--

A few months later...

Tokoyami stared at his face, not in a mirror, but in a card. He had just received his provisional hero licence card, finally granting him the ability to save civilians from villains legally. It was a proud thing to achieve as he shoved it into his wallet, securely zipping the pocket to stop it from slipping out.

However, he felt that he didn't have sufficient training, given that villains interrupted them multiple times. Therefore, he would be resuming his internship with Hawks, the No. 2 hero with All might being out of commission. He had chosen Tokoyami with many personal reasons earlier in the Sports Festival.

Tokoyami hoped he would actually learn something this time, his last time were just chasing Hawks through the city and cleaning up after his mess. He was just barely able to keep up, with the other interns behind him. He was sick of Hawks games, some of his classmates had grown considerably since their last internship, Midoriya had much better control over his quirk, Uraraka strengthening her martial arts, even Momo, who had gotten herself a new friend.

"Hey, what's up Toko!" Hawks greeted him informally. It was the third day of internship, Tokoyami was tired of being left behind. He even got a small lecture from the Raven guy the previous day in the air.

" use that name." He glad at the pro hero, who gave him an amused glance.

"So, ready for the usual stuff? Quicken up the pace, would you? You're slowing me down significantly" He complained.

"We'll try our best, Hawks!“ the other interns answered.

"Not this time, not anymore" Tokoyami muttered angrily. He could feel his adrenaline rushing through his body.

We'll show him what we've got! Dark Shadow challenged.

Oh, we'll show him all right

He thought, feeling more determined than ever.

A gust of wind hit him and the rest of the interns as Hawks flew through his office window. The bird head was the first to react, using dark shadow to propel himself through the window, others followed suit, using their own unique quirks to their advantage.

Usually, he was the closest intern to Hawks, but still not even close enough to just barely notice his shadow or the wings of Hawks feathers in the distance.

Today, Tokoyami was different. He used every structure he saw to propel himself, giving him a much higher top speed, although risking his precision and balance in the process. With this, he managed to be in complete view of Hawks figure for once, his relaxed beating of his wings, progressing in a comfortable pace. This caused Hawks to turn his head to the bird teen, giving him a look that shows more of satisfaction than surprise, he was gaining on him slowly.

However, Hawks could see that Tokoyami wouldn't last very long in that pace, but didn't attempt to stop him. Before long, Tokoyami grabbed on a loose concrete on the side of the building, losing his footing and balance, his speed preventing him from grabbing on to something for support.

"Arrrgh!" He yelped in surprise as he flung his arms wildly, trying to grab hold onto something, his body in free-fall now.

Hawks figure was getting smaller and smaller and the interns that was behind were nowhere to be seen. He did not have anyone to break his fall this time as the thought of death was occurring to him.

His life now starting to flash in his eyes as he see the skyscrapers elongating. He had mere seconds left to spare now.

As he had expected, time seemed to slow down as he remembered the past events appearing in his mind. One event stood out from the rest as it happened recently. He could feel the strong breeze through his feathers as he remembered having the same sensation with Hawks grabbing him and soaring through the air.

Hawks' spoken words vibrated through his soul.

"If you've got wings, you should stretch them out and fly." Hawks had said the previous night.

Out of panic, dark shadow hoisted the small teen up with force, trying to cushion the damage and bracing the impact of the ground. This lead him to find a weird discovery as suddenly, the wind around him stopped. He realised he had his eyes closed and open them. Now that he had his entire body in Dark shadow's grasp, he was floating in the air like dark shadow was.

His eyes widened in shock as he looked at Dark Shadow, he returned the gaze with the exact expression.

Of... Of course!

He thought to himself. There had been multiple occasions in which Dark Shadow had dragged him along, even causing him to be in the air in the training camp when Dark Shadow went berserk. However, he never gave it a second thought, probably too preoccupied with controlling it than trying to improve his skills.

With his newfound technique, he willed dark shadow to move forward like he usually does.

Dark shadow exclaimed, for once, he was the one holding the reins instead of his host.

"Don't go overboard with it now! “ Tokoyami warned, a hint of terror in his voice as Dark shadow zoomed after Hawks.

Dark shadow was gaining on Hawks now, at a much faster rate than before. Hawks noticed Tokoyami's new technique and nodded with approval. However, he quickened his pace, not allowing his intern to catch up. The other poor interns were left behind, unable to keep up with the increasing pace of the two.

"GREAT JOB YOU TOO" Hawks shouted at them, complimenting their ability to learn fast. He didn't even need to give him hints about his technique, just a hint about what he could do. Tokoyami sure was special.

"Yaaargh! " Tokoyami squawked as Dark shadow faced some turbulence. He was definitely not confident in his quirks ability to fly. Dark shadow laughed at his host's rare bird calls.

Dark shadow teased, almost causing Tokoyami to make another bird call. Almost.

"Shut up." Tokoyami chided. His feathers were crooked and all over the place from the strong winds. This covered his puffed plumage from showing, hiding his embarrassment.

He admits he definitely didn't want to add more to the list of undignified sounds coming from him.

Dark shadow was so preoccupied with his host's reaction, he didn't realise that Hawks made a sharp right.

"DARK SHADOW! LOOK OUT!" Tokoyami screamed. A concrete wall was approaching Tokoyami and Dark shadow fast. He had no time to turn. All he could do was to brace for the impact, extending one of his arms in front of him, his other hand wrapped around Tokoyami tightly. He feeds on Tokoyami's horror emotions and grew in power, using all of his strength to cushion his impact.

BAANG! Tokoyami's head lurched forward, experiencing 10G's as he stopped abruptly. He had all the air in his lungs sucked out of him, almost causing him to blackout. His feathers were drifting down the air after that impact. He struggled to breathe, filling his lungs with air but something was preventing to do so.

Dark shadow was tightening his grip on the poor boy's chest out of anger of himself for putting his host in danger. He descended slowly, clutching his arms tightly as he began thinking that his recklessness had endangered his host's life multiple times.

As his emotions cleared up, he finally noticed a choking sound, coming from his hands. His eyes widened in horror as he saw him squeezing Tokoyami's small body tightly. The poor boy was gasping for air whilst trying to tell telepathically to Dark shadow to stop.

Dark shadow removed his grip on Tokoyami.

Dark shadow sobbed, his tears welled up in his golden-yellow eyes.

Tokoyami was hacking away, relieved as air once again entered his lungs. However, he felt his ribs cracked when he experienced the gravitational force from the sudden stop. The pain was unbearable, especially after Dark shadow's squeeze which cause more to shatter from his cracked ribcage. He moaned in pain, dark spots danced in his eyes; he was about to pass out. A box was heard tumbling down at a distance, probably due to the falling bricks.

No, I was already saved by you just now, and many other times before that too. This is nothing, I am still aliv- Tokoyami's head dropped, his broken form lying on the concrete floor. Tokoyami tasted a metallic taste in his mouth which dripped out of his beak as his consciousness slipped away.

--

Hawks continued progressing through the city, thinking that Tokoyami's impact was small and he had probably just suffered minor injuries and a bit of disorientation from the G-force. He would be catching up sooner or later...

at least, he thought so...

He slowed back down and continued gliding thought the city, seeing that his competition was over. It wasn't until he saw his other interns catching up that he noticed something was amiss.

"Where's Tokoyami?“ Hawk asked his interns as he stopped at a nearby building's rooftop. His voice was wavering a little due to his concern.

" Wasn't he chasing after you? He was ahead of us the entire time! " an intern with a bird beak said in confusion.

"He slammed into the wall, but he didn't suffer any major injuries. I thought he would recover and continue chasing after me. That was 30 minutes ago!" Hawk told them. He then realised something.

"Didn't you guys found a hole in a concrete wall while making your way here?"

"What hole? Oh, that hole with feathers in the wall? I thought that was made by a villain's impact from your attack!"

"We thought the villain was taken care of by the police, there was no one there!" another intern explained.

"Did Tokoyami lost his way here?" Hawk suggested.

"Wait... If that crater was done by Tokoyami, then..." another intern said, his eyes widened in horror.

Hawks had no time to lose, he didn't hear the end of it as he flew back to the location.

He arrived at the ground level. The place was filled with broken concrete bricks. Dust littered the place. He caught a glimpse of some black feathers, broken and crumpled.

However, he could not believe his eyes on what he saw next... There were blood.

Not any blood, Tokoyami's blood.

And they seemed to be smeared on the concrete pavement as if someone was being dragged on...