"Oh, I feel as if I'm hero course material already."

Ryou let out a haughty laugh as he continued to lord over Izuku's captive spirit. He looked over the body of Izuku that he possessed, grinning with unveiled amusement as his eyes wandered, frowning with contempt only when he laid eyes on the numerous scars crisscrossing Izuku's hands.

All the while, Izuku vainly struggled against the mighty vice of Dark Shadow's claws. He grit his teeth and squirmed to no avail, and with each jerk of his spirit's torso it seemed the Hyou-possessed Tokoyami silently bid his enthralled Quirk to tighten its grip on Izuku evermore.

Amidst his squirming, Izuku felt many soft tremors rumbling out of Dark Shadow's form. He ceased for a moment and noticed then that the enigmatic Quirk beast's eyes were contorted and narrow from something akin to pain, its shaking directed not at Izuku, but rather the person controlling Tokoyami and it.

"S-sorry—" Dark Shadow quietly rasped out to Izuku. "Sorry, Midoriya—"

"You were foolish to think you could conceal yourself from me, Midoriya," Ryou's chastising voice drowned out Dark Shadow's sorrow. He plopped Izuku's backpack onto the desk beside him; aside from a barely discernible twitch of movement along the seams, Izuku wondered why his cloak had fallen still.

"I suppose I should give you some credit for effort," Ryou continued. "You simply didn't know what I know now: that our Quirks are not quite as identical as I once believed."

"What are you saying?" Izuku choked out.

"I don't leave a body behind like you do," Ryou informed him with a sly smile, and Izuku could scarcely believe his ears. Not leave a body behind? Wasn't that the entire idea of traversing the astral plane, that your soul had to be separate from your body in order to do it?

"Don't believe me?" Ryou asked, perhaps seeing the incredulity in the eyes of Izuku's soul. He phased his astral arm out of Izuku's physical body, letting it fall limp, and slowly waved it before the boy. Sure enough, within moments, instead of flesh giving way to spirit as Izuku was accustomed to, the inverse occurred, and spirit gave way to flesh. Ryou's hand and arm slowly became corporeal, as if his body was materializing from out of his soul itself.

"I don't believe it!" Izuku groaned out. "Your body and soul literally become one when you shift into the astral plane!?"

"There you go with that nonsensical lingo of yours again," Ryou said offhandedly as his astral hand phased back into Izuku's body. "Yes, I suppose that's one way to describe my Ghost Body Quirk."

"And you have Tokoyami possessed as well!?" Izuku demanded to know, shifting his eyes over to his enslaved friend.

"I have taken your body as my own for the time being," Ryou said. "My brother Hyou has taken the body of your classmate."

Izuku eyed the possessed Tokoyami with surprise, and Hyou responded by twisting the normally impassive face of Izuku's friend into one of malice, equaling that of his twin brother. Could the twins possibly have identical Quirks?

"I see the gears in your head turning," Hyou spoke with a smirk, his voice nearly identical to Ryou's save for it being of a slightly higher pitch or two. "No, my superpower can possess people, but I do not have Ghost Body like my brother. My Quirk is simply called...Hijacking." At this, Izuku watched in revulsion as a pair of arms seemingly sprouted out of his friend's shoulders, and a head and neck followed out of Tokoyami's own. The boy's face was indeed nearly identical to that of Ryou, all except the hair—his long, dark bangs drooped over his left eye, mirroring that of his twin brother, whose hair covered his right. "I can morph my physical body into the bodies of others, hijacking control and bending them and their powers to my will."

Several things seemed to click in Izuku's mind in that moment. He recalled his eavesdropping of Kizuka's words to Shinso at the end of last week, how they all had Quirks that were useless for fighting against robots in the entrance exam, and that they were 'evil' to boot. It all made sense now: Shinso's Brainwashing, Ryou's Ghost Body, and Hyou's Hijacking couldn't affect robots, only other people! And seeing them all in action, Izuku didn't doubt that their powers could be perceived as 'evil' by others, and even in spite of his current predicament, Izuku carried a great deal of sympathy for them.

This revelation certainly answered the questions Izuku had regarding Ryou and Hyou's possessions, but it still didn't explain the glaring problem currently squeezing his spectral diaphragm. How could Tokoyami's Dark Shadow Quirk possibly touch and even harm his soul? Did it also somehow exist on the astral plane as he did now?

"Hyou, you bagged yourself a special one this time," Ryou commented to his brother, patting Dark Shadow on its head as it too struggled as vainly against Hyou's control as Izuku was against it. "For it to be able to interact with both physical objects and souls...this superpower would have taken Tokoyami far in life if he had been fortunate enough to not get in our way."

"Thank you, brother." Hyou replied. "I don't think I'll tire of this one as easily as I have ones in the past."

Izuku grit his teeth—this time in anger. He could hardly stand to listen to these twins denigrate and lord over Tokoyami's will and keep his Quirk captive as well, as if it wasn't fully sentient and undeserving of such treatment, too.

"Well, let's not waste anymore time, shall we?" Ryou turned toward Shinso, who remained guarded and silent as the scene between Izuku and the Youma twins unfolded before him. Ryou, in Izuku's body, gave Shinso an unreadable smile, and Shinso responded with an unexpressive look. "We can go along and descend to the basement to meet up with Kizuka. Hyou can handle Midoriya and join us before the ritual is complete and the staff catch wind that something's afoot."

Shinso remained still after Ryou spoke, as if he were weighing his options. His plan from the beginning had been to use his Quirk on Kizuka and stop whatever it was Club Fear had planned; he'd only wished Kizuka had divulged more than she had about their scheme. He had to tread carefully, even though he had not been attacked by the sentient shadow and it still seemed he carried their trust. His plot remained unchanged, but his rashness at trying to keep Midoriya and Tokoyami out of his way allowed Ryou and Hyou to catch him off guard like this. And speaking of Midoriya...

Shinso's eyes flickered toward Izuku's who returned the stare. In those brief moments, an unspoken agreement was forged between them that Shinso should continue on, to stop Kizuka once he had the opportunity.

Also in that brief moment, at least from Izuku could decipher, there appeared to be an unspoken apology in Shinso's seemingly expressionless eyes as well.

Shinso nodded to Ryou and turned away without a word, making his way back into the cluttered closet toward the uncovered entranceway into U.A's labyrinthine maintenance rooms. He reached the ladder near the end of the dim corridor and, giving the 1-D classroom one last glance, descended.

Ryou looked askance toward Izuku's writhing soul as Shinso disappeared from view, baring Izuku's teeth in a sadistic grin. "The wild card is out of play now," he whispered to Izuku before he began to walk after Shinso. "You're not the only one who thought walking in blind was a good idea."

No, Shinso...!

Shinso didn't truly have their trust after all. Izuku didn't know why or how, perhaps Shinso had slipped up somehow over the weekend or perhaps it was during their earlier confrontation, but the brainwashing boy's treachery had been laid bare for all to see it seemed.

"Shin—ah...!" Izuku tried to cry out a warning of some kind, hoping his voice could reach to Shinso before he descended too far along into whatever trap was waiting for him down there, but at that moment Dark Shadow gave another vicious squeeze of his chest, rendering his speech indiscernible beyond a pained gasp.

"This is going to sound rich coming from me, Midoriya," Ryou began, "but I wonder if a soul can bleed?" He turned to address his brother. "Squeeze him until he pops ectoplasm, Hyou! I'll be back after squaring away everything with Kizuka. Ta-ta."

With a final condescending wave, Ryou departed after Shinso, leaving Izuku to a presumably grisly fate. A dark limb covered the boy's mouth to silence any screams as his very soul began to be slowly crushed in the enthralled Dark Shadow's baleful clutch.

Barely a minute or two had passed for Shinso between descending to the dimly lit basement level and Ryou catching up to him with a light jog. The maintenance rooms were silent, save for the rushing hiss of air conditioning in the vents, the whir of fans and covered circuitry, and the odd clang among the intricate piping system running the length, width, and height of the school. Izuku's pained groans could not be heard down here.

And Shinso much rather preferred that to tolerating the temporary company of the malignant asshole wearing Izuku's body. He was practically counting down the minutes to when he had Kizuka brainwashed and this whole affair ended.

"Good thing we were there to stop Midoriya from using you to pull off any mischief," Ryou said a little too sweetly for Shinso's liking, giving him a slap on the back to boot. "Heck, for all we know he might've been planning to possess you. And we might've been none the wiser if we hadn't arrived when we did! Not to mention you brainwashed them, making our jobs that much easier."

Shinso uttered a grunt as Ryou gave him a slap, sensing it was more half-hearted than hearty. He shrugged it off and gave only a nod of acknowledgment before continuing on, trying to maintain his focus and composure. It was important for him to stop Kizuka first before their little 'ritual' took off, mainly because he was still in the dark about what this ritual even entailed. He had pressed for answers the day he'd been invited, but she'd kept him thoroughly at arms' length since the beginning, which he found strange since she sought him out for membership into her little cult, not the other way around.

I guess it doesn't matter, Shinso thought. Whatever half-baked plot they've got up their sleeves, it'll all fall apart once I have Kizuka brainwashed. She need only respond to me once, same for Ryou.

A snap of cold shudders Shinso out of his thoughts. Strange...there were no air conditioning vents nearby. Kizuka came into sight, her body and hair outlined by the corridor's yellow glow, as he and Ryou rounded the next corner, and Shinso was immediately put off by her for some reason he couldn't quite place. She'd been slowly pacing back and forth, alone among the labyrinthine corridors, with neither that strange red book she'd been showing off to him or any of the other 1-A students he knew she'd lure down here anywhere to be seen.

Why is she here? Shinso thought of Kizuka's sudden appearance. I thought she'd be further in...

"Just you two?" Kizuka suddenly called out. Her voice was without surprise or suspicion, yet seemed to demand an answer all the same.

Shinso maintained his composure and silence as he anxiously prepared to spring his trap. She needed to respond to his words for this to work.

"Hyou will be here shortly with Tokoyami's body," Ryou explained as succinctly as possible, catching Shinso off guard a second time by continuing to walk toward and then past Kizuka until his form was visible in the corridor no longer; he seemed to disappear into the depths of pipes and ventilation.

Blinking, Shinso became aware that Kizuka's eyes and attention were laid squarely on him; not once had they drifted to Ryou as he passed her by.

"Are you ready, Shinso?" Kizuka asked, putting her sharp teeth on full display with a cattish grin. "By this day's end, our entry into the hero course will be all but secure. It will be our first step toward true, genuine freedom."

"...I am," Shinso replied quietly. This was it, was all he could think. Now she need only respond. "Are you?"

Kizuka gave a soft hum. "I am—"

Shinso tensed as he mentally moved to activate his Quirk, attempting to use her meager response to impose his will over her mind. There was a pregnant pause in Kizuka's sentence.

And a pallor of dread descending upon Shinso's visage as he realized his brainwashing failed. Nothing had changed in Kizuka's demeanor or posture, nothing to indicate she was under his control, and indeed, trying to activate his Quirk on her felt like firing a gun with no rounds in it.

"—but you aren't." Kizuka finished her statement, her grin as disingenuous as it was seconds before.

Visibly startled now, Shinso again tried to activate his Quirk. Again and again he tensed and released, and Kizuka was no closer to becoming brainwashed than the first time.

"Shinso, Shinso, Shinso," Kizuka chided the indigo-haired youth, "I knew this betrayal was coming and I'm still disappointed."

What? Shinso dared not blink as Kizuka taunted his plan now dashed upon the pipes surrounding them.

"And to think I was truly sincere in my invitation to you last week," Kizuka sighed. "But you just had to stick to those pesky convictions of yours and play the hero when you're not even in that course yet, didn't you? I offered you freedom, and you chose to be a slave to your morals."

"It doesn't take much pretending to be a hero to show that I'm more hero course material than you are," Shinso hissed.

"And look at where your pretending led you," Kizuka retorted. "Your oh-so clever attempt to manipulate me, backfired because you didn't truly understand the scope of my Quirk."

"Your Fearmonger Quirk lets you see and project peoples' biggest fear!" Shinso said, his voice now slightly raised as his composure slipped.

"Wrong," she corrected in a cool manner. "I can see and project ALL of your fears, from the chiefest of your phobias to the most mundane of your miserable little insecurities. And what was one such fear that I found while I was flipping through your mind like a child's picture book?" She drilled her eyes into his. "You feared, no matter how slight, of what might happen should your attempt to brainwash me fail."

Shinso took a step back, his blood running bone cold as the realization dawned on him that he'd been had from the start.

Kizuka let loose a chilling giggle and waved goodbye to Shinso before slowly fading away into nothing.

I was talking to an illusion of hers all along! Shinso realized. An illusion born out of the fear she mentioned? No wonder my Quirk failed to work! That must be why Ryou kept walking and didn't stop, he also knew what I was planning and led me right into the trap!

As the false Kizuka illusion faded away completely, a frigid mass of ice rushed out of the dimness, overtaking Shinso's body as his guard was utterly dropped. Shinso could do naught but yell out in surprise as he found himself suddenly pinned to a wall behind columns of ice, reaching from ceiling to floor with intermittent gaps like prison bars.

The form of Shoto Todoroki strode into view, his expression as stolid as Shinso's was minutes prior.

"Hey!" Shinso barked as he struggled to breach his icy confines. "Let me go!"

What last dash of hope Shinso still possessed was being spent on the chance that Todoroki actually responded to his demand in a verbal manner.

That hope was wasted. Todoroki responded with little more than an empty, uninterested glance. Placing his hand against one of the columns of ice, Todoroki looked on as the gaps slowly became filled and Shinso was visible no more, obscured behind thick, glacial sheets.

From within his icy prison, Shinso could barely make out the red half of Todoroki's hair...and also that he was suddenly no longer alone. A dark, humanoid shape materialized above his being, as if it were radiating from out of Todoroki himself, and leered down at Shinso, frightening him greatly.

Shinso let out a panicked yell as dark tendrils slithered through the ice unhindered and coiled around his unfrozen abdomen, and all at once he was set upon by a great draining sensation. He yelled to no avail, and he knew it, too: from beneath the thick ice, his voice would sound muffled and indecipherable, rendering his Quirk unusable.

Aside from yelling to an audience of none, Shinso could only languish and contemplate how badly his plan to go about this alone blew up in his face.

Kizuka's ears perked as the faint mesmerizing rasp of her wraithlike ally's voice loftily bounced off the walls and ceilings around them, filling the corridor of their ritual with sweet whisperings of praise and promises to come.

"You did well, Shoto," the feminine voice would say. "Your sister is proud of the terror you instilled in that traitor."

Sure enough, it was Todoroki who strolled into view, with the phantom-like guise of his sister Fuyumi hovering over him, its lips close to his ear. Kizuka grinned; with Ryou by her side and their sacrifice here and ready, the only one not present was Hyou.

They could finally begin.

The stretch of corridor Kizuka had chosen was near the center of the basement, practically as far from any pathways down as could be. One might think this corridor would be even dimmer than all the rest, but it was actually lit aglow by a dismal luminescence. Levitating before Kizuka, with pages splayed open, was the red tome—the Somnum Exterreri. The page she had the tome turned to had the imprisoning rune keeping her ally at bay on full display, a series of intricate arcs and crisscrosses that pulsed with an otherworldly light.

Chanting an incantation under her breath, Kizuka began her work with all the knowledge she had gleamed since acquiring the book. The Rune of Niśā glowed brighter still, the ink forming its arcane shape seemingly lifting off the page it was etched on and dripping onto the concrete floor in thick, viscous globs. The enchanted ooze quickly spread out into many different trails, all inevitably linking back with one another as the seal was recreated in an enlarged form on the floor.

A disheartening cry shattered what quiet peace Kizuka was enjoying in the first steps toward her perceived freedom. Thoroughly annoyed, Kizuka rolled her eyes toward the source of the interruption: an ensnared Uraraka, bound tightly by dark, ethereal thorns wrapping firmly around the length of her body. She stood off to the side beside an equally entrapped Jiro and Kaminari, each covered by dark vines of their own. The books she had brought to indulge in the lie that was Kizuka's literature club lay scattered around her as she fought uselessly against her spectral bonds, unable to bring her hands together to use her Quirk. She alone struggled, for Jiro and Kaminari were completely enraptured by whatever trance Kizuka had weaved over them, leaving only her to display some form of defiance against their captors.

"Stop this, please!" Uraraka cried out to Kizuka. "Why are you doing this!? Let us go!"

With a groan, Kizuka stomped over to Uraraka, cupping and squeezing the hapless girl's cheeks between her fingers to shut her up. "If you insist on crying, then I insist that you cry to yourself quietly!" she hissed to her. "Stew in your own misery without subjecting us to it, will you? Your whining is ruining my big day!"

Kizuka slowly gazed back toward the pulsing rune on the floor, the one that had literally oozed out of her tome. The swirling vines keeping the three 1-A students captives grew longer still, reaching out in a frenzied flail toward the great rune and connecting to it as shadowy sinews keeping a larger, more dreadful mass intact. Immediately Uraraka groaned more weakly than before, and her body wobbled as some foul essence flowed from out of her being and into the rune.

"Feel any better?" Kizuka asked her tauntingly. "That drain you must surely be feeling—that's all your fear, despair, and hatred flowing out of your very being and into that rune. The total sum of all of you and your friends' negativity will fill the seal to its breaking point. So do as I said: please stew in your own misery for us, will you?"

But Uraraka's defiance had not yet been snuffed out. With Kaminari at least by her side, she felt some semblance of hope that they may yet escape. With that glimmer of hope, the dark vines surrounding her wilted ever-so slightly, and her eyes caught sight of a familiar form dimly illuminated in the gloomy glow of the rune.

"Midoriya!" She cried out to the boy with that unmistakable tuft of wild, green hair standing a ways off.

In her misplaced hope, however, she knew not of Ryou's deception until it was too late.

Uraraka saw what she thought was Izuku turn toward her with a briefly inquisitive eye, before an uncannily wicked grin sprouted on the boy's typically innocent face. He squished his own cheeks together, mocking what Kizuka had just done to her. "Gosh, Uraraka!" Ryou cried out in a voice that mocked Izuku's. "What are the odds of seeing you down here? I'll save you in a jiffy!"

And as he leaned back and laughed derisively, joined by Kizuka's snickering, Uraraka knew immediately that the person before her was not the Midoriya that she knew. Such condescension and mockery did not fit that boy at all, and to see it exhibited under the guise of her classmate roused in her yet more anger, letting it flow into the rune unwittingly.

"Y-you're not Midoriya!" Uraraka stammered angrily. "What have you done with him!?"

"Oh, the real Midoriya?" Ryou pondered playfully. "I suppose my brother's already popped your friend like a grapefruit by now."

Uraraka shuddered in disbelief. Midoriya? Killed? It couldn't be...she could scarcely believe that Midoriya, who was bar none one of the best of her class with his Energy Reign Quirk—a Quirk that could open up portals for crying out loud!—could have fallen like this imposter said!

But even as she cast Ryou's words aside as obvious deceitful lies, Uraraka's resolve wavered, her defiance cracked. The dark, sinewy vines that wilted from the glimmers of hope radiating from her soul grew thick and sharper than before, rejuvenated by her growing despair.

"T-Todoroki..." Uraraka weakly muttered, but her enraptured classmate showed her no heed or care.

His eyes remained firmly fixed on the pulsing rune before him, his ears blocked all other noise aside from the spectral voice of his faithful sister. The phantasm remained hovering over Todoroki's body, its arms draped over his shoulders and across his chest as it continued to whisper softly into his ear. All the while, his gaze stayed blank and vacant.

Kizuka watched the rune glow ever darker as an additional dark thread slithered out of the dim corridor behind her, latching onto the seal. Likely the one attached to Shinso in his icy tomb, Kizuka thought with no small amount of pleasure. We are on the brink now.

"Your brother Hyou is taking his sweet time," Kizuka said offhandedly to Ryou. "I thought he would've finished and been down here by now."

"Hyou has Tokoyami's body and Quirk hijacked," Ryou said with a shrug. "He also has Midoriya's soul in his clutches. Let him have his fun."

"Izuku Midoriya..." Kizuka rolled the name off her tongue, looking askance at the body Ryou stole. "Hard to believe there was someone in the hero course with a Quirk nearly identical to your own."

Ryou frowned and clenched Izuku's scarred hands into fists. "Don't remind me."

"Hyou can have his fun, so long as he does not underestimate that boy," the once melodic voice whispering sweet nothings into Todoroki's ear spoke in a deep and menacing tone. The white-haired ethereal visage of Fuyumi Todoroki dissolved as it lifted itself from the boy's body. The white hair blackened into a nebulous haze, and the fair sisterly face morphed into a grim, white scowl with deep, sunken pits for eyes.

"Izuku Midoriya is the student of the man who bested me nearly six years ago," the shade informed them. "The man who has kept me tethered to that accursed tome: Stephen Strange!" The shadow swirled angrily at the utterance of that name. "Possessing his body may mean little if your brother is careless and allows his soul to roam free before it withers from prolonged separation!"

"Why did you not enthrall him yourself if you believe he poses such a risk?" Kizuka asked.

"I dare not challenge a practitioner of the mystic arts in my current state," the shadow replied. "I cannot be assured of my victory until after the sacrifice. Only when the seal keeping me tethered is broken and I have a new corporeal form to derive everlasting sustenance from will I feel confident in meeting Strange's disciple in battle."

"And beyond even that..." the 'King of Dreams' continued. "I sense a certain...resistance in this boy. He is not so readily afflicted by fear and despair as one might expect. That is why the student of Strange must not be underestimated!"

A resistance...? Kizuka mused over her ally's words. An outright resistance to fear and despair was something she'd never seen before, let alone considered. Sure, there were ways to get around her Quirk (as was the case with all Quirks), but the idea that she could not render Izuku helpless to his own fears and sorrows...

Kizuka's gut twisted with vehemence; she could not stomach the thought of being unable to bring anyone down to their knees with her power, let alone someone like Izuku Midoriya, someone even her benefactor seemed to regard as a possible threat. And if Izuku was truly a possible threat...

She would demolish his so-called resistance and break him.

"And what better way to break him than through the second part of our plan?" Kizuka asked aloud, turning her attention back toward the captive 1-A students. "What better way to break him than through the despair of his own friends?"

"If the Quirk that Hyou has hijacked is truly as strong as you say it is, then he should have no problem holding his own against these three," Kizuka continued, looking over her captive audience devilishly. She strolled over to Uraraka, squeezing her cheeks yet again. "Hear that, 'hero'?" she asked. "Not only did your friend fail, but now you'll have to fight the one who killed him!"

The dark vines shifted in shape, willed by Kizuka's malevolent words and will. Their thorns receded into their stalks, and their sinewy bodies grew thick with scales that glistened even in the gloomy dark of the rune's glow. The ends of the vines swayed back and forth until they split open, and twin fangs protruded from the new opening. The vines had morphed into blackened serpents that hissed and bit into the captured students' bodies, phasing inside and injecting their darkness to cloud their minds and souls further.

"—not dead," Uraraka groaned out as she endured Kizuka's torture. "Midoriya...not dead..."

"Whatever lets you sleep at night, dear," Kizuka replied, lifting Uraraka's head up so she could see with her own eyes the last shred of defiance fading entirely from the girl's. She took a couple steps back, looking over the thoughtless drones now standing at attention before her.

"Oh, I can't wait for tomorrow's headline," Kizuka spoke with glee. "It'll be something like this: 'Stress of Heroics Too Much For Students After USJ Attack? Multiple 1-A Students Expelled After Caught Brawling After School!'" She gave Ryou a knowing smile. "You're not going to hold back either, are you?"

"Of course not," Ryou said.

"Their fight will supply the last bit of despair—"

"KIZUKA!" A panicked scream rang down the corridor, echoing of pipes and ventilation. It was Hyou's voice. "RYOU! THEY'RE COMING—!"

The voice of Hyou suddenly cut out before it could finish, and the corridor fell back into silence as the lingering echoes slowly faded. Kizuka was rooted where she stood, rendered still by surprise and newfound uncertainty. The shadow was stoic and silent, perhaps contemplating that its words were not taken seriously and that Izuku had indeed been underestimated.

In stark contrast, Ryou seemed amused, almost happy even. Perhaps this sudden change in events would allow him to satiate his desire to fight and prove himself over Izuku once more. He would take Hyou's mistake not as a failure, but as an opportunity to be seized.

"Let him have his fun, huh?" Kizuka used Ryou's own words against him. "And 'they're' must mean Hyou has lost control of Tokoyami and that he's also free. Change of plans then! Ryou, we'll lure them down here—"

"No."

"What?" Kizuka blinked, unsure if she had heard him right.

"We'll stick with the original plan as much as we can," Ryou said, his eyes—Izuku's eyes—peering headlong down the dim corridor with a glint of excitement in them. "I want to meet him head-on. I'm going to settle this once and for all. I want to see—want to know—just what makes him hero course material."

You somehow overcame my brother, Midoriya? Ryou thought, excited at the prospect of getting to fight his self-proclaimed enemy yet again. That's fine. But now you'll have to overcome me!

"Let's go," he said aloud, addressing the 1-A thralls as he pointedly ignored Kizuka's protests. Ryou, in Izuku's body, led the controlled Kaminari, Jiro, and Uraraka down the dark hall, in the direction of Hyou's screams of warning.

"Why are you letting them go?" Kizuka whirled on the King of Dreams, who held true ultimate sway over their captives.

"Let the fodder pay out their role," the glaring visage replied. "Let us play ours. Do not lose focus just because something is not going according to plan completely."

Right, Kizuka reminded herself. The ritual.

The shade melted into the seal on the floor, preparing for its imminent freedom as it donned once more the affectionate voice of Fuyumi to call out to Shoto.

"Shoto," it beckoned the entranced boy, who had remained silent and still since arriving, closer and closer toward the Rune of Niśā, until, step by step at last, the prodigy's feet were approaching closer to the center.

So close... Kizuka could practically feel her skin crawling with impatience as she walked beside Shoto to help guide him toward the center. Heroics and Freedom are but a hair's breadth away. Once the despair of their fight seeps into this seal, it will surely break, and Kizuka Yuuku will be held back by society no longer! No one will deny the freedom that I deserve!

And just as she reveled in the fate she believed she was fast approaching, Kizuka also reveled in the lies she whispered into Todoroki's ear as he reached the center of the rune, her chosen sacrifice and source of everlasting sustenance for the King of Dreams.

"It won't be long now, Shoto," Kizuka snickered to him. "As promised, you will receive that which you most desire: to finally be rid of your father's wretched half that lies within you."

"You will finally be able to become a hero."

Author Notes

And that's Part 2 of 4 of Crashing Club Fear! I don't know if I managed to top last chapter, D. N. Works, but it certainly looks like I've done a good job at making things worse for Izuku and Co., huh? Izuku captured, Shinso imprisoned, Kizuka turning heroes-in-training into mindless drones and forcing them to fight one another, can this get any worse!? Scratch that, is it possible that this gets any better for them!?

Well, it will for you all anyway, as there's a lot to look forward to in Part 3: how did Izuku and Tokoyami overcome Hyou and escape his grasp? (don't worry, it's not getting skipped over!) How will Izuku's confrontation with Ryou and his possessed classmates be resolved? Can Izuku and Co. save Todoroki from becoming Kizuka's sacrifice?

D.N Works: As for what Strange might think of Ryou's astral Quirk and the anomaly that is Dark Shadow, you will get to see his thoughts and speculations at the end of this arc, so look forward to that!

Guest: Something like that, yes. But it's still a long ways off. I do not want this story to become just an Infinity War/Gauntlet story, but rather a story of Izuku's journey to becoming a fully fledged sorcerer, merely culminating in an arc like that. And it's not happening anytime soon.

hownice: Remember that Tokoyami and Izuku's initial plan didn't involve any fighting at all. They were merely to infiltrate, collect evidence, go alert the teachers afterwards. Their Plan B was to fight their way out only if they absolutely had to, but even then they did not foresee Shinso's intervention nor did they envision the full scope of Club Fear's schemes. Because of this, their plans were doomed to fail. As for Shinso, he's never needed a Plan B because up until this point he's never actively thought that there'd be a realistic chance that his Brainwashing power would let him down. It's a fear that he does have, albeit it's so slight that he doesn't consciously acknowledge it until Kizuka forces him to.

That's all I have for now! As always, comments/reviews are greatly appreciated, as I love reading what you all have to say and answering any questions you might have for me.

Until next time! Plus Ultra!