Chapter Text
The last thing Eunoia remembered was the pain of sabered teeth digging into their throat. They had failed to keep up their side of the bargain, and paid for it in the only way the man-eaters understood. They should have known not to make a deal with monsters like them, but they had managed to stay alive for another week before Theda had come back demanding a sacrifice that Eunoia did not have. Tar had warned them, had whispered in their ear about their lack of clients, but they hadn't listened, and now they could still feel the sting of rotten teeth in their flesh as beings far older than them ate their fill.
But here was the underlying issue. If they were dead, why could they still feel? Was this the Hell that those who worshiped Angels spoke of, where you went if you died while on the bad side of the Angels? Tar had assured them that they would never go to such a place, though trusting the words of an ancient magic slime God never seemed to be the smartest move. They shook their head and kept their eyes shut tight just in case something horrid waited for them on the other side of their eyelids. Their ears rang like when they accidentally blew up their potion lab.
"-Eunoia? Are you alright? Would you like some water?"
As the ringing died, the gentle voice surprised them so much that they snapped their eyes open and startled back in the plush chair they found themselves sitting in. The feeling of blackened fangs in their skin was fading rapidly.
In front of them, behind a large desk, was a white rat in a suit giving them an odd, concerned look.
Right.
Perhaps the monsters of the forest came to their aid. But it wouldn't explain the lack of wounds on their body, or the office they were in. They stared at the rat and tilted their head at him curiously. He was not a monster they knew.
"Eunoia, you look a bit ill. We can postpone this meeting if you need some time. I know it can be difficult to adjust to new settings."
"Where am I?" They asked, and finally let themselves glance around the office, though the rat never fully left their sight. Tar was still in the back of their head, whispering warnings that made no sense, and adding to their overall paranoia like normal. The rat looked shocked.
"I think you need to go see recovery girl. Right away."
"Who are you?" they asked with mounting stress. This little monster wasn't answering their questions, which meant something was wrong and he was keeping things from them. Tar bubbled in the pit of their belly. The rat moved to get off his chair, but they wouldn't let him escape so easily. Corner a beast, and it lashes out.
Eunoia leapt up from their chair and slammed their hands on the desk, stopping the rat in his tracks. He stared at them with wide eyes, looking like the prey he properly was.
"What have you done to me? I know you're keeping secrets, I won't have it! Tell me what is happening!"
The rat took in their ragged breathing, wild eyes, and the black bubbling from their lips like a rabid dog, and his stare went gentle. "Eunoia, please calm down. You seem to be sick. Do you take medications? Your quirk is acting up, and I'd hate for it to get in my carpet."
That answered nothing, and only succeeded in making Eunoia feel spoken down to, so they let the feral nature of Tar take over, and launched themselves over the desk to grab at the rat. He squeaked and bolted, letting Eunoia slam into the floor with a bang and scramble to right themselves before crawling after him just as he reached the office door. He opened the much too large door as Eunoia tackled him into the hallway, panting, swallowing back Tar before it could rot away the monster that must have had all the answers to their questions.
"Eunoia, please, you need medical help!"
"No, I need answers! I'm supposed to be dead! Why am I alive? How could you stop the man-eaters from eating me, they were adamant on it, they were starving! I was supposed to feed them, and I failed, I brought in no customers, so I had to sacrifice myself. that was the deal. I shouldn't be here. Who are you to take that death away from me?"
The rat looked at something behind them, and then suddenly there was a hand on the nape of their neck and they were lifted off of the creature with ease.
"Gee, Nezu, you sure know how to pick new teachers. This one sure is a keeper."
Eunoia's tunnel vision broadened, and they blinked as they saw the crowds to their left and right. Children - monster children, to be exact - staring at them with equal parts fear and fascination. There was a woman with purple hair and a flower on her cheek holding back some of the children as she watched them with wide, wary eyes. Eunoia snarled and snapped at her, and she startled back. The boy she was holding back growled and small explosions erupted from his hands.
Monsters. All of them.
"Okay, that's enough from you." the person holding them said. "time for you to go outside."
"Icarus, they need help," the rat said.
Eunoia clawed at the hand and arm holding them, but their nails were bitten down and the only blood they drew, was from their own cuticles. They managed a glance at their captor, only to blanch at the brightly lit wings. She almost looked like an angel, if she only had more eyes and fangs. Eunoia, used to dark foggy forests, hissed at the light and clawed harder. Tar filled their mouth in their desperation.
"All I'm seeing is someone who was trying to kill you. How did you find them?"
"They are one of the only people who applied for the unstable quirk counseling position. Be careful, they said their quirk makes them vomit a tar-like substance in their resume."
"How do you know about Tar?" they shouted at the rat, now clawing in his direction again.
"Nope. You don't get to throw any more tantrums. I'm gonna cuff you up outside until we get the police to come deal with you."
Icarus carried them down the hallway, yelling at kids to get out of her way. They parted like the fog nymphs parted for Eunoia in their forest.
"there we go." Icarus said as she handcuffed their hands behind their back and then around a flag pole. There was a large wall around the entire building they had come from. Perhaps it was one of those monster habitats they had occasionally heard rumor of. Beyond that wall was their salvation.
Icarus must have seen the way they watched the wall, because she blocked their view and wagged a finger at them. "You aren't getting out of here unless it's in the back of a police car. You can get therapy in prison, but you're obviously not ready to be in society right now. I'm gonna grab Nezu's file on you for the police, in case they have to send you to a jail where you're from, but I'll just be a minute, so don't even think about trying to get out of here." she stood and turned, muttering, "not like you could anyways," to herself as she did.
Eunoia watched her leave, making sure she was out of sight, before deciding to test that theory.
With their head tilted back, mouth open, and faced toward one shoulder, they heaved and let the build up of Tar pool out of their mouth and down the curve of their arm. Cold molten black traveled the length of their skin, then hissed when it met the metal of the cuffs. It grew hot on their wrist for a moment, then crumbled to rust until their left hand was free. Quickly, they yanked their right hand to their front and heaved another bout of Tar as they got up and ran to the wall. The ooze piled in their cupped hands like a jello yet to be set, and idly rusted the cuff still on their right wrist until they reached the edge of the property and spread it over the wall. It steamed, started to crumble, and an alarm blared.
Metal shutters started clanking down the side of the wall as a precautionary measure, but Eunoia did not wait to find out if it could rust as easily as the cuffs. They slammed their body into the weakening wall, added more Tar to the mix, and with a sickening crunch in their shoulder, they were through the concrete and home free. The street beyond was empty of bystanders, so, ignoring the pain in their shoulder, they ran.
Eunoia didn't know how long they ran for, but it must have been midday, by the position of the sun. They had ran through a residential neighborhood, and now they were heaving harsh breaths in a dark alleyway between a bakery and a tall office. None of the streets were familiar, and Tar had not stopped whispering. It wasn't speaking loud enough for them to properly listen, though, so it only increased their anxiety.
The click of a lighter echoed down the alley, making them startle.
"Looks like you've had a rough day."
Eunoia looked further down the alley to see a man with greying hair and round glasses lighting a cigarette. He looked entirely normal. They scooted towards him, and he glanced at them over his glasses curiously.
"You're a human." they said. He lifted his head from the lighter and blew smoke from his nose.
"Well, I suppose I am."
"Can you help me? I don't know where I am."
"Hmm…" he said, and glanced around. "looks like the shopping district. There's a train station about ten minutes from here, one stop from Kamino, two from Musutafu."
Eunoia rapidly shook their head. "no, no, where in the entire world am I? A little-" they choked, but they couldn't tell if it was on Tar or emotion. "a rat kidnapped me, one minute I was dying in my woods and the next I was in his office and he was talking about making me a teacher, I don't know what's going on."
The man took the cigarette out of his mouth. He seemed genuinely surprised. "a rat, you say? White? The size of a toddler?"
"Yes! He wouldn't answer my questions, please, help me!"
The man crouched to meet their gaze head on. They hiccuped when he placed a firm hand on their sore shoulder.
"You're in Japan. Are you accusing the principal of the best hero school in the world of kidnapping?"
"I-" the emotional build up was too much. Tears dripped down their face as they sobbed and threw up. The puddle of Tar between the man's feet bubbled and hissed until a crater of asphalt was all that was left.
He took in a deep drag off his cigarette, put it out in the new crater, and grinned as smoke wafted from the corners of his lips.
"I don't know how to get you home, but I know where you can go to get some revenge. Looks like that rat's really got you upset."
Eunoia looked up at him and squinted in the dark.
"the only thing waiting for me at home is some angry man-eating monsters. What I'm mad at is being ripped away from a rightly-given death. I'm tired of carrying Tar."
'Hey!' Tar shouted in their head.
"I want to rot into the earth, and the man-eaters were my only way out, and now I'm back? I want to make sure he never gets the pleasure he took from me."
The man's smile wavered. "I don't know what that means, but it sounds like you're on board." they nodded. "alright then, follow me. The name's Giran. "
"So, that black acid vomit. That's a pretty nasty quirk." Giran said as they boarded a train. They had been silent the entire walk to the station.
"That's not… I don't know what you mean, that is Tar." Eunoia sat in a seat nearest to the sliding doors, legs spread until they took up one and a half seats. Their long black skirt stretched fluidly over the gap between their legs. Giran chuckled and sat beside them.
"It does look like tar, doesn't it? I can't say it's the worst thing I've seen, though."
They nodded. "monsters can be hideous, sometimes. The ones that ate me had skin that was too tight and animal skulls for heads." they glanced around the sparsely occupied train car. A businessman talked quietly into his phone halfway down one way, and a young thruple giggled to each other as they showed each other pictures on their phones the other way. Giran was staring at them oddly when they looked back at him.
"I thought monsters were misunderstood to a degree, though. Perhaps I was wrong. That rat took away the only good thing that's happened to me in decades."
"You are so odd." he said after a moment. "pretty sure 99 percent of what comes out of your mouth is gibberish."
They frowned and went silent once again and fiddled with a broken button on their maroon button up shirt. They ignored Giran's attempts at small talk for the rest of the ride, then only answered him in hums as he directed them towards a shady, back-alley bar.
He stopped them before they opened the door, though. He suddenly seemed very serious, unlike his idle chatter.
"Hold on. Listen. The boss of this group is really temperamental. The last group I brought in pissed him off and it ended in a Mexican stand-off of sorts, and he's been mad at me ever since. Just, don't do anything to antagonize him, okay?"
Eunoia stared at him, eyes focused, but obviously not on whatever he was telling them. They seemed a bit otherworldly, with the way their eyes shone like there was something swimming in them, and how dark the bags beneath them were. It was like they hadn't slept in years. He sighed, shook his head, and opened the door.
Dabi and Toga were sitting on one of the lounge couches, Toga talking Dabi's ear off, and Dabi obviously not really listening. Tomura was hunched over a glass of something he was sipping at the bar. Kurogiri seemed to be elsewhere for the time being. Giran hoped nothing would happen like last time, because without his ward, Tomura was even more of a loose cannon.
Said boss eyed him from behind his hand mask as he walked into the bar, then straightened when Eunoia stepped out from behind him, wide-eyed and dream-like.
"Giran, who's that." Tomura demanded. Toga's chattering seemed to worsen his already dour mood.
"Shigaraki, this is Eunoia. I just met them, actually. They need your help."
At the sound of their name, Eunoia shook their head, cleared some of the haze from their eyes, and looked at Giran. He nodded towards Tomura and they stared at the boss for a moment.
"Hello." they finally said.
"We aren't here to help people, Giran, we aren't a charity, we're villains. Fuck off."
"There's no such thing as a villain." Eunoia said. Dabi shushed Toga and they now were both listening in. "all people have the capacity for good and evil, and all people have the capacity to utilize both. There are no heroes. There are no villains. Only people."
Tomura turned to face them fully and leaned forward, inquisitive. "do you also want to destroy the hero society?"
Eunoia only looked more perplexed. "what hero society?"
Tomura glanced at Giran through the fingers of Father, and he could have sworn he saw the hints of a smile behind the palm.
"What's your quirk?" Tomura asked. Giran winced. Hopefully, Eunoia wouldn't get weird again. They were doing so well.
But his hopes were dashed as their face screwed up in confusion, and they shook their head. "I don't know what that means."
Tomura leaned back, obviously just as confused at their answer. "what?"
"People keep talking about quirks. I don't know what that means. What makes me quirky? I don't consider myself quirky at all. I am just a witch that lived in the forest until a little white rat tore me from my death and put me here."
Tomura glanced at Giran again, irritation mounting.
"Your quirk. What power do you have? You said you're a witch? Is that your quirk?"
Eunoia actually looked frustrated as well now. Giran reached out to their shoulder but they shook him off and hissed.
Literally hissed.
"I am telling you the truth. I don't understand you. I don't understand this society that lives hand in hand with monsters. Humans are the majority, not monsters, yet this city is crawling with them, and they kidnap people, and no one does a thing."
"Giran, you brought a fucking lunatic. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"listen, they're weird, but their quirk is this black vomit that melts-"
Eunoia shoved him and growled. "that's not me, that's Tar! I keep telling you, that's Tar! It took my body as it's refuge and helped me kill a God, and if I let it out it will destroy the world. It is. Not. Me!"
"This is stupid. Giran, you need to start getting background checks on the people you bring to me. Dabi and Toga at least know what's going on. This is just pathetic."
He stood from his stool and cracked his neck as he approached, flexing his fingers. Giran held up his hands and stuttered out an apology while Eunoia watched Tomura get closer, not afraid in the slightest. After all, he wasn't armed, and he wasn't some sort of human-corpse-elk-hybrid.
"Maybe you should take a break from recruits, Giran. I'll get rid of this one and we can forget they ever happened."
"Shigaraki, wait!" Giran cried as he lifted a hand towards Eunoia's face. They did not flinch, and Tomura did not heed Giran.
"They have beef with Nezu from UA, he kidnapped them!"
"What?"
Tomura's fingers were already pressed firmly into their face, though, and even if he pulled away now, their head would be gone. He stared at Giran, eye twitching in annoyance that he'd left such interesting information until the very end. Now his proof was dust between his-
Wait.
"hmm." Eunoia said, and gently removed his hand from their face, then gave it a curious one over as they ran their fingers across the lines of his palm. "were you trying to kill me just then?"
"What…"
"Oh shit." Dabi said from the couch. Toga giggled.
"I assure you, death is something I am seeking, but for me, it's not easily gained. I am cursed with the task of housing an old God, and in return, my body will not decay."
Tomura's eyes widened behind his mask. He snatched his hand away from them and held it close to his chest as if they had burned him.
"What are you?"
"I am a witch, I was ripped from my home in Oregon State, and I am supposed to be dead."
Tomura's eyes narrowed, and he looked at Giran.
"Where did you say you met them?"
"In a dark alleyway. The first thing they said was 'you're a human,' and they keep talking about monsters."
Tomura studied Eunoia very carefully, then reached out and grabbed their arm. They did not decay. He tugged them towards the bar, and they followed complacently.
"If you tell me everything you know of where you come from, leading up to when you met Giran, I will tell you everything about this place."
"Shigaraki, what-" Giran started, but he shut himself up when The boss glared at him.
"Giran obviously didn't help, did he?"
Eunoia shook their head. Tomura smirked, not that anyone could tell.
"You're not from here. Someone's gotta help you understand what's going on."
Eunoia sat on the stool next to his at the bar, and looked at their lap; appearing, for the first time since arriving, shy and deflated. "thank you."