Burning Daylight

Sekiro was a bit lost in the current situation. He clearly remembers the moment he gave his life to give his lord the life he deserved, and yet…

'How am I still alive? Did it not work…?' Wolf thought as darkness surrounded his entire being. Floating within nothingness, he was left to ponder his thoughts. 'Or am I dead, and this is the afterlife?'

'What about Lord Kuro…?' His thoughts brought him back to the master he served, and a slight smile began to appear on his face. 'If this is the latter… Then…'

Closing his eyes, he prepared himself for the afterlife, content and relieved at having given his life for the sake of his lord's happiness…

'Lord Kuro… Please… Live a fulfilling life…'

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Izuku scampered about as he quickly shot out of the dumpster with the grace of a frightened raccoon. Stumbling to the ground, he felt his skin burn slightly from the flames licking his skin.

Hissing in slight pain, Izuku recoiled back before shooting his gaze back at the dumpster housing one of the villains.

'I need to run!' Izuku whimpered. The villain he stepped on inside the dumpster had glowing eyes. He deduced within that tiny time frame that the villain had some kind of eye enhancing quirk, quite possibly a night-vision quirk. What he didn't expect, however, was the inherent fear he had for the villain. 'That's no ordinary villain!'

Getting ready to bolt like a rabbit, his ears picked up the telltale signs of movement, specifically, the rising lid of the dumpster.

A single hand pushed it open, then followed the head of the villain, who looked at the kid and his surroundings with mild confusion.

"You, kid, where are we?" The villain's question threw Izuku for a loop. On one hand, the villain could've been lying and was trying to lower his guard before ultimately subjecting him to an untimely death.

On the other hand, he had all the time to kill him when he landed on him while trying to hide from the other pursuing villains.

He stared at the villain(?) with mildly confused but cautious eyes, only to land his gaze on a specific limb once his upper body was in full view.

'A prosthetic?'

It didn't take long for Izuku to slap himself out of his analytical mind to pay attention to the villain(?) right in front of him, who had already left the dumpster and was staring at him with a curious but tense gaze.

Izuku felt his breath hitch, the only recognizable sounds around the area being the crackling of fire and his heavy breathing.

Opening his mouth, Izuku was about to give his answer, only for the trio of villains chasing him earlier to return and glare at him with annoyance.

"Gotta admit there, kid, you had us fooled." The lead villain grinned, before he noticed the other man standing in front of the kid. "Oi, you, leave this brat to us. We had him first."

The response he got was a leveled stare that seemed to pierce right into the depths of his very soul. Trembling slightly at the feeling, the villain glared back at the newcomer with irritation.

"You deaf? I said this brat is ours!" He stomped towards the newcomer, clearly intending to scare the man, or in the case of failure, do bodily harm. Sadly, one does not simply threaten a shinobi who has faced a literal god and walk away without consequences.

In an instant, Wolf grabbed the arm of the man and twisted it, causing a cringe-worthy noise to echo around the surroundings. Following that noise was the scream of utter pain and anguish, before it was silenced by a quick twist of the neck.

Dropping to the floor, the villain lay motionless, his tongue lolling out with his eyes rolling uncontrollably. All was silent, before a shriek of terror and rage shook those present back to reality.

In an instant, the female villain rushed towards the man, her closed eye opening to show a glazed eyeball shining with untold power. Besides her, the other villain charged forth as well, eyes burning with unimaginable fury.

Reacting quickly to the threat, Wolf leaped into action, his sharp mind deducing his current enemies' weakness. With a quick flick of his prosthetic arm, firecrackers spread all over the ground before exploding noisily.

With the crackling noise and blinding lights directly in front of them, the two villains were forced to recoil backwards while shielding their vulnerable organs with both arms. Taking advantage of their current vulnerability, Wolf once again flicked his arm to bring out an axe, before sweeping it sideways, catching the two villains with its blade.

Slicing tender meat and crunching brittle bones, the two villains found themselves bisected at the hip as they screamed out one last time at the searing agony assaulting their minds.

As this all happened, Izuku could only stare dumbfounded at the act, sheer terror and desperation clutching at his rapidly beating heart.

Wolf, not giving himself time to admire his work, looked back at the kid, who was now staring at him fearfully, body trembling with sweat pouring from his pores.

"Y-Y-You killed t-them…" Izuku scooted back, his knees weak, making it next to impossible to stand.

Wolf did nothing to respond, just stared at the dead bodies beneath his feet. This was nothing new to him. In fact, one could argue that as a shinobi, death was a common occurrence in his line of work.

Izuku, his lunch now threatening to lurch up his throat and spread itself across the ground, courtesy of the smell and the excessive gore right in front of him, forced himself to stand up, only for his wobbly knees to give up on him.

Wolf, not knowing what to do other than press the kid for information, approached the terrified teenager with a steady gait, leaving bloody footprints due to stepping on the blood.

The terrified greenette inched back slowly, tears beginning to leak out of his eyes. He let out a shriek of pain, however, once he felt the heat behind him grow in intensity.

As he tried to crawl forward in an attempt to move away from the fire, he was yanked by the man who had killed the three villains and away from the threatening flames.

Landing on the ground once more, Izuku breathed out a sigh of relief, only to feel warm liquid staining his hands.

Regaining focus, Izuku looked down, only to see a face locked in terror staring back at him.

Screaming from the top of his lungs, Izuku jumped backwards with renewed strength, before crashing back to the ground on his ass. Looking at his hands stained with blood, Izuku began to hyperventilate, his chest rising up and down in rapid succession.

Approaching the downed teen, Wolf moved to pat the teen on the shoulder, only for the teen to recoil in shock and fear.

"S-STAY AWAY!" Izuku crawled away, his mind in imminent shutdown, preventing him from even thinking of using OFA against the villain. "D-DON'T COME ANY C-CLOSER!"

Wolf seemed to ponder what to do with the child, before sighing and deciding to take his fortune elsewhere. Wolf moved to leave the alley, leaving the near-catatonic teen alone, only to reconsider when he heard hurried footsteps moving his way.

Glancing back at the teen who was unfit to protect himself, Wolf sighed before scaling a building that wasn't completely burning and hiding on a balcony, his form nothing but a shadow due to the roaring flames behind him.

"This way! I heard something over here!" A voice called out from the streets. Following behind were numerous villains, all of them itching for some action.

Once they entered the narrow alley, they saw the corpses of three of their fellow colleagues and a near-catatonic teen cradling himself a few meters away from the corpses.

"Oh shit." One of the villains piped up from his spot. "You think the brat did this?"

"Probably." Another one responded with a grimace. "The kid probs couldn't handle the way he killed those fuckers."

"You know what I think? I think that kid needs to die. Too dangerous." The villain leading the group of five, him included, cautiously readied his quirk, gathering the flames from the surrounding area into his hands. "For what it's worth, kid, nothin' personal."

Izuku, still too shocked to respond to the immediate threat to his life, did absolutely nothing to dodge his impending death. His life would've been forfeit at that moment if it weren't for Wolf lunging down from the top of the balcony before snapping his neck like child's play.

The flame gathered around the villains' hands and dispersed rather harshly, singeing the villains' he dragged along, as well as Wolf, who ignored the sudden heat wafting over him.

"Oi! He killed Hoshikawa! Get him!"

The rest of the villains charged at Wolf after witnessing him quickly dispatch their impromptu leader. Narrowing his eyes, Wolf readied his prosthetic once more and steadied his posture.

Wolf did nothing to stop the incoming attack, the heavy fist meeting his body like a boulder to earth. But in a flash of surprise, his form vanished, raven feathers flurrying as the villains watched, dumbfounded.

The next moment, shrieks of pain and agony echoed throughout the alley.

Skin-burning and meat-grilling, fire encompassed the forms of the charging villains. Due to the narrow alley, the villains could only attack in two lines, giving Wolf the means to use his shinobi prosthetic quite wonderfully.

Skidding to a halt, Wolf's form rematerialized as more raven feathers wafted off his figure. Looking back at the agonized villains, each of them sporting their own third degree burns.

Not wasting time, Wolf moved to dispatch each of them with ease, all of them too focused on their pain to recognize the danger coming from behind.

It was easy and less messy than the two he killed with his axe earlier. Just a simple twist and their neck was broken.

As he did so, he was confused by the villains who had extra parts in their bodies, or just had a special characteristic unique to them, such as black sclera and white, pinprick pupils, but ultimately quickly finished them off without a second thought.

Finished with the deed, Wolf looked upon the green-haired teen, only for him to see him once again looking at him with abject fear.

Shaking his head, Wolf left the teen alone in the alley, along with the corpses of eight villains. As his feet brought him out of the alley, his mind could only ask one question in a loop.

'Where am I?'

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As Izuku sat on the ground, crackling fire pelting his ears with their chaotic harmony, he couldn't help but look at all the villains' faces, all of them sporting horrified and agonized expressions.

Feeling his lunch once again rising to his throat, Izuku held it back, only for the dam to burst and have it scattered all over the ground anyway.

"Midoriya! Is that you!?" Izuku glanced at the source of the voice, leading his eyes to the exit of the alleyway. "What the hell happened here!?"

"… K-Kirishima…" Izuku weakly reached out his hand, only for it to limply fall to the ground, his body not strong enough to handle the sudden death and brutality of one of the villains against his own.

"Hang on there, Midoriya! I'll get you out of here!" Kirishima, the ever-loyal artificial redhead, grabbed Izuku's arm before pulling him up to his shoulders. "Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright…"

Needless to say, Kirishima did his best to ignore the dead bodies surrounding the floor. He didn't want to think about them for now, his main focus being to get Izuku out of here and bring him back to the others.