hero's shadow // mha

74) take care of things

Yoichi stares into the void of the universe, and the void stares back.

This deep inside of Ninth's realm, there are no other vestiges besides Yoichi and Ninth himself. The other users never travel this far inside. They don't think they have to.

Granted, Yoichi traveled for years to get here. Years in the void are mere seconds outside of it, so he's never missed by the others. He can afford to make these endeavors.

It's all worth it in the end.

There isn't a ground floor like in the other sections of Ninth's realm. Instead, when Yoichi looks below himself, there are only distant galaxies and clusters of stars. It's trippy to just glance at, as it looks like he's floating through space. If Yoichi didn't already have literal years of experience inside this place, he'd probably be sick.

All around him, a beautiful and vast universe continues to grow and expand. Colorful nebulae and cloud-like structures glow and move around like waves in the ocean. Spiral galaxies move towards each other to see which will be consumed by the other first, and black holes can be seen farther out, probably acting as little tears on the universal level.

As Yoichi walks through both time and space, he comes closer to a star. He sweats, becoming hot all over, but he pays it no mind. The star is burning, and solar flares rise out of the ball of gas, but there's no sound.

There's absolutely no sound in this place, as vibrations can't travel here.

Ninth's vestige is a stickler to science.

Out of all ten realms inside One for All, Yoichi will argue that this one is the most gorgeous and well thought out. But it is also the most dangerous. Why?

Because this is where Ninth spends most of his time when he's not out investigating. This is his—for lack of a better term—domain.

Yoichi finds him where he always is: in the middle of it all, this time overseeing the death of a star.

The cloudy vestige floats high above Yoichi and has his hands out, swishing them around with an almost musical cadence. It's as if he's a conductor of space activity.

Yoichi spares a moment to watch, as it never takes long for Ninth to notice him. He knows what happens next most times, but he still likes to give Ninth the benefit of the doubt to see if he'll change his mind.

Today is not one of those times, apparently.

Ninth rewinds the dazzling supernova with a flick of his wrist, and he holds it there, at the moment right before the first explosion happens. And then his head turns slowly, eyes glowing a blinding white. It spills from his eyes and leaks into the area around him, and his red aura grows bigger and more electric-like.

Yoichi thinks, not for the first or even the last time, that his nephew was born for greatness. Whether or not he wants it is another question entirely. But seeing him now, painted amongst a backdrop of stars and infinite time, Yoichi is reminded of why he never allows himself to smile.

He is the son of his brother in more ways than one. Well, what once was his brother, maybe.

Once upon a time, All for One was born for greatness too. It's just too bad he decided to choose the path of greed and control.

Ninth floats down to be level with Yoichi, but his hand is still up, this time forcing the supernova to occur at a much faster rate. He's speeding up time by light years.

He is stronger with each of Yoichi's visits. Each time he comes, he has to travel farther and farther to get to him. But that's perfectly alright; Yoichi is not worried. The more emotional that Ninth is in real life, the easier it is to get the best of his One for All vestige. So it happens like clockwork, really, as inside of Midoriya Izuku lies a vast expanse of anger and blinding, crippling fear.