Fumikatz

WIP snow fantasy Tokoyami x Dark Shadow.

Chapter 7: The City Mouse and The Country Mouse

Shoji used his multiple arms to press against the sides of the heifer as she swayed and waddled away from him. Mooing in agony and restlessness, exhausted by the lengthy labor. With six arms at his disposal, he had two already encumbered in the birthing canal, fingers and thumbs wrapped well behind the unseen head of the baby calf, he curled his fingers around behind the back of what he could feel was the skull. The second set of hands were fastened, palms flat, fingers spread on the each the left and right hind quarter of the cow as she shuffled forward and back. The remaining two appendages, formed both into eyes posted, were posted down ward, keeping tight vision on the hooves if she indeed decided to kick back at him in protest.

Shoji was big now, more massive than he had ever been, and his physique was postured wide, legs and feet trying to stand firm, and not slip in the trampled, pasture mud. He felt the warm, strong contractions squeeze against his forearms and for a moment he worried one of his fingers might break due to the tightness and pressure. She pushed and the calf presented its head, cleared of the threshold and guided by Shoji until he saw the full face and both ears pop out. Perfect, now he knew the calf was squared with the canal. Shoji crawled his hands along the birthing body, stretching her further and feeling true remorse at the pain he knew he was causing Yanni, one his family’s favorite dairy cows. She let out high-pitched bellows, her eyes wide, “Almost done, good girl, come on, come on”. He got his grip, wrapping around the younglings’ shoulder blades and upon her next push, pulled the baby out, catching both it and himself with all six arms before hitting the ground. The after birth spilled out in slimy hot globs; the calf heaved and kicked, it struggled and belted. Good, Shoji, thought to himself, it’s healthy.

Amongst the rigor and exhaustion of the birth, Shoji’s mother called to him from the distant front porch of the village farm house, “Phone call, from the city”.

He came in and washed all his arms, took the phone, “It’s your older cousin”, his mother offered handing him the receiver, “Shinya”.

Hey Shin, sorry for the wait, we just got a birth from Yanni, she was in a long labor. First calf.

Oh nice, she’s the younger one, right? how’s mother and baby?

Both good, a young bull, which is what we need for breeding, she gave a hell of a time though. I helped her along. She didn’t tear, which was nice for a first birth.

Maybe you shouldn’t be so aggressive with the pulling. They can manage a birth on their own you know.

Yea, but after the last one being sideways and getting the cord wrapped around it, I have become paranoid.  I’d rather reach in and feel for any problems and try to maneuver the calf before they end up breached or strangled. Lucky I wasn’t kicked, you sure you don’t miss farm life?”, Shoji joked, “anyway I am sure you didn’t just call for this?”

No no, as much as I love a good victory birth story, I got another topic on the mind. That classmate of yours, from UA, Fumikage Tokoyami? You remember? The bird heteromorph?

Yea, fondly remember him. Uhmmm…

 Shoji paused, so confused, and caught off by the questioning.

We were close. Why is he on your radar? I know you’re really only doing trauma surgery now so you’re making me nervous here.

Yea, you’re not wrong. He and this bat heteromorph were sparing. Listen, he is ok, but the training went sideways.

A bat? Whats the story there? Shoji pondered.

Not sure entirely, Hawks brought her on just last week. She must be a fighter, looks like she got a talon in Tokoyami's face, so I had to fix a cracked beak.

“Offff, that had to hurt. Well, I’m sure if anyone, Surgeon Edge Shot could fix it”, Shoji said half serious, half poking fun his elder cousin. “The ability to extend parts of your body and shape them has served you a little more adventurously in the medical field than it has me. I can just punch multiple villains at once, and pull a calf out of a fighting cow.” Both men laughed to themselves silently, then slightly out loud.

Oh no doubt it hurt him, through the roof of the mouth too. Anyway, that quirk, the shadow he has tethered to him, are you familiar with it?

Yes very, we call it Dark Shadow. It was with Tokoyami constantly.

Yea, I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s like it has a mind of its own. I noticed it can change form and learn tasks. It actually is a bit of a chatter box…

Shoji could hear Shinya, swallowing his breath, taking time to ruffle around papers or something else he was fidgeting with on his desk. Like he was trying to gather his thoughts or decide what he wanted to say or not say next.

HC: Tokoyami loves the fall, he likes the baggy clothes and layering. Dark Shadow especially enjoys when Fumi wears a scarf, so they can tussle around in it. Tokoyami can puff and ruffle his feathers when he’s chilly, more so now that he’s older and they are a touch longer.

whewww… everyday we practice more anatomy :0

This is some artwork for Chapter 5 of the Tokoyami Fanfic on this blog. Also attached in the below link to it in AO3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/69139041/chapters/179189086

CHAPTER 6: "I Get Bored"

*We are fresh out of the chaos of the night prior when a sparring event had gone terribly wrong between Tokoyami and Carmilla. In this chapter we get a unique moment to hear from Dark Shadow, without Tokoyami’s direct involvement in the scene. It is not often the sapient has the chance to speak freely**

Empty beer cans clacked to the floor as Hawks’ hand smacked around on his coffee table, hunting for his phone. It had gone off several times in the span of what he guessed to be 30 minutes, but laziness and his stupor had prevented him from opening it, hoping it would self-resolve. He finally leaned off of the couch, pushing a half-eaten box Chinese food out of the way, grabbing his phone. Damn, he thought to himself, seeing 17 missed calls and messages on the home screen.

Slides to unlock phone

“Kiego here, what do you need?”

“Hawks, you gotta get down to headquarters.” It was the shaky voice of one of his admins. “We’re in medical with Tokoyami and that new bat partner of his. We are not sure what happened but they are both so banged up, we had to have them go straight to medical for surgery. Edge Shot has them on the table now.”

Hawks swam with hangovers and confusion, scrambling to his feet, looking for his pants, “Yea, ok. I am on my way”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Both Tokoyami and Carmilla were on the operating room table, sedated under anesthesia, covered from the chest down with surgical sheet. They were positioned on the same long table, laying on their backs, with the tops of their heads almost touching, feet at opposite ends. Edge Shot, formally the Ninja Hero, now turned Public Agency Field Surgeon, was in the middle of them. He stood in upright, in red scrubs, hands by his side, with multiple tubing and threads reaching out as extensions of his neck, arms, and chest skin, with pin point needle heads, each under his perfect control. They were inserting, exploring, repairing and restitching any of the multiple wounds both patients had. Two separate needle holders, attached to tubing had cocktails of Propofol and Ketamine drawn up, dispersing them into the veins of Tokoyami and Carmilla, maintain thing them at a comfortable, but stable level of sedation.

Edge Shot worked meticulously, as he danced and orchestrated the multiple tentacles, letting his needle heads guide his way by what they saw and found. His eyelids almost fluttering shut at times, as he concentrated on seeing the anatomy through the small viewpoints of his working needles, directing them with his mind and twitching muscles.

Dark Shadow, seemingly unaffected by the sedation milled around the operating room table, tiding up surgical blankets and loose syringes. Edge Shot continued to working, seeing Dark Shadow looking up from time to time, watching him. He noticed two little twirling threads emerging from the sapient, and he realized, observing them spindle and weave through the air, that Shadow was trying to copy the movements of his treads and needles. Edge Shot laced one of them through the bats’ wing, making an interactant, through and through stitch. It was in a loop de loop motion, like a cork screw, and he watched as Dark Shadow followed, preforming the same maneuver on the end of the surgical sheet, in perfect note and symmetry. Edge got to the end of her wing, gathered the thread in his needle head and tied it off in a simple double under loop manner. Dark Shadow followed suit, creating a tight knot within their own purple twines, looking down at the blanket they had knitted themselves into with pride.

“You're very smart” Edge Shot said, arms by his sides, both hands behind his back, one holding the wrist of the other. Dark Shadow stopped their tinkering to look up. It was like a pigeon parked on a sidewalk bench looking to a bystander for bread, they tilted their dragon shaped head in confusion. Edge Shot rose his eyes to meet Shadow, his work from his threads and tubes never stopping, “Is that not, correct?

“I am not sure” Shadow said, floating in the air “No one has ever called me smart before”.

“Oh, is that so, how have they described you?”

“Well Fumi is the main one who describes me, he has called me powerful, loyal, rebellious and impulsive, but he has never called me smart.” Dark Shadow lowered themselves to the counter, tapping an empty glass medication bottle with its purple claws, rolling it side to side, making a game of stopping it before it reached the end of the table.

“Well,” Edge Shot began, “I think you’re smart, just watching you mimic me. Being smart isn’t about automatically knowing everything, it is about the ability to learn new things.”

Shadow, leaned in closer looking at the intricate work, “How did you learn all this?”

“I almost died saving Bakugo in the great battle with similar techniques, but after I healed, I decided to go into surgery, it took me years in residency, to not only learn everything about the human body, but also to train my quirk to obey me like it does currently.”

 “Oh” Dark Shadow” interjected, “I know all about the human body, like everything about it. Where everything is at, what is connected to what, how it all works. I spend so much of my time in Tokoyami’s, I imagine they all must be pretty similar”

“You can see in there?” Edge Shot inquired.

“Yes”, Dark Shadow answered, “but not the way you see in here under light, I see with my dark energy, I can feel where everything is, so I don’t need eyes like you all do. It is a reason why I am so comfortable in pitch black”.  

“That is quite the talent” Edge complimented. He un grasped his arms form behind his back, and reached over the heroes, moving the sheet down on Carmilla’s shoulder, exposing the very slight rise of her upper breast as he began to repair the inner most part of her wing that anchored into her armpit. Dark Shadow loomed over her, the tips of its beak right over her sternum, its head gleaming over her torso, and they slithered up and down slowly, from her face to her legs.

“You ok over there?” Edge Shot asked.

There was a long pause, finally Shadow answered, “I see why Fumi wants her.” Shadow retook in what he remembered Tokoyami doing the night before, looking at her shape, even under the surgical sheet they could place her silhouette. “She is interesting to look at and I don’t know why”

“It’s because she’s attractive, but she is sedated, so unless you have medical business to attend to you should probably give her some space”.  Shadow, not truly understanding the reasoning, still complied with the request, leveeing themselves upward, creating some distance from her. Edge Shot offered still working on the surgical site, “…the reason you like her? Is it because Tokoyami likes her?”

“No”. Dark Shadow hissed sharply, shifting its posture squarely with Edge Shots, “Fumikage may share his emotions with me when he feels desire for someone, but I can like or dislike a person all on my own. And I said she was interesting to look at, I never said I liked her. She’s mean. I am trying to tell Fumi that, but he’s not listening”

Edge Shot rose a hand in a symbol of amity, seeing the frustration rising in Shadow. “I understand, it sounds like things went south fast with you all last night”. He had now finished with her and moved to focusing more on Tokoyami’s beak injury. “Can you hold his mouth open Shadow?

“Sure”, Shadow used two clawed hands to separate the top and lower jaws of his partner, and they could both see the crack and the small hole in his upper palette. “We may have to plate that Edge Shot said, allowing his threads and needles in Tokoyami’s mouth to begin work. They swam around in the tight space, like small fish in a tank going plucking after bits of food; removing any debris and cleaning out the edges of the break.  Dark Shadow watched intently.

“He may have trouble speaking for a few days” Edge informed Shadow.

“It’s ok, I don’t need him to physically speak to hear his thoughts or talk to him. He’s talking to me all the time, even when he is in front of the other heroes, but you all never know. We speak inwardly to each other when were in public, so Fumi doesn’t look like he is talking to himself. The only two people he will talk out loud in front of, with me not formed outside of him are Hawks, and a long time ago Tsuyu.”

Edge shot used his human hands, to constitute a putty like substance in a small mixing bowl, to form a paste like bonding agent.  “What is that like, constantly connected?” Edge asked, genuinely curious.

“It’s like being trapped in a cage!” Shadow barked, leaning forward, fastening a wide black clawed hand on the surgical table. Holding onto Tokoyami’s beak with the other

 “Whoa, easy, don’t shake the table” Shot said. He could tell instantly that Shadow had been thinking intently about this, waiting for someone to ask the question.

“I have to experience everything through Fumi, and Fumi himself doesn’t even want to experience it. I mean, he does, but he won’t let himself because he is too worried about managing me. But when he limits himself, he limits me. We do the same thing every day, the same routines. Crime has dropped so much in the past years, and even this current case, with the medical supply robberies is lame. It’s so boring flying over hospitals, we certainly don’t get to fight like we use to.” Shadows one free hand was now in the air, gesturing as they were talking as if he were human.

“I can lie very dormient for long amounts of time, on the other side, and wait for Fumi to request me. I can almost become invisible to him; we have practiced it so long. But when Fumi has anything novel, anything exciting, I feel his emitter quirk start to rile me up, and then I get reprimanded for responding to his feelings. The other side in the shadow realm is very boring, there are other shadow energy holders, but they are not attached to a human the way I am through Fumi’s emitter quirk. Many of them were humans long ago, but now they are dormient and trapped there. They can’t move in and out of the world like I do. When Fumi was younger, he let me do much more, but as he gets older, he has become more controlling with me.” Shadow was now squirming back and forth, rambling on in the conversation, growing slightly in size and voice.

“I want to do everything, but Fumi won’t let me because I feed off of him. He won’t let himself eat food that is too tasty, be too excited, he won’t date, he won’t do anything because of me. I get constantly restless. I get bored…I GET VERY BORED.” Shadow, felt like a weight was coming off their own shoulders just being able to talk about this, without consequence of Tokoyami trying to stifle them or cut them off.

Edge Shot, listening patiently continued his work, taking a small triangle shaped spatula, and smoothing out the putty base he had form in the roof of Tokoyami’s mouth. It was satisfying for Dark Shadow to watch and without asking Edge Shots permission, he formed the same spatula and entered it into his hosts’ beak. Shot against typical protocol, let his hand drift to the side, allowing Shadow to run the spatula smoothly across the roof of Tokoyami’s mouth, filling the putty into the cracks with precision. Afterall, they did know Tokoyami’s anatomy best. Edge watched as Dark Shadow gently nestled the bird head in his other hand, growing  its palm in side to fully support the weight as the shadow figure worked. He could tell the Shadow cared deeply for their master, he could also tell that Shadow was totally taken with the task of repairing the crevasse, completely trapped in a flow state.

After completion, Shadow leaned back and held Tokoyami delicately by the top of his beak, show casing it and looking toward Edge Shot for approval. The platting was completely flushed with the slight curve of the cleft and if not for the color change, you could barely tell where Tokoyami’s palate stopped and the sealant began.  “It’s really good” Shot said, impressed “As good as I could have ever done. We will have to keep him under for a few hours to let it cure, tape his tongue down so it doesn’t lean against it and ruin the contour.”

“Do you do this kind of stuff often?” Shadow questioned, still admiring his work.

“All day every day,” Shot laughed, to the question. Shadow looked at him. Edge Shot had aged, tanned skin, starched over a matured male face. Shadow could feel an emotion that they had recognized in Fumi with Hawks. Was it attraction? No. It was admiration. Shadow swelled both inwardly and externally with the compliments and interest Edge Shot had bestowed on them.

“Wow” Shadow looked envyingly, “I bet I’d never get bored with you”.

Doors swing open

“Hawks!” Shadow squealed with elation, placing Tokoyamis head softly on the table and extending its self towards him. Shadow swam eagerly along Kiego’s pant legs, like a house cat rubbing against its owner.

CHAPTER 5: The Taste of Blood

The second night came for both Tokoyami and Dark Shadow with their new partner in tow. Tokoyami knew he had prepped Carmilla the previous night to be ready for sparring training, but now that the night was growing late, Tokoyami found himself nervous about initiating it. “Carmilla, let’s find a wide roof top, we need to work with each other’s fighting styles to learn what are best techniques will be in combat.” I also need to know you can handle your own, Tokoyami thought to himself.

His boots landed forcefully on the metal roof of a vacant warehouse, while her paw like feet were soft and silent. That will be an advantage, he thought to himself. She preferred not to wear shoes when on mission, as she used her feet much like a bat of hanging from structures and grabbing objects. This had taken Tokoyami a bit off guard when they had stopped for a rest the previous night and he tilted his head up to see her toe paws gripped to a street light as she suspended herself.

Now she stood in front of him on the roof, almost posing in her tight light grey body suit, one foot in front of the other in a fighting stance. Tokoyami realized, embarrassed inwardly at himself, that it was a very pleasing sight to take it. He felt his stomach grow warm as he traced the outlines of her thighs with his eyes and allowed his gaze to float upwards to her fit waist. Dark Shadow zigzagged in his gut, pacing and panting, a direct receipting of Tokoyami’s secret and shameful excitement.

 “So”, Carmilla began in a mocking manner, “how shall we start this?” Tokoyami could tell in her tone she was wanting to tease. It seemed odd, as they were about to have their first hand to hand spar together, and she had to be somewhat aware of his quirks power, especially in these darken conditions.  “Are we to take turns with a back-and-forth coordinated jab, or an all-out, just like in real crime fighting?” She opened her wings and bent slightly in the knees to ready herself.

“We are going to spli” She dashed forward with her wings spread, and Tokoyami without hesitation released an already elated Dark Shadow, who instantly took up shield to protect him. To both of their surprise, she aborted the charging attack and began climbed the air, steeply, with broad, sweeping, strokes of her wings. Tokoyami leapt to join, and when he did, she stared right into his eyes, opened her mouth, barring her fangs and let out a high-pitched noise so nerve racking it made him feel like the hollows of his sinus cavities start to vibrate. It was incapacitating, if only for a few seconds and when it stopped, he realized that she had let her wings collapse back into her body, allowing herself to drop in with a clawed foot headed right towards his face. She reached out with her limbs, toes with long raptor talons now exposed, spread wide, and she was quick enough to wrap one of them around the top park of his beak, assuming control of his head.

Tokoyami’s chest and ego burned with anger, both at her for achieving such a dominate position, and at himself for so ignorantly underestimating her. She squealed with playful laughter as she wagged his head back and forth by the top of his top beak, with the bottom half and his tongue still lose. “What’s wrong, Tsukuyomi? Did think your partner wasn’t up to snuff?”  He grabbed at her calf, and Dark Shadow lashed out carrying both of them into the air as they threw blows at her. She retaliated, letting off sharp sound waves and flapping her wings and claws whenever Dark Shadow dove in, all the while never releasing her grip on Tokoyami’s beak. Out of pure frustration, and panic to be released, Tokoyami bit her foot as hard as he could to try and inflict enough pain for her to let go. Big mistake, her talons must have been wrapped in such a manner, that the sharp tips of them were point upward toward the softer, inside portion of his beak and when he slammed his jaw shut, he felt one pierce through the roof of his mouth, sending deafening bellows of pain through his entire body. Blood flooded his mouth with the taste of hot metals, and he felt himself maddening, loosing awareness of where his own body, and Dark Shadow’s was or ended.

Wincing, he managed to will his eyes open only to see Dark Shadow, growing swiftly in size, splaying themselves across the sky, and blocking out his vision of the moon. “WHAT DID SHE DO TO US!?” Tokoyami knew all his pain was funneling right into Dark Shadow, “SHE DID THIS! I’M GOING TO KILL HER!” Dark Shadow screaming to the air, Tokoyami’s filled with dread as he could hear Dark Shadows voice change from the typical creaking, raspy tone, to a roaring one, filled with rage that thundered around them. Dark Shadow began racing upward, whirling both of them through the sky, and through the chaos and pain of still be connected to Carmilla, he could see the flashing of ground lights getting smaller and smaller. This bad, He thought to himself, we’re climbing too fast! Carmilla screamed for rescue as her defenses against Dark Shadow started to fail. Tokoyami frantically smacking her leg for her attention and pointing at his beak, “I can’t get it out,” She yelled, her eyes wide and bright green with fear, “I’m Stuck! You have to get your quirk under control Tsukuyomi”

He couldn’t, Dark Shadow and Tokoyami were so bonded that Shadow amplified any of Tokoyami’s emotions or experiences on the most feral and unbridled level. Their bond was a non-stop balancing act that Tokoyami had trained extensively his whole life to maintain in a homeostatic status, even in the heat of battle, so that he could always maintain control of the quirk. But now in such panic and blinding pain, it was impossible for Tokoyami to clear his mind enough to calm Shadow. He looked up and could see her trashing against Shadow as the sentient struck at her again and again. Her wings flicked on and off through his vision recklessly.

He had to end it, he reached into his mouth and tried to force his index and middle fingers around Carmilla’s digit with the stuck talon. He could feel her want to help him, intermittently attempting to relax it while desperately trying not be thrown. Every wiggle of his figured split the crack more, sending searing shock waves of pain through is beak, popping fireworks of agony in his mouth. He final got a good grip and with all the conviction he could muster, in one swift movement, he yanked the claw free. It snapped out sharply, prying off an inch size piece of cleft from the roof of his mouth with it. The pain was paralyzing, overtaking him with nausea and dizziness; he fought the urge to succumb to it, worried he would pass out.  Warm blobs of blood filled his cheeks, bathing his tongue in it. He flicked his head down, mouth open, and shook it back and forth wildly trying to keep himself from choking on it. He had not realized until them, but he had held a death grip onto Carmilla’s foot to cope with the torture. When he finally let go, and he saw Carmilla get pulled abruptly back by the force of Dark Shadows winds. She opened her wings in a desperate attempt to slow herself down, he saw one of them was completely ripped in half, the two parts flailing apart from one another, completely lost of their structure and use. She was tossed head over limbs and then disappear into Dark Shadows curtains.

“Shadow, listen to me, we have to relax!”. “NO!” the sentient screamed, “She hurt us, she hurt you!”

“Shadow!” Tokoyami gasped in between breaths, he couldn’t tell if the shortness of breath was from the swallowing of blood, the thinning air of around them, or a lethal combination of both. “I am fine, I am going to be fine, it was an accident! You have to come back to me, we’re too far from the ground!” Shadow still burned with frustration, still climbing into the sky; Tokoyami trapped in his hurricane still was unsure of where Carmilla was in this madness. “Shadow, you’re going to kill me if you don’t calm down, I can’t breathe up here!”

Then suddenly, when Tokoyami thought he was on the verge of losing consciousness, Shadow, for what seemed like the first time since the fight started, took a moment to be still and look at their surroundings. They had Tokoyami locked in their chest and held their wings out to look around, the sun was just starting to come up. “Fumi” Shadow said, slowing shrinking and returning back to a less harsh voice, “Fumi we’re high?!” Shadow peered around confused. Tokoyami could hear the troubled worry in Shadows voice.  

“I know Shadow, I know”, Tokoyami said, so relieved to hear the hurricane of wind become the soft white noise of Dark Shadow he was used to, “bring us down, do it controlled”. Shadow wrapped their arms around Tokoyami and flipped him around, holding him like a hawk with a mouse in its claws and started to descend.

Finally with Shadow back in control, and feeling his wits and wind come back to him, Tokoyami scanned the horizon looking frantically for his bat partner. He caught sight of her, to his lower left side in the distance, she was flapping her wings frantically, but despite the attempts at flight she was moving as fast as if she was just falling.

“Dark Shadow!” he yelled, looking upward at the quirk, “Dark fallen angel, fast, we need to move! FAST!”. Blood spatter on his facing and shoulders from the still open wound in his mouth, as he held out both fists, aimed right towards Carmilla, squeezing tightly and willing Dark Shadow to fly faster. “We have to make it to her Shadow, if she hits the ground she is not going to survive”.

“Why don’t we let her!?” Shadow said in protest. “She just tried to kill you!”

“No!” Tokoyami hurled back, “You are the one who almost killed me!”.

Tokoyami could feel Shadows’ will push against his own in defiance, “Shadow, just get to her! We can sort this out later!”

Dark Shadow, still upset by the whole incident, in silent anger, still obeyed Fumi, giving him the speed and sharpness, he was asking for. The precision move, like an arrow, piercing the sky, Tokoyami locking his eye on the frantically kicking and flapping target. “Get us right under her, spread you wings wide Shadow to make sure we catch her”.

“I won’t need to” Shadow darted back at Tokoyami flatly. Tokoyami could feel Shadows irritation.

He could see Shadow was right, the interception had perfect timing and for a moment before catching her, he caught a glimpse of determination on her face, as she instantly knew the task before her. Camilla reached out, and slammed into the back of Tokoyami, knocking the wind of him, just a few meters shy of striking the ground. As Dark Shadow carried them to a rooftop level of flight, she fought to adjust herself, clinging to Tokoyami’s lats and shoulders, resting her face on the middle of his back, while her legs dangled to the outsides of his thighs while he flew with his body straight as a board.

 “My wing,” She panted exhaustedly, “I was trying to slow my descent as much as I could, I couldn’t get enough air under me,” She grabbed Tokoyami’s back and he could feel her shaking as he realized she was sobbing, “I am so so sorry” she said in quickened, jerky breaths, “I didn’t mean for tonight to end up like this.” Tokoyami stayed focused, willing Dark Shadow to continue forward flight to the base. “Yea, me neither” he offered back, exasperated.  Streams of blood still rolling down his neck, dripping off his collar bone. He could feel the heat of her tears soaking through the back of this shirt. “Tsukuyomi, I can’t tell you enough how badly I feel, this was my all my fault” She wiped her snout on his black shirt, leaving whitened streaks of salt from tears and sweat.

Some not Tokoyami MHA art

Thank you! I am so sorry this took me a bit to get back to. Messages here aren't always obvious to find. Thanks for the anatomy comment, I always feel like he is a bit under drawn in both the anime and the manga. Expressions are a little odd for him, because of his simplistic design, but its definitely there if you can work with it.

The combination of the city lights and the night sky tumbled around them as they flew. Once bound by a massive cap needed to protect and manage Dark Shadow, Tokoyami now had such a tight control over his quirk, that he routinely wore only a black T shirt and black pants with enough slack in them for a small and flattened Dark Shadow to slither and maneuver underneath the fabric. The quirk wrapped its arms around Tokoyami’s torso, and then expanded its shadowed wings through his sleeves, outward, carrying him like a glider, with Tokoyami’s arm and leg movements free to serve as steers and rutters for maneuvering.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Carmilla questioned. He looked at her and saw that her bat like wings, which were secured tightly in her blazer jacket when they first met, were attached to her arms completely and splayed out, and she had to flap constantly to stay in flight. Her hands were not freed up to fight if need be. “That could be a problem” he thought to himself.

“We are doing surveillance, circling any hospitals and medical centers in the area, looking for the break ins I told you about”. She nodding, and pushed her arms climbing the air, and he noticed her light gray body suit, which was tank top cut, showed the sliding of her shoulder muscles as she ascended. “Very well” She agreed. “Let me get higher so I can see more.”

She flew above and he flipped upside down completely, facing her, on his back and trusting dark shadow to continue on with the flight. He didn’t feel comfortable with her looming over him like that, out of his direct line of sight. He took in her silhouette as it was backlist delicately through the moonlight. She was petite, and quite small he realized. She had a straight, boyish figure that was matched with a small chest and compact muscles throughout her core and limbs. She reminded him of a gymnast. She wasn’t at all like the women he had attended U.A. with, being a roster of intimidating curves, which often made him nervous during his first year there. She wasn’t like Tsuyu.

“Why did you come all the way here? No night criminals where you are?” He said loudly, in an attempt to be heard across the 15 or so feet she was above him. She looked down smirked, “No there’s plenty, but I wanted a change of scenery you know, some new faces. I had always been such a Hawks fan coming up in my hero courses, and when I reached out, I was surprised he invited me to come up and work for the agency. He was so young when he started it all, he is really an inspiration, isn’t he?”. Tokoyami’s head burned with memories of his mentor before his lost his wings. A swift rolodex flipped in his mind of the times they had spent together, Tokoyami running after him trying to grasp at his approval. The clip ended sharply with the images of Hawks in his head now, depressed and isolating in his basement. “Yea” he offered unemotionally, “He is”.

She relaxed her wings and bit, and let herself slowly drift down, closing the gap between them as they stayed in swift forward flight through the sky. “Sooo… what about you? Why have you been partnerless?” He smiled and turned his head to the side. Carmilla noticed his strong neck muscles anchoring from his collar bone and stretching to the underside of his beaks jaw as he did so. “I have a partner” he said, reaching his hand back to stroke Dark Shadows wing. The flashing lines of the sentient slipped in and out of his figures like slurping purple ribbons, “and it’s the best kind, they never leave me” She looked puzzled, “Never? Is that weird to always have someone else with you? How long as that been for”. “Since I was a small child” Tokoyami said, closing the conversation concisely and turning around, “come on, we have one more traffic pattern and then the sun is going to start coming up. I would like to get back to the office before that. This shirt doesn’t have enough coverage for day flying for my quirk.”

Carmilla took notes, as Tokoyami clicked and toggled through his computer screen, explaining how to document the rounds they had conducted that night. She leaning forward over his shoulder and he could see the green glow of the laptop screen made her ears see through. “Be sure to pay attention, you will be doing this tomorrow evening”. “Oh ok, so you’re keeping me around” she joked with him. He stood and placed the computer on his desk, “so far it seems that way. There were no issues tonight, but also no conflicts. We will need to do some sparring drills tomorrow to see if the fit is truly right, for us to be working shifts together”

She laughed and, without any warning took a step forward and placed a hand on his chest, and he could feel his pectorals tighten under her soft touch. She leaned in close and her scent of vanilla and the city circled him. Her muzzle was right next to his cheek and she gave a soft breath, “Really though, thank you for showing me the ropes tonight” she said in just above a whisper, that purred to his ears. He felt the thanks was genuine but the closeness took him aback and he pulled his head away and to the side, accidentally bumping his beak into her snout. “Oh, I’m sorry”, he struggled to find words, “Sure, that’s fine”, is all he could muster. And then he nodded, as if what he had just said had made perfect since.

“Smooth” Dark Shadow slithered mockingly. “Shut up” he shot back internally.

Carmilla stepped back, tapping her nose, “Oh no, you’re good, didn’t mean to surprise”. Taking more steps back, she kept her frame facing toward him, “Well, like I said, it was wonderful working with you, get some rest today”. Her posture turned shy and rushed all the sudden. She turned on her light toes, grabbing her work bag and exited the office. He was silent as he listened to the pattern of footsteps going down the hall, the opening and closing of doors as she left.

Tokoyami rolled his pen in and out between his fingers, glancing up at Hawks from across the long, shined wood meeting table. There was a 30-minute overlap between Hawks leaving and Tokoyami coming on for the night shift which typically hosted a report out or mission brief.

The meeting ran as usual, highlighting sporadic criminal activity with a special interest placed in some burglaries of medical clinics, which he found odd. Medications and devices where being the target of thefts, but it was difficult to trace exact motives or track the items. As such it was also troublesome that camera and surveillance would experience an outage right before the events took place, making identification of assailants to be a lengthy and obstacle ladened process. The meeting adjourned and an orchestra of rolling chairs erupted as people got up from their seats.

Hawks approached Tokoyami, “the robberies are exclusively at night, when the businesses are closed, as you can suspect, this is going to be led by you”. He rocked side to side on his feet, awaiting the briefing folder to be taken from his hand. Tokoyami took it, and looked up at Hawks, “lets walk.”

In the halls they escaped the scuffling of the crowded conference room, “Hawks” Tokoyami began, “I need you to do me a favor when you get home…”

“Oh hey!” he was interrupted by Hawks waving a hand towards to front entrance. Tokoyami turned to see a female in a white blazer suit, with a phone drilled close to her ear which, which Tokoyami noticed was rather large. He looked closer to make since of what he was seeing, and realized, it was a bat ear, tall and triangular with transparent skin and veins that twisted translucently through the backlight of the main lobby. Her heels clacked and she took long strides to where they were standing. The phone snapped shut and she lifted her head. “Hawks, I am so sorry I missed the briefing, what an awful first impression, but I have been on the phone trying to sort out the rental situation for my move here”. Her voice had an accent that was interesting to him, obviously not local, and a little tomboyish in tone. “Oh yea” Hawks reassured her, “ It's no worries, your first night is more about shadowing, no need to see the full meeting yet exactly”.

Tokoyami, frustrated at such intern decisions where being made without him, gathered his constitution and turned to address her, “Hi, I’m Tsukuyomi, the Jet Black Hero, nice to meet you”. She reached out a clawed hand, connected to a delicate wrist and to his surprise, took his slightly, unlike the strong pressure he would expect from a professional introduction handshake. “Hello Tsukuyomi, I am Carmilla, so glad to finally meet you”

…finally?

Tokoyami wondered, taking this moment to make eye contact with her. She gleamed back at him and he realized that she was similar to him in that, although her body for was mostly human structured, her face animal natured, like that of a fruit bat. Her eyes were big and lime green with wisps of eyelashes, with a fox-like nose and small canines that hung down from her muzzle like lips when she smiled. Tokoyami was struck with only one word, pretty, she was indeed, very pretty.

“Finally?” He questioned, tilting his head. Hawks stepped in, "she’s is all the way to us from Australia, and is already an experienced pro hero there, but was looking to expand her portfolio to some work abroad. While not an avian, she is a flyer non the least and has a preference for night time work. I figure you were long overdue to for some beefed-up staffing on your duties, so I of course recommended her to your shift. She will be shadowing you on mission tonight."