I stood in the destroyed training hall, looking at Shan Yu's frozen form through the ice.
But I needed to leave. My phone had been buzzing in my pocket throughout the fight. I'm surprised it wasn't broken. I got three missed calls from Mom, probably wondering where I was, and I wasn't home yet
I walked to the entrance, and the evening air hit my face, and it felt refreshing.
I looked up at the darkening sky and created wings.
It was massive ice wings that spread fifteen feet on each side.
They felt like part of my body, like they'd always been there.
I crouched down and launched myself into the air.
BOOM
The sonic boom shattered windows in nearby buildings, with the shockwaves rippling outwards. I climbed higher and higher until the city became a sprawl of lights below.
Up here, nobody could see me. I adjusted my trajectory and angled where I left Chi Fu
The flight took seconds. I descended rapidly and pulled up at the last moment.
Chi Fu was still there, sitting against the wall in the same spot. He looked up at my arrival.
His eyes widened.
"What are you?" His voice was wary, hand reaching for something he could use as a weapon.
Right. The ice form. I looked completely different now.
"It's me," I said. My voice still had that strange tone to it. "Kori. Kori Takeda."
Chi Fu's expression shifted from wariness to confusion. "The boy? You're the boy I sent to fight Shan Yu?"
"Yes."
"You're alive." He stood up slowly. "How? Shan Yu should have killed you. He's killed everyone else who challenged him."
"I won."
Silence.
Chi Fu stared at me, then he laughed.
"You won. A twelve-year-old child defeated Shan Yu. The man who destroyed my dojo, killed my students, ruined my life." He shook his head. "You're lying, or delusional, or this is some kind of trick."
Irritation flickered through the calm my quirk provided.
I'd just fought for my life, nearly died, and this homeless old man didn't believe me.
I walked forward, grabbed Chi Fu by his ragged shirt, and lifted him off the ground with one hand.
His eyes went wide.
"I'm going to show you," I said.
Then I launched into the air.
BOOM
The sonic boom rattled the courtyard. Chi Fu made a strangled sound. Half scream, half gasp.
I flew at hypersonic speed, carrying both of us through the air. The city blurred beneath us. Buildings became streaks of light and shadow.
Chi Fu clung to my arm, his face was pale, eyes squeezed shut against the rushing wind.
The flight back to the dojo took even less time than the flight from it.
I descended rapidly and pulled up at the last moment. I landed in front of the dojo entrance with Chi Fu still gripping my arm like his life depended on it.
Which, to be fair, it kind of did.
I set him down, with his legs were shaking.
"How," he managed. His voice was hoarse. "How did you move that fast?"
"New quirk development," I said. "Come on. I'll show you Shan Yu."
I walked into the destroyed training hall. Chi Fu followed on unsteady feet.
The frozen tomb still stood in the center of the room.
Shan Yu's face was visible through the ice. His expression was rage incarnate. Eyes burning with hatred.
Chi Fu stopped walking and stared at the frozen figure.
His hands started shaking. I have no clue why, though; there could be a myriad of reasons.
"You actually did it," he whispered. "You actually defeated him."
"I told you I would."
Chi Fu walked closer to the ice tomb and reached out with one hand, touching the frozen surface.
"Five months," he said quietly. "Five months of shame and guilt and self-hatred. Five months of living in alleys and abandoned buildings because I didn't deserve better. Five months of remembering my students' deaths and knowing I failed them."
He looked at me. His eyes were wet.
"Thank you."
Then his expression changed. The grief and relief vanished, replaced by anger.
"We need to kill him."
"..."
"What?"
"Shan Yu. We need to kill him. Right now. Before anyone else arrives. Before the police get involved and before he goes to Tartarus."
"We can't just kill him; he's already been defeated. Let the heroes handle him from here."
"No." Chi Fu shook his head. "You don't understand, Shan Yu isn't just dangerous. He's a revolutionary and a terrorist. "
"I know. You told me his backstory."
"Then you know he'll never accept defeat." Even in prison, he'll find a way and recruit followers. Build his movement and eventually escape, men like Shan Yu don't quit, they adapt.
Chi Fu stepped closer. "This man made me watch while he slowly murdered a boy who trusted me to protect him."
His voice grew louder.
"He'll do it again if given the chance, More deaths in service of his twisted vision of racial purification." Chi Fu looked at the frozen tomb. "We have an opportunity right now, right here. to end this threat permanently. To make sure he never hurts anyone else ever again."
"By becoming murderers?"
"By becoming executioners." Chi Fu met my eyes. "There's a difference; murderers kill for selfish reasons. Executioners kill to protect others. To prevent greater harm. To eliminate threats that can't be contained through normal means."
I stared at him for a while. He was really asking me to kill someone; that wasn't what heroes do at all.
"No," I said. "We turn him over to the authorities and let the system handle him."
The system that will give him three meals a day and a cell to plot his next move?" Chi Fu's laugh was bitter. "That system?"
He had a point, the hero society wasn't perfect, villains escaped, and people fell through the cracks, the system that created heroes also created the conditions that made villains.
But killing someone in cold blood? That was a line I'd never crossed.
Except.
Was killing Shan Yu wrong?
Yes.
Would it prevent greater harm?
Probably.
Was the world better off without him?
Absolutely.
"If we do this," I said slowly, "there can't be any evidence that can trace back to us."
Chi Fu nodded. "We're alone, the dojo is destroyed, and no security cameras.
I walked to the frozen tomb and looked at Shan Yu's face one last time.
"I won't be the one to kill him," I said. "I'll restrain him and hold him, but you deliver the blow."
"Agreed."
I focused on the ice, and it began to melt slowly.
Shan Yu's eyes tracked the melting ice, watching as his prison began to dissolve.
When enough ice had melted, I reached in. Grabbed him with both hands I held him immobile despite his struggles.
He couldn't speak yet, his jaw was still partially frozen, but his eyes promised murder.
Chi Fu walked to the wall, picked up a blade from the destroyed weapons rack. A jian. Chinese straight sword. The metal was still intact somehow, despite the destruction of the fight.
He tested the weight, then he walked back to where I held Shan Yu.
"For my students," Chi Fu said quietly. "For everyone you would have killed, for every life your revolution would have destroyed."
He drove the blade through Shan Yu's left eye, straight into his brain.
The resistance lasted maybe half a second, then the blade punched through.
Shan Yu's body went rigid, with blood pouring from the wound, then he went limp.
I held the corpse for a moment and felt the weight of what we'd just done.
Then I encased the body in ice again and shattered it, then I shattered the ice fragments. Over and over until nothing remained but ice dust too small to identify.
I scattered the dust across the training hall and mixed it with the destruction from our fight, making it indistinguishable from all the other frozen debris.
Chi Fu set the bloody sword aside, and I quickly destroyed that too.
"Thank you," he said again.
I nodded.
Chi Fu then suddenly bowed
"I accept you as my apprentice. Starting tomorrow, if you're willing. I'll teach you everything I know and every technique.
Relief flooded through me, "I'm willing," I said.
"Good, come to the dojo tomorrow after school and bring friends if you want. I'll be teaching multiple students again." Chi Fu looked around the destroyed training hall. "After I clean this place up and repair the damage, and contact my family, letting them know I'm alive and ready to rebuild."
"Okay."
I just nodded and turned toward the exit.
"Kori," Chi Fu called.
I looked back.
"What we did here stays between us forever.
"I understand."
"Do you?" His expression was serious. "Taking a life, even for good reasons, changes you. Most people carry that weight their entire lives.
He paused.
"But I don't think you will. I think you've already accepted what we did. You're the most pragmatic kid I've ever seen."
He was right.
I'd killed someone, and yet I felt fine. Years ago, I would have never done this. I wonder what changed in me.
"I'll see you tomorrow," I said.
Chi Fu nodded and turned back to survey the damaged dojo.
I left, walked outside into the cooling evening air, and even though I couldn't feel the cool temperature, I still felt the sensation.
Then I created my wings again and launched into the sky.
BOOM
The sonic boom echoed across the neighborhood. Up here, thousands of feet above the ground, the world looked different. It was peaceful; the city lights spread out like a glowing map. Stars are visible overhead despite light pollution.
I'd never flown this high before. I leveled out, cruising, the wind resistance meant nothing.
An airplane passed below me, a commercial flight heading to some distant city. I could see passengers through the windows, tiny figures reading or sleeping or watching movies.
I pulled out my phone, I held it up, angled the camera, and took a selfie with the airplane and city lights in the background.
The image was surreal, my face and ice body, wings spread wide, and below, normal human society going about its business, completely unaware.
I saved the photo and marked it private. It was something to remember, possibly one of the most important days of my life.
Then I angled downward and descended toward home.
The flight was exhilarating; I felt pure freedom; it was just me and the sky.
I landed two blocks from my house and found a dark alley. I quickly reversed my transformation within seconds, and I looked human again.
I walked home, opening the front door and stepping inside.
"Kori!" Mom's voice came from the living room, her voice filled with worry. " Where have you been? I've been calling you for the past twenty minutes!"
I walked into the living room. Mom was sitting on the couch with her phone in her hand, with Dad next to her, both of them looking concerned.
"Sorry," I said. I stayed after school to talk with Izuku and lost track of time."
Mom's expression shifted from worry to exasperation. "You couldn't answer your phone?"
"It was on silent, and I didn't notice the calls until just now."
She sighed and set her phone down. "Next time, please let me know if you're going to be late. I was getting ready to go look for you."
"I will. Sorry for worrying you."
Dad ruffled my hair as I walked past. "How was your first day at junior high?"
"Interesting," I said. That was the understatement of the year. "Made some new observations. Saw some stuff I wasn't expecting."
"Good stuff or bad stuff?"
"Both."
He laughed. "That's junior high for you. Full of surprises."
I headed upstairs and heard Hio's voice calling from his room.
"Kori! You're home!"
I opened his door, hio was sitting on his bed surrounded by toys.
"Tell me about school!" He bounced on the bed. "Was it cool? Did you make friends? Did you use your ice?"
I sat down next to him. Picked up one of his action figures. It was a plastic hero from some cartoon he loved.
"School was good, and I met some interesting people and saw some impressive things."
"Like what?"
"I met a master martial arts artist ."
Hio's eyes went wide. "Wow! Are you gonna learn from them?"
"Yeah. Starting tomorrow."
"That's so cool!" Hio tackled me in a hug. "You're gonna be the best hero ever!"
I hugged him back. "Tell me about your day," I said. "What did you do while I was at school?"
Hio launched into an excited explanation of his day. The games he played, the shows he watched.
I listened and nodded, making sounds of interest and encouragement, and tried not to think about the dead man whose body I'd scattered as frozen dust across a destroyed dojo floor.
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A/N:
700 powerstones: Incomplete
900 powerstones: Incomplete
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Read advanced chapters on patreon.com/keyblast
Shameless plug in- check my other fanfic out as well MHA: Cleave, do note that i'm not dropping iceman or slowing the updates, i still plan to upload it consistently