I saw magic
in his eyes.
Dirty, dark
beautiful
magic. -Nicole Lyons
So that was what happened in the big time skip before Dabi and I met up with Hawks. Of course, Hawks may have gotten incorrect information on the attacks, and Endeavor may have still beaten the Nomu, but Dabi and I made our grand entrance just in time.
.
.
.
Flames roared around my form as I sauntered towards Hawks, a smirk plastered on my face. Endeavor was struggling against the Nomu, a huge bloody gash covering his left eye, and Hawks was fighting from a distance, before his feathers conveniently burned up, only a few left, leaving him barely able to fly, let alone fight any farther.
"Hey, handsome." I tugged a knife from behind my back, hiding it under my sleeve, and rushed him, whipping it out and attempting to stab his neck, or at least that's what it looked like to any bystanders or witnesses. I was moving slower than I ever do, giving Hawks time to react and counter my attacks to keep up appearances.
"Hey, yourself." He growled, knocking the knife from my hand, but he exposed his back, so I took it, attempting a rear-naked choke, but he flew up with some of the little strength he had left in his wings, and dive-bombed towards a rooftop, causing us to both crash together on it, scrambling for the better position, fight-wise. I ended up pinning him, gun to his head, and he shot me a big smile.
"Are we done pretending now?"
"Well, we weren't aware you were bringing the number two hero." I hissed, finger on the trigger.
"I wasn't aware that you were bringing such a high-end Nomu." He shot back, that cocky smirk on his face again, and I swallowed back guilt, mentally apologizing to Tenko, and pressed my lips to his, releasing his hands and relaxing my pin. Hawks sat up, holding my waist, not breaking the kiss, and bit my lower lip, just like Tenko does, and I growled, getting heated, and tugged at his hair, opening my mouth for him, trying to be as intoxicating as possible. I could feel him getting hard under me, so I ground against him, my hips against his, and he broke the kiss, voice low.
"Fuck, Y/N..."
His hand came to my throat and he kissed me hard, and it hurt my heart how similar he was to Tenko when it came to kissing and making out, and Tenko has been so distant lately... it was painful, almost like a twisted form of rejection.
I was just listening, heightening my hearing, so I could stop kissing him when the fight was close to over, keeping him distracted for long enough.
The crashes halted suddenly, and I pulled back, pressing my lips to his ear, trying to be seductive. He slipped a small, folded-up piece of paper into my pocket, and I furrowed my eyebrows, glancing down at my waist.
"Not important. Look later."
"Ah, okay..? We need to pause this anyway... seems like Dumpster Fire is almost done. Fly off the building and tackle me onto the ground like this was a big fight."
Before he could reply, I stood up and ran to the edge of the building, throwing myself off, laughing. I free-fell for a moment, my stomach flipping with excitement and adrenaline, and Hawks' body slammed into mine, catching me, and both of us crashed into the ground, him taking the brunt of the fall. Dabi was yelling at his father, who clearly had no idea who he was, and I punched Hawks in the face, dodging a feather and combat rolling past the rubble, standing beside Dabi as Johnny's teleportation goo began to manifest around us. Hawks kneeled at Endeavor's side, and I flipped them off, giggling, and Dabi was... crying blood again, his yelling ripping the skin grafts on his mouth, but he was also laughing, and soon, we disappeared from sight.
"You're talking to Hawks later on your own." I choked out, just before the goo swallowed us. "I need to go to Shigaraki."
"Yeah, yeah."
Spinner
We made our way back through the woods, following the loud crashes and booms, the ground shaking under our feet. It was mid-December, a month or two after meeting that weird doctor, but still no dice. Gigantomachia still refuses to submit to Shigaraki and still hates Y/N, so they're still fighting him.
Y/N basically dropped what she was working with Dabi on, with him mostly working alone on it, and he didn't mind in the slightest as someone who likes to work alone much more than being near us, but it was kind of surprising to the League.
Y/N doesn't drop things she does, she gives a hundred percent of herself to a job when it comes to our line of work, but this was different. She was Shigaraki's right hand woman, so of course she would've been with him, but the fact that she will not leave him by himself with Gigantomachia shows how dedicated she is. I've never seen two people look at one another the way those two do.
However... I'm going to be completely honest... something seems different. With Tomura. Yes, he still loves her, I think... but he doesn't look or talk to her how he used to. Ever since we met up with the doctor, he's been acting weird. As I said, Y/N dropped everything to support him, and he doesn't even seem to be regarding her as anything more than a coworker. Of course, I don't see everything. I don't see them behind closed doors, so I can't speak for them or their relationship, but... something changed. Maybe it's Y/N going off with Dabi and the new recruit so much. Maybe it's Tomura being distracted by Gigantomachia and the doctor. Maybe it's something... deeper.
I guess we'll see, eventually.
Gigantomachia can attack for forty-eight hours and forty-four minutes at a time, then sleeps for about three hours before going at it again. Shigaraki has barely been sleeping for the past month or so, always fighting, because Giganto always sniffs out where he is hiding, and attacking the giant in his sleep just wakes him up and does no good. His body also grows in battle, and he has an incredible nose and ears. If he sounds basically unbeatable, that's because he is.
Since Shigaraki and now Y/N are his primary targets, he doesn't care if we wander off, so we take shifts fighting alongside the two, with Twice almost always on call to make clones of them. The doctor gave us some money for clothes and food and stuff, and hanging off my arm was a jacket for Y/N, as she had refused any help or extra items, but it was getting way too cold for her to wear thin clothes, so we didn't ask permission.
"Is the monster asleep?" Compress asked, from where he stood at the rubble, where we could see Shigaraki sitting, all bloody and beaten, as well. Compress was all beat up too, as it had been his shift, and his fake arm was destroyed. We quickly went over there, and the look in Shigaraki's eyes was jarring; he looked like a boy chasing relentlessly after a childhood dream, and never stopped smiling. "When does that monster eat?"
"Are you still alive, Tomura?" Toga asked, and his grin widened a little.
"Yes, and that thing has slowed down a lot. Every single time... I'm getting closer. Soon enough I'll topple that gorilla." His voice was lower than normal.
"What about Y/N?" I asked, motioning to the jacket. "We brought her this."
Danger shadowed his expression, and he tilted his head to where a bloody, crumpled pile of a woman was lying, asleep. I held up my hands in surrender, lowering my voice as well.
"She's actually asleep?"
"Take her back." He hissed. "She can barely move. Her right leg is fucked up, she's beaten to a pulp and she's exhausted. Take. Her. Home."
"She'll never let us." Toga frowned. "You know her better than any of us, Tomura. She's in love with you, so she'll literally fight until she dies. That's just how she is."
"I don't care! She's going to die unless she gets help and some proper rest."
"Why don't we bring her to the doctor?" I asked, and a look flashed over his eyes, but it wasn't a dangerous or angry look. It looked almost like fear. Abject fear. Like the idea of taking her to the doctor was the most terrifying thing he'd ever heard.
Hmm.
"Absolutely not. Don't take her to him." Tomura growled.
"Why?" Toga asked, and Tomura shot her a look that made her go silent.
"Doesn't matter. Just don't."
Narrowing my eyes at Shigaraki, I lowered myself to where Y/N was lying and gently wrapped her up in the jacket, picking her up bridal-style to avoid hurting her. Her head lolled back against my arm, her breathing jagged. Tomura wasn't lying; she was absolutely beat to hell. Her right leg looked all twisted and swollen, too, and she was covered in cuts, bruises, dirt, and bloody gashes.
"What even happened?" I asked.
"Gigantomachia is having an even harder time trusting her than me because she's All Might's kid. He didn't hold back at all, and won't. He'll only respect Y/N if he respects me." Tomura's hair was barely blue; now it was fading to more of a silvery-white, and with his piercing red eyes, all baggy and cloudy from exhaustion? He looked like a demon.
"We'll take her back, Tomura." Himiko grinned, but it fell off her face as she lowered her voice. "But if she comes back, that's her choice. You know how she is."
"Yeah, I do." He said quietly, turning his back to us, and I hesitated, looking back down at Y/N. Girl, what is going on?
Y/N
My eyes fluttered open, expecting to be staring at the dirt, the sky, or some sort of afterlife, but no; I was alive, and in a room I did not recognize. Groaning, I slowly sat up, and was immediately eye-to-eye with chocolate brown eyes. His gloved hands lingered on my shoulders, slowly pushing me onto my back again.
"You need to rest."
"Hawks?" I asked, eyebrows furrowed, my hands already burning with energy. As much as I want to trust Hawks as a new League member... I'm still a villain, and he's still technically a hero, and I'm in a strange place alone with him. Is this an interrogation?
"Yeah, it's me, Ghost." His line of sight darted down to my hands. "Relax. Dabi is here too."
I glanced past Hawks and saw Dabi, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes seeming to glow in the dim light. His expression was blank, his jaw tight, and he avoided my eyes.
"Why am I here? Where's Tomura?" I asked, sitting up and shooting Hawks a look when he went to move me back down, making him back off. "What happened?"
"Well, you're here because if you look down for a second, your entire right leg is torn up and you can barely move it." The blond rolled his eyes, and I looked down like he said, eyes widening. My entire right leg from the knee down was wrapped in bandages, some stained with blood, and I tried to tense my calf and point my foot, but intense pain ran through it and I groaned, relaxing my pain paralyzed limb. "And Dabi's here because you needed someone to keep you safe but Shigaraki wouldn't let me keep watch of you alone."
"Why didn't Tomura just have me go to the doctor?"
"He said it wasn't an option. He would not let any of us bring you anywhere near the doctor." Dabi's voice was rough but soft. "Who the hell knows why."
"'No... I don't wanna... I don't want to hurt Y/N, doc...'"
"He's hiding something from me," I mumbled. "Fuck that. Where are they, Dabi? Has Gigantomachia budged?"
"They aren't fighting Gigantomachia anymore." He responded, lighting a cigarette with his finger and taking a long drag before puffing out smoke. "Giran was kidnapped by the Metahuman Liberation Army, and they went to fight and save him."
"The hell?! Without me?!" I narrowed my eyes, defiance filling me.
"To be completely honest, I wasn't even supposed to tell you that. Shigaraki doesn't want you fighting with your leg like that... but I figured you'd find out somehow."
"I'm going." I hissed, and Hawks opened his mouth to retort, but I held up my hand, cutting him off. "You're not a League member yet, Chicken Wing. I don't wanna hear it."
"Your leg is basically useless, Ghost, do you really think you can fight like that?"
"I'd rather lose my leg than leave the League and Shigaraki alone in a battle as big as this one. I'd rather die than be a coward." I hoisted myself off the cot and gritted my teeth at the shooting pain that ran through my leg. "Shit. Toss me the bandages."
Dabi tossed me the bandages and wrap, and I wrapped my leg as tightly as I could without cutting off circulation, and pulled my pant leg back down, tying the laces of my boots again, as tight as I could without cutting off circulation, and shakily reacquired my balance. I pressed my finger to my earpiece, talking in a hushed tone to try and hide my pain.
"<Doctor. I need a lift to the battle, now.>" I hissed. "<I don't know why the hell Tomura is so scared of letting you help me specifically, but you don't have a choice here now. Get me over there so I can help my League.>"
There was no response, but my stomach violently turned, and I puked up the sludge, which quickly swallowed my figure, and I felt like I was spinning and free-floating at the same time as I transported to the fight. My knees hit the concrete as I rematerialized in the middle of Aichi, in Deika City, the main base of the Metahuman Liberation Army, and I coughed up the remaining sludge before the tears in my eyes cleared and I could look around.
A woman who I recognized as Chitose Kizuki, her alter ego being "Curious", was broken and bloody on the ground in front of me, her body looking battered from battle, but the state of her body hinted that she fell from a great height. Her henchmen and women were in similar states, and when I heightened my hearing to pick up on heartbeats, there was only one besides my own, and it was coming from the left of me. It was weak, and slow, and was skipping beats, near death. Slowly, I turned around, and there was a small storage shed a few feet away, and I staggered over to it, tugging open the doors and looking in. A figure had collapsed in a heap, the walls and floor around it covered in bloody handprints and smears. I gasped, dread knotting up in my stomach.
The figure was Toga, her entire body stained red, and it was her own blood judging by her various abrasions and wounds. Her face was nearly unrecognizable, covered in burns and open cuts, with one of her eyes swelled shut and her other eye half-closed. Her body was limp, her blood staining my clothes, and I refused to normalize my hearing so I could keep hearing her heartbeat, thankfully still pumping away... but she didn't have much time left. I closed the shed doors behind me for protection and gently cradled her body, careful not to make her injuries worse, using my shirt and the fabric of her jacket to try and put some pressure on her gashes.
"Jesus Christ, Toga! Himiko please, stay with me!" I gently pushed the blonde strands of her bangs out of her face, holding her head in my lap, my eyes welling up with angry and anxious tears. "Shit, shit, shit!" I held my finger to my earpiece, waiting for it to connect to the League. "It's Ghost, I need someone here now! It's Toga, she doesn't have much time left! She's fucking dying, someone get the hell over here now!"
The shed doors opened and I pulled out my pistol, aiming it at the intruder, but immediately lowered it when I saw who it was- probably the only person in the League that would take the loss of Himiko harder than me. Twice gasped, frozen for a moment, before falling to his knees beside me and gently tugging her out of the shed, clutching her body as he helped me try to apply more pressure to her more dangerous wounds.
"Oh God, Toga!" Jin cried, and my heart shattered a little.
This girl... is easily my closest friend. She's like a little sister to me. Himiko is the sunshine of the League, always supportive and trying to make everyone feel better even if we are literally in the middle of murdering someone. If we lose her... if I lose her... I don't know if the League will be the same, or if any of us would be.
I wasn't here quick enough. If I was stronger, and if I didn't let a stupid leg injury slow me down, I would've been here in time. I would've been able to help her.
This is my fault.