the idea was awesome, so we had to try out either way.
Staying seated, I moved behind him and latching my arms around his shoulders to pull. With the other guys cheering us on, I scuba dived backwards and felt both the dark mist surround me and Josuko's body. I turned so that I could propel myself easier and he was below me.
It was so cool. I felt like I was saving someone and flying away from the disaster. I could see above me and outside thanks to my night vision, so I knew where the shade ended off. I even swam in circles in my abyssal pool, feeling my friend's arm wave up and brush against me as I go. I continued swimming, and both his arms reached up and tapped me.
Suddenly, he started to actually hit me, and I was scarred. He was kicking as well, hitting his heels against my shins and squirming. I looked below me, and I regret to say it took me a couple seconds to realize he was panicking. Quickly, I deactivated my quirk and pulled us both to the top.
I let him go and watched in worry as Josuko picked himself up on his hands and knees and violently started coughing. We all gathered around him, hitting his back and asking him to speak, but all we got were more hacks and coughs. It wasn't long before he started to choke up grass and gravel, anything you can see on the ground we were standing on and spitting it out. It didn't stop and just seemed to be getting worse.
Hearing his bothersome condition, other students and teachers all ran over to see what was the matter. The teachers coaxed him to stand up to take him to the nurse's office, but a little after he did, he grabbed his throat as he coughed and hacked up a splash of blood. I backed away, horrified, along with some other students. The adults demanded to each other that he needed care immediately.
Before they left, I caught a glimpse of Josuko's puffy eyes glance up at me. In that moment, I could hear a voice that sound like Josuko's whimper in the back of my head, "This is your fault." I might've just imagined it or he actually said it; I'm not so sure, but in my mind, the repeating whimper grew into a course whisper, then a raspy comment, then a harsh demand, until it piercingly screamed in my ear. Over and over again, "YOUR FAULT!!" "YOUR FAULT!!"
I believed it and agreed. Tears built up in my eyes, and terrified, I ran. I ran from the recess area, down the halls, and out to the front of the school, but the voices still followed me. I just wanted to go home, and could only pray all that was only a bad dream.
Thankfully, while all that happened was real, Josuko was making a quick recovery in the hospital. Over the next few months, the guys and I all visited him during his time, but still, I couldn't help but feel guilty about it. Upon our first visit, I prepared a full scale apology for it. Really, he just laughed at me and reminded me that he was the one to ask that I use my power on him. He was the one that wanted to explore something I had never done. I still argued, thinking in my head that even so, I agreed to it without thinking about the consequences.
Even though we left the room with me pretending to have agreed with him, I kept feeling like the others were glaring daggers at my back.
Since that day, I couldn't even have a conversation with someone who knew about the incident without feeling like they're judging me behind their words. Kirishima didn't help it either as he pulled me aside in the school hallways and brought it back up. He told me to stop worrying about it, but how can I? I was the gateway to the thing he fell victim to.
Why I decided to become a hero with a quirk so dangerous? I don't even know. I guess to make up for what I've done. I know what to use my quirk for and what not to, and that's final.
—————————————————————————————————————
"EVERYONE IN CLASS A AND CLASS B!! IN THE NAME OF THE PRO HERO, ERASURE HEAD, YOU ARE GRANTED PERMISSION TO ENGAGE IN COMBAT!! I REPEAT: USE YOUR TRAINING!! YOU MAY FIGHT THESE VILLAINS!!"
Even though I'm deep in the shadows, speeding under the woods, Mandalay's voice still shouts in my head, though I assumed our permission as soon as a buncha crooks came in and took out Pixiebob.
The camp was under attack, and I saw smoke coming from the woods, so of course I had to leave the group that was heading to safety to help out. After all, when the night closes in, I can practically go and hide anywhere.
I'm constantly scanning the forest above me, looking for my classmates and trying to determine what to do even if I find them. Hopefully, some of them are away from the fire so I can stay away from the lit up areas. However, I'm trying to determine what I'm even gonna do when I find them. Since we get to kick butt, I can wipe some jerks then go off, but that just doesn't seem good enough. I have night vision, so maybe I can just guide my classmates back to camp. It would make sense as I can still help if we were to run into more trouble.
I gotta find someone soon though. I'm hearing screams everywhere, but I just don't know where to go directly. I carefully slow down and close my eyes to listen. The blaze of fire, wind rustling the leaves, heavy treading, "SESHIN!!"
My eyes snap open, and I follow my ears. If someone screamed Seshin, then that must've been the classmate he went in with, Hagakure. I kick harder and glare at the surface. I know I'm ready. I can take whatever they're facing all by myself! After the practical, I refuse to be shown up by freakin' Straps!
I motivate myself further as the faint silhouettes of three figures come into view. One of a disoriented shape pounces off a tree and lashes at the other two.
Almost there! Faster! Faster!
Once I'm close enough, I give a final kick upward and breach the surface. As soon as I feel cool air, I turn my body back at the newcomer. "Hyaaahhhh!!" I scream as I force my leg outward into the monster's face, feeling the sensation of a snapped back head jerk from my sole. My target goes soaring into a tree and scrambles around as I land and quickly pick myself up.
"Samae!" Seshin exclaims before helping Hagakure up. I ignore him and balance on one leg to bend my other, trying to shake off the shock tingling running up and down. Not once though do I take my eyes off the monster.
As it furiously waves it's arms and legs around to get up like a little bug, I carefully take a few seconds to examine it. Of course it has four arms and two legs, all of them thin yet muscular. Then its fingers and toes look more like claws, meaning those things can grab onto just about anything and easily cut. What else is that it's fast. I had seen how it was able to outmaneuver Seshin all too quickly.
A purple glow slowly shines behind me, indicating Seshin is summoning that fire he has. "Thanks, Samae," he pants. "How do we help?"
"By staying outta my way!" I growl, still watching the beast stare furiously at me. "Put away your fire and back off! This sucker is mine."
The thing screeches at me, prompting me to threaten it back by flashing my fangs in a hungry smile. I flex my fingers where my metal claws would be, feeling that rush I get before getting into a fight. Finally, it screams and charges me, keeping its four arms spread out for all kinds of possible moves. I watch them all, and once close enough, I pick the one it pulls back.
I pivot just as it jabs its claw out. I watch it retract back to its body but then look up again at its other tensed up arms. In the half a second I have, I take in a breath and swing my own arm to ferociously defend myself from its others. I pull back and repeat, turning my hand this time to grab its wrist. I successfully feel it hit my palm and force it back to disarm it. It tries again, but we only repeat, a little more violently though.
Finally, it hisses and reels back, branching its top two arms out to strike again. I growl back and meet it head on, shoving my hands in front of me to grab the monster's. Our palms slap against each other, and we start pushing, though I can already feel it overpowering me. I can feel the dirt slide from under my shoes, chipping away at my balance.
Another glow of purple flickers behind me, signing Seshin will jump in. "Stay back!" I command, half at him, half at my enemy in front of me. "I said this thing is mine!" I growl again and activate my quirk at the front half of my feet, creating myself a small hole in the shadows below me to push and hold my balance.
We both strain and glare at each other. This thing's not gonna let up. I have to finish it quick! I know how to do it; I just need an opening.
While I'm thinking, the thing pulls its head back and jerks it down on mine, head butting me and throwing me off. I accidentally let off and open my eyes just as I see its lower left claw pull back and swipe at my face. I try to back, but I'm too slow! I jerk my head aside to keep my eye away, but I feel its sharp claws tear up from my right cheek to the side of my forehead.
"Gah!" I exclaim in pain, squeezing my eye shut and slapping my right hand over the gashes. I recognize my mistake all too quickly as I feel its arms grab the right side of my body and head and ferociously shove me aside, pushing me off my feet and throwing me to the ground.
I quickly consider my options and tuck in my arms, still keeping my hand over the scratches. I was caught off guard, and if it floors me, I'm done for sure! Right before I hit the ground, I activate my quirk, escaping into the shady ocean and letting the weightless atmosphere slow me. I take my hand off my face and stare at the blood sticking to my skin and lightly flowing off into the abyss.
I hear another inhuman shriek and look up at thing hissing and pounding at that surface separating the realms. Suddenly though, it forgets about me and aims its attention back at Seshin and Hagakure. It makes another mad dash at them, hurrying me to shake off the pain and throw my arms around to swim and catch up. I try to pay close attention to my depth to stay fast enough to reach it and stay close to surface.
Seshin looks tempted to bring out his fire again but instead waits for me. The beast rushes at them just as I take a leap, darting out of the darkness and into the air with my hand pulled back to strike. However, it turns and changes its direction back to me, jumping into me and slamming an arm into my chin. We fall to the ground, it pinning me with one arm pushing down on my right and another still pushing on my chin by its fore.
I madly grunt and struggle, trying to break free. It threatens me again by raising its two other claws above its head to tear me open. I have to do something! I then look down at the arm under my mouth, and I act fast. I open my mouth wide, bearing my shark teeth, and bite down hard. My teeth sink into it's tough skin, prompting it to scream in pure pain. It shrieks and pulls, trying to get away, but I hold on tight. I actually start to taste blood drip onto my tongue. And even though it honestly tasted good, I of course don't know whether the stuff was dangerous at all, so I let go.
I start panting hard as it scrambles away, stumbling to its knees and madly flailing about in pain. I stand back up and spit, trying to get the little bit of it out of my mouth, and rub the wound on the side of my face.
Quickly though, I glance up at it again to watch it stumble back up to its feet and whirls in my direction. It snarls hideously and charges me again, opening its claw from underneath to swipe upward. There's my opening! While its only means of attack are under its waist, I smirk, crouch low, and rush it!
I hear Seshin yell, "Careful!," but I got this! It's already dead! Just a foot away, and I glare up at my target and bring my right arm up beside me to make an angle with it. It snarls again, but before it can fire its attack, I make my own and leap up beside it, hooking my elbow around its skinny neck! Now that it's in my grasp, time for the deadly part. I lock my eyes on the shade where I'm landing and activate my quirk.
I feel the pit of nothingness surround me and the thing squirming in my trap. The nighttime ambiance muffles, confirming our whereabouts. The thing thrashes around in my hold, and at this rate, I'll lose it. I have to end this!
I swing my other arm around to keep it under with me and begin swinging my legs. While still holding it, I throw attacks, punches, kicks, head butts, you name it. It keeps squirming, but I continue to pummel it.
This method was an idea I thought up long ago, back when Seshin showed off his new move at Tojuta's place, Inner Demon. I wanted something on par with it, and this was the best I could think of. However, after my trauma with Josuko, I never thought I'd be using it on anyone. But, when used on others, if my quirk only hurts, then who better to use it on than villains? And they can't see me, so they're basically cornered.
I am Nightcrawler! And this void of darkness is my territory! My hunting grounds! Sink into it, and you're as good as dead! My ultimate move: ABYSSAL FRENZY!!
I finish it all by releasing it, letting it 'float' back to the surface to mock it but swim to catch up, swinging an uppercut that brings us both out of the shadow and flying up from the ground. I land on one knee as it falls to the grass, unconscious.
I start panting, trying to catch my breath from the fight. When I feel better, I stand back up and glare back down at the thing, making sure it's down. It doesn't even twitch, and I think we can leave it alone for now.
"Samae!" Yurei exclaims, carefully running over. "Are you okay?"
My chest squeezes up, and I spit to release the pain before looking back up at him. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
"Dude! Your face!"
"Okay, I admit that hurts but I'll be okay. Think this could turn into a sick scar or something."
"You're bleeding a lot! You need to-."
"I said I'm fine! Forget me, the entire dang camp is under attack!"
"Yeah, we figured that much out."
"It's not so hot at the forest entrance either. The Pussycats are fighting a group of villains, and the blue one was knocked out."
"That's not cool. Wait, where's Mineta? I thought you were supposed to be with him."
"The rest of the students who were supposed to come in have retreated back to the cabin. We were given permission to fight, so I came out here to help out."
"You're gonna get in trouble."
"Whatever! I saved you two; aren't you happy with that?!"
"Okay! Sorry!" He sighs, closes his eyes, and crosses his arms. "So what do we do from here?"
"From here, I was gonna go look out for other students, but I might need to look at things differently. You two should be getting back to the cabin."
Seshin opens his eyes. "Correction." He puts his hand behind Hagakure and pushes her to me. "You take Hagakure back to the cabin. I'll scout the forest to help the others."
"Hey, that's not fair!" I complain.
"What? What's wrong with that?"
"Several things! I said you both need to get back and I go find the others! I just had to save you both from that thing! What makes you think you can defend yourself with no one around? Above all, how am I supposed to take her back?"
"I can fend for myself just fine. Without Hagakure around, I can use my quirk to my fullest without worrying about others around me."
"I would just be getting in the way, huh?" Hagakure confirms.
"No offense at all, but yeah, pretty much. I appreciate the light in that thing's face, but that'll only do so much. Samae, you just protected us both out here, and with all this shade, you're probably the strongest of all of us right now."
"You do realize I had to consider you guys on the scene when I had fight, right? How am I supposed to get her outta here without running into anymore trouble?"
"You showed us yourself: you can take an entire person down under with you. If you carry Hagakure down with you and escape, you'd avoid villains, right?"
"Yeah, but-!" I can't do that! Not to an ally! I itch to say, but what'll they think then? Afterward, everyone would know of what I did. I'd lose all sorts of trust.
"There you go! Problem solved," he concludes before I can finish. I stutter as he turns to run off. "You should get going." He brings out his fire to carry him away, but before he can...
"I could kill someone like that!" There. I said it.
I can't see it, but I can feel Hagakure's gaze on me, recognizing the trouble we just decided on and nearly stepped in. Seshin stops and looks down then back at me. "What?"
"I said before: there's no air in the void I dive into. My quirk allows me to breathe down there, but others can't. Yes, I can take people with me, but they can't see, hear, or breathe."
He stares at me in almost horror. "How do you know that?"
"Because I tried it on a friend before. He just barely made it out, and that's how he described it."
"You took that thing with you. What's the difference?"
"The obvious difference is that that thing was a villain trying to kill us! I had no choice!"
We stand there in silence for a few seconds until Hagakure looks up. "What if... I hold my breath?" I stop and look down at where I assume her eyes would be. "Don't get me wrong, I am scarred to try, but I think I'd be more safe with a classmate than in forest of villains like that." She raises her sleeve to point at the black monster still unconscious.
"Well, Samae?" Seshin asks. "Could she survive like that?"
"I.. I don't..." I honestly don't want to try either, but we'd definitely be safer that way. I finally nod. "I don't see how she couldn't."
"Then we'll go with that. You can take Hagakure back to the others, and if all goes well, you come back to help out."
"Yeah," I agree. "Sounds good."
"Good. I'll see ya then." With that, Seshin ignites his fire around him and runs off the path and into the woods to find everyone else.
Once his glow is gone, I walk behind Hagakure. "Alright, we're gonna give this a shot. How long can you hold your breath?"
"I think thirty seconds, but I'm not sure."
"Right, here's what we'll do. I'm gonna hold you under the arms and fall backwards to take us down, and you hold your breath and plug your nose. From there, I'm gonna flip and swim us both to the building. You're gonna be under me, so don't blindly try to figure out which way is up. We're definitely not going to make it in thirty seconds, so if you need to take a break for air, reach and pat my leg, hit if you need to. I know where we're going, so just trust me, okay?"
"Right."
"Okay. Lift your arms." She does as I say, and I take a deep breath, preparing to get back into the thing that landed Josuko in the hospital. I anxiously hook my elbows under her armpits and feel her drop her arms around them. I ignore how I'm holding her and take one more breath. Now that I'm ready, I ask her. "You ready?"
"Yeah."
"Deep breath on three. One. Two." I inhale deeply on three, hearing her do the same and fall back to the ground. I close my eyes and activate my quirk. I feel the cold air surround us as I kick to get us in the right position and look up ahead.
I can see the trees and bushes up above and the walls of lights up ahead. With that, I tighten my hold on the girl and start kicking in the right direction. I never thought I'd be doing this to save someone, but if all goes well, it'll work for sure.