Affinity

Chapter 23 - Forest of Horrors

a/n: hi friends, please accept this chapter as a celebration of Affinity reaching 3k reads over on ff.net :) Hemza and I are so thankful you all read each week, and we can't thank you enough for your support <3 

As Emiko came back to consciousness, she looked up and was startled to find Shoji's masked face looming over her and saw Deku's battered face peeking out over Shoji's shoulder. She craned her neck and realized that Shoji was carrying her in front of him while a few of his dupli-arms were holding Deku on his back like some sort of human backpack.

"Shoji... What happened?" Midoriya groaned from Shoji's back.

"With those injuries, you should be laid up in bed recovering, but you want to save your friend, no matter what the cost," Shoji remarked, eyes crinkling as though he was smiling beneath the mask covering the lower half of his face.

"You're injured too," Deku remarked in shock, and Emiko's gaze was drawn to one of Shoji's dupli-arms where the end was covered in blood and dripping some more.

"Yes, we were ambushed by villains and I covered us... But the attack triggered Tokoyami's quirk, even though he was desperately trying to hold it back..." Shoji explained, and Emiko's eyes widened as her quirk hummed into existence and she felt it.

Rage. Boiling and turbulent like a pot of water unattended on a stovetop.

"Oh Fumi," she whispered, catching the attention of her classmates.

"Komatsu, you're awake, thank goodness," Shoji said in relief.

Emiko groaned, reaching up to rub at her head which throbbed anew thanks to her quirk reactivating, "How many damn times do I need to tell you all, just call me Emiko."

Shoji chuckled, "Good to see hitting your head off of a tree root hasn't gotten rid of your shining personality," he snarked.

"Screw you, I'm delightful."

Both shared a rueful chuckle but were cut off by Midoriya clearing his throat.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I think we should get back to the matter at hand, shouldn't we?" he interjected hesitantly.

Shoji set Emiko down on her feet and he hovered around her to make sure she could stand properly before stepping back to give her space, as they slowly made their way through the trees.

"So, wait, you're saying that thing just now...?" Deku added in disbelief.

"That's right, if we want to go through, we'll have to face Dark Shadow," Shoji confirmed, and she saw the shudder that ran through Midoriya as the blood in his veins no doubt went frigid at the thought of facing one of the most powerful students in their class.

Facing a villain- no matter how powerful- was one thing, but having to have a life and death fight with a friend- someone you shared a class with every day- when they couldn't help the state they were in, was an infinitely more difficult proposition.

As if on queue at the mention of Tokoyami's quirk, they heard the sonorous and anguished roar of their classmate as they came into a clearing. The raw pain, panic, and conflict from Fumikage tugged at Emiko's heartstrings, and tears welled up in her eyes at her classmate's predicament.

The scene that accompanied the sound was something out of a horror film. Compared to the smaller bird-shaped shadow she had seen emanating from Tokoyami during classes, this Dark Shadow was colossal, dark ectoplasmic energy filling up the clearing and vicious clawed appendages reached towards the sky, as if daring the moon and stars to come down and attack. Tokoyami himself was contorted uncomfortably as he was seemingly being swallowed up by his quirk's energy, his eyes widened and panicked as they were visible through the shadowed visage of the beast he had unleashed.