Chapter Text
For the first time in his sheltered life, Shoto experienced something he could not describe. He had screwed up in his life before. He had messed up training and been physically hit by his father, he had expressed certain emotions and got burned by his mother when he was young and non-Awakened. But his mistakes had never made him feel like this.
The mistakes never put a pit of darkness in his stomach and a cloud of fog in his mind. His mistakes were punished but otherwise had no consequence on his life. They were forgotten the next day. Punches that he missed, fire he couldn’t control, those had no real impact on the future. And yet, this mistake… had taken away his brother.
He had hid in wait, as Yogumunt instructed. He let those other Heroes die to this ant, instead of intervening, all to get to this point, to his own father’s demise.
He had perfect invisibility. So perfect that nothing could see him when he attacked, when he moved, anything. Yogumunt’s artifact was immensely powerful. It would’ve allowed Shoto to kill the ant without ever being spotted, and that was the reality of the situation. Yogumunt gave Shoto something that could kill the ant, he wasn’t foolish enough to think Shoto could kill this being so easily.
But regardless of the artifact, Shoto had let the ant continue, all to get a shot at his father’s head. And now, because of his inaction, his brother was laying face-down, dead, in the scorched earth. Where there was once a heart, a ribcage, lungs, there was now a torn and gaping wound. A hole in his chest.
Shoto was paralyzed by this feeling, the knowledge of what he had done. This mistake was forever. The stoic facade Shoto maintained faded away into horror. He fell backwards, collapsing, just like his brother.
“No… nonononono.” Shoto scrambled to his feet, running away from the corpse as fast as he could. Despite being the one of the few remaining Japanese S-Ranks, one with a powerful item at that, he ran, and ran.
The ice that had tripped up his father melted away before anyone could see it. Endeavor would merely believe that a stroke of fate had made him trip and saved his life, not that his son that he spent years training, had attempted to kill him.
But if Shoto fought the Nomu now, questions would arise about his presence, questions about why he was there, questions about the artifact. And maybe his father would be able to piece it all together. There were too many questions. Shoto had a life of profit and luxury as an S-Rank ahead of him. Was he really willing to throw it away for his piece of shit father and Ryukyu? A lady he barely knew. No, he had been taught well by his father, who was looking for little more than power and pleasure, just as all S-Ranks partake in. Shoto knew that the S-Ranks abandoned things all the time to protect themselves. He was no different.
Even as Ryukyu’s roars and the ant’s screeches overlapped, Shoto didn’t consider turning back. He didn’t want to stop running, not until he was back at school, not until he was away from everything else. He’d never admit it, but that classroom was the closest he’d ever gotten to some semblance of normalcy. Maybe Yogumunt was right, and Izuku Midoriya was some enemy of humanity, maybe not. Shoto didn’t know, and honestly didn’t care. All he knew was that it was the only place he wanted to be.
*******
Ryukyu didn’t even have time to think, much less mourn. If she bothered to think, she’d be dead. As long as she relied on the draconic reflexes flowing through her body, she could just barely keep up with the ant. And even that was an exaggeration.
Scratches and shallow cuts began to line her body. Over time, they would begin to drain her energy. Ryukyu only had one advantage, Lady Nagant.
Ryukyu didn’t even know what she was doing on the island. As a long-range fighter, she had declined to join the Raid. Regardless, she was happy to have the sniper with her. Her bullets were keeping the ant on its toes, giving Ryukyu enough breathing room to actually retaliate every now and again with slashes of her own. And with Endeavor sitting blankly on the ground, staring at the corpse of his son, Nagant was all Ryukyu had.
But Ryukyu knew something Nagant didn’t. She knew what it was like to fight a losing battle. She knew what it was like to have a weight bearing down on you, one that you knew would crush you.
“It’s terminal. We need to start your treatment right away, it might give you a few more years.”
Those were the words a twelve-year-old Ryuko Tatsuma heard as she lay dying on a hospital bed. She wasn’t expected to even see fourteen, yet here she was, in yet another fruitless battle that sought to take her life. But there was a difference.
Ryuko had never been given a chance to fight, to delay the inevitable with her own will. She just had to sit there and watch the IVs drip. Had she never Awakened, she never would’ve been given a second chance at life.
It was for that reason she could go on without her legs shaking, without her mind breaking under the pressure. She couldn’t give up.
Ryukyu wasn’t sure what God she believed in, but she believed that her Awakening was not mere circumstance. She was meant to be a Hero, so she could be given a chance to face her inner demons head-on, literally.
“Rargh!” Ryukyu roared as her jaw morphed into that of a dragon, completely engulfing the ant’s arm as it attempted to slash her throat open.
The exo-skeleton was so durable that it cracked some of her teeth, but she ignored the pain and discomfort. After all, she had never intended to bite the Nomu’s arm off, just hold it down for a second.
Ryukyu could feel the bullet splitting the air as it rushed past her head with a high-pitched FWING. It was aimed squarely at the ant’s eye. The ant was ridiculously fast, but it shouldn’t have been able to dodge. But it did.
Instead of splitting its head open, the ant merely lost part of one antenna.
It hissed in pain and confusion as one of its sensory parts was torn from its body. Confusion that Ryukyu took advantage of, punching towards the ant’s chest with all her might. She was confident it would pierce right through, her claws extracting whatever guts this monster had.
“Enough!” The ant yelled as his body mass expanded without warning.
Suddenly, the exo-skeleton that was durable, but still thin as to allow for speed, was sturdier than anything Ryukyu had ever felt in her life. It was like an ordinary human punching a brick wall.
Another bullet came whizzing from Nagant. This time, it struck true on the Nomu’s eye… and bounced right off at the same time Ryukyu’s claws slid harmlessly across the ant’s stomach.
“Kiek kiek kiek…” The ant’s mandiles clicked as it raised its claws to its face. “So this is… Mana…”
Ryukyu’s heart dropped to her stomach. She had been assuming, this entire time, that this was an intelligent beast who was using Mana to output at near National-Rank. Most Villains did so subconsciously, otherwise some would never be a threat to humanity. But that wasn’t the case here. This creature, this absolute monstrosity, had been born with such physical prowess that it hadn’t even been using Mana… until now.
The strength and speed which was once too much for the strongest Japanese Heroes, now ballooned into something truly abominable. In the middle of battle, it had recognized the energy pouring off its enemies and realized that he too could mimic this.
For Ryukyu, it was almost too much to bear… Almost.
“DIE YOU PIECE OF-” The ant casually swung his hand to the side, hitting Ryukyu in the ribs.
She immediately knew all of the ribs on her right side were broken as she tumbled through the air. And judging by the blood she spat up as she landed, there was even more internal damage. She couldn’t even try to assess it, because she was too weak to stand with the pain coursing through her.
“This is… this is nothing…” She thought deliriously. “I can’t… give up… I can’t die…” The noble thoughts that gave her strength just moments ago seemed so pathetic. She had survived all the unlucky crap in her life, whether by dumb luck or sheer force of will. But here… there was no contest. The ant was now truly National-Rank, close to the same level as people like Thomas Andre or All Might. “I… tried…”
As Ryukyu laid bleeding out, the Nomu directed his attention to the source of the most pain he’d ever felt in his life, Lady Nagant.
The entire time she’d been on the island, she’d been wearing a cloak of stealth, which had a high resistance to fire magic. Even as her tree burned away she had remained safe and hidden. S-Ranks would’ve struggled to find her.
The ant, with such immense innate talent and now control over his own Mana, spotted Nagant instantly.
She began to fire as quickly as possible, her bullets now pinging off the black armor. They made tiny indents in the exo-skeleton, which was impressive on its own. Just being able to cause any damage to this beast was impressive, but it didn’t actually matter.
As the Nomu got closed, Nagant rose from her crouched position beneath the cloak and attempted to leap away. The Nomu, despite now having even more mass on his body, was faster than ever before, appearing where Nagant intended to jump to, before she could even get there. And when she did get there, all she found was claws buried in her abdomen.
She could barely make a sound, even as intense agony flowed through her veins.
“I will make this… hurt…” The ant growled, ready to pain Nagant back tenfold for his own suffering. Instead of gutting her completely, he was going to make her death a slow and painful one, draining her of her blood and making her watch as her life slipped away.
She fell to the ground, collapsing as the ant slashed at her body, bashed her bones into pieces, and did exactly what he promised to do.
Before she had even been Awakened, Nagant spent most of her time in life or death situations. Surviving as a lone girl in an underworld was not pretty. She always had injuries, always had some wound healing. And like most in the deepest parts of the world, Kaina Tsutsumori took refuge in drugs to hide away the bitterness of life.
She eventually got off of them. But that detox… it was like no other pain she had experienced before or since. Until that ant got its hands on her.
Pain was the definition of Nagant’s life. Suffering in hopes of a brighter day. One that seemed like it would never come.
“I never even figured out those dreams…” She thought meekly to herself as the ant raised its claws to gouge her once more.
But as her vision faded, she saw the ant’s remaining antenna twitch. His head swiveled to the mountain that contained the nest.
“My… Queen!” And within the blink of an eye, the ant vanished.
Nagant sighed, her eyes closing, not sure if she’d ever open them again.