Chapter Text
Shouto doesn’t know where he is. Wasn’t he fighting Stain? It's dark here. He thinks. Is he dead?
Shouto immediately reaches for his quirk after that thought, just to recoil at the emptiness. It feels like when Aizawa-sensei uses his quirk. Nothing, he can't feel anything when he tries to reach for his quirk.
I’m dead, I didn’t make it through the confrontation with Stain.
He stands there for what seems like hours just listening to his racing thoughts, but just standing there won’t get him out of this place, so he looks around. All he really can see is black– and he won’t be going deeper into wherever he is without having checked everywhere he could see.
Everywhere surrounding him is just black. He looks around for what it feels to be the hundredth time, despite knowing he won’t be seeing anything. He sighs and starts walking in a random direction.
***
Light.
It's common sense not to follow the light but.. light isn’t supposed to be coming from what looks to be fire.. is it okay to follow?
Shouto pondered over this for a while before deciding to go towards the light as it is his only clue of where he is.
“Hiya Shouto!”
He turned to throw a punch but he can't move.
“Kid! You’re okay, we aren’t going to harm you, we aren’t going to harm you!” The voice softens. “Kiddo, you’re okay. I’m sorry for startling you.”
He doesn’t know why, but he relaxes, his instincts are screaming safe, he realizes, as now he knows it’s not Stain (his father). He knows he lost blood, is this the afterlife?
“Kiddo, you’re still alive, you’re just in your quirk.”
What.
“Who are you then?”
“I… I’m Kori and the guy over there is Kaori.”
“If we’re in my quirk.. how are you here?”
There isn’t an answer for a bit. “I am your quirk— the ice side of it at least.”
“Is this.. normal?”
“Nope! Your quirk is actually sentient Shouto, we just haven’t been able to be seen due to you.. suppressing Kaori.”
“..so you are the ice part of it and ‘Kaori’ is the fire?”
“Yup!”
“Huh.” There’s awkward silence for a minute before he speaks again. “Why can’t I move?”
“Because if you move you’ll see us, and currently you can’t!”
“Why can’t I?”
Another voice cuts in, Shouto assumes this voice is Kaori’s. “OH MY GOD, CAN YOU STOP WITH THE DAMN QUESTIONS?!”
“Dont be rude!” Kori responds. “And you can’t see us yet because of.. reasons. Though, if you promise not to try to look at us we’ll allow you to move!”
“..sure?” Shouto responds, and all of a sudden he can move now. He flexes his hand as it was starting to cramp. “So, this isn’t the afterlife?”
“No, it isn’t kid, you survived the fight. You’re currently unconscious due to blood loss and your body needs rest from the stress you put it under.” Kaori’s voice sounds exasperated.
“So, will I be able to see you guys again?”
“Yup!” Kori responds, “Whenever you go to sleep, you will see us– er, I mean can talk to us! Possibly in the future, you might be able to talk to us outside of your dreams.”
Shouto doesn’t respond with his words, and just nods.
There is a comfortable silence before Kori and Kaori start arguing, but it doesn’t seem as bad as it usually is when Natsuo and Endeavor argue, it's almost as if they don’t mean what they say. Shouto gets pulled out of his thoughts when Kaori speaks in a different tone from when he was arguing with Kori.
“The kids' time is almost up, say goodbye Kori.”
There’s a long whine. “Can’t we just keep him here?!”
“No.”
“Yes!”
Shouto feels conflicted, confused on whether or not he should stop them from arguing over him, it feels odd.
“No.”
“Yes!”
Shouto is about to interrupt when he can feel himself start to fade away, and it’s oddly.. peaceful, unlike how when he falls asleep to the tension in his house.
“Goodbye, kiddo.”
He feels a hand on top of his head before another hand grabs his— he doesn’t know why but he can tell Kaori is touching his head and Kori is grabbing his hand. Maybe its because Kaori is the fire side of his quirk and hand much more warmer than the cold hand of Kori, the ice side of his quirk.
“Bye Shouto!” Kori squeezes his hand before he wakes up in a hospital room with Iida and Midoriya.
Soon enough, he started seeing them nightly and referred to them as family (After all, it doesn’t take a lot to be better than his mess of a family).
He never told anyone about the people he sees in his dreams, after all, they never asked! How was he supposed to know that he was supposed to tell them?
***
During each night of the training camp, Shouto chatted with Kori and Kaori, noticing how their voices got stronger each night, as if their connection grew stronger and stronger. Every night, before Shouto woke up, he got a pat on the head from Kaori and a hug (something he hasn’t gotten in a while) from Kori.
During the training camp, he found out that they were siblings. There seemed to be something they weren’t telling him, but he wouldn't comment on it, just like how he wouldn’t want his teachers to find out about his father.
After The League invaded the camp, Shouto got comfort(?) from the siblings. He had never gotten comfort from someone before, so why are these siblings doing so? A few days after the camp, Shouto chatted with them some more, and they mentioned that he might get in trouble for going to Kamino, but he didn’t mind. Kori and Kaori seemed worried, but they promised to not let him get hurt.
***
During the chaos of Kamino, he heard a voice.
“Kid, please don’t get hurt.” Kaori said into his head.
..Kaori?
“Hi Shouto! It seems you can hear us out of your dreams now, that's nice isn’t it? You should probably focus back on the plan though, don’t get hurt!”
Snapping back to reality at Kori’s words, he started listening to the plans again.