Chapter Text
Stain skulked through the barren alleyways of his current territory. Scanning the surroundings for another fake one last time, he turned in for the time being, making his way back to his hideaway.
“Another fake has been purged tonight.”
The murderer snarled out a smile, reflected within the tainted blade he carried. As he stared into the bloodied blade, his smile faltered and his eyes grew wide as the blood of the tainted hero seemed to evaporate into thin air.
“What the hell?... Nomatter.”
Stain lowered himself to the ground, pushing a dumpster to the side as he crawled his way into a small hole in the side of a building, before pulling the dumpster back to cover his tracks. He stood up and quickly surveyed the room. Everything exactly as he had left it. Including-
“SPINNER!”
The boy nearly jumped out of his seat as Stain called out.
“Have you been on your laptop all night as I’ve been out? If you are to take my mantle one day, you need to rest properly. Fighting without rest is a death sentence on the battlefield. You would do well to remember that.”
Spinner got to his knees and bowed his head.
“I am so sorry Stain sensei! I was simply doing my best to preach your word online! I have managed to get into contact with other like minded people as well.”
Stain smiled down at the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Kid, get off your damn knees. I aint a God.”
Spinner quickly stood at attention and Stain stifled back a sigh.
“Well, as you are awake, I will need you to do our cause a favor. I had a run in with a fake on patrol, harassing a quirkless girl, in the most vile manner. If you would be able to get access to the security footage to expose this monster for what he is before they make him a martyr, I would be grateful.”
Spinner’s eyes lit up as he scrambled to get to his laptop as soon as possible.
“Yes of course Stain, so you were patrolling… yes yes, I got it I got- what the hell?”
Stain looked over at the computer screen from behind Spinner’s shoulder, only to mimic the same bewildered expression Spinner had donned.
On the screen, where clear as day Stain had struck down a hero, and Stain and the girl appeared clear as day, the fake hero himself? Blurred. It was as if he was censored, but the footage was not nearly old enough to be monitored by anyone else yet. It had been only ten small minutes. Eraserhead would not even be in the police station to report what happened yet. The screen, despite being digital, seemed to be manifesting an analogue noise to its display, like the very presence of the hero was corrupting it’s existence. As the life faded from the hero, and Stain and Izumi both retreated into the night, a cloaked figure approached from the shadows, to the place where the hero’s body had fallen.
“... Sensei, I do not think that girl was quirkless at all.”
Stain was inclined to believe the girl. After all, no living being would be able to take the form that he had bared witness to on screen. A vile automaton of bone and steel, cloaked in darkness, bathed in viscera had slowly found it’s way to the hero’s twitching corpse, only to pull the very light from his eyes and crush it in it’s bound and cuffed palms, only to fade away into the night.
“... Stain. What was the hero you took down?”
“... I don’t remember.”
…
“Eraser, you’re back early.”
Tsukauchi smiled from across the desk as Eraserhead entered his office.
“Poor bastard’s been worked to the bone lately, hopefully he’ll take the rest of the night off.”
“I ran into the Hero Killer. And one of his victims.”
Tsukauchi’s face went pale.
“Welp. There goes my plans for you having a nice quiet evening.”
Eraser scoffed.
“I haven’t had a quiet evening since I’ve married Anan, and I’ve never been happier.”
Tsukauchi pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Okay, good for you. More on the hero killer please?”
“I had to let him go unfortunately, apparently he had just saved a girl from being assaulted by a hero, so I wanted to make sure she got back to safety.”
Even if it wasn’t ideal, Tsukauchi sadly nodded.
“Always gotta prioritize the rescue. You still did the right thing. Any chance I could get your bodycam footage?”
Aizawa did not hesitate to hand over the hidden camera to the detective. However, as the man watched back the footage, his confusion became more and more palpable.
“... Eraser, what the hell is this?”
Aizawa crouched beside Tsukauchi at his desk to look at the footage, only to be met with pure confusion. The man who Stain killed simply… was burned away. As if the camera was running on faulty film strips, all that existed where the man once stood was a burned hole in reality. Then, as Eraser trailed the girl to make sure she was okay, the two men watched as a spectre, unseen to the eye at the time, followed behind and watched over her as well.
“Eraser. Promise me. Watch over that girl. I think this is bigger than either of us.”
The man nodded, hands trembling by his sides as he watched the ghost made of gore follow close behind the girl.
“I don’t believe in ghosts. But that… I want to say that’s not even real. Fuck. Fuckin’ hell… Eraser. Who the hell did Stain kill?”
“... I don’t remember.”
…
Of course, nobody would remember.
Kyu Doe, unbeknownst to even herself, had an ability like none any had ever encountered. And any of the people the ability would face would never live to tell the story, as they themselves would not be remembered.
Kyu’s quirk was born from one thing and one thing alone. The drive to protect, the drive to keep Izumi safe from the world, and ignorant to what was happening around them.
Of course, the way for Izumi and Kyu to be safest was for them to never have been in danger at all.
As if their opposition had never existed at all.
Faces blurred.
Memories obscured.
A smudge on a signature.
A blur in a photograph.
Kyu Doe had one final ability.
To erase a person from time itself.
Death Arms would never be remembered.
He never died, because he never lived to begin with.
Death Arms does not exist.
Only One exists.
The Only One.
The Shadow Sabbath.