Heroes In The Dark

An MHA blog dedicated to Tokoyami, Villains, and my story Heroes in the Dark, where Tokoyami becomes captured by the League of Villains. Ask me about birds and villains! I also post art and work in zines.

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New Horikoshi Art!!

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Chapter 1 of Heroes in the Dark was first posted on July 19th, 2017, to fanfiction.net and concluded with Chapter 130 on May 11, 2026. Today marks the 9 year anniversary! I drew a post-ending illustration to commemorate this milestone.

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Just a matter of perspective..

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Chapter 99: YAY YIPPEE WOOHOO night bite appearance and tokoyami and toga bonding and dabi training and bonding and tokoyami FINALLY opening up about dying and so much love and so good yay weeeeeee

Chapter 100, 101: no no no no no no no no no no

(Im going to cry. I need a hitd fix it fic where everyone lives please. Also I usually love hawks and love his motivations and actions but GOD you are making me hate his ass from this perspective. This is a good thing. Great writing, I am personally feeling all of tokoyamis frustration and rage and misery and while I HATE it and want to kill hawks with my bare hands it is VERY GOOD. And if I talk about anything else im going to cry even harder so ill do a dabi and focus all my feelings onto hurting hawks hashtag violence yay! Actually i lied im gonna ignore my feelings and keep reading, but in spirit me and the league are beating his ass and hugging tokoyami)

Ahhh the good ol' 180° from chapter 99 vs chapter 100. 100 still remains one of my all-time favorite chapters, if only because of how devastating it was. There's something so particularly agonizing in how much I put into Tokoyami forging these connections and becoming so comfortable amongst the villains only to have it all come burning down because he couldn't stand to see another person get killed. I still viscerally remember when these events happened canonically in the manga and my immediate thought was "Oh no. My fic." There was just no avoiding how badly this would end up.

With how fast you're reading this, I really can't comment on the future ahead. For what it's worth, I also love Hawks's character and the complexity of his motives. Heroes and villains alike have all done things that have upset or disappointed me in some way. There's a lot that needs to happen if any one of the key members in this story want a better ending than the one that Twice got. With that in mind, have fun getting to the end — and good luck!

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NIGHT BITE IS SUCH A CUTE FUCKING NAME OMG and its so fitting for toga skkskskskksk I hope we get tons of stuff with them bc if not I WILL make it myself its too adorable to pass up, also dying for the toga and tokoyami friendship THEY ARE MY BABIES

Hang on just a sec, lemme pull up some old art—ah! Here it is!

Ahaha yeah I felt pretty clever when I realized that Toga's version of Dark Shadow could be its own unique entity! It really gave these two something to work on that was specific and personal to them alone. Don't you worry, now, Night Bite has an important role to play!

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Just finished the mla fight, and love love love all of it, but poor tokoyami running around like "can you all stop killing people FOR FIVE SECONDS"

Like hes JUST come to terms with not wanting the lov to die and now they are killing an entire city (semi justifiably, it IS in self defence), can we give bro a break 💔

Also loving the continued cracks in his "no one should have to die. No one deserves to die" mindset, the overhaul arc has messed him up GOOD

To date, the MLA fight is my favorite instance of having the League working together for a common goal. Just some really good villain group vs villain group. But oh man was that an absolute blood bath! Seriously, so many casualties to sweep under the rug – a whole city obliterated! And there was some pvp happening on the MLA's side, but nothing as damaging as what Twice and Shigaraki were capable of. Tokoyami really was out there fighting for his life... and the lives of the League. And there were seriously so many times he could've been killed if he'd hesitated more while facing these civilians. Tokoyami's the only one out here not wanting anyone to get hurt, but damage was always going to be done. Truly, one of my favorite arcs to cover, since I got to write for everyone in somewhat equal parts.

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Im reading your fic (SO fucking good btw) and im like around chapter 60 and dabi is just giving major "dad with the pet they said they didnt want" vibes lmao. Sir that is ur emotional support traumatised teenager please treat him nicer XD

lol it's the most Dabi has ever been responsible for another person and he is struggling. But they have so much in common! Like self-destructive tendencies, powerful quirks that are hard to control, and a penchant for brooding. They'll get along eventually, but rest assured it will not be easy. There's, uh, a lot of ups and downs in store.

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I painted this Shigaraki art for a zine a few years back and never posted it anywhere. Better late than never, though!

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So shook right now by the realisation that this story has ended... I've been following it for 10+ years now :D

Thank you so SO much for such amazing dedication to your work, for being such an inspiring and creative person. It was truly an unforgettable journey! I still have to read all of the latest chapters, but there's no doubt at how amazing they are in my mind.

Thank you for everything, truly 💛

You and so many others have been keeping up with this story for years now! It really did take a while, but that just makes me all the more thankful that I had so many people looking forward to updates all this time. It really was an amazing journey, and it feels rather bittersweet now that it's over, even though I've known for years now how it was going to end. These last few chapters have seriously been some of my favorites, and I'm just so thrilled to have been able to wrap up everything.

Again, thanks for everything! I wouldn't have gotten this far without my readers cheering me on!

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HOLY SHIT A BLOG DEDICATED TO TOKOYAMI?!?!? THANK YOU FOR EXISTING!! Attached is a blinkie i made of him

Ahaha I love it! That is our boy right there! :D

I'm glad you found me! I've had this Tokoyami blog for years now. You caught me a little bit late, though :,) I just finished my massive Tokoyami fic, and the anime is over, so there's not much new content to look forward to. He's my favorite, though! And I have years of writing and drawings to look back on! Regardless, it's always good to find another Tokoyami fan!

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Final illustration for Heroes in the Dark! They haven't been all together like this since pre-chapter 100. Now the story has reached its end with chapter 130, and thus concludes Tokoyami's experiences with the League of Villains. It was a good run. Final thanks to everyone who followed along!

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This is the end of Heroes in the Dark. Chapter 130 has been posted.

For the last time, I offer you the links to read it:

Over here on Ao3...

Or here on FF.net

What a truly amazing experience. I'm so happy I got to finish this fic after all these years. It's a big one – the very first fic I ever started writing – and it means a lot that I can officially close out this final chapter.

Thank you all so so much for reading! It was an honor!

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I read this fanfic during the pandemic. Seeing this story almost reach its conclusion makes me happy for you!!

I want to ask. What inspired you to write this story? Why make Tokoyami the protagonist of this au?

Your fanfic really made me appreciate Tokoyami and the LoV so much!

Hello there! Thanks for reading! Yup, I'm just finishing up the last chapter. It really has been a long time coming. And I'll miss it, but I'm so excited to have everything come together.

I've been keeping up with My Hero Academia for a long time now, and from the beginning I had Tokoyami clocked as my favorite. There just wasn't a whole lot we knew about him yet, but he HAD that main character energy, you know? Lots of intrigue and potential. So when the forest raid was coming out and we saw both his rampage and a new cast of villains, I was captivated! It really did just come from the simple what if of "what would happen if the League had succeeded in taking him." And the more I wrote, the more connections and parallels I began to make. So much just kept falling into place. Characters like Hawks and organizations like the MLA didn't even exist yet. Hell, I think the Overhaul arc was still going when I started this. And since then, I've kinda just been staying a step behind canon, watching how things play out and realizing the impact it'll have on Heroes in the Dark.

But there were also things I wanted to change! Characters I wanted to have be influenced in different ways because of Tokoyami's presence, or characters I wanted to save. I wanted to take the parts of the series that felt too brief, namely for the villains, and analyze them under a microscope. And I did! And it was amazing!

Furthermore, Tokoyami's internal monolog was always so interesting to write. His duality made him intrinsically unique, and there's this part of him that's always fighting not just for himself, but for his quirk. I couldn't have asked for a better main character!

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The final episode of My Hero Academia airs next week! I've always at least somewhat tried to correlate chapter updates with what's happening in the anime. And now both the series and the fic that was inspired by it are coming to a close. Just look at Tokoyami, all grown up!

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Heroes in the Dark chapter 129: Farewell, League of Villains!

We're awfully close to the end now, aren't we? Ahh, but there's still the rest of this war to get through. One way or another, the fighting ends with this chapter. You can read the newest update...

Over here on Ao3...

...or here on FF.net!

It's been a good run. Just one more after this. Thanks for reading this far.

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So many things I could be drawing for these last few chapters of Heroes in the Dark. This moment was one of my favorites from 128, though. Loved having these two brothers reconnect at the worst possible time. Rip to Dabi's pride.

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Oh man, haven't drawn Dabi in a while. Hang on, I'm rusty. But here's some crispy doodles of the man during his final fight at the end of the series.