Erasermight Week

EMInktober24 ✨ V• Destined in the stars

▪️Au Soulmate & His Dark Materials inspired -

Aizawa /Pantera & Toshinori / Panda Rojo

EMInktober24 • VI ~ Wake the dead

EMInktober24 ✨ V• Destined in the stars

▪️Au Soulmate & His Dark Materials inspired -

Aizawa /Pantera & Toshinori / Panda Rojo

EMInktober24 • VI ~ Wake the dead

EMInktober24 ✨ V• Destined in the stars

▪️Au Soulmate & His Dark Materials inspired -

Aizawa /Pantera & Toshinori / Panda Rojo

EMInktober24 ✨ V• Destined in the stars

▪️Au Soulmate & His Dark Materials inspired -

Aizawa /Pantera & Toshinori / Panda Rojo

IV • Hanahaki

Toshinori florece la dalia violeta para aizawa.

▪️Dalia violeta : amor duradero leal/ mi amor por ti florece y crece cada día.

~ EMInktober24

✨EMInktober24

Toshinori stands amidst endless darkness. It seeps into his bones; burrows beneath his skin until it's touched every part of him. Consuming him. 

It almost feels welcoming. A part of Toshinori wants to let it welcome him. To finally let go, to rest. 

Simultaneously, somewhere deep within his foggy mind, there's an instinct that screams for him to fight it. That, despite the warmth, there is danger here. It would be foolish not to heed it, and that instinct has never steered him wrong before. 

Toshinori stands his ground, and the tendrils of darkness abate, if only for a moment. There's a sudden ringing in his ears - enough to make him sway on his feet. 

“You finally made it.” 

The voice is all at once painfully familiar and long-forgotten. It takes Toshinori a moment to recognise it. A moment until he spins around, eyes wide with shock. 

Nana looks just as he remembers her; kind and confident. 

Toshinori reaches out, uncertain. He's not sure he could bear it if she faded beneath his hands. 

But his master, of course, has no regard for his hesitation. She takes Toshinori's hand and pulls him into a crushing hug. 

She's solid against him. Toshinori returns the hug, too elated to question it. For the briefest of moments, that weight he's carried for decades slips away. 

“It’s good to see you again, Toshinori.” Nana's voice is soft. Fond. It makes Toshinori's heart ache. “I wish it were under less dire circumstances.” 

Toshinori's mind might be fogged, but he's still capable of connecting the dots. “If you're here… then…” 

The words die in his throat. Mirai’s vision has come true at last. 

The ringing in his head reaches its breaking point, and Toshinori almost stumbles at the force of it. It's as if his skull is being torn apart. 

Somewhere, distant and resounding, he can make out a voice. One he'd recognise anywhere. 

You're a damn fool. 

I love you. 

Come back to me. 

You promised you'd live. 

He turns away, eyes darting frantically over the empty landscape - as if Shouta will simply appear at his side. 

A hand rests firmly on his shoulder. Nana's expression is grave when he turns to face her. 

“All For One is alive.”

Toshinori says it like anything else. As though he's making a passing comment on one of the students’ moves or reminding Shouta of what groceries they need that week.

The words chill Shouta to the bone.

Steadying himself, he places his mostly finished lesson plan aside. He takes Toshinori's hand, careful and firm, watching his reaction. He's relieved when Toshinori doesn't flinch or otherwise resist the contact. It means Toshinori is still here with him; not too far lost in his own mind.

“What happened?” he asks softly.

Toshinori's gaze flickers up to him, then back down again. “Tsukauchi met with me today. The information he gave me is strictly confidential. He only told me given our history and who it pertains to.”

Shouta hums an affirmation. Toshinori doesn’t need to ask. Whatever he says is in confidence.

“The Nomu at the USJ attack…” At that, Toshinori looks up to Shouta, expression taut with concern and guilt, gauging his response. When Shouta meets his gaze steadily, he deems it okay to continue. “He had multiple quirks. The only explanation is that those quirks were given to him by someone with that power. Someone like...”

“All For One,” Shouta finishes.

“Yes.” Toshinori’s voice is grim. “It’s the only reasonable answer. Which means... I failed.”

Wordlessly, Shouta pulls him into a hug. Toshinori clings to him like a ship to an anchor, burying his face into Shouta’s chest.

“I don’t know if I can beat him again this time. Not like this.”

“We’re all here with you, Toshinori.” Shouta brushes a gentle hand through his hair. “I am here with you.”

Toshinori bites back a sob. “I’m sorry. This isn’t your fight.”

Shouta has never seen All Might fight without that obnoxious smile.

He used to despise it. First from a cold, impersonal distance - curling his lip at the overconfident, theatrical display. That was simple. Easy.

Then he started to hate it for what it does to Toshinori. How that false smiled masked everything true and wonderful about him for the sake of image. How Shouta started to find comfort in Toshinori’s real smile against all odds. The one that’s more subtle and harder to come by, and all the more captivating for it.

There’s no smile now. All Might is fighting again, desperate and bold, and all Shouta can see is fury.

(Toshinori trembles as he recounts the story. It’s clinical and distant, like he’s reciting a textbook instead of his own memories. He doesn’t spare the gory details. The seemingly endless battle. The rage and pain driving him on more than any of those flashy ideals he touts as All Might. What it was like to feel a man die beneath his hands.  

Shouta holds him through it all, and wonders how any of them could have been blind enough to miss this.)

The dust clears, and Toshinori stands in All Might’s place. Even through the frantic camera footage, Shouta can clearly see the tremble in his outstretched fist. The image leaves a pit in his stomach, an icy dread that grounds him in place.

Toshinori looks empty. Defeated. Like he’s finally hit that finish line they both knew was coming.

Suddenly, absurdly, Shouta thinks he would give anything to see that fearless smile again.

(“I don't regret it,” Toshinori whispers. “I killed a man, and I can't bring myself to regret it. What does that make me?”