"Ahhh~" Samuel sighed in relief as he stepped out of his steaming bathroom with a towel over his shoulders.
It was the little things in life that really made him apprecia-
"I'm blue, da ba dee da ba daa~"
"hehhhhh… Damn it." Samuel sighed, his good mood evaporating as the Goofy cover for I'm blue sounded from his phone, that ringtone was only set to one person. Reluctantly the black haired devil picked up the phone and pressed answer, cutting off the song.
"Kaichou, what's good?" He asked the woman who quite literally owned him.
"You're strong arming Rias for favors?!" Samuel directed the phone away from his ear, hoping that his boss would tire herself out without noticing that he wasn't listening.
"Samuel D. Sigurd, you put that phone to your ear right now!"
Well so much for that…
"Yes mom… anything else I can do for ya?" He asked with as much sarcasm as he could muster.
"Don't call me that! And why in the name of my sister did you shake down a favor from the heiress to the Gremory family?!" She shouted in his ear.
"I'm not shaking down favors, woman! You asked me for something, I'm following through on it! This is a long term engagement, Sona, because trust me when I say that we cannot afford to fuck this up! Now, do you trust me?" Samuel snapped at his master while sending a text to All Might on his phone, since if he knew Sona, and he did, she'll start asking questions and he knew exactly which.
Me: hey old man, what do I say if someone questions the whole personal trainer thing?
Skeletor's half-brother: img.jpg
He sent a business card that had his true form and real name… personal secretary to All Might, huh? Smart…
Skeletor's half-brother: tell them that All Might took special interest in you two and sent me to train you.
Skeletor's half-brother: if it's one of your devil friends then tell them that I am aware of you and am trying to foster better ties between us under All Might's request.
Me: Gucci.
Me: thanks old man.
"… yeah, I trust you. But what is this whole thing about?" He heard her sigh over the phone.
"You heard of the sludge villain incident yesterday?" Samuel asked while absent mindedly drying his hair with the towel around his shoulders.
"It was hard not to. All Might himself showed up to resolve it… and then you came along and humiliated a pro hero on live broadcast!"
"… Samuel, put the phone back to your ear."
The red eyed devil complied and returned the phone to its previous position.
"Now then, Kaichou, do you recall the reason why I did so?" Samuel asked and looked through his closet for a change of clothes.
"The green haired boy who rushed in was being yelled at… he's the one we're looking for."
"Bingo! This kid has a dragon Sacred Gear and I'm pretty sure it's a powerful one." Samuel picked a plain black t-shirt from his closet.
"Or it could be a [Twice Critical] and that would make the effort worthless."
"I don't think it's a garden variety. Kid's packing something and if my hunch is right, give it a few months and our dear Ruin Princess is eating fried chicken extra crispy… besides, even if his sacred gear isn't something great, kid's part dragon. That alone give him some weight on the board." Samuel took a pair of torn jeans from his closet drawers.
"So I made the right choice sending you to find him… but why did you need the favor from Rias?"
"Less her and more Sairaorg, kid's personal trainer made a regimen but it leaves a lot to be desired. I thought that if anyone could make it better it would be him." Samuel finished getting dressed and sat on his revolving chair.
"I see… and does the kid know what you want from him?"
"He does. I decided to be upfront with the matter." Samuel spun himself around a few times.
"And does his trainer know? Since I hope you know better than to reveal our existence to everyone."
"He knew from the start; the man is the personal secretary to All Might after all…" Samuel counted down on his fingers.
Three.
Two.
One…
"He's what now?"
"Personal secretary to All Might, wanted to recruit the kid to some All Might sponsored hero training program: the 'symbols of tomorrow initiative'." The red eyed devil read out of the script that the number one hero had just sent him.
"Since I was there to recruit the kid myself, he decided to extend the offer to me. Said that All Might wants to foster a better connection with our kind."
"That's… excellent news. Well done Samuel."
"Wow, I can actually hear you dying a little on the inside. Is praising me that painful for you?" Samuel asked in a deadpan tone.
"Quit enjoying it. You have work to do."
"Yeah, yeah. I gotcha, I'm going to run an investigation on the kid's school. He pretty much confirmed that the place is a quirkist cesspool and you know how much I hate that." The black haired devil exited his room and took his helmet with him.
"I see… try not to get caught and go fetch a few things for me, Tsubaki already sent you the list."
Samuel's pale face turned even paler.
His benevolent boss was trying her hand in cooking again…
'Leviathan preserve me.'
"Sure. Talk to you later Kaichou." Samuel hung up the phone and shivered, the thought of the torture he was going to receive terrified him.
"I'll worry about dying later, I have work to do." He steeled his resolve and stepped out of his apartment, intent on serving karma to Izuku's school.
*****
'So that's Aldera, huh?' Samuel thought as he casually paced near the inconspicuous looking middle school.
It was a weekend, so there were no students around, he didn't smell a lot of adults either. The school was nearly empty.
The black haired devil lazily made a few rounds around the school, checking to see if there were any 'extra entrances' he could take… he counted at least six.
'This school is fucking trash.'
Samuel had left his bike behind a few blocks back, it would draw too much attention, so he opted to walk around.
'… speaking of attention.' Samuel glanced at the blue skinned lady in a skimpy hero outfit who was making her fifth pass near the school.
No pro would pass by a place like this so many times.
She was investigating as well… but to what end?
The red eyed devil took a deep breath, preparing himself to face one of his greatest weaknesses.
"Umm… e-excuse me, miss hero?"
Social interaction.
"Uhh! Yes, young man?" While initially caught off guard, the lady quickly put on her public service smile as Samuel approached her.
"I was wondering, why you were patrolling around here so thoroughly? There doesn't seem to be much villain activity here…"
'Not the kind that would interest day time heroes.' He thought bitterly.
"Oh, me? Well, it's mostly classified, but my boss wants me to investigate this school on account of one of its students." She said with a friendly tone, most likely hoping to either remove him from the area or get some information from him, since he was the same age as the students there.
"I see, what's his name? a friend of mine attends this school, so he might know him." Samuel offered while looking down at the blue heroine.
"Oh, really? Well then, his name is Izuku Midoriya." She said with a smile, glad that her investigation was going somewhere.
Samuel paused. She was after Izuku? For what reason?
"Funny coincidence, that's the friend I was talking about." The black haired devil eyed the blue skinned lady warily. He had a bad feeling, not so much about her, but about her investigation.
"Why are you looking into him, miss hero?"
"Please, call me Bubble Girl. And as for your friend, my boss wanted me to investigate him, but he didn't give me much reason, only said that it's of most dire importance." Bubble girl chuckled awkwardly at Samuel's piercing gaze.
Why was a simple stare making her so nervous? She was a trained hero and he was a middle schooler, why was she feeling so afraid of him?
"I see; could it be about the abuse he suffers here?" He already knew it wasn't, but bringing it up could help him. Bubble Girl seemed nice enough that Izuku's treatment here should bother her on some level.
"Abuse?" Bubble Girl asked quietly.
There it was… now to see just how much.
"Yeah… he doesn't like to speak of it, but this school has been horrible to him. He gets physically and verbally abused by students and teachers alike, all because he's quirkless." Samuel explained and watched for her reaction, should she react in a way that condones quirkism… well, he had All Might's contact info. Sure, most of that info was inferred rather than confirmed, but pa didn't make him binge read Sherlock Holmes for nothing.
"That's horrible! Why would anyone do such a thing?! And for such a stupid reason!"
Samuel raised an eyebrow at the emotional response, the lady was positively furious and for all the good reasons.
"Yeah… there's one student in particular. I can't exactly divulge all of his crimes, its Izuku's story to tell not mine, but I do know that Izuku gets beaten by him constantly and the school does nothing to stop him, in fact they encourage him." Samuel said with barely concealed rage. Again it's what he figured would happen from that Kacchan kid's behavior. He was extremely violent and egotistical, he had a baseline flashy quirk, he derided Izuku for trying to be a hero and as Izuku himself said the teachers ignore all of the awful shit he did. That led to the conclusion that Kacchan was a hero hopeful who was told all of his life that he was special and meant for greatness and this cesspool of an educational establishment was raising him to be their golden boy/cash cow so they can ride cowgirl on his success later in life when he makes it big in the hero industry.
Disgusting really.
He was the kind of guy Samuel hated with an absolute passion, he didn't know what suffering or betrayal felt like, he was the one who handed them out, Samuel could tell from a whiff just what kind of guy he was… he smelled just like Matti.
Bubble Girl gasped with both shock and disgust, how could anyone be so awful?
"Well, that certainly is a lot… thanks for your help young man. I'll make sure Your friend receives justice!" The blue skinned heroine gave a smile and a bow and turned to leave.
"Umm, one last thing." Samuel called out after her.
"Yes?"
"Well… two things actually. One; who's your boss? And two… can I have your autograph for both me and Izuku?" Samuel asked shyly while taking out a notepad and pen from his pocket.
Bubble Girl smiled and took the pad and pen, jotting down her autograph.
"So, one to Izuku Midoriya and the other…"
"Sigurd. Samuel D. Sigurd." He said with a smile.
"Well, here you go Sigurd." Bubble Girl returned the notepad and pen with a smile of her own. It felt nice to be asked for autographs.
"Thank you. So… who is your boss?" Samuel tilted his head curiously.
"Sir Nighteye, I'm sure you've heard of him." The sidekick spoke with reverence and pride in her voice.
Samuel suppressed his desire to scoff, he had indeed heard of Nighteye, former sidekick to All Might, and he didn't care much for what he heard. The man was a notorious All Might fanboy, one that could give Izuku a run for his money, though fanboy was too light of a term to describe the man known as Sir Nighteye. Sycophant or fanatic would fit him much better.
He was the kind of person that Samuel hated the most, a small man hiding behind someone bigger. His obsessive devotion to All Might was downright sickening to the red eyed devil. He could understand devoting one's self to a person, he understood it better than most, his life was devoted to Kaichou after all and now he was devoting himself to Izuku as well. But there in lied the difference, Samuel looked beyond the ideal and saw the person, Sir Nighteye did not.
Worse still was his view on the supernatural, much like All Might he was aware of the 'other side of the world', but while All Might, despite not having the highest opinion of his kind and other mythical beings, had a 'live and let live' mentality, his former sidekick was actively hunting them down like a crazed stray exorcist. Many devils lost their lives to the man's callous ways and it wasn't just them either, yokai, demigods, magicians and sacred gear possessors… he used whatever nasty trick he could to hunt down any shred of supernatural that his grubby hands could reach and snuff it out.
The supernatural held no place in his ideal world.
That man was a monster through and through.
Samuel's eyes throbbed for a moment, he let out a grunt of discomfort.
"Are you ok?" Bubble Girl asked with concern.
"Yeah, just fine, it happens sometimes." Samuel waved it off with a smile.
"Is your quirk acting up? Your eyes turned green." The sidekick observed.
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, thank you very much for your time, Bubble Girl, but I'm afraid I have somewhere to be." Samuel tried his best to smile through the discomfort.
"If you say so. I have to get going as well, thank you for sharing what you know with me Sigurd." Bubble Girl gave him a polite bow.
"It was my pleasure, really. Later." The red eyed devil walked away, throwing a friendly wave over his shoulder, leaving the blue skinned sidekick behind.
Bubble Girl smiled as she watched the young man walk away, she got some valuable information and gave out two autographs.
She was very saddened by what she heard of the boy she was sent to investigate, but it was her job as a hero to help him, she was glad that he had a friend like Sigurd to look after him.
Now all she had to do was share this with Sir and they could-
*****
"Drop it."
Kaoruko Awata stood shocked in front of her esteemed boss, Sir Nighteye, as he told her to simply 'drop' the information that Izuku Midoriya was being abused by his school.
It might not have been the info he wanted, but it was still something they shouldn't ignore. Even if Sir was skeptical of her source, a middle school boy who claimed to be a friend of the target, the information warranted investigation.
"Drop it, Sir?" She asked slowly.
"Yes, drop it. I have no interest in this claim of corruption and frankly if it's true, I couldn't care less." The man she looked up to, sneered as he casually dropped her report in the trash, he stood up and made his way towards her.
The sidekick stood silent, a horrible taste filled her mouth.
How could he say that? They were heroes! They were supposed to help!
"Then… why did you…"
"That is not information you are privy to, Bubble Girl, so I suggest that you do what I say, or else…" the pro let the threat hang in the air.
"Yes Sir…" she hung her head down in both shame and fear.
"Good, I knew I could trust you." He said while giving her a pat on the head.
Bubble Girl stilled at the contact, she felt cold, she was suffocating, as if she was being buried under a glacier.
All she could do was nod, barely containing her relieved sigh when the hand left her head.
Sir Nighteye circled around her slowly and returned to his desk
"I want you to find that boy again, make him give you more information, by any means necessary." Nighteye instructed, "I trust that you won't disappoint me."
"Yes Sir…"
*****
"I swear, one of these days she's going to learn that industrial coloring agents do NOT belong in cuisine." Samuel grumbled as he checked the final item off of the list he received.
He walked out of the store with a plastic bag in hand, full of an odd combination of food and arts and crafts materials, all for his beloved master's newest recipe.
"That woman is going to kill me one day." The red eyed devil sighed as he climbed onto his bike when he saw a twinkle from the corner of his eye.
The fuck…
He climbed off of his bike and made his way to the alley where he saw the light, careful and quiet, as to not raise suspicion. Samuel peeked his head from behind the wall only to catch a glimpse of some strange light disappearing.
"Hehehehe…"
And a chilling giggle along with it.
"What the 19th century, Lewis Carrol fuck?" Samuel muttered as he took in the strange scene that he had found.
*sniff* *sniff*
It wasn't a quirk, it certainly wasn't magic… curiouser and curiouser.
"Mirror~ tell me something~"
Samuel picked up his phone and answered the call without taking his eyes off the allyway.
"How deep does the rabbit hole go?" he spoke into the phone.
"What?"
"Oh! Sorry Tsubaki, something kind of weird just happened. Anyway, you need something?" he asked Sona's right hand lady.
"Do you have the ingredients that Kaichou asked for?"
"Yeah, I got'em. I'm already regretting it, but I got'em." He sighed and looked at the bag in his hand… wait why was he still holding it? Wasn't he going to climb his bike? Did he seriously forget to put the bag in the storage compartment?
"You know, you don't have to keep eating her cooking, right?"
"She's putting in the effort to make it, Tsubaki, it's my duty as a man to eat it." Samuel made his way back to his bike and actually put the bag away this time.
"Men…"
"OK, let me put it to you this way. It's Valentine's day and you made a batch of homemade chocolate for a certain special someone. It didn't come out the best, but you put a lot of effort and emotion into it." The red eyed devil started explaining as he leaned on his bike.
"I'm with you so far…"
"So, how insulted would you feel if he just refused to eat it, or ate one bite and threw it away?" Samuel asked and received silence as a response.
"Tsubaki?"
"I don't think both scenarios are quite the same…"
"They're close enough. Kaichou is putting in an effort to cook something, expecting us to eat it. Ergo, therefor, hereby, I have to eat it." He concluded with a snap of his fingers.
"… good luck with that…"
Samuel looked at his phone with a blank expression.
"She hung up on me."
"Welp." He put on his helmet and hopped on the bike, revving it a few times, he took off into the road… he had a battlefield to survive.
*****
"Yo! I got the stuff you asked for." Samuel announced himself as he entered Sona's apartment, without knocking.
"Just put them on the counter." He heard her call out from the kitchen.
Samuel couldn't help but smile, there was a cozy, almost… domestic? Feeling about that situation.
"I gotcha." The red eyed devil walked over to the kitchen to see his master hard at work on her new recipe (read: mistake). Samuel hesitantly placed the bag on the counter and approached his master.
"So what's the damage this time?" He asked as he leaned his elbows on the counter and cast a side glance at Sona, who was laser focused on her work (read: Lovecraftian ritual).
He thought she looked beautiful when she was focused like this, but then, he always found her beautiful. Since the day she saved him and gave him new life, he'd though she was the most incredible girl in the world. She didn't see him as the plague, she didn't see him as a monster… she didn't see him as much of anything, other than her faithful pawn that is. It didn't change the fact that he owed her his life and that he'd do anything for her.
"Don't call it that." She said half mindedly, barely paying him attention.
"Make it edible and I won't." Samuel shrugged, loyal to her though he was, he couldn't resist taking the wind out of her. She had the best reactions.
Sona huffed and ignored him, turning her head away every time he tried to get her attention.
Samuel smiled and kept pestering her until she smacked him over the head with a spatula, causing him to laugh at her furious expression.
He kept laughing even after she chased him out of the kitchen by throwing utensils at him, he sat on the couch casting an amused glance back at the kitchen. If he was going to eat her cooking, then he gets to make fun her… equivalent exchange.
It was around an hour later when he heard her call.
"Food's ready."
Joy…
'Leviathan preserve me.' Samuel got up from the couch and went to the table to see Sona's latest attempt at cooking (read: poison crafting), it looked amazing.
Her cooking tended to look good, but the taste was downright dangerous. Sona put more emphasis on the presentation of her dish rather than its flavor.
'And now I know why she needed industrial paint.' The red eyed devil thought dryly as he looked at the shining red lobsters on the plate.
"It looks amazing, Kaichou." Samuel complemented, his voice shaking with barely concealed fear.
"Thank you, I worked very hard on this recipe." His master responded with pride while offering him a plate.
"Here."
Samuel eyed the plate and took a deep breath.
"Aight." He took the plate from Sona's hand, tearing out a piece of the lobster.
"You did boil them alive, right?" He asked as he took a bite.
"Boil them alive?"
*thud*
Samuel was on the floor, foaming from the mouth with his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
Sona stared at him for a second before picking up her phone, and making a call.
"Selena? It's Sona." She spoke into her phone with reluctance.
…
"Yes, he's here."
…
"Passed out on the floor."
…
"Lobsters…"
…
"Is that common knowledge?"
…
"Just come here and get him."
…
"What do you mean 'Busy'?"
…
"Your brother is passed out on the floor, how is clubbing more important than that?"
…
"He did what? Why that little…"
…
"I'll look after him till he wakes up, make sure to leave enough of that scumbag for your brother though. He won't be happy about this and I'm inclined to let him go wild. Good luck Selena." Sona sighed as she hung up and stared at her pawn sprawled on her floor… was her cooking that bad? No, of course not, it was probably just the bacteria poisoning. After all, her sister Serafall loved her cooking and Samuel always finished whatever dish she made for him, that had to mean she was good, right?
"Don't hurt yourself little lady." The medallion on Samuel's sacred gear glowed purple as the familiar deep voice of the being sealed within mocked her for her failure. All she could think to say, was the response Samuel always gave the being when it got on his nerves.
"Fuck off, X."
"Rude."
*****
*pomf*
Samuel felt something soft hitting his face.
"Five more minutes…" He grumbled and turned away, trying to keep sleeping.
*Pomf*
The soft object hit the back of his head harder.
"Leave me alone… tired…" Samuel mumbled as his fingers dug into the dirt beneath him… wait, dirt?
*POMF*
Something landed on his face, forcing him to get up.
"I'm up! I'm up!" he shouted as he sat up and grabbed the offending object, glaring at it. Staring back at him were beady yellow eyes attached to pitch black, ant like creature, with a white splotch on it's stomach, that wiggled in his grasp.
"… what the fuck are you supposed to be?" The creature hissed in response as it futilely tried to escape Samuel's grip.
"Know what? I'll worry about that later," he shook his head and stood up, the creature still firmly held in his right hand. "better question is; where the fuck am I?!!!" Samuel shouted at the dark environment that surrounded him.
Dark gray dirt with eerie glowing blue lines, giant rocks with strange shapes that he could almost swear were moving, there was no sky just black and purple.
Samuel looked down to see black smoke coming out of the ground sporadically and held his nose in disgust.
This place reeked of pure malice.
A hiss broke Samuel from his musings as he noticed the creature in his hand still struggling, he sighed and lowered it to the ground.
"Sorry about that, little one." He apologized to the creature, who tilted their head at him in confusion.
"Do you know where we are?" Samuel asked while crouching down to the creature's eye level.
The creature responded with a nod of its head.
"And that would be?" Samuel's question was answered with a hiss.
"The Realm of Darkness? Can't say I've heard of it. Do you know a way out, little one?"
The creature shook its head causing Samuel to sigh and hang his head. 'Maybe I should stop eating Kaichou's cooking. This is one hell of a fever dream.'
"Well," he stood up and dusted himself off. "Thank you for your help, I'll be fine from here." Samuel started walking while waving back to the small creature. "Take care, little one."
He didn't make it two meters before he felt something grab his pant leg, looking down, he saw the little creature pulling on his pant leg to try and stop him from moving.
"What's the matter?" The little creature hissed frantically, digging their little claws into the fabric of Samuel's pants.
"Danger?" The creature nodded while Samuel smirked.
"Don't worry, I can take care of myself." He said confidently, lighting a black flame in the palm of his hand.
The creature shook its head and hissed, it almost sounded like it was crying.
"Weapon of light?" Samuel asked as he crouched down near the hissing creature again.
"You're the only one who escaped?" The red eyed devil asked in shock, what the little creature was describing sounded akin to its people being genocided by some blue haired lunatic swinging a giant key around… was something lost in translation?
"Well don't worry, I'll help you." Samuel patted the quivering creature on the head with a smile.
The creature hissed and tilted its head.
"Of course, helping others is what heroes do." The red eyed devil grinned at the creature who was looking at him with sparkles in their little eyes. Samuel offered his hand to the creature, chuckling when the little ant like shadow crawled up his arm and took residence on his head.
"Right then, let's go." He stood up and started walking, letting the little creature lead him.
*****
Samuel and his new head pet were wondering around the realm, engaged in conversation. The topic of which.
"So you don't have a name?" Samuel felt the Shadow Heartless, as it told him its kin were called, shake its head from its comfy perch in Samuel's head.
"Do you want me to give a name?" the red eyed devil offered his new friend who hissed in approval.
"Cool, so are you a boy or a girl?" the shadow hissed uncertainly.
"You don't know? Well that's a landmine and a half," Samuel held his chin in thought. "So we'll go with something that could go either way. How about… Nyx?" the shadow nodded excitedly, liking its new name.
"Alright! Then it's nice to meet you Nyx." The red eyed devil offered his hand to the little shadow on his head, the shadow held it with both of its little hands, shaking it excitedly.
And so they continued walking and talking, looking for the 'lunatic' who was going around killing Nyx's buddies.
"And then BOOM! No more warehouse. Kaichou was pissed at me for weeks." Nyx nearly fell from Samuel's head from laughter when he finished telling that story.
"Right? I can still feel the stinging from that spanking she gave-" Samuel's anecdote was cut off when he suddenly spun on his left heel and raised right leg high in the air in a roundhouse kick, catching the attack of a blue haired young woman wielding a giant skeleton key.
"Well that was rude." Samuel snarked as he kept spinning, driving the key into the ground and using the momentum to throw a powerful punch at the blue haired woman. The woman instantly let go of her weapon and back flipped away to gain distance, though still feeling wind rush past her from the force of that attack.
Samuel looked at the woman cautiously, her clothes were torn and scuffed and her blue hair was an absolute mess, despite all that, she was still beautiful, downright gorgeous, even. Though she looked somewhat… unhinged, her blue eyes held a manic rage within them, the kind she had no doubt gotten from overexposure to the malice filled air of the Realm of Darkness.
"I take it that she's the lunatic that you spoke of, Nyx?" Samuel asked his new friend who nodded in ascent.
The red eyed devil hummed as he pushed down on the giant key stuck in the ground with his foot.
"And this is the weapon she used?" He mused as he bent down to pick it up, but before his fingers could touch the handle, he heard an outraged.
"Don't you dare touch that!"
The key disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Samuel's foot to land on the ground and causing him to grunt in pain from the small, but powerful, light.
Looking at the blue haired woman, he saw that the giant key reappeared in her hand, a furious scowl on her face as she readied her battle stance.
"A weapon that returns to the wielder's hand on command… sexy." Nyx hissed in confusion while Samuel waved off its question.
"Just find a place to hide, buddy, I'll take care of this." He started stretching his arms as soon as Nyx hopped off of his head and scurried off to try and find someplace safe.
The blue haired woman stared at him, obviously trying to find a weak point to strike.
"So…" Her eyes snapped to his in response to him speaking. Samuel felt a bit Awkward at intense stare down he was receiving. Was this how people felt when he stared at them?
"You… like Jazz?" The red eyed devil had about half a second to dodge as the tip of the giant key tore through the space his head previously occupied.
"Guess not…" He whispered, lying on his back and staring up at the weapon that nearly skewered his head.
The blue haired woman noticed Samuel lying on the ground beneath her with wide eyes and a nervous smile and quickly swung her weapon down on his head.
"Oh no." Samuel swiped his legs, knocking to woman's feet from under her and transitioned into a windmill dance, kicking the blue haired woman away before finishing with a handstand pose.
The woman with the giant key landed a few feet away, watching as her opponent finished his little dance. She growled and readied her key, quickly closing the distance between them, the woman swung her weapon at the upside down boy, only for him to parry it with his foot.
"Gotcha bitch!" Samuel quickly crossed his feet over the key, locking it in place. He then twisted his body, heaving the blue haired woman above him and throwing her on her back with him on top of her and his foot pressing on her sword arm. The red eyed devil then proceeded to pummel the woman without mercy, though he paused for a moment as her scent hit his nose.
"Ugh! Oh Satan!"
That single moment was all the woman needed as she swung her free hand in Samuel's face with a cry.
"Fira!" A blast of flame exploded in the red eyed devil's face, launching him a few feet away where landed roughly on his back.
The woman stood up and dusted herself, letting out a sigh of both relief and sadness at the fact she had killed someone who at the very least appeared and acted human.
Hopefully his-
"Owwwww… it's a good fuckin' thing, I'm mostly fire proof." Samuel grumbled and stood up, throwing an impassive glance at the shocked blue haired woman.
"Not bad, but if you want burn me you need hotter flames," The red eyed devil cracked his neck and raised his left hand, setting it alight with black flames. "Cause my flames can burn even gods!" He swung his hand as if throwing a baseball, launching a black fireball at the woman who cartwheeled away from the blast and dashed towards Samuel with a thrust of her key.
The red eyed devil sidestepped the attack but his pant leg got caught on the spike on the side of the woman's boot, leaving them awkwardly close.
Samuel was once again reminded that this woman had smelled like she hadn't showered in the past *Sniff* *Sniff* nine years?
"Did you just sniff me?!" the woman asked, her tone somewhere between indignant and outraged. She tried backing away, but only pulled the boy closer due to the wardrobe malfunction.
"In my defense, when was the last time you showered?" Samuel asked before a sudden feeling of dread filled him. The woman he was currently attached to by the pants was oozing killer intent, what little he could see of her face was a furious shade of red.
"You…" the woman grabbed him by the shirt and raised her giant key over her head.
"Mistakes were made!"
*****
Master Aqua stood awkwardly with the boy she had attacked earlier, the hook on one of her boots caught on his pant leg, leaving them in that embarrassing position. Not that it could get worse.
*Sniff* *Sniff*
Aqua Stared at the boy in disbelief, did he… "Did you just sniff me?!" She shouted in indignation. Who just ups and sniffs someone? A lady at that! How rude can he-
"In my defense, when was the last time you showered?"
*CRASH*
Hear that? That was what little self-restraint and sanity Aqua had left.
The Keyblade master's face burned a furious shade of red, her whole body flooded with embarrassment and anger.
"You…" Aqua grabbed the boy's shirt and lifted her Keyblade over her head.
"Mistakes were made!" The boy shouted in fear as her Keyblade came down on his head over and over.
BAM! "Ow!" BAM! "Fuck!" BAM! "Shit!" BAM! "Stop it!" BAM! "OW!" BAM! "I'm sorry!"
"That!" "OW!" "Is Not!" "OW!" "How!" "OW!" "You talk!" "OW!" "To a lady!"
"Satan damn it! I got it!" the black haired boy shouted before tackling Aqua to the ground and beginning to pummel her.
This time, however, he neglected to keep her Keyblade arm in place, giving her the opportunity to retaliate. An opportunity that she did not waste as she whipped her Master's Defender across the boy's face, knocking him off, but pulling her on top of him since they were still connected.
With a scream, Aqua gripped her Keyblade with both hands and brought it down in a hammer strike onto the boy's face repeatedly.
"Stay! Down! Already! Monster!" the Keyblade master shouted with every strike. Could the Aqua from before she'd been trapped in the Realm of Darkness see her now, she'd be disgusted with her, but this hell had changed her.
Aqua brought the Master's Defender down for another strike, but the Keyblade stopped in its tracks completely. The pommel of the weapon that was passed down to her by her master, was being effortlessly held in the boy's hand. His face contorted in rage, taking on a feral appearance.
His teeth bared in a vicious snarl and his red eyes shining with killer intent.
"Ahora lo hiciste, Puta!!" The boy growled as he pushed back the Keyblade master's weapon, Aqua pushing all her weight on her blade didn't seem to even faze him.
"Primera Etapa!" With a burst of black lighting the boy's skin was covered in red marks that made him look even more primal. The boy roared and grabbed the pink straps on Aqua's shirt and hoisted the two of them to the ground, tearing the hook of her boot from his pants. The red eyed boy spun around with Aqua still in his arms and tossed her with a shout.
"Te voy a poner tu puta clave de pinche corbata!!"
"Nadie me llama monstro y vive!" as Aqua flew, she saw the boy open his mouth wide as the air around it distorted and gathered into a small black orb. The Keyblade master watched carefully as she tried to halt her momentum, she had no way of knowing what that orb could do.
*CHOMP*
What she didn't expect was for the boy to close his maw around the orb, sealing it inside his mouth.
The black haired boy brought both of his hands to his mouth and coiled them like a barrel, his chest suddenly bulged, like something was trying to pop out of it. The inflation moved up to his throat and then to his mouth, causing his neck and cheeks to swell like a balloon.
"Rrrrraaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!" the deafening roar was followed by a wave of black flames that flew from the boy's mouth and rapidly approached her, threatening to engulf the Keyblade master in their unforgiving heat.
"Reflect!!" Aqua quickly constructed a magic barrier around herself, preventing the dark flames from consuming her. Even though the flames were hot, her barrier stayed strong and protected her, but even so it felt like the flames had no end.
'If nothing else, that thing has an impressive lung capacity.' Aqua though as the minutes (or was it hours? Hard to tell in that place.) ticked by. Eventually the torrent of flames did begin to die down, signaling for Aqua to begin her counter attack.
"Yaahh!" With a swing of her Keyblade Aqua broke her barrier, sending flame coated magic shrapnel back at the boy and piercing through his torso.
The boy coughed up blood and stared at the airborne Aqua, the feral look in his eyes replaced by something she didn't quite recognize, but the delighted grin that appeared on his face made her all the more uneasy.
Flipping her Keyblade into a backhand grip, Aqua yelled as she threw the Master's defender, coated in light, at the grinning boy.
The boy watched the spinning Keyblade approach him rapidly with a wide grin, a second before impact, he bent backwards and let the Master's Defender sail over him, but the scream that followed told Aqua that he didn't simply dodge.
The black haired boy spinning out of control told her the rest, he grabbed onto the Keyblade and held it as it spun, his body covered in black sparks.
Aqua stared confused at the boy screaming in pain, even if someone isn't worthy to wield it, a Keyblade wouldn't hurt them that way, it would just disappear. So why did he scream with such intensity?
With a feral roar, the boy threw the weapon back at her, the Keyblade spinning like a buzz saw while coated in black lightning.
The Keyblade master caught her weapon with practiced ease, barely taking a moment to note the discomfort that the boy's magic had caused her, and aimed the tip straight at the boy, locking on to him. With her intense focus on the boy, Aqua noticed the signs of fatigue from the fight, his breathing was ragged, his face was bruised and his left hand, which he had used to grab her Keyblade, was burned and smoking. Aqua zoomed towards the boy quickly in a flash of blue sparkles, near instantaneously appearing before him, much to his eye widening surprise, and whipped her Keyblade across his face, snapping his head to the right with a loud crack.
The boy stood on wobbly feet for a moment, before a certain sound reached Aqua's ears.
"Hehehehehehe…" he was laughing…
Aqua gazed at the boy with apprehension, he was bruised and beaten, but he was laughing? How could anyone laugh during a fight like this? Before she could decide whether to move back or attack again, the boy's head snapped back into place, a crazed smile plastered on his face as he reared back his head and rammed his forehead against Aqua's.
*crack*
Aqua staggered back as she felt blood leak from her head, a throbbing pain accompanied the disorienting feeling. Nearly stumbling, the Keyblade master grit her teeth. 'Want to play it like that?'
Releasing and recalling her Keyblade in a backhand grip, Aqua hooked it behind the boy's neck, stabilizing her footing and keeping him in place. With an enraged shout, she pulled down on her Keyblade, pulling the boy closer and bashed her forehead against his nose with a sickening crunch.
The boy tried to recoil, but Aqua's Keyblade held him in place for her to head-butt him repeatedly. 'You want to fight crazy?! You want me to fight crazy!?' the blue haired woman shouted in her head.
"I'll give you fucking crazy!" She yelled as she head-butted the boy in the face. "Do you know who I am?!" she bashed the boy's face again. "I'm blueberry mom, MOTHER FUCKER!!!" with one final bash, the boy's body went limp and sank to the ground with a thud.
"Yeah! That's right! Fuck you!" She shouted at the gurgling mess on the ground when the situation finally sank in and her satisfied anger gave way to mortification as she stared at the boy's twitching and convulsing body finally go completely limp with the light leaving his eyes. "Oh sweet princesses of light, I lost it…" She sank to the ground with her face in her hands. "It took, sweet god, however long it took, but this place finally fucking broke me." Aqua muttered into her hands.
"I'll say."
"AHH!!" Aqua let out a shriek when the corpse next to her started talking.
"You act like you've never seen a guy you beat (ow) to death start talking to you before." The boy groaned as he touched his battered face.
"That's because I haven't! I crushed your skull, how are you alive?!" Aqua yelled in exasperation, simultaneously relived and annoyed that the boy was alive.
"My kind are more durable than you humans." The boy said as he brought his hand to his shattered nose.
*CRUNCH*
"FUCK! That smarts!" he let out a few nasally whimpers as blood flowed freely from his newly fixed nose. "Hopefully, once I wake up, I won't have any of this damage. It's significantly harder to trick people when you're not hot." Aqua stiffened when she heard the boy's words.
"What was that?" She asked quietly.
"Well, if I'm not hot anymore, it's going to be harder-"
"Not that part, you narcissist! Wake up?" Aqua reiterated as the boy hummed in realization.
"I'm dreaming this." He said bluntly.
"Are you saying that I'm just a part of your dream?"
"No. you and this place are real, but I'm here because I'm dreaming it. A pseudo state of existence between mind and matter, I know what it is because it isn't my first experiencing it, but it is the first time it actually brought me somewhere like this." He explained as he picked himself up from the ground and sat down next to her, offering his hand.
"Samuel D. Sigurd. Call me Sammy." He introduced himself.
"Master Aqua." She offered back and shook his hand, feeling a bit strange with the casual conversation. "You're being awfully casual with someone who just tried to kill you."
Sammy actually burst out laughing.
"Puh-lease, I've had worse. And unlike the other times, you didn't have the stench of malice, only desperation and frustration… and the stench of not bathing for like nine years." He laughed and ducked under a swat from her Keyblade.
"You're cute when you're angry." Sammy said with a wide blood stained grin.
"Are you always this flirty?" Aqua asked tiredly, she'd normally have more of a reaction, but she was just exhausted.
"The opposite actually, I'm so high on adrenaline right now that it's overriding my compulsive fear of women." Sammy laughed hysterically while holding his gut. The Keyblade master looked at the boy with a mix of pity and annoyance.
"You're afraid of women?" She asked, curious about the story behind that statement as it was the only form of interaction she had in… did he say nine years?! She was stuck in this hell for nine fucking years?!
"Well, being sexually assaulted at age eleven would do that anyone, except for… but that doesn't matter. Hahahahaha! Fake laughter hides real pain." The black haired boy explained casually, much to the Keyblade master's horror.
The blue haired woman gaped at the easy smile on the boy's face, how could he smile after saying something like that.
"At age eleven?" She sincerely hoped she misheard everything he had just said.
"Mm-hmm, the bitch's MO was to drug unsuspecting little boys with her quirk, have her way with them, kill them then have her way with them again." Aqua felt the bile rising in her throat, what Sammy was describing was pure evil.
"When I get out of here, I'm making a stop to punish that thing for what it's done." The Keyblade master growled with rage. That horrid abomination was already committing one of the worst crimes anyone could commit upon a person, but to do it to children?!
"Not much left to punish, Aqua, I vaporized the bitch myself." A low rumble escaped Sammy's throat as his red eyes turned a brilliant shade of green, Aqua also noticed that his irises took the shape of gears as well. In all honesty his eyes were absolutely mesmerizing, as if they held the secrets to the future that awaited her and all they gazed at.
"Your eyes…" Aqua let out.
Sammy looked back at her, those brilliant eyes locking onto her own.
"It's my quirk, it tends to activate on it's own." Samuel shrugged as his eyes turned back to red. Aqua watched the change with fascination, she saw eyes change before, her mind flashed back to Ven and Terra's eyes turning into that awful shade of yellow, but this was different. Sammy's eyes, they captivated her, the seemingly unforgiving crimson held such warmth and that shining green seemed to glow with wisdom.
"Quirk?" He mentioned that word before.
"Hold that thought." Sammy put two fingers in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. "Nyx buddy, you can come out now!" he called out as the sound of small slithery footsteps rapidly approached them.
The little creature, that was the reason Aqua attacked Sammy in the first place, made its way towards them, twitching all the while. Aqua prepared to raise her Master's Defender to attack it, but was stopped by Sammy's hand landing on her shoulder. She watched tepidly as the little creature scuttled onto Sammy's lap and nuzzled into his hand as it came down to pet it.
"Master Aqua, this is Nyx." Sammy said with a smile as he held the creature up to her like one would hold a plushie, the thing even gave her a friendly wave. "You might recognize it as the sole survivor of your little rampage through its colony."
"They attacked me first." Aqua stated her defense.
"Yeah, I don't doubt it. Most of Nyx's kind aren't as intelligent as them." Sammy said while putting the creature, Nyx, back in his lap.
"By its kind, you mean the denizens of the darkness?" The keyblade master asked and received a nod in return.
"The Heartless, yes. According to Nyx, the Heartless are like animals driven by instinct and your weapon is their apex predator." Sammy picked up the Master's Defender, much to Aqua's shock. "It truly is fascinating, this key." His eyes sparkled with awe.
"You can hold it?" Aqua muttered quietly, more to herself than anything.
Sammy turned back to her with confusion. "I guess. Why? Is it a big deal?"
"Keyblades choose who can wield them, someone unworthy wouldn't be able to even touch one." The Keyblade master explained while Sammy continued to inspect the Keyblade.
"Huh… neat." He snickered and handed the Keyblade back to its rightful owner before reaching into the black armored choker on his neck and pulling out a notebook and pen.
"Neat trick."
"Thanks." Sammy responded absent mindedly while scribbling something down, the scratching of the pen on the paper was the only sound between them. Aqua tried to glance at what he was writing, but he constantly moved out of the way.
"What are you even writing in there?" Aqua asked before being handed the pen with the notebook held in front of her.
"Write your measurements here, please." Caught off guard by the sudden request Aqua complied and wrote down the information before she finally caught up.
"Wait a minute!" Both the notebook and pen were snatched away and vanished into Sammy's choker.
"Give that back!" Aqua demanded, her face red from embarrassment.
"No. I'm gonna need this." Sammy dodged another swat from her Keyblade. "Attacking me isn't the solution." The tip of the Master's Defender was suddenly at the black haired boy's throat.
"Give. It. Back." Aqua ordered and pressed her Keyblade tighter to Sammy's neck.
"Don't be such a girl, I need these so I can get you new clothes." He groaned and raised his hands in surrender.
"You're exhausting." The Keyblade master huffed and lowered her weapon.
"Uh-huh, well guess what, you'll have to deal with this, because I'm the only form of social interaction you got and you just won my hand in marriage by beating the Mcfuck out of me." As soon as those words left his mouth the Master's defender was at his throat again.
"Explain!"
"Shed-lile family custom, anyone who defeats a member of the family in combat gains the right to marry them, it works in reverse too." Sammy started sweating when the Keyblade dug into his neck. "Anyone ever tell you that you're super scary?"
Aqua sighed and slumped down to her back. "First stuck in this hell and now stuck in marriage." She grumbled and buried her hands in her face.
"Who the fuck said stuck? I said you won the right to marry me, not that you have to do it." Sammy looked down at her, her face hidden in her hands.
"So I don't have to marry you?" A muffled question came from Aqua's hands.
"Not unless you don't want to." Sammy shrugged and lied down as well, Nyx crawling up to his chest and lying down as well.
Aqua let out a long groan. "Tell you what, get me out of this hell hole and I'll marry you." She offered after removing her hands from her face.
"You're saying that like I was planning to let you rot here. News flash Master Aqua, I was going to save whether you asked me to or not." Sammy said while petting Nyx's head, the little creature purring like a kitten. "I can't call myself a hero if I can't help someone who's right in front of me, right?" He grinned at Aqua, his image overlapping with someone she had once met.
Well how 'bout this- I become a hero, then we go on a date.
'Sorry Zack, guess I won't be giving you that date after all.'
"For now though, we keep exploring this place, see if we can find more Levanim." Sammy said as he stood up and dusted himself, turning to offer a hand to Aqua.
"Levanim?" The Keyblade master questioned as she took the offered hand and let Sammy hoist her to her feet.
"Intelligent Heartless, like Nyx. Notice the splotch of white? That's how you can recognize one." He explained as he let Nyx climb back to the top of his head.
"And why would we need to find more of them?" She couldn't see the logic behind finding not only more of the creatures that have been trying to kill her for the past nine years, but smarter versions of them.
"You can't be picky about your allies in these situations, you need someone to guide you around for when I'll wake-"
Sammy suddenly vanished, leaving Nyx to fall to the ground. Aqua stared at the vacant spot, where her first piece of human contact in nearly a DECADE just stood, with empty eyes.
"Oh! Come on!"