Chapter 86

Dabi moved slowly through the forest, almost lazily.

His shoes kicked up clouds of ash as he passed, while his deadened gaze took in the surroundings. Everything was ruin and smoke, the trees reduced to pyramids of black ash.

He could see the sea from the unobstructed view he'd created for himself, and soon even the beach.

Dabi stopped when he saw the teenage girls standing at the edge of the forest. They were quivering like leaves, but they were staring at him fiercely.

He was disappointed that none of them had thought of jumping into the sea to escape him.

He would have loved boiling them alive.

He raised his arms in a theatrical gesture.

- Come on, show me what you've got !

In no time, the tall brunette began throwing open bottles of water at him.

Thick smoke rose from the hot floor where the water had hit, obscuring his view of the surroundings for more than two meters.

- Now !

The ground shook again at the other teen's quirk, but this time it was different. It was like an earthquake that shook the entire forest, making Dabi curse.

Man-sized cracks opened up in the ground, tearing the scorched earth apart.

Momo clutched the flash ball between her arm and torso before shooting a salvo of rubber bullets at the villain. Air holes opened in the smoke where the bullets passed, while the ground continued to rumble.

Momo knew it wouldn't last long: this was the first time Jiro had used his Quirk at full power, and she herself didn't know its limits.

Momo's analytical side couldn't help but think that such an attack would have been more appropriate in a city : there, the villain would have been buried under buildings and would have no chance to escape.

Momo opened her gun and reloaded with new bullets : she could only fire in a certain area, otherwise she'd risk hitting Toru to the villain's left or Tsuyu and Jiro to his right.

A new flurry of bullets whistled through the air. The ground shook for a few more seconds, then stopped rumbling. Momo smiled with pride when she saw that the cracks had spread all the way to her.

She fired her last bullet and then stopped, her heart pounding. It was all up to Toru now.

She was so focused on watching the smoke, binoculars in her eyes, that she almost screamed in terror when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

- Shh, it's just us, Jiro panted.

Momo loosened her grip on the object she'd been holding under her jacket.

- What's wrong? You've seen her ?

Jiro shook her head.

- Too much smoke. But since we can't hear the other psychopath, I think she made it

The steam began to settle, now that the water was gone.

A gust of wind swept away all the remaining smoke at once.

Jiro fell backwards, eyes wide open. Tsuyu stood stunned, unable to look away. Momo had gotten to her feet without noticing, her blood pounding like a heart in her ears.

At the top of the gentle slope, the villain stood in perfect condition, holding Toru by the throat.

Toru kicked her feet into the air and clawed at the villain's hands with her fingernails.

He didn't even look at her, too busy enjoying the pain of the other girls.

- Poor strategy, if you ask me. I expected better of you, future heroes.

Jiro raised her hand pleadingly.

- Wait, plea-

Toru's screams tore through the forest as she was burned alive.

Her body writhed against the villain's hand as he laughed out loud and cast his cruel eyes over the horrified girls.

Jiro cried silently, unable to look away. Tsuyu threw up. 

Toru gradually stopped struggling, losing the last of her strength.

The villain threw her to the ground as if she were worthless. Dabi turned to his congregation, reveling in the effect he was producing.

- Who wants to be the next-

Momo raised her gun and fired three times at the villain.

One bullet pierced his skull, another his throat, another his heart. There was a deathly silence as everyone realized what she had just done.

The villain's eyes rolled back into their sockets as he fell backward.

Breathing heavily and red-faced, Momo slowly lowered her pistol. Her blood coursed coldly through her veins and her skin burned.

Her hair stuck to her forehead: she felt as if she was swimming in oil. She felt dirty, so dirty, so, so dirty-

- -omo ! Momo !

Momo realized that Jiro had grabbed her by the shoulders and was shaking her.

- You okay ?

Suddenly, Momo realized that she still had the gun in her hands.

She let go of it as if it had burned her and pulled away in horror.

- We- we have to go to Toru, she murmured. Maybe we...

There was a smell of charred flesh and burnt hair.

Jiro didn't dare to say anything else for fear that Momo would have a panic attack and lose it completely.

- Yes, of course, we have to get her back to the camp so we can treat her.

Having a clear and precise goal calmed Momo down enough to keep herself from collapsing just yet.

Jiro made sure that they took a short detour to avoid the villain's body.

Momo didn't notice.

Tsuyu could hardly breathe in such a hot place, but she forced herself forward for Toru's sake.

Momo was in shock, and someone else would have to help Jiro get Toru back to the camp.

She stopped a short distance back, not far from the body of the villain.

She didn't dare look at either of them, afraid of what she might see.

Even if what Momo had done was morally reprehensible, she had saved their lives. Without her...

Cold fingers wrapped themselves around Tsuyu's ankle.

- Tsu-tsuyu ! Momo shouted

The teenager looked down at the villain who scrutinized her with his terrible blue eyes.

Confusion prevented her from moving, as the bullet was still lodged between his eyebrows, but no blood flowed from it.

- Did I scare you ?

He laughed.

And then he exploded in a cloud of white smoke.

*

Aizawa straightened in his seat as he watched the dormitories explode.

The tremors were so strong that even the computers in the control room shook; in a fraction of a second, half of the cameras in the rest area went offline.

Aizawa jumped out of his seat, grabbed the ladder from under the bed and placed it in the left corner of the room.

He climbed up and punched the ceiling with his fist, shouting for the other to hear:

- Come down, it started !

He jumped off the ladder and ran away without another word, his mind already busy listing all the places where he'd last seen the students.

Behind him, one of the screens showed the forest, where a black-haired villain could be seen smiling at a camera before it was drowned in a flood of fire.

From then on, it was as if an epidemic of black screens had struck the control room : every camera in every sector was either melted down, manually extinguished, or reduced to dust by bluish fingers.

Some cameras had been missed, but none of those surrounding the desert had been turned on yet.

Aizawa used his capture sling to cling to a beam in the building before flying over the stairs and landing with a thud in front of the open classrooms.

He rushed into the first classroom, where he knew he'd seen students half an hour earlier.

- Everyone, listen carefully, we're-

Aizawa froze and widened his eyes.

- Ai-aizawa sensei ?

Standing in the middle of the four teenagers was Aizawa Shota, who looked at his double with an equally surprised expression.

*

My eyes rolled back into their sockets.

- ...heart.... lightning....

- ....no choice.... die....

An electric blast shock shook my body.

I arched back against the ground as my muscles spasmed uncontrollably.

My fingers dug into the soft earth, my teeth grinding together. My back was hot, burning, boiling, horribly and unbearably boiling-

Someone snapped their fingers.

- Look over here

A cold hand gripped my chin and forced me to look into the light.

I could feel the sweat rolling down my burning temples, soaking my T-shirt and my blurry eyes-

My pupils contracted to two slits under the white beam.

- He's conscious

Black specks danced in my vision and my ears buzzed.

I thought I could hear the footsteps of half a dozen people around me, and it was so, so hot-

I screamed.

- Shit, shut him up !

A piece of cloth was forced into my mouth as I tried to get to my knees. I had to get away from them, from what they were doing to me, but my back...

The pain radiated so intensely that it sent me to the floor in the next second.

For a split second, the hands on my arms had become unreal, almost as if they'd gone right through me before becoming material again.

- He almost got us !

- Can't we do something about the pain ?

I panted like a dog, my soaked hair clinging to my face, streaming with tears of pain and lukewarm sweat.

My teeth sank into the gag as I screamed until my throat was ripped open.

Screaming was the only thing keeping me from falling asleep, because falling asleep- falling asleep-

- Hey, stay awake, you hear me ? Look at me, Shoto !

I think I got slapped.

My eyes fluttered for a moment.

Again I saw a blur, shapes and colors blending to form patches of light. There was green and brown, and red nibbling at it.

At the bottom was a yellow spot that didn't move. It was a bright yellow surrounded by a pile of dark red.

I don't know why, but all my attention was focused on that expanding yellow and red.

I think the yellow should move. Why isn't it moving ?

One of the voices blocked my view of the yellow spot.

- Don't think about him, think about yourself

My eyes turned to the voice.

One eye was cyan, the other gray. I'd seen this somewhere before.

- Are you finished ?

Voices are the same, like twins. 

- Give us thirty seconds and we can start closing.

Yes, twins. Surrounded by twins.

- Hold him! Cold hands cupped my face.

- You're doing great, man, you know that ? One last effort and it won't hurt anymore

I felt something being ripped from my back, but I didn't have the strength to scream.

My eyelids grew heavy.

- Stay with me, Shoto. If you fall now, we're done for

I forced myself to stay awake because the voice was desperate and I hated it when I was desperate.

To be desperate was to be pathetic, and to be pathetic was to be pitied and pity-

- That's it, I've had the last of it

I heard a high-pitched sound, the same sound you'd hear if you broke a bottle and rubbed the shards together.

The twin's shoulders slumped. He ran a shaking hand through his hair.

- You gave us quite a scare, dude

I felt something cold run down my back, but it wasn't unpleasant.

All the voices stopped speaking: I think they were relieved.

I slowly rolled my shoulders and felt the pain gradually fade away in favor of constant warmth.

My skin still burned, as if I would burst out at any moment, but it was... bearable.

It only took a few more seconds for my vision to return to more or less normal.

- Can you breathe properly ?

I nodded.

My clone grabbed my mask with his index finger and pulled it over my face.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember the last events. A confusing flash of lightning and a warning cry came back to me.

- ... I remember being with Denki and his card exploding

Another clone came and sat cross-legged next to the first.

He pulled my sword from its sheath and sharpened the blade with one of my knives.

- It wasn't just his card that exploded, but the dormitories as well

My memories were dichotomous: I remembered Denki's face riddled with shrapnel, and I remembered seeing myself from the outside, sacrificing myself to save myself.

It made my head spin.

- If we hadn't been so paranoid as to create two clone units in addition to the first one, we would have been screwed

The first clone explained :

- The one of us you left in the dormitories got between you and the explosion at the last second. He absorbed most of the blast, but you were still badly hurt.

The second clone's movements became frantic.

I knew myself too well not to understand what he was thinking.

One of the clones tending to my back continued:

- You almost lost consciousness, and we all felt our imminent demise. If we hadn't rushed to you so quickly...

- Fortunately, we were able to keep you awake long enough to nurse you back to health

I was struck by the irony of the situation.

- Technically, I have saved myself

The clones snickered.

- Yeah you did

- As usual

Silence settled over us as I felt flesh grow back over my bones, muscles and tendons fusing together.

My first clone no longer looked me in the eye, but the hands gripping his thighs were shaking.

The second clone was sharpening the sword so fast I thought it would catch fire from the friction.

- So much for our plan, huh ?

Their dark eyes looked up at me.

I wondered if this was how everyone saw me when I was angry : the crazed look and the hands shaking with excitement at the idea of destroying the first thing within my reach.

- If you knew how angry I am, you wouldn't have the slightest desire for my memories to come back to you.

A small smile formed on my lips.

Our psychiatrist would be happy to hear that.

- Our psychiatrist would be happy to hear that

- The condition of your back...

The second clone stopped the knife blade against the sword with a screech.

- I want to kill them

The first clone gave him a sideways glance before turning to me

- We'd planned to have them kill the students to make Aizawa pay...

- I know what we planned

- But they came after us

- I know

- We have to make them pay

I smiled faintly.

- Why are you trying to convince me ? You're me, you know exactly what I'm going to do.

The clones' eyes lit up with an evil glint.

They exchanged knowing glances.

- ... if it gets out of hand, say it was Aizawa who forced you to do it

They raised two fingers in greeting before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Their memories washed over me like a dark wave.

More than the images, it was their feelings - their fear, their anger, and especially their rage - that left a lasting impression on me.

I had never been shaped by the experiences of my clones, but for the first time in my life I felt as if I were experiencing their memories as if they were my own.

I could see myself face down on the ground, my bloody back torn apart by shards of glass and splinters of wood, unable to even crawl. I could see the tears streaming down my mud-stained face, hear the mournful cries and grunts of suffering emanating from my throat, smell the sickeningly warm smell of my own blood, feel the pain in my flesh with each hastily removed piece of glass...

Knowing that despite all my efforts - all the hard work of these sixteen fucking years of existence - I was still at the mercy of something stronger than myself drove me mad.

My hand began to shake uncontrollably.

- We're done.

The first of the last two clones exploded in a cloud of smoke. A wave of furor swept over me.

I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself.

I think I'm going to do something fucking stupid.

The second clone was sewing up my sweater with chakra.

- Your wounds are healed, but we don't have time for cosmetics

I slipped on the leather straps he had tied behind my back.

He reattached the scabbard and the sword.

- Slaughter them

Another puff of smoke.

I stood, stretching my neck.

My muscles were hot, but they were functional: it would be enough.

I turned to Denki.

Unconscious and riddled with metal fragments, he lay on his back under a tree that had caught fire.

His face was open, as if a knife had been stuck in it and wriggled around, tearing flesh and slicing skin.

Blood flowed in rivers from his wounds, tracing scarlet furrows across his unnaturally pale skin and forming dark clots in his hair.

The more I looked at him, the less I could tell that the mass of bloody flesh before my eyes was actually a human being who had once had a face.

I ran two fingers under his nose: he was still breathing, albeit laboriously.

Above us, the branches began to crack under the onslaught of the fire.

I grabbed Denki by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out of reach of the flames and the rest of the building that might still collapse.

I left him burning in a place where anyone passing by on the main street of the camp would see him, villain or not.

- I won't waste my chakra healing you, Kaminari. Staying alive must only depend on oneself and one's own strength

Maybe he'd bleed to death before one of the students found him - maybe even one of the villains would get to him first and finish the job.

- If you die, rest assured that I'll send others with you to keep you company in the afterlife

I felt tremendously calm.

All my thoughts were clear and vivid in a way I'd never experienced before : I knew who I was going to kill, I knew how I was going to kill them, I knew why I was going to kill them.

I activated my Sharingan, the three tomoes spinning lazily in my eyes.

No need to hide it, since no one who sees it tonight will live long enough to talk about it.

*

Author's note :

It's gonna be one hell of a night.

If you want to read far ahead of schedule, you can do so on my P@treon, Nar_cisseENG

Power stones goal : 250

See you in the next update everyone !