As he looked at her the boy blushed; her 'costume' was nothing more than strips of her own fur that somehow made it onto her semi-human form and barely preserved her modesty, but it made her look like something out of an adult anime or eroge. In fact, she reminded him of one of those 'monster-girls' that were popular in Japanese manga, inhuman yet gorgeous.
Right, he really shouldn't be thinking about that. Her very existence was an unusual phenomenon… there had been documented cases of animals with Quirks, but they were extremely rare.
Only two such examples had been seen in Japan in the past few decades; the first and most notable was U.A's very own principal Nezu, who appeared to be a possible combination of several different animals including a dog, mouse or a bear. His Quirk; High Spec, granted him superior intelligence that surpassed humans. Despite being an animal, Nezu's Quirk enabled him to live in society like a normal person.
The second was a cat that had 'possessed' a bus in Tokyo some time ago with its Monster Cat Quirk and caused it to go out of control, but luckily no one was hurt thanks to the combined efforts of the Turbo Hero, Ingenium, and a local vigilante known as "The Crawler".
He supposed König… Koko, was such a creature; an animal that had somehow developed a Quirk. Then it sunk in and the boy could barely believe what his mind was telling him. A literal dog used to wield One For All?! Things just kept getting crazier and crazier. Damn it, why didn't they tell him about this… he supposed they'd been living with her for so long that they completely forgot how abnormal it was for an animal to have a Quirk. A dog that could turn into a human… well, mostly human. It was almost beyond belief.
Izuku brought his hands to his face, breathing in deeply to calm down. When he removed them Koko was standing right in front of him, looking rather eager and still twitchy. She then picked him up effortlessly and pressed him against her sizable bosom in a warm, tight hug, causing the boy to turn red once more.
"H-hey!"
"You don't look like master." Koko hummed, scrutinizing him carefully.
She sniffed and pawed at his messy hair, breathing in his scent thoroughly. Kiri emerged from within, staring up passively.
"You don't smell like master."
Finally the girl gave Izuku a long lick on the cheek, sending him into a fit of embarrassed sputtering.
"You don't taste like master." she scratched her chin with an extended claw, thinking hard. An imaginary lightbulb seemed to turn on above her head, the girl's face lighting up. "I know! Koko will call you: new master!
"Please don't." he sighed. "Put me down, Koko."
"Ja, new master."
The dog-girl put him down carefully, still looking at him with expectant eyes. She… wanted something from him? Beside him Kiri transformed into her adult form, staring at the much larger female with an almost challenging gaze.
"Friend!" Koko chuffed, examining Kiri intensely. "New friend~!"
"Nn." the projection grunted, unimpressed.
"For starters, can you not call me "new master"? It's a little... embarrassing." Izuku murmured.
"Wan?" Koko tilted her head, before nodding rapidly. "Ja, master."
He clearly wasn't going to get across to her. Nevermind then. He had to focus on getting her back within his head, but judging by her behavior so far she was rather harmless despite being called a villain… she clearly had no intention of hurting him whatsoever. If she really wanted to, the girl could have just squeezed and popped his head like an overripe grape.
"Um, Koko. I need you to go back inside my head—"
"Nein. Don't wanna."
"E-eh?" Izuku blinked. "Why not?"
"Nobody plays with me anymoreeee~ Koko wants to play!" She grabbed his left arm, her gaze pleading. "Play with me!"
"U-um. Sorry, but we don't really have time for that right now—"
Kiri squeezed his other arm, expressionless. However, he could feel a sort of… jealousy flowing off her?
"That's… mine." Kiri said quietly, her tone low and dangerous.
They glared at each other for a second, their gazes clashing like thunderbolts. Both girls tensed, each daring the other to make the first move…
Uh-oh.
Usually it would be a teenage boy's dream to have two beautiful girls fighting over him. Izuku felt as though he was in a waking nightmare as they began to pull in opposite directions, threatening to split him in two. Blood rushed to his face and left the poor boy's cheeks alight with embarrassment, the sensory stimuli almost too much for his young, hormonal mind.
Don't think about it, you're not supposed to think about them that way! One's a dog, and the other's your "sister"! And they're both projections, so stop thinking about it! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—
"No fair! I wanna have a turn!"
"Onii-chan's mine. My onii-chan, doggy."
They continued tugging at him, though not too forcefully to avoid hurting him. Both were controlling their strength carefully: if they went at it with full power he'd be torn to pieces, and they knew it. The girls moved to hug his arms tighter and closer—
"Okay, that's enough!" Izuku exclaimed quickly, his cheeks glowing bright red.
They immediately let go of him, worried. Sighing, the boy put a hand to his chin and thought about his options. He couldn't afford to waste time playing around when one of those villains was still out there… but few choices were left, and he highly doubted Koko could be reasoned with using logic.
"Look, Koko." he said reluctantly. "I'm on an urgent mission to retrieve those who escaped, so I can't really play around that long, okay? No playing any long games like fetch or whatever. Just a little bit."
The dog-girl's face lit up with delight at that, while Kiri folded her arms and puffed up her cheeks. He sent an apologetic look her way and shrugged, right before Koko barreled into him with another warm hug.
"Master's so small, so cute~" Koko grinned, baring a row of gleaming, pointed teeth. "It makes me just wanna eat you up~"
Izuku gulped. That was just a joke... right? She was a villain, but he could see that she meant no harm. Offhandedly he wondered what earned her the title of villain in the first place before pushing it to the back of his mind. Still, better safe than sorry.
"A-alright. So what am I supposed to do?" Izuku asked. He never had a dog before so he was at a complete loss on how to play with one.
"Pet me!"
The boy blinked, then his eyes widened comically.
"W-w-w-what?" he stammered. She couldn't mean—
"Pet me!" She sat down and presented her back towards him as a sign of trust. Her long, bushy tail wagged back and forth rapidly in anticipation. "Rub my back."
Oh. That wasn't too bad, but still...
"C-can't you change back into a dog for this?" Izuku blushed. "It, um, would make me feel a lot less embarrassed."
"Don't wanna."
The boy sighed in defeat, accepting his fate. What a stubborn dog. Without a word he began massaging her back, feeling the warmth of her skin. Izuku was no stranger to back rubs; he would sometimes give them to his mother to help stop her from stress eating too much, the circumstances of her life building up an unhealthy level of stress. She had often commented and joked on how Izuku was an expert at it… Though he was no chiropractor or masseuse he had looked up on the internet on how he could help his dear old mom. Now he got a chance to test his learned skills.
But this was the first time he was giving one to someone else besides his mom, and to someone without clothes, at that. It felt so different when there wasn't a layer of cloth separating his hands from skin, he could feel the knots in her flesh with just his fingers. Koko's back was practically a canvas of rippling muscle, not too much to be overly masculine but clearly that of someone who was extremely fit. A perfect example of a peak human female.
Her lightly-tanned skin was marred with numerous lines of ugly scar tissue from old wounds all over her body, the largest one being a long, uneven gash that ran down her back like a grotesque fin. What kind of life had she led to amass this horrific amount of damage? The poor thing… perhaps this was the least he could do to make her feel better. Izuku pressed onto her firmly but gently, pushing his thumbs into specific trigger points on her back and muscle knots.
"Oooooh." she moaned, tail sweeping across the ground. "Feels… good."
"Please don't moan like that." Izuku sighed, feeling rather embarrassed at what he was doing. "You're making this really weird. Nobody's done this for you before?"
"Only when I'm a doggy." Koko glanced back at him with a toothy grin. "This feels much better."
The boy was doing his best to think of her as a dog, rather than a person… but there were limits to how much he could delude himself. This was a girl, a human female that he was touching rather inappropriately. He couldn't help but feel flustered as he rubbed his hands along her back, feeling every curve along her supple flesh. His fingers ran across silky skin and rough scar tissue, a strange contrast of textures. He moved to her lower back and pressed near her tailbone... which suddenly caused her tail to stiffen, the girl letting out a high-pitched yelp.
"Ah, sorry! Did I hurt you?"
"N-no. Keep going."
Izuku made sure not to touch there anymore, for it seemed a little too sensitive to the point where the girl had to bite her lip whenever his hands brushed near that particular spot.
Don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it. Just pretend she's a dog...
She flipped over without warning, lying on her back this time. Izuku raised an eyebrow, already expecting what she was about to ask of him.
"N-no. There's no way I'm gonna—"
"Rub my belly!" Koko exclaimed, her eyes gleaming with completely innocent intentions.
"You can't be serious." Izuku said flatly.
"Rub meeee~" The dog-girl started rolling from side-to-side like a spoiled child. "Or I won't move, master."
The teenager groaned, closing his eyes and mentally calming himself down. What had he done to deserve this… Yes, she was attractive in a rough, primal sort of way, but she was also a dog who could turn into a human. He felt as though he had crossed some line he shouldn't have.
Mom… forgive me for my degeneracy. I won't mind if you erase my name off your will. Forgive me, ancestors. Give me strength!
Koko squealed in delight when he put his hands on her stomach and began to rub slowly and tenderly, his eyes shut tightly in embarrassment. Ironically closing his eyes only had the opposite effect: he could trace and feel every inch of her toned abs, along with the contracting and relaxing of her diaphragm. Her patterned strips of fur were soft and velvety, contrasting against her smooth, silky skin. Naturally, he steered clear of her bosom but the rise and fall of her chest was increasing... She was breathing harder and faster with each passing second.
He feared that something had gone wrong and that he was hurting her, but opening his eyes revealed it was in fact quite the opposite. Her cheeks were flushed and her breathing was ragged, hot breaths escaping from an unstable mix of growling and giggling as he ran his hands over her warm skin. Her clawed toes were curling back, brownish-red eyes completely glazed over and lost in a haze of rapturous ecstasy. At one point they even rolled to the back of her head, demonstrating that the intensity of the stimuli she was experiencing was worlds apart compared to a regular human.
She was now putty in his hands, practically melting at his touch. To have a girl this powerful completely at his mercy felt… somewhat good. Izuku quickly began thinking of something else like mathematical equations to get the intrusive thoughts out of his head, certain that he would develop some troubling fetishes if he continued down that slippery slope.
"Ooooooohh…"
"Okaywe'redone!" Izuku yelled frantically, quickly throwing his hands off her.
"Hah… hahahaha… hahaHAHAHAHAHA—ha."
The dog-girl stopped laughing maniacally to refocus her gaze upon him. Within those flaming ruby eyes there was that primal hunger once again, pupils dilated and twitching erratically… her human instincts had been completely overwhelmed by her animal ones. The beast in her had been rattling at its cage and now Izuku had unlatched the lock.
"Hahahaha…"
"Koko… sit." he ordered nervously. "S-stay!"
She didn't listen, completely ignoring his commands. Wide eyes locked on to him, bone-white canines glinting in the afternoon light as Koko grinned inhumanly, a low, predatory rumble emanating from her throat. The ancient prey instincts dormant within every human triggered within Izuku, causing him to flinch. He got too overconfident; no matter how well she was trained he simply didn't have enough experience to control her.
She… wants something. Don't tell me; she wants to eat me?!
Kiri advanced forward to restrain the other girl, but was quickly stopped by a mental command from Izuku. This was bad. Really, really bad. For a moment it looked like Koko was either about to devour him or assault him in ways he wasn't old enough to understand. He had to stop her somehow, but startling her would only cause her to run away, which meant Kiri couldn't attack. There had to be a way to calm her down, but he needed to know what she wanted.
His vision blurred without warning, allowing him to experience another memory that didn't belong to him. This was clearly Koko's memory... he felt a strong dissonance when looking through her eyes as the memory wasn't made in a human body.
She was in her dog form and barking furiously at a pair of men, one cuffing the other with a pair of metallic handcuffs. A policeman at work, Izuku realized. She was, or rather used to be... a police dog? Then how'd she become a villain? His thoughts were interrupted when Koko tugged at her leash wildly, surging forward and snarling.
"Easy, girl. Easy." A tall, well-built man came into view, kneeling down and rubbing her head gently. "You did good, Koko."
Izuku seemed to realize who the man was. He was Koko's old master… her partner back when she was just a normal dog. She didn't even know that she had a Quirk at that time, content to serve as a part of the local K-9 unit. He continued rubbing her head and scratching gently behind her ears, getting her to calm down.
"Shhh. Shhh, it's okay. Easy..." the blonde man spoke softly in German, holding her tight to his chest. "It's okay. Good girl… Heheh, you always get so overexcited when you're hungry. Feeling calmer now, girl? Good doggy."
"Wan!" Koko chuffed happily, licking the man in the face.
"Heh. Come on, girl." He opened the door to his police cruiser for her, the dog hopping in easily. "Let's go home for dinner."
The world shuddered and spun—Izuku broke out of his daze, back in reality. Koko was mere inches away from him now, hot breath tickling his face as she opened her mouth to reveal a maw full of razor-sharp teeth that could rip his throat out in a flash. Kiri stood only inches behind the taller girl, fist drawn back and ready to tear her into pieces if she tried to hurt Izuku. He now realized Koko wasn't just hungry for food… she was also hungry for affection. Her intentions had been completely innocent: all she wanted… was for somebody to hold her and say those words again.
He didn't hesitate, grabbing hold of the dog-girl's head and pulling her close. In one smooth motion he hugged and held her tight to his chest, just like how her old master had done to get her to calm down. She twitched violently and shuddered with volatile energy until the boy began rubbing her head and scratching her behind the ears gently, replicating that sensation that she'd been looking for all this while. She began to feel… safe. Contented. The ever-present gnawing hunger that accompanied her transformation started to dissipate.
"Shhh. Shhh, it's okay. Easy..." Izuku whispered softly, feeling her breathing gradually stabilize. Her tail stopped wagging rapidly, slowing down and beginning to relax. "It's okay. Good girl..."
Koko whined, the coiled tension in her body finally loosening. With Izuku using the exact same words and holding her in the same way her old master did, the dog-girl began to experience a deep sense of nostalgia, something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. When the boy slowly let her go she seemed… more composed and collected now, no longer in a state of perpetual excitement and hunger.
"I'm… Koko is… good girl?" she tried timidly, her gaze flickering between him and the ground. "Good doggy?"
"Yeah." Izuku reached up and ruffled her hair, feeling her fluffy, twitching ears. She nuzzled against his hand, her pupils slowly returning to normal. "You did good, Koko."
A low rumble rose from the girl's throat, followed by her hugging him again. He should have guessed it from the start. She had probably woken up all alone in this strange new world, lost, hungry, and confused. The first thing she sought out was food, followed by love. No wonder she went to interact with those kids… they would have provided her both of those in abundance. She had been wound up like a spring, pent up energy within her threatening to burst. The only thing missing was for somebody to calm her down and tell her that everything was alright, and Izuku had finally fulfilled that role.
"Sorry to cut this short, but I really need you to return back to my head so I can go look for the last one. Can you do that for me, girl?"
"O...okay. Will…" she looked hesitant for a moment. "Will I see you again, new master? New master is… ist freund. Friend. Koko… I... want to see you again."
"I..." Izuku hummed, then patted her head tenderly. "I don't know. But I'll try."
The dog-girl nodded obediently and then turned to face Kiri, who had shrunk down into her miniature form after realizing Izuku was safe. Koko gave the little fairy a long, loving lick along the entirety of her tiny body and began to smolder, returning the borrowed power. The simulacrum looked rather unamused, doggy drool slicking down her form before she shook it off.
"Master… be careful." Koko warned, fading away. "Last one is… powerful. Let us out."
"Let us out?" Izuku repeated blankly, then his eyes widened in realization. Johnny had made a mistake... Koko wasn't the one that had caused the breach. It was the last escaped villain. "I-I need more details! Why did they let you all out? What's their goal?!"
"Don't know. Is… fast, faster than me. Strong, very strong." the dog-girl murmured and turned translucent. "Very angry… but also very sad."
"Give me a name! What was their name when they were a villain?"
The amazon closed her eyes, recalling the one who had inherited One For All from her. The one who explained to her what it was and why they needed it. One For All must always have a wielder.
"Aftermath."
Her form dissolved into a flurry of crimson particles, swirling in the air like a storm of rose petals before diving into his forehead. Izuku braced himself, knowing what was coming next: a memory that belonged to her, not him. He should be able to distance himself from the memory and view it as an observer now since their minds were so different—
The first thing he saw was blood. Dark red and maroon pooling around an unmoving body… the man he had seen earlier. Koko's old partner and master. She pawed and sniffed at him pitifully, crying… and then she turned into a human for the first time in her life. The first time she used her Quirk.
"That's what you get for messing with the Wild Hunt!" somebody outside the building screamed, followed by the cacophonous noise of at least a dozen engines roaring to life. "Let's ride, boys!"
Around her the police station burned, a raging inferno consuming the place she called home. Dead officers and personnel lined the hallways, her master among the bullet-ridden corpses. No matter how much she nudged at him and wailed, she knew he was dead. The light in his eyes was gone and she screamed and sobbed and howled, her heart shattering into a million pieces as the world around her turned to embers and ash.
Her master was gone. Her human friends were gone. Her brothers and sisters were gone. Even the old caretaker was gone. Everything she loved was gone, the police department building going up in flames... all because they protected the people in the name of justice.
And so for the first time, Koko spoke.
"I find who hurt you."
Razor-sharp canines glinted in the flickering firelight as the girl's features twisted into an enraged, beastial snarl.
"I kill."
Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, burning blood-red energy flaring out from crimson pupils surrounded by black sclera.
"I good doggy."
Izuku lurched back into reality, feeling bile rise up in his throat. He barely stopped himself from vomiting, tears streaming down his cheeks uncontrollably.
He had felt what she had felt in that short memory. There had been so much grief and hate within her at that time… he supposed she had made good on her promise and gotten her revenge, which was probably why she was classified as a villain. Heroes didn't exactly take kindly to vigilantes killing even criminals, often just putting the two groups into the same category.
But he didn't have time to stop and cry. The last one was still out there. Izuku grunted and pushed himself up unsteadily, Kiri helping him to his feet. He shoved his current feelings to the back of his mind, putting them away for later thought.
He had to keep moving forward.
[x]
Koko manifested back into Izuku's mind with a whirl of noise, the air displacing around her with a whoosh. She spotted the still-tiny Nana and immediately bounded over with uncanny speed, clearly excited.
"Hey Koko, I'm glad you're alri—oof!" Nana cried out as the canine knocked her over began licking happily. "It's good to see you too—gah! Easy! Down, girl!"
"Nana!" Koko thought-spoke, somehow able to speak inside Izuku's mind even as a dog. Like the other wielders, she too could use her Quirk here if she wanted to. "Nana became small! Cute! So cute!"
"Get—get off me!" the little girl squawked. "Bleh!"
A moment later Nana got up, wiping the drool off with her cape. Koko was running circles around All Might, Toshinori, now.
"Friend!" Koko gasped, delighted at the prospect of meeting someone new yet again. "New friend! Big! Funny face."
"Um... Hello, Koko. I am Toshinori Yagi, also known as All Might."
"Hallo!" she barked, darting around his legs energetically. "Schön dich zu treffen, Amerikaner!"
"What's she saying?" Toshinori whispered, leaning over to his mentor.
"'Nice to meet you, American'." Nana grunted. "I'm glad you didn't eat anyone, Koko. Good girl."
"Wan!"
"But what have we said about using your human form?" Nana frowned, hands on her hips.
"...Wear clothes when I'm human?" Koko said slowly, tilting her head.
"And what did you do?"
"Didn't wear clothes." The dog seemed to think about it for a moment, then quickly decided she didn't care anymore. "Wan!"
"Gah… nevermind. Here, fetch!"
Nana threw the red soul orb high into the air and Koko lunged up to catch it, disappearing once she made contact. Her companions buzzed and flickered upon Toshinori's halo to welcome her back.
"Unbelievable… she really is a dog." the blonde muttered. "I still can't believe it."
"Let me give you a bit of context, then… König, aka Koko. Villain name: Hellhound. Quirk: Human." Nana explained. "Well, it's pretty much as it says on the tin; she can turn into a super-human with incredible speed and strength. She was an absolute monster back in the day, a brute in every sense of the word. The German heroes deemed her a villain after she began killing the members of a metahuman villain gang known as the Wild Hunt, but she always managed to get away thanks to her inhuman prowess and the fact that nobody realized she was actually a dog."
"Why was she killing them?"
"Revenge. Poor girl used to be a police dog but that changed when the Wild Hunt killed her master and burned down her home. She managed to keep surviving her battles because of the secondary effect of her Quirk: her 'stored' form heals way faster so she can swap between forms to fix injuries. The downside is… well… I think you can guess it by now."
"Her human and animal instincts don't mix well." Toshinori hummed. "Which is why she eats people?"
"Partially correct. Swapping between forms and healing takes a ton of energy—her caloric intake skyrockets as a result. She also regenerates faster when consuming more biomass… so she used to eat the people she killed, only bad guys though. Yeah, I know. I was pretty disgusted and outraged by that at first. I was worried that she would get confused and fight some heroes out in the real world, and that one thing would lead to another. Glad to see that didn't happen."
"Wait a minute." Toshinori frowned. "How did she get One For All in the first place?"
"Oh, that's a long story. Short version is that Johnny crash-landed from space, got chased into the forests by the local heroes who thought he was a insane Metahuman who had lost control of his Quirk, which technically he was—"
"Crash-landed from space?!"
"—so he lived there for a while like an animal and met Koko by sheer chance, lots of stuff happened after they fought the first few times, yadda yadda, Johnny later gets eviscerated so he passes her One For All in his last moments when she ate what remained of him so the flame doesn't get snuffed out, yadda yadda yadda."
"You just yadda yadda'ed over the most important parts!"
"No, I mentioned the part where he was insane." Nana shrugged. "I'll let them tell you the story."
"Fine… One last thing, why did Johnny and Chen address her differently? They called her 'König' instead of 'Koko'."
"Johnny got eaten so it's no surprise that he's still wary around her. Chen isn't comfortable with dogs due to a childhood incident when she got thrown into a dog-fighting pit to be torn apart—"
Toshinori winced.
"But I digress. The last one is still out there, but why cause the breach? It just doesn't make any sense… Why, especially after being content to spend that much time in hibernation... why now?"
The sky turned blood-red without warning, causing the two Heroes to look up in alarm. Lighting up like a screen it showed what Izuku was currently seeing: an armoured figure hovering in the air, flickering bursts of green energy blazing beneath heavy boots. It turned out that Izuku didn't have to look for the last one after all.
They had been looking for him.
[x]
Young Izuku's heart was thumping madly in his chest like a jackhammer, beating against his ribs with a steadily increasing rhythm. He hadn't even managed to get off the rooftop Koko had landed on when this new individual showed up, hovering in the air menacingly. Kiri pointed at him with a quiet finality, confirming his fears. This was the one Koko had spoken of; the villain known as Aftermath.
For a moment they just stared at each other in silence. The boy's mind tried desperately to analyze the villain's capabilities, starting with his costume. The man didn't dress like a villain, wearing a mask with dark lenses that ended in long ears, coupled with a metallic respirator on his neck that shielded his mouth. Green armour along his torso and limbs, along with a pair of heavy boots. The outfit looked somewhat familiar, yet completely alien to him. The man was slightly smaller than All Might but he looked leaner, younger...
"I've found you. I've finally… found you." An armoured finger pointed at him shakily. "Midoriya... Izuku."
Kiri transformed into her combat form, ready to fight—she could go at a 100% now after retrieving the power Koko borrowed from her. The villain still held the remaining surplus power she kept in emergency reserve to manifest himself.
"Who are you?!" Izuku yelled, standing his ground despite the crushing fear. "Y-you caused the breach? Why?"
"You… construct. Valkyrie." Aftermath growled, still hovering in the air above them. "You stole something that's supposed to be mine. Are you willing to fight for it? Because I sure as hell am."
"W-w-what?" Izuku stammered, genuinely confused.
Beside him Kiri tensed, taking up a stance. She already knew from the villain's tone alone that Izuku wouldn't be able to change his mind. She had seen something similar before; the man's voice was ice and granite and raw, bloody rage but controlled... taut like a guitar string and ready to snap.
"I won't use One For All against you like I did with the hothead… only my own Quirk. I'll prove my worth… I'll beat you with my power alone. You against me, me against you. Show me your conviction."
"Wait!" the boy cried out frantically. "Wait, just hang on a minute! We can just talk this out—"
"No. We can't." Aftermath entered his own stance, his palms facing backwards. "So stop waiting—"
Kiri's fists tightened as his opened, the armoured man rocketing forward.
"—and start fighting."
The simulacrum jumped and crashed into her new opponent with a gut-wrenching crunch, her adversary taking the blow and dragging them both into the sky. Below Izuku gasped, running for the rooftop door and barreling down the stairs to follow them.
Finally exiting the building he looked up… and wished he hadn't. The clear afternoon sky was dotted with bright emerald flashes like fireworks, and Kiri was in right in the middle of that relentless barrage. Nearby civilians were beginning to point, taking pictures and recording.
He watched in horror as his little sister got bracketed by a flaring burst, followed by a vicious kick to the midsection that sent her spiralling backwards. Though their mental link he felt her shock… and pain. What? She was supposed to be invulnerable! How was Aftermath doing that?! Izuku grit his teeth, feeling helpless to do anything.
Think, Izuku! Think!
Flight, Mover rating confirmed. Ranged offensive capability, Blaster rating confirmed.
Izuku narrowed his eyes, analyzing how Aftermath strafed Kiri and peppered her with concussive energy blasts on each fly-by. No… it was different applications of the same ability. Omnidirectional movement via explosions.
Kiri managed to close in to land a solid hit… and the spot where she had landed her attack exploded. A blast that didn't come out of his hands or feet, activated via impact.
Some sort of reactive armor. Brute rating confirmed.
That had to be the most troubling thing to deal with… landing a strike would also result in the attacker taking damage. It seemed to be dependent on whether the villain chose to react, Kiri managing to land a few blows without the hit area detonating. Aftermath's mobility and maneuverability was incredible, his attacks employing a mix of melee combat and energy bursts from both his hands and feet that also helped him to fly in irregular, unpredictable patterns… a frighteningly powerful combination. Izuku cursed, his mind spinning. There had to be a way to help her, if only he could see what she was seeing—
Wait a minute. He could do that… but it had happened only in his dreams via their mental connection. The boy closed his eyes and focused hard, trying to ignore the sounds of combat and commotion from people observing. He had to help her. He had to… A big brother had to be responsible for his younger sibling! There was a flickering behind his eyes followed by an itch in his head, and then—light.
He was looking through her eyes! His right eye now glowed an ethereal green and displayed exactly what she was seeing in real time, while his left one remained normal as usual. The overlapping images began to make him dizzy so he closed his right eye, focusing on what Kiri was doing.
A deafening boom echoed in his head, followed by a wave of burning energy splashing across the projection's face. So he could hear what she was hearing, too. Kiri was at a massive disadvantage... she could only float and boost herself using the recoil of her attacks, while Aftermath could fly freely.
"I bet you're curious why I can hit you though your invulnerability." Aftermath's fist met her jaw with a thunderous crash, snapping her head sideways painfully. "Simple, really. It's because we're on the same wavelength. We're practically the same thing…"
Kiri sent a punch backward, which in turn sent her forward using recoil. Her shin slammed into the area under his torso with inhuman speed, right where the kidneys would be. Dazzling green flames erupted from the impact, sending her sprawling back... But Izuku saw it. For a moment the spot that had exploded was empty, resembling a hole in a porcelain figurine. Aftermath was… hollow?
"See, that's what sucks about being invulnerable." A point-blank blast to the face that blinded her like a flashbang grenade, followed up with a knee to the solar plexus which Kiri caught just in time. "You never really have to learn how to fight properly."
The girl flipped and rotated mid-air to land a high kick on Aftermath's temple, sending her opponent pinwheeling into a nearby empty construction site. She struck like a meteorite, ramming head-on and driving him through multiple floors of steel and concrete in a series of pandemonic crashes. Dust and debris rushed out of the construction site in a hazy cloud of grey, sending nearby civilians panicking and scrambling for safety.
"Which is why I'm surprised when it turns out you're not that bad… it shows that you're not just some brainless puppet." Aftermath hissed. "You can think for yourself, can't you? Under different circumstances we might have been friends. Perhaps in a different world."
Kiri's fist impacted his face with a sound akin to a car crash and was flung aside from the resulting explosion from his reactive armor. She snatched an I-beam off the wall and stabbed it into the ground to halt her momentum, launching herself forward to swing the massive chunk of steel like a baseball bat. The back of Aftermath's head exploded, snapping his skull forward as he headbutted the beam, creating a massive blast that sheared the makeshift weapon into countless pieces. Steely fingers wrapped around her throat like a vice, the girl still a little too stunned to react.
A blinding corona of green streaked into the sky as Aftermath rocketed from the destroyed construction site, Kiri struggling in his grip. There was a monstrous roar as he increased his speed exponentially, twin jets blazing beneath his boots, a pristine white cloud starting to form around them like a disc. The cloud narrowed to a sharp point, turning into a vapor cone with supersonic expansion fans... resulting in an earsplitting crack as the armoured figure broke the sound barrier.
Izuku gasped, watching them through his own eye. Kiri executed an armlock onto her opponent mid-air, sending the pair spiraling into a tight corkscrew maneuver as Aftermath tried to regain control. They were headed to the forested outskirts of the city… Izuku began running towards it.
Twin juggernauts impacted the forest grounds at seven hundred and forty one miles per hour, sending a giant plume of earth and broken wood into the air. A burning discharge sent Kiri flying out of the crater, the girl correcting herself mid-air and retaliating with a bone-shattering elbow drop. Izuku was still looking through her point of view with his closed right eye, his left eye focusing on the road. He borrowed a nearby fallen bicycle along the way, cycling with all his might.
"I can unleash explosive energy at range but I choose to engage up close in melee combat, and you know why?" An armoured fist rammed into her stomach with the power of a freight train, sending the simulacrum crashing through a dozen trees. "Because it feels good."
Aftermath cocked his arm back in a specific fashion, chambering a clenched fist. A lance of energy erupted from his elbow, the effect resembling the afterburners of a jet engine. Izuku's eyes widened. That stance! That was... All Might's—
"Iowa smash."
Kiri received his mental warning just in time, arms x-ing to shield herself from the massive rocket-boosted corkscrew punch, the attack detonating with the force of an artillery salvo. There had been enough raw power in that attack to demolish multiple city blocks, the forest behind her parting like the red sea as she split the blast in two with her own body. It was like she'd been hit by a tidal wave… A warped distortion of one of All Might's attacks.
This guy's a fan of All Might?! It… it doesn't make any sense! Why would somebody who admired All Might become a villain?! No, he clearly predates All Might... What the hell is going on?!
Milky-white knuckles cleaved through burning energy as Kiri punched her way into the massive conflagration, her fist slamming against the villain's palm. He just barely caught her other incoming hand by the wrist, only for the girl to brace two fingers against her thumb to launch a vicious, point-blank—
"Delaware Smash!"
Her invulnerable fingers impacted Aftermath's face like a pair of .50 BMGs, the brutal strike snapping his head back and sending him flying. Gravel and soil ruptured under heavy boots as the man found his footing, boosting back into the fight.
"That's right… just like that. It feels good when you let loose, doesn't it? The thrill, the sheer power within? Not against the squishy little people, but people like me who can fight back. It's a feeling like you wanna scream, and when you do it feels great. Alive. I've been hiding and holding back all these years for my chance."
"Nn." Kiri answered, sidestepping a jab to grab his wrist and the back of his neck, slamming the man's face into the dirt with a crunch.
She stomped on the middle of his shoulder blades, twisting his arm like a drumstick with a sudden, sickening snap; nearly tearing the limb off until Aftermath detonated his own arm to escape the hold. A wave of white-hot agony surged over her mental connection as she got flung back from the massive blast, recovering quickly with a kip up. For a moment the villain's right arm was gone… until white particles rushed together to reform the limb.
That was… how?!
Their fists clashed, driving into each other with inhuman force. Aftermath was clearly weaker than her in terms of physical strength, but he made up for it with his relentlessness and those fiery green energy blasts and flames. He was all aggression, aggression, aggression; always going on the offensive and never defending, never giving her time to think, to plan, to retreat.
But Kiri didn't need to retreat, and she knew it. Just as Aftermath was focused on offense she was the opposite. She was slower but stronger, her infamous defense a shield for the innocent, built to stand and deliver.
And she intended to do so now.
Kiri tanked his assault to get in close, switching her fighting style to strike between the lapses of Aftermath's offense with counterpunches, exploiting the openings in his attacks. A heavy right cross hurtled towards her—the girl deliberately accepted the punch, her retaliatory haymaker left already crashing into his jaw with the added momentum.
She then brought her arms together like a boxer, maintaining a tight guard and shifting her weight to weave and slip under his blasts, executing a near-perfect Dempsey Roll to launch a flurry of savage hooks.
Switch.
Her opponent immediately adjusted his own strategy accordingly to combat her fighting style, initiating the unorthodox acrobatic maneuver of an air-flare like a breakdancer, his legs sweeping wide to become a cyclone of viridescent flames.
Switch.
Kiri swapped to a different style again, her movements now graceful and flowing to redirect incoming attacks with minimal effort, using his own momentum against him. Her roundhouse kick scythed through the air and into his temple.
Switch.
Aftermath responded by changing styles as well, legs braced and stomping into the earth with a heavy, angular stance. He attacked with elbows and knees, the effects amplified by his blasts. A lightning-fast palm strike crashed into her jawline.
Their fighting styles and attacks were adapting to each other like pieces on a chessboard…
"You don't get it, do you?" the villain snarled. "This is all happening because of you. You were never supposed to happen... You're a fucking accident, an abnormal irregularity!"
What? She paused in confusion, leaping back to create some space between them.
"Everything had been planned out… but because of you—" his voice became distorted, seeming to overlap with another. "You ruined everything."
They moved simultaneously, landing a ferocious cross counter on each other.
"If it wasn't for me there wouldn't be a One For All in this world! It was me who retrieved it from Koko, me who forced it onto Chen! All that grueling hard work… and this is the thanks I get?!"
Aftermath was starting to get emotional, his earlier calm demeanor giving way to unrestrained fury. She could hear him gradually losing it from his voice alone, distorting like two people speaking at once. His tone was slipping like tectonic plates, inch by inch and any second now the fault line would snap and send him cascading into overwhelming rage. Izuku dodged past a group of policemen setting up a safety barrier, ignoring their alarmed yells. They didn't bother to run after him, too busy helping to evacuate nearby civilians. Emergency sirens blared in the background.
"Everything I did, I did it for him! And I'd do it all over again! You'll never understand how much I sacrificed, nor will you be able to make the hard decisions that matter. All because you follow those stupid fucking ideals of being a goddamn hero!"
Kiri snarled, her expressionless face now contorting with wrath. The tip of Aftermath's boot ignited as he flipped overhead, flaring like a rocket engine to send his armoured leg downward in a vicious axe kick, speeding towards her neck like a falling guillotine.
"Manchester—"
Dodge it! Izuku screamed mentally. Kiri obeyed his command and backstepped just in time, the bootheel missing her face by millimeters...
"—Smash!"
A thunderclap of energy, followed by blinding light and intense pressure as the ground shattered into enormous chunks, buckling beneath that rocket-boosted heel smash. Izuku was still looking through her eyes… and now he saw yet another oddity. There it was again! Whenever Aftermath launched a heavy blast the origin point seemed to disappear for a moment; if he used his right arm to launch a larger-than-average blast, his right hand would disappear for a second. Now that he used that axe kick, he could clearly see that his foot vanished for a moment before reappearing. And the fact that he could blow up his own arm earlier... was he combusting his own body to fuel his attacks? What kind of Quirk was this?!
"I won't use One For All against you because this form is all I need. It's all I've ever needed to hurt you, to beat you and anyone who stands in my way. My 'truth' versus your 'ideals'. And the truth is that you'll compromise. When shit gets real, there'll be a time where you'll have to choose between what you believe in and what you truly desire. Unlike you I won't hesitate, not even for a single fucking moment if it means I can achieve my goal… That's what makes us different. That's why you're a hero—" Aftermath's fist exploded, sending a torrent of emerald energy cascading into the ground. "—And I'm NOT!"
The very earth erupted around Kiri, disorienting her for a second with a smokescreen of debris and uneven footing.
But only for a single second. Her reply came in the form of a jaw-breaking uppercut that seemed to hit throughAftermath, the trees behind him shredded from the sheer force of her attack like shrubs in a hurricane. The projection caught his next attack with an open hand, their battle pausing for a brief moment.
"Never compromise." Kiri whispered. "Not even in the face of Armageddon."
They let go at the same time, hammering at each other with concussive force, bludgeoning and pummeling with fists and elbows, legs and knees. Emotion against logic, two poles of human nature face-to-face, fighting it out.
Izuku was finally closing in on the spot where they were fighting, bobbing and weaving between panicking civilians who were running the other way. Aftermath had abandoned all semblance of calm and was seemingly going berserk, teetering on the edge of rationality like an acrobat over the chasm of his own rage. He wasn't making any sense, nothing he said made sense... Kiri on the other hand was thinking logically and trying to come up with a way to take him down, going for limb locks, throat strikes, anything she could think of and exhausting her entire arsenal against the seemingly unstoppable force. If she couldn't outspeed him then she'd outlast him, beating him in a battle of attrition.
They were turning into the opposites of each other… no. They already were from the beginning. Their battle wasn't so simple as good versus evil. More like ideals versus truth; need versus want; cool logic versus burning emotion.
Angel versus Devil.
Kiri sent a piledriver right into her opponent's jaw, sending him reeling back before he countered with an exploding knee to her ribcage. A devastating left hook downed him temporarily, snapping his neck sideways so fast a normal human would have gotten beheaded. She got atop him and tried for a pin, but it was like trying to hold down a volcano as Aftermath erupted, tossing her back into the dirt like a toy. Izuku could feel Kiri getting exhausted, draining more of his emotions as she was almost out of power… but so was Aftermath. Long, jagged cracks were now snaking along the armoured man's entire body, and within those cracks was hollow emptiness with the exception of the torso...
Theories and speculations spun and churned within Izuku's mind, the boy taking into account every single detail. It couldn't be.
"I will be the one worthy enough to walk by his side, to be worthy of his attention! For that is my purpose, my raison d'être. This is all I have left, I don't have anything else to live for... I've waited for nearly a fucking century for my chance! Who are you to take it away from me?! This feeling I have—you know it too, don't you Valkyrie?!"
Izuku huffed and puffed, his lungs and muscles screaming in protest. He could feel exactly where Kiri was through their mental link. What was Aftermath talking about… a wave of dread sent shivers down his spine. Was he an All For One loyalist that had somehow infiltrated One For All?!No… there was no reason to pass it on if he was. It just didn't make any sense. He was almost there… almost there!
"This feeling I have… could only be called love!"
"Love?" Kiri asked in bewilderment, momentarily stunned by the declaration.
"But if you go beyond love, it turns into hatred! Just as people turn on each other when they take their ideals too far... this fucked-up world is a result of that! Lunatics running around in ridiculous costumes, bringing violence and escalation wherever they roam and for what?! Justice? Power? Recognition? These people get caught up in their own beliefs and prejudices and lose sight of the truth... this leads to misunderstandings, followed by discord and then by conflict. They would bring ruin upon humanity for the sake of satisfying their own inflated egos or to further their own deluded cause!"
"If you know that…" Kiri began, fury boiling up within her. "Then why do you still fight?"
"You're asking for a warrior's reason to fight?!" Aftermath roared, his vicious rocket-kick just barely missing and sweeping over her head. "That is nonsense!"
"Then you're just a hypocrite, a contradiction. No better than the people you are cursing."
"Maybe I am!" A dodged counter, followed by a two-handed overhead swing that split the earth. "You made me this way! Humans are capable of committing atrocities in the name of love, and I am no different! So what if it's selfish?! So what if there are consequences?! SO FUCKING WHAT?!"
He burst and roared and careened into her like a missile gone haywire, an exhaust trail of burning green and caterwauling noise chasing them into the woods. His back flared once, twice, then it was no longer explosions but a constant jet of emerald plasma, sending them barreling through the trees like a magnesium-tipped tracer round through cheap plywood. She drove her feet into the ground to halt his charge, carving a deep gouge into the landscape and scarring it for decades to come. His torso exploded to separate their destructive embrace, the two fighters staring down each other in the clearing they had made. This was it.
"I won't let you take him away from me... I'll defeat you!" he howled, his distorted, overlapping voice full of rage… and despair. "I don't care about the rest of the world anymore—this is my own will!"
"You're part of the world as well!" Kiri howled right back.
"Then consider this to be the will of the world!" Aftermath screamed. "My world!"
"No…" Kiri recalled her conversation with Pixiebob about balance and needs of others, to not just focus on yourself. "All you're doing is selfishly forcing your own distorted wants on others! You only have your own interests and goals in mind, not even considering that people have their own needs! Now I'm coming… to SMASH that distortion out of you!"
"WELL SPOKEN, VALKYRIE!"
Aftermath rocketed forward, his arm wrenching back in preparation for a monstrous right swing. Vibrant energy blazed like flames from ragged, uneven cracks splintered along the limb. A jet of emerald plasma burst from his elbow, shock diamonds and concentric rings blossoming along its length in a visual display of colossal power. Green motes of light sparked within dark lenses.
Kiri accelerated, her arm cocking back just like how she remembered from Izuku's memories and her own. A special technique that belonged to All Might, ingrained within Izuku's mind since he was four... an attack that the boy was now capable of using for himself with the power of One For All. The blaze of green energy within her eyes intensified.
Two opposing forces, two sides of the same coin. The power to protect, and the power to destroy. Green against Green… Their ragged voices screamed the exact same words.
"DETROIT SMAAAAAAAAASSSSSHH!"
The right side of Izuku's vision turned white.
A blinding flash was accompanied by a monumental explosion of pressure and force as the forest exploded, lighting up the entire area like a second sun with its brilliant radiance. A pillar of shattered debris climbed into the sky like a mushroom cloud, the gale winds of a typhoon chasing the blastwave into the nearby area. A localized earthquake followed, the earth cracking and splitting open with a groan. Izuku was buffeted by the immense wind, thrown off the bicycle and onto the broken ground painfully. He got up and ignored the bloodied scapes on his knees and elbows, running towards his little sister with his mind clouded in overwhelming panic and worry.
That blinding white light dissipated… and he saw through Kiri's eyes again. She was standing tall while Aftermath was falling backwards in slow-motion, his right arm missing… his body lined with cracks like a broken mirror and starting to dissolve into smoke and particles. His armored, muscular chest cavity twitched… and something within moved.
"—we're on the same wavelength. We're practically the same thing…"
Izuku's mind spun into overdrive, analyzing all the clues he'd gathered.
The overlapping distorted voice, like two people speaking at once. The use of his own body to fuel his attacks. The way his limbs regenerated after his energy blasts. The cracks in that hollow form. The way it was now dissolving into smoke and particles like the combined form of Shimura Nana and Kiri had…
"Not yet…" a small voice whispered.
The man's torso shattered and that same something exploded out of his chest, an ethereal, translucent right palm overlapping a solid smaller one and pointing towards Kiri. A small, female figure clad in a tattered cloak tore her way out of Aftermath, her brightly illuminated, wavy hair rippling wildly in the wind.
Aftermath was a mental projection.
"NOT YET!" the girl roared, firing a luminous blast that struck Kiri dead center—depleting the last of her power in a desperate final attack. Izuku's little sister doubled over in pain and ran out of energy after receiving the blow, shrinking back into her child form as she fell back and unable to fight any longer.
Izuku finally pieced all the clues together at the last moment. This girl was the villain's true form! Just as Kiri was his projection, Aftermath was the girl's... their Quirks were similar, yet complete opposites. An explosive projection instead of an invulnerable one, offense instead of defense. She had been hiding inside that projection, 'piloting' him like a suit of power armor. But unlike Kiri, the armored projection seemed to be non-sentient… a shell, a telekinetic puppet that she controlled. It faded away into nothingness behind her, like dust in the wind.
Izuku ran into the forest; or what was left of it, and finally saw them with his own eyes in the massive crater they had created. Aftermath's master snarled and raised her arm to launch another blast… only for nothing to happen. Her palm sparked and sputtered when she tried again, completely out of power. Kiri recovered painfully, stumbling and disoriented.
"N-no… no, NO, NO!" the unknown girl cried in horror. "I… I failed? I lost..."
Kiri noticed her brother had arrived and scrambled over to his side unsteadily, still intent on protecting him in her weakened form.
Aftermath, or rather her true form that had been piloting the projection... broke down completely. A pitch-black scream of despair and anguish tore itself out of her lungs, the girl wailing and sobbing uncontrollably. It wasn't a bratty or frustrated sort of crying; she was devastated, completely heartbroken by her loss. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her figure curling up into a shivering ball, clawing at herself with grief.
"No… NO! T-this wasn't supposed to happen!" she choked, her voice cracking with agonizing sorrow and fear. "I'm so fucking useless…"
Looking at her Izuku couldn't help but feel overwhelming pity. He didn't see a villain… just a trembling and vulnerable girl, completely terrified and utterly alone. She looked so young... so awfully small, sitting on the ground and clad in her oversized, tattered cloak and crying miserably. She was pulling at her hair now, her small hands shaking.
"All that hard work, planning, and sacrifice… Why can't I do a-anything right… I'm s-sorry! I'm so sorry, everyone..."
A strange feeling started thrumming in Izuku's blood as he slowly made his way to her. He could feel the itching uncertainty within him, the ice-cold fear that still surged through his veins, even the white-hot adrenaline that still circulated his bloodstream. But this strange feeling buzzing through his being was something new. Something resonating deep within, something about this whole affair that his heart had realized before his head.
He hugged her gently, holding her close.
The girl gasped before slowly acknowledging him, crying into his shoulder. Small fingers clutched at his back weakly as her slim arms wrapped themselves around him, her body shaking violently with sobs. She felt so fragile, like she was about to break apart at the slightest touch. Kiri stood behind him, cautious but understanding. She too had once cried like that. The unnamed girl's shivering fingers reached out and touched hers, finally returning the borrowed power in her defeat.
Lovely emerald eyes gazed up at Izuku, shimmering with tears.
"P-please… don't leave me..." the girl whimpered weakly, a trembling hand brushing against his cheek. "I don't want to be alone."
Before Izuku could say anything she wailed and disintegrated into countless emerald petals, dancing in wind. The miniature storm of energy dived into his forehead in a stream of glittering light, the boy bracing for the incoming mental jaunt.
The world shifted and blurred with kaleidoscopic color and noise. Izuku was now looking through another's eyes yet again, this time from the perspective of Aftermath, or rather, the girl that had been controlling him. She was trudging through a sunless blizzard, shielded from the most of the unrelenting cold by staying inside her projection. He could feel her exhaustion and despair, yet at the same time there was this determination within that flickered and waned like the flame of a dying candle.
Izuku could feel her desperately hanging onto the last vestiges of hope in that swelling sea of shadows, holding onto that lifeline like how a drowning man clings to driftwood, refusing to let go. For here, deep within that darkness, was a thread that led back to what she had travelled so far for. A single spark of hope.
"Don't worry," she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek. "It'll be okay. No matter how long it takes."
Ice and gravel crunched under her projection's boots. Howling, frozen wind bit into her but she continued to advance, step by step. Inch by inch. She had to keep moving forward.
"No matter how long it takes."
The memory twisted sideways like a whirlpool of vivid colors and wild noise, spitting Izuku back into cold reality. He gasped, clutching at his chest in complete bewilderment. Kiri rushed to his side, worried. His vision was back to normal now, right eye no longer glowing.
Nothing made sense anymore and that strange girl; she had felt… familiar, yet somehow foreign. Like she didn't belong, but at the same time she did. The way her Quirk was also a projection… it was too frighteningly similar to be just a coincidence. Even though he had successfully retrieved the four lost souls, he didn't feel any relief at all.
A new mystery had risen from its decades of slumber, a conspiracy hidden within One For All for nearly a century. Despite how he reassured himself that the worst was over dread started to pool in his gut, a feeling that something was terribly wrong. No matter how hard Izuku tried not to think about it, the image of that young girl's tearful, green eyes remained as if branded into his mind.
Those lovely green eyes…
...that looked just like his.