It Never Gets Easier: Abnormally Dark
Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia Summary: Tokoyami Fumikage has always been different than the other students around him, but he finds the longer he stays at UA how specifically different he is. Warnings: Gender identity issues, canon-typical violence, mentions of maternal death, mentions of child neglect Word Count: Approx 45,000 Chapters: 22 Ship(s): Tokoyami Fumikage/Shoji Mezo
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Tokoyami Fumikage had never been normal. He had always been different from the other people around him. There were two parts of it, the physical and the emotional.
Physically he was different from everyone around him because he had the head of a bird in place of the normal human one that everyone else had. He also had something similar to a demon constantly emerging from his chest.
Emotionally he was different from everyone else because he felt different than they apparently does. He had never felt like the titles bestowed upon his assigned gender really fit him. He had always preferred to just exist in a place without stereotypes of gender. He had no idea what he felt personally and had never been able to put a name on it. But that was a bit beside the point since he hated the stereotypes that were but on him because of his gender, so he never put too much thought into placing titles on himself.
His maturity was another thing that made him a bit abnormal. While other students that were the same age as him were fawning over each other in the romantic sense, he was more preoccupied with trying to sort out his inner demons and find out what he wanted to do with his life. So many people assumed that he would either follow the same path as his father and go into law because of his amazing brain or that he would become a villain because of the supposed evilness of his Quirk.
It may have been more of an act of defiance than anything else, but he had chosen to become a hero. It may have also been because he had been told his entire life that his Quirk was dangerous and he wanted to do something productive with Dark Shadow.
Regardless of the reason, he had chosen to become a hero and was enrolled to go to one of the most prestigious schools in the nation. A small part of him hoped that within the school he wouldn’t be as outcasted as he had been during Middle School. He knew that it may have been a bit of an outrageous hope, but he still hoped it nonetheless.
He tugged on the end of his sleeve for his new school uniform, covering over the black bracelets that he wore on his wrists. Each of them had a story behind them, but he didn’t really have time to think about them. He turned around with a small, rushing out of his bedroom.
“Good morning, Fumikage,” his father called out from where he was sitting at the table. He had his mug in front of him, full of coffee with far too much creamer and sugar. Everything within this house seemed too colorful for the aesthetic that Fumikage had chosen. He always preferred black and dark greys, but his father had always been fond of the lighter colors.
“Morning, Father,” he responded, sitting down across the table from the other man. He reached out and grabbed a piece of toast from the stack, munching on it delicately. The way he had to eat was a bit awkward due to his beak, so he always ate slowly and carefully to make sure he didn’t make too much of a mess.
“Are you ready for school today?” the man asked, his dark eyes moving from the paper that was laid out over to the table back to his son.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he responded.
“Unfortunately I won’t be able to pick you up from school. Ito and I are working on a case and I have to be there with her to help her with the parents. Apparently, they’ve been a bit of a problem in the past,” his father sighed.
“That’s fine. I can take the train,” he answered, grabbing his second piece of toast. After a moment, he placed it down on the table and stood up. He got up, grabbing the mug that he always used and filling it with what coffee was left in the pot. He walked back down to the table, sitting down and tucking one of his legs underneath him as he took a long sip of it. It was even harder and more awkward for him to drink because of his beak, so he normally refrained from doing when he could.
“I hate doing that to you on your first day of high school, but when I come home we can have whatever you want to eat,” he offered, his eyebrows furrowed together with guilt.
“That sounds fine,” he shrugged, finishing the last of his food.
“You ready to go to school, now?” his father asked, placing his now empty mug in the sink.
“Yes,” the teenager replied, placing his mug next to his father’s in the sink. He followed after the other man silently, not wanting to talk much as he did so. He grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder as he left the house to go to the car. The ride to the school was completely silent, as it almost always was. It wasn’t that Fumikage didn’t love his father, he really did, but he just wasn’t one for talking. The deepness of his voice always set the teenager on edge a bit, making him feel uncomfortable in his body.
“Have a good first day of school, Fumikage. I’m very proud of you, and I’m sure your mother would be just as proud if she was here,” the man smiled tightly, his eyes becoming overtaken by a longing sadness
The teenager felt his heart drop down into his stomach, and his hand fell away from the door. He hated thinking about his mother because there was always a sense of guilt that occurred when he did. The woman had become impossibly frail after she had had him, and had only lived for five more years before she passed away because of the common cold. In a way, Fumikage felt like it was his fault that she died. She had been alive just long enough for him to have a couple of incredibly strong memories of her, which did make it harder for him to think about her.
“Would she be? I never really got to know her,” Fumikage mumbled, looking down at his lap.
“She would be so proud of you and the person that you’ve decided to become,” his father nodded, the sad smile on his face increasing a bit. “Sorry, kid, I didn’t mean to make you upset,” he laughed.
“It’s fine, Father,” he reassured the man as he opened the car door.
The man within the car waved at his son before he sped off to his own work. The feathered boy turned around, walking to the school. As he walked, he looked around at all of the students that he would be going to school with, and so far he hadn’t seen anyone as abnormal as him.
He made it to the classroom where he would have his homeroom without anyone stopping to talk to him, but receiving several stares. He sat down in one of the empty seats away from the rest of the students, not sure if he should talk to them or not. He had been told a couple times that he made people uncomfortable because of his Quirk and the physical mutation, and he didn’t want to make any of his new peers uncomfortable.
His attention was brought away from his thoughts as someone walked into the classroom. The teenager had white hair that draped over one of his eyes, which left the only part of his face that was visibly his other eye. He was wearing a light blue mask that covered up the rest of his face. Though the skin that he wasn’t showing on his face was quickly made up for the amount of skin that he was showing on his arms. His Quirk also came with a physical mutation, leaving him with six arms as opposed to two like most people had.
Fumikage felt his heart flutter a bit and his stomach roll as he felt attraction grow inside of him. That was another thing that he had never chosen to put a label on. All he knew was that he loved people regardless of their gender.
The tall teenager turned around and noticed him. His face moved underneath the mask in what appeared to be a smile before he stuck his top arm and hand out to the other. “Hello. I’m Shouji Mezou,” he greeted. His voice was deep and pleasing, and all the other teen wanted to do was hear him talk all day, every day. He was a bit surprised with himself about how quickly his crush was developing when he had no idea what kind of person the teen in front of him was.
The bird-headed teenager took the hand, giving it a firm shake as he replied, “Tokoyami Fumikage.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Tokoyami,” Shouji said, his voice slightly muffled by the mask. “It’s nice to see someone that is abnormal like me.”
Fumikage blinked, trying to process the sentence that the other teenager had just said. However, he didn’t have a chance to respond when the other began to backtrack, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I was just content to know I would not be the only person in our class that had a physical mutation that went along with their Quirk,” he said, his voice just as alluring as it had been the first two times.
“You didn’t offend me, I just wasn’t expecting you to say that,” he replied easily. If he had normal cheeks, he was sure that he would be blushing. “It is a bit reassuring for me as well, as I am used to being the only one that is physically abnormal.”
“We are in a world where everyone is unique and yet some of us are more unique than the others,” the other nodded. He took a seat in the empty desk next to the bird-headed boy, fully prepared to continue their conversation.
“True, but what is more peculiar is that I have a mutation that is almost completely unrelated to my Quirk,” he continued on, finding it incredibly easy to talk to the other teenager.
“Oh?” Shouji asked, motioning for him to continue.
“My Quirk is called Dark Shadow. What it means is that I have a shadow like being living inside of me that I can order to do things. Whether or not he actually does what he’s told depends on the brightness of the world around us,” he explained easily. “There is no logical reason that I would be born with the head of a raven.”
“I see,” the other nodded. “It makes more sense for me to have triple the arms that people normally have, given my own Quirk,” he commented.
“Which is?” Fumikage asked When he talked to the other teenager his normal worries and frets easily melting away from him.
“It’s called Dupli-arms,” he responded. “I can change the ends of my arms into things like eyes, ears, and mouths. When I do it, it amplifies the sense.”
“It does make a lot more sense for you to have a physical mutation relating somewhat to your Quirk,” the raven-headed boy nodded.
“Hey, mind if we join into your conversation?” another one of their peers asked as a duo of teenagers walked over to them.
“Not at all,” Shouji answered as he looked over to the other teenager.
“I don’t mind,” he shook his head, looking down at his hands in front of her. One of the other teens had a physical mutation just as Fumikage and Shouji did, but his seemed far more natural and was able to be overlooked. They sat down in front of the other two, which were where the only other empty desks were.
“What are you guys talking about?” the first asked, looking between the two of them.
“I believe we should all introduce ourselves before we begin to talk again,” Fumikage said instead, smirking in his head. Sometimes he hated the fact that his lack of a face prevented him from expressing his emotions as other people did normally.
“Oh yeah. I’m Satou Rikidou and this is Kouda Kouji,” Satou introduced for the both of them, pointing to each of the teens in turn. “Now, what were you two talking about?”
“Physical mutations that occur with Quirks,” Shouji answered.
They didn’t have much time to continue their conversation as a blue-haired teen called out above the class. “Everyone! Homeroom is about to begin, please sit down!” When he was finished shouting there was a hurried moving of clothes and scraping of chairs and desks as they all moved to sit down.
Five minutes passed and the teacher had still not arrived. Fumikage glanced at the clock that hung on the wall, seeing that the blue-haired student had called out for them to settle down a good five minutes before class started. As more time passed, the students around him began to talk to each other in hushed whispers. Just as the minute hand slid to the proper time, the door slid open and their teacher entered. Everyone shut up,” he growled. He walked to the front of the classroom where he then began to read roll.
“Aoyama Yuga?” the teacher drawled in his bored tone.
“Here,” a French-accented voice called out as a boy with longish blond hair rose his hand.
“Ashido Mina?” he said without even marking anything on his roll sheet.
“Here!” Ashido sing-sung as she raised her perfectly pink hand in the air.
“Asui Tsuyu?”
“Here,” a frog-like voice emanated from a girl with green hair that looked frighteningly like a frog herself.
“Iida Tenya?”
“Present,” the boy from earlier that had gotten the entire class to sit down called out, standing up eagerly.
“Sit down,” the teacher growled with a deeper frown. “Uraraka Ochako?”
“Here,” a high voice called out as a very feminine girl raised her hand.
“Oijiro Mashiro?”
“Present, sir,” a boy with a huge tail, and oddly yellow hair raised his hand.
“Kaminari Denki?”
“Pre-sent,” the blond student with a black lightning bolt in their hair called out.
“Kirishima Eijirou?” he asked next, pausing before he given name as he squinted down at the name.
“Here,” a redheaded student called out nervously.
“Koda Koji,” he called out, looking up this time as the student only raised his hand. “Please say ‘here’ next time. Satou Rikidou.”
“Here.”
“Shoji Mezo?”
“Here,” a muffled voice called out.
“Jirou Kyouka?”
“Here,” she sighed in reply as she slumped down in her seat.
“Tokoyami Fumikage?” he called out after shooting a small glare to Jiro for not speaking clearly.
“Present,” he called out, hating the way that his voice boomed throughout the silent room.
“Todoroki Shoto?”
“Present,” a boy with heterochromatic eyes and evenly split hair almost growled, which earned him a glare that the teacher seemed so fond of giving.
“Hagakure Tooru?”
A person less uniform raised the arm and a girl’s voice called out. “Here!”
“Oh boy,” the teacher grumbled. “Bakugou Katsuki?”
“Here,” he muttered, just loud enough for the people around him to hear.
“Bakugou Katsuki?” the teacher called out again, annoyance heavy in his tone.
“I SAID HERE YOU FUCKER!” Bakugou called out angrily.
“Please refrain from swearing in this class,” Aizawa-sensei grew, looking up with narrowed, intimidating eyes. “Midoriya Izuku.”
“Here,” the boy from earlier jumped and said instinctively as he glanced up from the burnt notebook on his lap.
“Mineta Minoru?”
“Here,” a greasy, slurred tone called out from the shortest member of the class.
“Yaoyorozu Momo?” he called out the last name.
“Present, sir,” the tallest girl in the class called out, respectfully raising her hand.
“Great, a full class,” Aizawa-sensei growled as he placed the roll sheet on the podium in front of him. “As I said before, one of you will be expelled by the end of class today.”
---
Fumikage sat down at one of the empty tables, unsure if anyone would be alright with sitting with him. Luckily, he didn’t have to worry about sitting alone like he had in middle school and Shouji wandered over to him. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” he asked, his voice still muffled by his mask.
“Not at all,” the bird-headed boy responded. The silver-haired boy sat down, no food in front of him at all. The other chose not to address it, thinking that he had a reason for wearing a mask over his mouth. A moment later Satou and Kouda wandered over to them as well.
“Can we sit with you guys?” Satou asked, holding his tray in front of him.
“Feel free,” Fumikage nodded, glancing over at Shouji to make sure that it was okay. The other didn’t seem to have an objection, letting the other two students sit down.
“So what do you guys think of Aizawa-sensei?” Satou asked, munching on a bit of his food.
Fumikage swallowed his food before speaking, kind of self-conscious now that he was eating in front of strangers. “He’s a bit strange.”
“Hello there, I’m Aoyama Yuuga, would you mind if I sat with you?” the blond, French-accented boy asked as he approached their table.
“I’m fine with it if everyone else is,” Satou answered as he looked around the table. No one had any objection, so the other boy sat down with them as well. They didn’t have much of a time to strike up a conversation before the next group of student approached them.
“Hey there,” the invisible girl called, waving her sleeve through the air. “Can Mashiro and I sit with you guys?” she asked, looking over at the tail guy.
“Of course,” Shouji answered. The group of seven spent the rest of their lunch hour talking back and forth civilly, each of them equally respectful of each other. Fumikage hummed a bit to himself as he looked around the group of new friends that he had managed to make on the first day. Perhaps he wasn’t as abnormal as he had first thought himself to be.
