--

Belenus never faced such a problem before. Sure, he had faced many problems in his career, but he always had solutions for them.

5 months had passed. This gave him 20 crystals to work with.

20 crystals for 20 students... Perfect.

He gingerly placed the crystals he had accumulated to each of the students over the past 5 months. Since they are now living in dorms, it was harder to find the students outside the building. They had no need to go home. However, 5 months without leaving the school's premise would be out of one's mind.

Of course, Tokoyami would be the least frequent to leave. It took Belenus almost a month to even catch a glimpse of him in the school. Naturally, he was the last person to give.

--

It was the dead of night when Tokoyami came out. He rarely ever interacted with the outside world before. Neither he was close with his family, nor he had any friends outside of UA. However, he had to escape the school premises once a while; he was training to become a hero after all.

He was getting his provisional hero licence next week and wanted to calm his nerves by taking a stroll alone.

Both his hands were in his jeans pocket as the chilly night breeze ran thought his small frame, making him shiver.

His let his mind wander off to forget about the cold. His relationship with his classmates was more tolerable now. He viewed them as trustable, caring friends instead of the strangers he once thought they would be.

One managed to even protect him by sacrificing himself, making Tokoyami reveal the protective side of himself that he had been trying to hide. That, of course, backfires and Dark Shadow went berserk. It was literally the reason why he didn't want to reveal his emotions.

He had never really knew what it felt like to be sociable, a part of happiness that he didn't have.

Sometimes, he really wanted to be sociable, to be a normal person. Looking at how others laughed and shared gossips with each other, he was missing out on a lot.

He wanted to be a part of them, he really, really did!

And he did...

Only to regret it immediately after. experience scarred his life.

He arrived at UA, putting on a gothic persona as he'd seen how caring the class was. The last thing he wanted was to get people attention, the last thing he wanted was people close to him, the last thing he want was to hurt others again.

However, after he saw what Shoji did, it changed him. He just can't get over the idea of protecting them with his life.

He had gained the trust of their friends and now, instead of not wanting to injure them, he wanted to not get injured.

He strolled into a park that was full of trees that were in the emergent layer. They provided him shelter from cold winds and most importantly, silence.

He looked ahead. There was just a straight path around 20 metres wide with trees as tall as skyscrapers covering both sides. Old fashioned street lamps were stingily placed along the pathway; its dull lights did very little to illuminate the surroundings due to a passing fog.

Tokoyami snug deeper into his pale brown scarf around his red choker as the temperature dropped. His red eyes were piercing through the darkness, almost glowing in comparison to the gloomy colours of the park. It was deathly quiet, something he really admire since young. He might be more susceptible to losing control of dark shadow, but at least no one will be around to get hurt.

Dark shadow was sometimes like a brother too, giving him advice or reminders, almost like a god fairy.

A God fairy. He reminded himself.

It's getting late Fumi, I'm not waking you up tomorrow if you're late.

He sighed bitterly at his quirk's threat. He changed direction and walked a path that led straight to UA.

"You giving me nightmares definitely doesn't contribute to my lateness."

Tokoyami grumbled sarcastically.

Dark Shadow materialised in front of him, glaring at the boy with golden eyes that gleamed through the fog.

Dark shadow protested.

"Says the one who complained about waking me up on time"

"I am doing this to prevent more nightmares from occurring, idiot! I need to unfold my thoughts so I don't think of them when I am asleep."

"Where there will be more people? Never. Besides, I'm walking back now, what more do you want?"

".

Tokoyami heard a change in Dark Shadow's tone, sounding more troubled than worried. However, he wasn't looking around at the trees or through the fog, he was looking straight at Tokoyami's chest.

Looking at the sudden change in atmosphere, he got worried.

"Dark Shadow, what's wrong?" He started.

It was then he felt something in his heart, almost like an attacking sensation; not something attacking his heart, but his heart attacking something.

Dark shadow must have felt it too as he started shivering. He looked just as uncomfortable as Tokoyami. He promptly returned back to his body, leaving him alone.

A few seconds passed, and it was gone. Something was drained from his heart or soul. His energy was depleting fast, he needed to return to UA.

He started by walking at a normal pace, walking with strained effort but not showing. It came in waves of pain, a gradual increase as the peaks became higher and higher.

The cold now felt excruciatingly chilly. He felt his body shiver uncontrollably.

He turned a corner before stumbling, one knee landing on the ground. His face was contorted with pain, wanting to scream and yell but unable to do so. He knew that this would attract unwanted attention or may alert people, potentially causing them danger too.

He felt like his heart was on fire, an aftermath of an attack straight to his soul. A red hot nail prodding in his chest. He clutched his chest using one hand, gripping thought the jacket.

He could not do anything, even breathing stung. His senses felt amplified, the wind blowing thought him causing striking pains.

He opened his eyes. Dark spots dancing in his vision, expanding by the second. He tried getting up again, rising to his feet but exhaustion washed over him.

--

Shoji was out for an early morning jog alone in the park as he did every day. This time, he decided to enter from the exit instead of the entrance as he was running a little late. Running to the usual entrance is at the opposite side of UA which requires a longer distance than the route in the park itself.

He was quite familiar with the surroundings, but as he was now entering from the exit, everything felt different now.

I should probably take a different, smaller route this time...

He imagined drawing a circle on the map in his head.

Ugh being late sucks, it makes my morning so limited!

Speaking of being late...

He remembers a particular person always showing up a few seconds before the first-period teacher walks in.

Tokoyami, looking dead tired and his eyes barely opening.

Is his nightmares back? I think I should bring him to one of my jogs, it's a stress reliever.

Suddenly, his foot hit something on the ground, causing him to almost lose balance. Using his six arms to manoeuvre, he steadied himself.

Unconsciously, Shoji knew the way back and forth, he just didn't know how the back usually looks like.

So what was in his path was foreign...

He looked down...

A small teen with jet black clothes and hair...

Wait a minute, those aren't hair.

"Tokoyami? " Shoji asked curiously as he saw his unresponsive friend lying on the grass. He nudged him with his uppermost arm finger, his lower arm brushed his hand. It was stone cold.

"TOKOYAMI!" Shoji yelled, repeating his name again. The bird teen was out cold on the grass. He needed warmth before he get hypothermia: perhaps he'd already gotten it.

With his six arms, he wrapped around the small figure. Tokoyami's face was caked in dirt, eyes still closed. His breath was weak and pulse was slow, he needed warmth fast. Shoji hugged Tokoyami tightly, bringing him as close to his body as possible to give the small teen his warmth. It was like hugging ice.

How did he get this freezing cold? It wasn't even that cold last night!

Shoji ran back to UA with the limp body in his arms. What could've happened to his close friend that cause him to end up in such a state? Was he in danger? Why was he outside? How could he be the closest person to him in class but not notice his disappearance yesterday? Many questions formed in his mind, blaming himself for endangering his friend.

--

Tokoyami was shaken awake, slowly getting his feelings back to his body. He realised that he was trapped in a warm embrace, arms holding him from all directions. He did not have enough energy to move a single muscle, but he managed a soft groan.

"Tokoyami! Are you awake? What happened? " a familiar voice asked. He didn't respond, instead, he looked at Shoji with weak eyes, his eyes threatening to close. Shoji seemed to notice and squeezed him softly, making him notice his position. His hands and legs were wrapped around Shoji's torso, almost making him look like he was hugging Shoji tightly. He felt his eyes widen and turned red behind his black feathers. Sleep did not wash over him again.

"Do not pass out on me again, Tokoyami," Shoji warned, squeezing him harder. He let out a soft squeak, causing Shoji to relax his tense face a little.

"You sound adorable like a squeaky toy" He muttered. Now Tokoyami started to heat up, rising his body temperature at a rapid pace.

"Y-you definitely d-don't hesitate to say out what's on your mind, D-do you?" Tokoyami stammered, unsure due to cold or embarrassment.

Good, Tokoyami is in a better condition now. But he needs to inform Aizawa Sensei of his condition still. He has to know what happened too.

Shoji thought.

Shoji slowed his pace as he reached the clinic. He took a route that avoided any contact with other classmates, but he did see one or two students that might have noticed him. No time to worry about them though.

He entered the clinic with a knock. Recovery girl turned her head over and saw Tokoyami's shivering frame. She nodded in silence and signalled Shoji to place the bird teen on the bed closest to a heater.

Just then, the door slammed open. Eraserhead appeared at the door. Either word got spread around UA incredibly fast, or Recovery Girl had a way to alert Aizawa.

Aizawa walk towards Tokoyami with a frown; His face was dotted with sweat. Tokoyami gave a weak glance to his teacher.

"I go get something for Tokoyami to eat" Shoji announced as he left the room.

"What happened? Why were you at the park? " Aizawa demanded.

"I- I needed to get some air, to sort out my thoughts a bit. " Tokoyami wavered.

Aizawa looked at Recovery Girl.

" He's OK, he just have immensely low energy. Probably due to being out there in the cold for so long" Recovery girl told Aizawa. He nodded, relaxing a bit.

"Were you attacked?"

"I'm not sure, m-maybe just my own problems. It hurts from my heart, my soul felt like it was ripping apart. My soul felt like was defending itself from something..."

Tokoyami tried to explain, but he wasn't so sure of the details himself either.

However, when he mentioned soul, Aizawa ears perked up as if he remembered something.

"Attacking the soul, huh." He mumbled softly to himself.

Tokoyami stared at him.

"There were several cases involving murder from the heart, crystals forming inside and killing its host over some time. It's very infrequent, but it's believed that it's connected to some murder that was done by simply using a knife."

"So you mean he might have gotten me too?"

"Not exactly, people who were affected doesn't show its symptoms until after they die. They don't go asking for help if they feel pain like you. We don't know the circumstances yet but we assume that he's going to target UA."

Tokoyami's eyes widened in shock, he wasn't feeling cold anymore.

"How did you come up with that conclusion?"

" He is a smart killer, he doesn't leave behind any clues of his existence. All of the 'suicides' had little to no evidence. His next victim is always around 7km away as if his quirk had a limit of 7km. It was either a victim of a crystal or a victim of a knife wound."

" Some victims were not even classified as murder but as suicide, but judging from the pattern, it was the villain's doing. "

" Why 7km? Why would the villain make such a pattern? "

"There are many possibilities. The villain might be planning something or baiting us. The villain could also be killing for his quirk as if he needed some requirements in order for the quirk to work. We are unsure which is true, all we know is the next victim could be another 7km away."

"Well, why don't you just search the next victim on a ring of radius 7km?"

"44 km of searching... Easier said than done. His killings also happen fairly randomly. Besides, we're not dealing with only physical attacks. We don't even know who is already a victim. It's smarter to pinpoint the villain."

"However, his recent killings were made in a 2km radius instead of the usual 7km. We tried initiating a search radius of at least 4km from the most recent victim, but we couldn't find anything. Even physical attacks seem to just randomly happen. It was as if he could teleport."

"That made us think that the villain could attack at a range. His usual 7 km could probably be much more than we thought..."

"We had done a lot of thinking, with reference to his most recent killing patterns, we figured it was most probably UA Academy he was targeting."

"How far was the most recent attack?"

"Around 23km away"

"What? How?"

"The villain is not so careless as to reveal their limits easily... But they do have a limit. We think their range could be around 10 to 15km radius. However, if you stand at a spot and you had a range of 12km, you can target two people that have a maximum distance of 24km, the diameter of a circle."

Aizawa had his eyes closed, trying to remember all the details that he had theorised. Unfortunately, the bird teen in front of him had his eyes spinning in circles.

"Using this logic, since the distance between the villain's attacks have been greatly reduced, he is probably trying to target something far, but still able to maintain killing people using a repeated pattern. But due to the far distance, they can't use 7km, but only just 2km instead. That way, the attacks are so far away from UA, we would've never suspected an attack."

Tokoyami weakness of not knowing math now stung his brain.

Ugh, Ectoplasm's teachings... They were all so important!

Tokoyami didn't argue back, to Dark Shadow's dissatisfaction.

Aizawa finally took notice of the boy looking absolutely lost.

He took out a piece of paper from the small table beside his bed and started drawing...

Within a few minutes, he handed Tokoyami the paper.

It was a drawing of the villains route. One side was his usual route, 7 km radius circles for each killings. The other was the recent route, the killings reduced to just 2km. However, the 7km radius circles remained. By killing within the circle, the villain is able to attack victims from one side of the circle while targeting UA. The circle diameter is 14km. It made it seem that UA was out of the killers range, yet it wasn't.

Judging from the recent attacks, it was unusual for the route to change, unless the villain was targeting something.

The villain had everything planned with such precision, getting away with murders left and right without even an identification.

The crystal victims were found with crystals in their heart. They were deactivated after doing their job and they just become regular harmless crystals. Their blackness was gone.

"With this recent findings, it would just be a matter of time until we catch the villain. His route is more restricted now. We must act quickly. We don't know how much time we have left, so please refrain from going out."

"Yes, Sensi."

Tokoyami nodded.

The door opened once more, revealing Shoji carrying a tray with omelette rice, a slice of apple pie and a glass of water. It was a hearty meal.

However, he was not alone. The rest of Class 1A appeared behind him. The more active ones like Midoriya, Ashido, Tsuyu and Iida came rushing in. Todoroki and Bakugo stood in the door frame, looking at him. They washed him with a ton of questions, all that he was unable to answer because of the shock he was experiencing.

He was shocked that they were actually caring and curious about his well being. He really didn't deserve such caring friends. He treated them like chess pieces, trying to find strategies to avoid contact with them.

Within months, they should've went ahead without ever looking back at him.

Yet...

They always came back for him.

Last time was Shoji, now was the entire class.

He found tears in his eyes as he whispered out,

"Thank you."

--

"F**k You."

Belenus whispered to the portals he created. They were all showing scenes with Tokoyami. These portals weren't supposed to show real-life experiences; they were supposed to show a person's deepest emotions and feelings. But right now, all of them were showing their scene with Tokoyami, Tokoyami sobbing and thanking them over and over again.

He realised from the scene his own mistake too. Tokoyami was vulnerable at that moment in the park. When he tried to plant the crystal in his body, it repelled him, causing him to be pushed back by a force and into his body. He saw Tokoyami's figure walked forward casually. He himself was there at that point of time. He was tired of using his vision for 4 months so he hid there in the shadow of the forest.

He didn't realise Tokoyami was incredibly weak and powerless at that moment and lost his chance to grab or take his life then.

He walked away as Tokoyami turned a corner.

Now he was facing problems left and right. He needed to kill off Tokoyami. He could fend off the pro heroes but the kids were unpredictable. They could manifest a new skill at any moment and alter his plans.

(God darn protagonists, they always find ways to beat villans that are way out of their league by obtaining new skills.)

He could not wait any longer as he was slowly being found out by the pro heroes; producing another crystal was neigh impossible. Escaping and returning another time was also not an option. He found out that if he ever reached a limit of 22km, he found it difficult to connect with the crystals, causing it to deactivate.