Author note: Figured out how to continue.
I think i change Pov to often.
(Pov: Kana) (About damn time)
A light breeze blew through Hachioji, carrying the comfortable smell of Wind and grass as the sun slowly sunk out of view.
The city had settled into a calm atmosphere, the heat already rescinded into something bearable as evening approached. The hum of traffic had quieted, leaving only the laughter of children and chiding voice of their parents.
In one of the many apartment complexes in Hachioji, a certain woman looked at her phone with an excited smile as she read her husband's message.
An answer was quickly sent and the woman put the phone down, the excited look on her face switching into something more thoughtful. The woman was Kana Shindai, wife to the self-declared perfect man and mother of the "monstrous weirdo." A totally unfit name for her little angel.
Kana's thoughtful gaze had started darting around the apartment, seemingly growing more frantic at how "disorganized" and "a mess" it was.
'Oh, Riku's friend can't see this!'
Indeed.
The message from her husband, had been to inform her that Riku had invited his friend to play.
She had already seen Riku's friend when picking him up from Kindergarten, but he had run away from her when she had tried to introduce herself.
And so, Operation "Emergency Clean-up" begun.
A storm of swiping, wiping and frantic rearranging ensued as she spotted issues and blemishes which only a mother could spot. Then, following her instincts to make the best impression from herself she immediately prepared a few snacks and sat down reading a book, her foot's movement unceasing as it tapped the ground.
Her book remained open, but her eyes didn't rest on it, instead darting to the door every few seconds.
Noise echoed through the Hallway and her husband was the first to enter, his gaze slightly amused as he said a few words to, presumably Riku's friend who stood outside. The moment he entered, his gaze first landed on his wife, then the plate of snacks.
Riku followed, barreling into the apartment and making a beeline towards her, giving her a quick hug and simultaneously reaching into the snack bowl. 'He probably sensed it before entering the building.'
Well, it was for him and his friend anyway, who was entering the apartment with cautious steps, looking left and right while hesitantly stepping forward, like a cat would do.
Kana quickly stood up and smiled, not noticing Masaki plunging his fist into the bowl of snacks as he wrestled with his son.
"Well, Hello there! It's nice to meet you. I'm Riku's mother. You can just call me Kana!"
Tokoyami's clearly nervous expression settled on her as he seemed to hesitate between closing the door or not, before simply bowing and mumbling something.
"..nice to meet you. My Name is Fumikage Tokoyami."
"Please make yourself comfortable... is it alright if i call you Fumikage?"
She received a quiet nod as an answer and soon headed towards her husband.
"You caught me off guard. I didn't expect Riku to invite someone."
Her husband shrugged. "He actually invited the little bird man to workout. We only came here as a stop."
The gym? Her gaze darted towards Fumikage who looked a lot frailer than Riku.
"Shouldn't his parents be here then? You can't just take an unknown year old to the gym!"
Masaki's expression turned slightly smug.
"Don't worry, not only did i talk with little bird-man's father, cool guy by the way, i told Riku that they should start by training in the forest."
She nodded, her gaze still laced with slight worry.
"And Fumikage's parents know?"
"Well, i told his dad."
'That- should be enough.'
"So, you'll accompany them?"
"Meh, i don't think i have much of a choice. We don't need Riku beating up Villains for training."
Kana couldn't even refute that. Her little angel might be a genius, but it was still pretty clear that he had a strange obsession with getting stronger.
"I'll come along."
Masaki spends a lot of time with Riku at the gym. She needed some screen time as well.
'And it'll be a bit like a date.'
Her husband happened to focus a lot of his attention on their child. Which was good... but she wanted some attention as well. And a evening stroll was a good time to drop some hints.
Her husband nodded at her declaration, his gaze still locked onto Riku who attempted to explain how to perform a push-up to Fumikage.
'I know i wanted him to get along with Riku, but come on. That's an obsession at this point.'
"You know, if we take them to the playground, they'll be able to play a bit before training. We can also use the time to stroll through the forest a bit."
There was no way he wouldn't get it.
And Masaki... well he wasn't completely retarded. A grin appeared as he thought that the fruits of his physical labor finally bloomed.
"Sure, that sounds great."
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(Pov: Masaki)
'Hell yeah.'
He was elated. About pretty much everything. Life was looking real good.
He had set new PRs in the gym, his weird son had finally made a friend and his Wife thought he was hot and wanted some "we" time.
They had already left the apartment, his son and birdie walking at the front while he held hands with his wife.
The sun hadn't set yet so it wasn't as if they were worried about anything. Their neighborhood wasn't exactly riddled with Crime anyway.
'And we have our own personal weirdo who is probably hoping for someone to pummel, and the "dark blade of oblivion" who would mete out justice.'
Yeah. There was nothing to fear.
It was a bit of a strange experience walking with Tokoyami. He kept stopping in his tracks, suddenly staring at something before side-eyeing it as if it did something suspicious before going on his way.
"His quirk sounds pretty cool though."
His statement caught his wife's interest.
"Really? What can he do?"
"It's called Dark Shadow. I think it's like a spirit made of darkness which he can control."
"So you didn't see it?"
Masaki shook his head. "Nah, we just talked a bit. He told me he wants to become a Hero to show that his darkness can help people despite what people think."
Kana raised her eyebrows.
"That's pretty deep for a kid."
Masaki just shrugged. He figured that kids were pretty stupid and that it was pretty common for them to never shake off the stupidity, even reaching adulthood.
'That... doesn't apply to me anymore. Having a retarded kid kind of fixed me.'
"He probably always gets the villain role when kids play. Kids are cruel like that."
Their discussion soon railed off topic and they soon reached their destination.
The wide playground was completely empty.
'Alright... we'll just go around the playground... somewhere they can't see us.'
Masaki quickly stopped Riku who was about to enter the playground.
"Yeah, me and your mom are gonna be around here. You can play or train. Just growl or roar if you need us."
And thus, the adults found themselves walking away from the playground.
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(Pov:Riku)
'This should be good enough.'
Riku was standing at the edge of the playground, arms crossed and tail rigid as he surveilled the place. Next to him, Tokoyami stood in a similar way, eyes narrowed as he too seemed to survey the playground, although for enemies instead of makeshift-sports-equipment.
'Should we start with a run? And maybe light exercise afterwards.... wait, i probably shouldn't plan too much. I don't know how much Tokoyami can take.'
That meant to strength-training. Well, Riku would just take it easy for today and lead his "comrade in shadow" towards the great light of the gym.
'Damn it, i swear i'm becoming more Chuuni by the day.'
Tokoyami was looking at him, probably awaiting instruction given that he had been the one talking about training. Riku's grin widened as he reached out to Tokoyami.
'Let's start with a run!'
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(POV: Narration about Fumikage Tokoyami.)
(Timeskip: 28 seconds.)
He was wheezing. He had immediately started sprinting at the beginning and his sides hurt like hell before even reaching the end of the playground.
'How shameful...'
He, the Nighthunter, unable to cross a playground at maximum speed. 'What if a villain tried to escape? If a civilian were in danger?'
A profound sense of shame had enveloped him as he forced himself to run the last few steps to the end.
He reached Riku, whose expression was as unreadable as always, although his tail twitched and a wave of concern soon reached Tokoyami.
"I'm fine. haahh Out of breath."
His friend stared (face-stared) at him for a moment, before simply signing. "We can run more in the future."
Tokoyami gratefully accepted, internally thanking his friend for not giving up on him.
After a short break, their training continued. The same distance was crossed again, this time following Riku's advice of starting slower. More exercises soon followed, push ups, sit-ups, the hateful plank. Loathsome squats.
It was then that Tokoyami understood... his journey to become a hero would not be just a walk in the park.
One workout later, the Tokoyami remained sprawled out on the ground, breathing heavily and wondering how his friend in shadow followed through with this training.
'Truly... haahh, i've under- haaahh- estimated the effort...'
This would have been the time for him to speak another cool line, but he simply wasn't able to.
He took the time to recuperate, silently contemplating the future obstacles this training would help him overcome. Next to him, his comrade had sat down in the sand and seemed to sink into a state of meditation.
'I suppose he is training his quirk...'
They remained there for a few minutes as Tokoyami regained his breath.
'Maybe i should train my quirk as well?'
It wouldn't be the first time. Although he never trained for combat with his quirk, he did train his control by summoning Dark shadow and have him fulfill simple tasks.
He knew the risks and danger of using his quirk but....
His gaze lifted, scanning the sky.
The sun hadn't set yet.
'I should still be able to control him.'
And so, a black oozing mass of darkness left his body. A creature made of pure darkness with two yellow orbs as eyes.
"Dark Shadow."
His quirk, Dark Shadow, was the ability to manifest a sentient being made of darkness. The being was semi-autonomous, meaning that it had a personality which was theorized to be similar to Tokoyami's.
The doctor at the Quirk Assessment Center had been fascinated and had looked into the beings Emotional state and loyalty as well as it's power.
Given his lack of control over his quirk, the test's had not been very throughout, but he had learned a lot nevertheless.
The creature was loyal. The creature became stronger at night and it's weakness was light. It was capable of speech.
'Hhmm?'
The creature had emotions. Emotions which affected it's strength.
'Did...he get bigger?'
And it's strength affected it's will.
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(Pov: Riku Shindai)
'Whoah'
That pretty much summed up Riku's mental state as a part of Tokoyami's emotions seemingly doubled and then detached, hovering outside of his body.
It was similar to Cursed energy, but simply more compact, it's presence more grounded in the world. 'I wonder what it looks like.'
The outline was blurred, like oil swirling in water. For a second, Riku thought his cursed energy was overlapping with it... until he noticed a strange suction in his CE.
'Wait what.'
His instincts fired. He flared his cursed energy, a reflex he'd honed to make people back off. A sharp wave of malevolent pressure rolled off him, crackling through the air.
Both Tokoyami and his quirk were hit by the wave. It didn't deal any damage but Tokoyami immediately recoiled, seemingly starting to sense that there was a problem.
And instead of recoiling, Dark Shadow leaned in.
A chunk of Cursed energy disappeared. As it if something had taken a bite out of it.
Coincidentally, Tokoyami's quirk now towered above the two of them, it's form seemingly steadily widening underneath Riku's Cursed energy Radar.
Adding another coincidence, Dark shadow's emotions had shifted. Hunger.
'You have got to be kidding me...'
Dark Shadow form writhed, his form already surpassing that of most adults.
Riku then drew back his cursed energy and Dark Shadow followed, its every movement echoing undeniable emotion...Dissatisfaction and Hunger.
'What do i do?'
Drawing back his CE left him essentially blind but Riku saw no other way to halt the thing's growth.
"...i should be able to take his attacks..."
He braced himself, then pulled his Aura of Cursed energy towards himself, reinforcing his limbs and strengthening his defense.
And waited.
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(Pov: Tokoyami)
"Dark Shadow... what are you doing?"
...
Tokoyami would become a Hero.
That was something he had sworn, something he would accomplish without fail.
Even if his quirk was considered villainous.
Society's sense of good and wrong was twisted.
The masses exaggerated, the media lied and individuals judged.
But none of that would stop him. He would become a Hero.
A Quirk was a Quirk. How you wielded it was what mattered.
That, was something he had always believed. He knew his quirk was considered scary at times, but he himself had never understood that fear.
Until now.
Dark Shadows darkness which oozed out of his belly, had latched onto him, seemingly binding him against it's form.
Helpless, he flailed and tried to reign in his quirk as he had succeeded so many times, but Dark shadow only pulled harder as he seemed to inch towards Riku.
The usual control he felt over his quirk was all but present as it's presence grew despite the present light.
It's usual calm and level voice was now deep and laced with yearn. It's yellow eyes a shade of orange.
'What is happening?'
"That's...good... Give me more... MORE!"
Tokoyami flailed, attempting to tear the dark bindings of his body, but they wouldn't budge, his quirk not even registering his pathetic attempts at escape.
Then, a sudden wave hit him. A psychic-like warning similar to the worst attempts of telepathy his friend had conducted, a sudden wave of fear warning him to stay away.
Following his instinct, he nearly tumbled back, only to be restrained by Dark shadow's bindings who moved forward as if embracing Riku's energy.
Tears welled in his eyes as he tried to pull his quirk back. Every motion sent a searing strain through his body, small limbs trembling under the effort, while Dark Shadow surged onward, untamed.
Then, Dark Shadow suddenly stopped. And Tokoyami allowed himself a single second of relief, thinking that dark shadow... his quirk had regained it's bearing.
"Gone...? Why is it gone!?"
That hope was then crushed.
The strain intensified as Dark shadow thrashed around, it's size no longer increasing but instead growing more and more aggressive.
"YOU! GIVE IT BACK!"
It thrashed and screeched as it's form rippled and then lunged towards his friend.
BAM!
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(Pov: Riku)
'Damn...'
The powerful impact of... whatever his friend's quirk just did, sent him tumbling back a few steps.
'I expected more...'
But the actual strength behind the attack? Decent. Not incredible, just decent.
He knew he could take more of these.
'But that's not the problem.'
The real problem was that this "Dark Shadow" was sapping his Cursed energy, even just during impact.
BAM!
His arms trembled as another attack met them, the uncomfortable feeling of Cursed energy disappearing making his wings twitch.
But this time, he hit back.
His Cursed energy sensor flared for just a second, pin-pointing Dark Shadow's location.
VLAM!
His fist bore into the strangely shaped Quirk. There was no Cursed energy in the punch, severely limiting his attack power, but he didn't want the thing to grow. The impact had been strong, it even pushed back the rampaging quirk. Then, it pulled back.
BAM!
Retaliation came from below. He felt tentacle-like appendages wrap around his arms and squeeze as they pushed him into the air. 'Fuck, i can't fight blind.'
His CE Aura redeployed, while he was limply hanging in the air as the rampaging Quirk attempted to crush him.
"Come on, how long are you gonna stay useless???"
The statement, directed at what should be his strongest tool, had been seemingly unresponsive during the entire time.
But for every drop of Cursed energy leaving him... something was seemingly analyzing the problem.
CLANK!
PAIN. Pain exploded through his body and his balance shifted as he grew.
A wave of Adrenaline hit him, nearly stunning him in the process. He felt Tokoyami's quirk pull at his CE, seemingly attempting to take even more, but found itself struggling, as he practically yanked back his Cursed energy.
His mind, now hyperaware, his body's muscles bulging as he freed himself from the appendages mid-air.
Then, he rushed in. Once more, a punch without reinforcement.
VLAM!
Dark Shadow's body was once more thrown back, this time clearly overpowered with raw strength, although it didn't matter as it continually sapped Cursed energy out of Riku's sensor.
'Does this thing has a weakness?'
If this quirk was fed by Cursed energy... maybe reverse cursed technique?
'Tch, i still haven't figured out how to fully control the adaptation.'
It always seemed in a semi-passive state, unresponsive to his commands unless it felt like it.
"It's growth slowed down... but i'm still feeding it. I need a way to stop that."
Then, like a lightning bolt, his entire train of thought was interrupted,
Tokoyami!
His Cursed energy refocused, searching for the kid who was probably struggling and bawling amidst his own quirk.
'Come one... where is he?!'
He growled in frustration, before simply charging in, unable to find his friend in the sea of emotion which surrounded him.
His body tanked every attack the Dark Shadow launched upon him, as he frantically charged through Dark Shadows un-even form.
CLANK!
The wheel completed another turn. Pain exploded in the front of his head.
"MOTTO KURE!"
A loud voice reverberated through the place.
'ah...what?'
"SUBETE WO KUI YABURE! OMAE MO TABETE YARU!"
Driven by instinct, he raised his arms to cover his ears.
It didn't help. 'Why do my wings hurt?'
"MOTTO! MOTTO! MOTTO!"
'Sound... i can hear!'
He dodged another appendage and... finally heard it. A childish voice, screaming things in japanese, seemingly half-crying.
Riku followed the sound of the screams, tearing through appendage after appendage with raw physical strength. He didn't know where exactly he was, but both Tokoyami's screams and Dark shadows roars emanated from right in front of him.
He reached out. Feathers.
'I got you.'
He started tearing at the bindings. Tokoyami was screaming through the process, making his hand falter.
'How do i get him out? Am i hurting him?'
Still, he continued. For a while, he simply kept at it, savagely tearing through the tendrils holding Tokoyami. But in his head, he was trying something else.
'Come on... multiply Cursed energy with itself....'
Focused on his right hand, he simply kept slamming his hand against a particularly strong tendril...
Behind his head, the wheel trembled as he forced it into motion. A flash of pain appeared in his head as mental pressure of forcing his power to work, seemed to split his head apart.
Then, the wheel finally moved again. Once more, not performing a real turn, but seemingly just forcibly initiating a process.
'YES!'
A weak white light protruded through his hand and Riku didn't even waste a second as he slashed at the Tendril.
The light disappeared the very moment the tendril was cut.
Dark Shadow's entire body snapped back like a whip as it shrunk and twisted back into Tokoyami's body, who promptly collapsed on all fours.
As if everything had never been, the entity which had covered the entire playground had simply disappeared.
The splitting head-ache was ignored as Riku immediately went down, kneeling next to his friend.
'I did it, shit is he injured.'
His startled thought's were fast and unorganized as he reveled in his victory and worried for his friend.
He reached out, intent on... perhaps showing Tokoyami his support? He wasn't sure himself.
But his hand was slapped away, as the bird-headed child shook his hand with wide teary eyes.
'God, this has got to be traumatizing...'
He didn't know what to do. He wanted to show his support, maybe just by putting a hand on the shoulder, but Tokoyami had slapped it away? Should he respect that? Leave him alone? Or is that unhealthy?
So, Riku simply waited. His cursed energy was low, barely enough to survey everything in a 2 meter radius. He didn't know where exactly he was, or if the battle had not moved from where it had started and the his brain was currently simply... overloaded.
He did his best to calm himself, taking deep breaths.
Then, his CE returned to the crying boy on the ground. He had somewhat calmed down, but he still wasn't standing up, simply looking at the ground with faint-haggard breathing and a trembling gaze.
'Maybe... we should find a bench.'
Only a moment of hesitation before he bent down and picked up the bird-headed boy who thrashed in his grip. Riku only let out a soft growl in response, portraying more annoyance than anger, before sending an emotion akin to relaxation.
Then, he dropped him onto a bench and sat down next to him.
'I hope he doesn't blame himself too much.'
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CHAPTER END.
You might have noticed... the lack of an afore-mentioned timeskip?
Well, you are very clever to notice that. For... i have indeed not written it yet....
...in this chapter!
Basically, this chapter served as a (hopefully) decent step to solidify power and relation ship. Next chapter is already nearly written. (I wrote both at the same time.)
And yes, the timeskip is there. Figuring that out was difficult for me. But i think this chapter and the next will chain nicely.
Now, about the fight... i had a relevation. From God. I'm not sure if this was good, but i think the way i wrote about it captures the wheel in a good way. It's not just "one turn and problem is solved." Instead, that shit is spammed with different ideas and "attempts."
Then... i wasn't too happy about the way he wins. I wrote it as a "semi-adaptation." That's basically him forcing the wheel to adapt before it's ready.
Honestly, it was just forced plot, i'm not even gonna defend it.
So, i'll post this now, and tomorrow morning, i'll simply count the comments in favor or "sword of exorcism" or for "Partial adaptation bullshit." Then i'll change it at noon. So 12 hours from now. Let's see who reads this chapter first.
But well, tell me what you think.