Chapter Text
Sero whipped through the air, hurriedly surveying the battlefield for another anchor point he could latch on to. The villain’s Quirk was going haywire, and Sero knew he had to end things quickly. He’d been on patrol with Tokage, his PR guy had said it would help him move up the charts, when the call came out about a villain attacking within Setagaya. They’d rushed to the sight just in time to see the villain utilize his Quirk. Sero wasn’t certain what the details were, but he quickly realized it functioned in a similar manner to the Trigger Bombs used by Humarise.
The first victim hit was a low-level Pro Hero with the power to control the directional flexing of his muscles. The effect was immediate; the man’s body quickly fell into a loose collection of bones surrounded by a gelatinous layer of muscle that constantly shifted shape. While the sight was going to stick with him, Sero was just glad the man hadn’t had a power that would cause more damage once empowered, or he would've been in danger.
He was even more grateful that his Quirk gave him enough mobility to dodge the villain’s blasts, but that didn’t mean this battle was going the way he’d hoped. Too many Pros had responded to the call, which made sense given there was a Hero Convention going on in Shinjuku, and things were getting out of hand. Gang Orca had been hit by a blast, and now he was lying there like a beached whale, literally. Another with a Quirk similar to, yet weaker than, Bakugo’s had been struck and detonated the entire block, knocking down one of the apartments nearby. If it had been Bakugo struck by the blast, Sero shook his head; he needed to focus on the fight at hand.
Another blast zipped by, and Sero cursed quietly before firing another tape line toward a nearby building. It wasn’t the ideal spot; it would certainly leave him more exposed than he’d like, but it would get him closer to the villain. He zipped to the wall and turned, seeing Tokage’s pieces darting around the battlefield, her eyes floating not far from him so she could watch over the area. Sero only remained on the wall for a second before firing another line and swinging through the air as another blast crashed into the wall where he’d just been. There were a few other Pros nearby, but he didn’t recognize any of them at a glance. If only Midoriya were there, he would’ve known everyone without fail.
“Everyone!” he called out, firing a torrent of tape at the villain. “If you’re not in the top 100 heroes, get out of here! We can’t afford to have even one more of you get hit by this guy! Just focus on evacuating anybody still around here!”
The villain dodged, but it created just enough of an opening for Tokage to rush in with a strike of her own. It was a strong enough blow to knock the villain off his feet, allowing Sero the opening he needed to fire another blast of tape that wrapped around the villain. Jerking his hand back, Sero tightened the tape and bound the villain’s arms to his sides. “Lizardy!” Sero yelled, spinning through the air before landing on a streetlight. “We need to KO this guy, and fast! I doubt my tape will hold him for long!”
“Right!” he heard Tokage call out, her lips floating near his perch. Sero shot another line from his arm, using it to strengthen the first bind he had on the villain as she pooled her body together. He watched as her arms and legs reappeared, all four limbs thrashing wildly as she repeatedly struck the villain.
Neither of them was a battle hero; he knew that, but it was better if they were the only two dealing with the villain. Tokage could continue barraging the villain while Sero focused on keeping him contained. It wasn’t foolproof, but it was a strategy he could manage.
Sero realized at the last possible second that the villain was about to break free of his binds, light flooding from the gaps in the tape. “Tokage!” he roared, leaping from the streetlight as he saw a burst of brilliant red light explode from the villain’s body. It was too little too late; he wasn’t going to escape the blast in time.
The light rushed across the street, and Sero braced for the impact before Tokage's body rushed in front of him, shielding him slightly from the light. It was a valiant effort, but the blast struck both of them regardless. ‘Shit,’ he thought to himself, clenching his eyes tight. ‘Really not how I thought I was gonna go out.’ He’d seen the aftermath of the Humarise attacks, and he wondered what horrid way his Quirk was going to turn on his body.
When he felt no pain or his body falling apart into spools of tape, Sero dared to open his eyes and saw that he was completely fine. He pulled himself to the wall he’d aimed at and turned to see that, similarly, Tokage was fine. “Cellophane!” she called out, her lips and one of her eyes rushing over to him. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he assured. “Let’s just make sure that we take care of this guy before he pulls another stunt like that!”
She nodded, and Sero watched as she split into smaller pieces, chunks of her body slamming repeatedly into the villain. He jerked his elbow sharply, attempting to tear the tape keeping him stuck to the wall, and hissed as he felt the tape fail to break. He turned back to it and grabbed, pulling with all his strength before it finally tore apart.
‘Guess this guy made my tape stronger,’ Sero mused, kicking off the wall just before he began to fall. ‘That's going to make swinging harder. But maybe he won't be able to get out of this.’
He waited for Tokage's barrage to slow, watching the villain rocking on unsteady feet. Firing another shot, Sero landed and rushed to his left, drawing wide circles around the villain before yanking his arm back and binding him in several layers of his newly empowered tape. Snapping his arm down, he tore away the last of the tape extending from his elbow and sighed heavily.
With the villain entirely immobilized, Sero turned and began to survey the damage. The block was almost entirely beyond repair, but he could see spots where he could at least brace some of the structural support with his stronger tape. Aiming at a weak pillar he could see exposed through a section of destroyed wall, Sero was ready to fire until he heard a shrill scream from behind him.
Whipping around, he saw Tokage attempting to pull herself back together, but the chunks seemingly refused to bind. “S-Sero-kun!” she called out, reaching out to him with fingers that were beginning to break apart. “Help me!”
Sero dropped his arm and rushed to Tokage, attempting to grab the pieces floating away from her centralized mass. They broke apart in his grip, and Sero's eyes widened as a gasp escaped him. “Shit, Tokage-san!” he cried, letting go of the pieces and watching as they continued to blow away like grains of sand. “Can you regenerate?”
He watched her eyes scrunch, and her jaw clench, flecks of skin flying away from her as she focused. It was becoming abundantly clear that whatever the villain's Quirk had done to her, Tokage couldn't stop from breaking down. Thinking quickly, Sero gripped both of her shoulders, pulling Tokage back to him. “Hey, get as much of your body together as you can! I might be able to help!”
It was a long shot, he knew, but trying to tape her together was the only thing he could think of. She nodded, and Sero watched her disparate pieces pull together to create the rough form of her body. Attaching the tape at the top of her head, Sero quickly moved around her, doing his best to ensure there were no gaps in the tape where pieces of her body could escape. He left only the smallest gaps near her nose and mouth, doing his best to ensure she would still be able to breathe even covered in the adhesive wrapping. He could tell that she hated the solution from the way her body stiffened and a slight tremor ran through her, but she didn’t protest, likely seeing that his solution was the only thing that would keep her from dying.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he wrapped the final strand around her foot. “I’m going to go get help! But you’re going to be by yourself for a bit, okay, Tokage-san?”
There was the slightest twitch through the tape, and Sero assumed that it was Tokage giving him the sign to go. Running as fast as he could, Sero saw the bright red flashing lights of an ambulance nearby. “Help! Help!” he raised his arms, waving wildly at one of the paramedics searching through the rubble of one of the destroyed buildings. “Quick! I’ve captured the villain, but my partner was hit by his Quirk! It amplifies the Quirk of anyone that’s hit, and she’s breaking apart! Hurry!”
—
The ride to the hospital was quiet.
The paramedics warned him that if the adhesive powers of his tape continued to increase, he might not be able to use his Quirk, but that was small potatoes compared to Tokage. Her Quirk’s ability to rebind had been completely removed in favor of letting her break into even more pieces than before. If he hadn’t acted when he did, she would’ve certainly been blown away by even the weakest breeze. And all because she had taken the brunt of the blast for him. If only he’d been faster, more attentive, then he could have dodged, and Tokage wouldn’t have gotten in the way. Neither of them was a battle hero, but especially Tokage. She was best at reconnaissance and coordinating groups of people across a wide area, and she still got in the way of the attack.
The worst part was that the doctors didn’t know when the villain’s Quirk would wear off. The villain had been tight-lipped ever since he’d awoken in police custody, never once hinting at any part of his Quirk’s power. Sero knew that, logically, the Quirk would wear off eventually; very few Quirks that affected others lasted very long, but it was still agonizing not knowing when that would be.
“Okay,” Dr. Murakami tapped her pen sharply against her clipboard. “You’re clear to go, Mr. Sero. We’ll ask you to come back in about a week to check your Quirk, but please come to us if you notice any new side effects.”
“Right,” he nodded, flexing his elbows to ensure their range of motion hadn’t shrunk any. There was a pause, the words he wanted to say dancing on his tongue before he shook his head and looked to the floor. ‘Tokage’s under the care of the best doctors in the country… There’s nothing to worry about,’ he told himself. And yet, his legs were moving on their own, taking him toward the ICU.
She was still wrapped in tape. He could tell instantly that they hadn’t risked removing it and replacing it with a cast or bandages. There weren’t even machines connected to her body. Even that seemingly proved to be too dangerous given her current condition. That meant that they had no idea how she was really doing, and they couldn’t administer any medicine or nutrient solutions. There was a tightness in his chest that slowly lowered into his stomach, winding in knots until he thought he was going to hurl. Guilt clawed at him, and he could feel sharp tears burning in his eyes.
He and Tokage weren't that close, one of those friends he saw a handful of times a year, but she had still thrown herself headfirst into a dangerous situation to save him. He chewed his bottom lip anxiously; he wasn’t sure he would have done the same in her situation. ‘Am I a bad hero?’ he wondered, continuing to tear at the loose skin on his lips. Sure, they'd been in the same year, and her agency wasn't terribly far from his, but he didn’t know if he would throw his life away for her.
“Cellophane!” a voice called out, diverting his attention from Tokage to a doctor waving at him from further down the hall. “I’m glad I could catch you before you left! I’m Dr. Ito, and I’m in charge of Ms. Tokage’s treatment. I was hoping we could speak, if it’s not an inconvenience.”
“Not at all,” Sero replied quickly. If it would ease this tightness in his chest, he would do anything the doctor asked.
“It’s about your tape,” Dr. Ito said, stopping next to Sero so he could hold the clipboard between them. He flipped the first page back and tapped on a small part of the diagram he’d revealed before saying, “As I’ve been told, you were also struck by the villain’s Quirk, and it enhanced your tape’s power. We ran a few rudimentary tests and found that the bond it forms is so powerful… It attaches on a molecular level. I understand this isn’t helpful for you in your day-to-day hero work, but right now, it’s the only thing that’s keeping Ms. Tokage alive.”
Sero nodded along; most of that was something he’d deduced on his own, but it was nice to have confirmation. “As it is,” Dr. Ito continued. “The bonds are powerful, but they’re beginning to break down at a rapid rate. I know it’s a large ask, but if she’s going to have any chance for her condition to even stabilize, I'm going to have to ask you to remain here. It will mean you pausing your Hero work and potentially being reexposed to the villain's Quirk if the effects wear off on you before hers, so I understand if you aren't comfortable with-”
“I'll do it!” Sero cut the man off, turning back to the motionless body in the dim hospital room. “She risked her life for mine. It's the least I can do.”
“Good,” Dr. Ito nodded, extending his hand toward Sero. “I'll talk to the hospital and see if we can’t get you some accommodations nearby. I look forward to working with you.”
“Yeah,” Sero chuckled nervously, shaking the man's hand. His gaze never left Tokage, hoping beyond hope that the woman inside the bindings wasn't just a soup of molecules like the first Hero he'd seen blasted. He didn't know what he'd do if she was.