Chapter Text
Neito was ready to put his plan into action. The only problem was that he had no idea where to start.
So, he decided to take the long way home from school that day, to give himself a chance to clear his mind and figure out his next steps.
Lost in thought, he bumped into a person around his age, causing them to spill a few drops of coffee from the cup they were carrying.
Were middle schoolers supposed to drink coffee? He felt like he'd heard somewhere that it stunted people’s growth if they had too much, but he supposed that certainly wasn't a problem for this kid. He was a fair bit taller than Neito, with gravity-defying purple hair and matching eyes, though his pupils were white, and had deep bags under them despite the coffee.
Neito apologised for getting in his way, but the boy just glanced at him with an unchanging bored expression and kept walking. Maybe coffee made young people rude, too. Neito shrugged, and continued on his way.
That was, until a group of kids wearing the same uniform as the purple-haired boy walked by, jeering at their peer.
“Yo, Mindfreak!” one of them called, while the others snickered behind him, "I heard you wanna become a hero. Someone with a villain’s quirk like yours will never even be allowed to try to be a hero. Everyone knows you're just going to run off with your pathetic villain friends the second you see a little action."
Neito stiffened. He’d had his fair share of bullies, though they’d… mostly forgotten about him by the time middle school had come around. So this kid was a kid with a villainous quirk. That hit a bit too close to home.
…However, he was facing all this abuse and he still wanted to be a hero.
Hmm. He’d found a dedicated hero wannabe. Wasn’t that exactly the sort of candidate he was looking for?
Neito snuck a glance over his shoulder. The group had nearly cornered the purple-haired boy, and although he was trying to keep up an unbothered facade, Neito could see it beginning to crack.
He wanted to be a hero. They both did, regardless of how other people saw their quirks. And it wouldn’t be very heroic of Neito to stand by and let someone get hurt for no reason.
“Hey, I thought I recognised you!” Neito called, forcing a triumphant grin onto his face and pointing at the purple-haired kid, “You’re from that volunteer program at the cat shelter by the pier. Remember me? We were in the same group.”
The group of bullies and their target were staring at him now. They looked confused, though at least the purple-haired kid was trying to hide it.
Neito strolled confidently toward the group, ignoring the tension in the air.
“What, are you another villain the Brainwasher hangs out with?” one of the bullies sneered.
Neito feigned innocence. “Villain? The only villains I see right now are you.”
Rage lit up the boy’s eyes, quite literally, since his quirk seemed to be something to do with how his eyes were suddenly glowing orange.
“Come on.” Neito grabbed the purple-haired boy's wrist. “Let’s go catch up somewhere else. I’ll get you a coffee or something—I made you spill some of yours, didn’t I?”
The other boy didn’t protest, though he looked at Neito like he didn’t know who he was or what he was doing (which was fair, since that was true) while Neito dragged him away. The bullies seem utterly lost, as if something like this had never happened when they confronted any of their targets in the past (which, again, was probably true).
Once they turned a corner and were out of view of the other kids, the purple-haired boy tentatively spoke.
“I don’t know you,” he said, almost like it's a question.
“Yeah, we’ve never met. But it seemed like you wanted those people to leave you alone and I know what that feels like, so I thought I’d help you out.”
The boy nodded slowly, though he clearly didn't trust him. "But why would you help me ”—he eyed Neito like he was going to bite—“even after you learned my quirk?”
“Brainwashing, right?” Neito asked. The purple-haired boy flinched. “I don’t hate you for your quirk, if that’s what you’re asking. It’d be counter-intuitive for me to view any quirk as bad when all my quirk does is copy them.”
The boy’s eyes widened.
Neito took one look at him and continued, figuring he needed to hear something he probably hadn’t heard from anyone before, “People look down on me because of Copy, and some have gone so far as to call me a villain because of my quirk. But if I’m a villain just because of my quirk, then shouldn't everyone else be villains, too, since their quirks are all that I copy?” Neito sighed. “That’s how I first came to the conclusion that quirks don’t make heroes or villains—people do.”
He glanced at the purple-haired boy, only to blink and do a double-take. The boy had stopped a few paces behind and was frozen in place.
“Come on, you can finish your crisis at the café,” Neito said, not unkindly, beckoning for the boy to follow him.
The purple-haired boy’s name was Shinsou Hitoshi, and he wanted to be a hero to prove to everyone that his quirk didn’t make him villainous.
(But it wasn’t as spiteful of a goal as it seemed at first glance. By becoming a hero, Shinsou would be picking away at the idea that quirks made heroes and villains. Alone, he couldn’t possibly solve the problem, but he could help.
And he’d be more than just a licensed pro.
Shinsou would be a hero not just by profession, but in spirit to all the people labelled villains because of their quirks.)
Neito sat in Beans and Friends, a cat café that he’d only ever passed by, with a cat on his lap, staring at the boy across the table. He hoped he hadn’t weirded out Shinsou too much with his interrogation-like questions, but they gave him what he wanted.
He had needed to know whether Shinsou would be a good hero; a hero deserving of One for All.
And he’d found his answer.
Shinsou took another big drink out of his third cup of coffee, before looking Neito in the eye. “So, how did you know I volunteered at the cat shelter? Did you use someone’s quirk?”
Neito laughed. “No, that was just a lucky guess. I saw that your cup was from this café, so I assumed you liked cats and went with the first thing I thought of.”
Shinsou’s lip quirked up slightly.
Neito took that as a win.
This boy was going to be a great hero; one of many that were going to be unlike anything the world had ever seen. Neito would make sure of it.
Neito had a problem.
He and Shinsou had become friends—which wasn’t the problem, but was what caused the problem, however contradictory that seemed—and Shinsou was quickly becoming his closest friend, as both of their classmates were nothing more than acquaintances (or bullies). The problem was that Neito still wanted to give Shinsou a copy of One for All, but wasn’t sure whether to ask Shinsou if he wanted it. Or whether to tell him that it existed at all.
If he gave it to him without telling him, and then Shinsou found out later, it could break their friendship. That wasn’t something he was willing to sacrifice.
But, if he told him, then he would have to tell him everything , even though it was a huge society-ending secret that he wasn’t even supposed to know. And then Shinsou might refuse One for All, or try to talk him out of his plan.
(And that was if Shinsou even believed him in the first place.)
Neito paced his room, contemplative.
It was worth the risk, he finally decided, picking up his phone to message Shinsou.
CopyCat
Do you want to come over to my place right now to hang out?
There’s something I need to tell you
coffee_cat
that sounds ominous
but sure
i’m free for the rest of the day
Neito sat on his desk chair facing Shinsou, elbows resting on his knees and hands clasped in front of his face. “What would you say if I told you that I know a way to make you stronger—to make it so that you’ll definitely get into the hero course, no matter how biased the exam ends up being?”
“Is this your way of telling me to exercise more?” Shinsou deadpanned, raising an eyebrow from where he sat on Neito’s bed, “Or are you trying to convince me to go villain with you?”
The serious expression didn’t leave Neito’s face.
Shinsou frowned. “I mean, as long as it’s not super dangerous.” He paused to consider the options. “Or illegal. That probably wouldn’t get me any points at a hero school.”
“I don’t actually know if it’s illegal.”
Shinsou’s eyebrow rose further.
“Maybe it’d be illegal because of public quirk usage… or theft…” Neito mumbled, “No, it’s not really theft. Hmm. Can you be arrested for copying someone?”
“...Do you mean cloning someone or copying someone’s actions?”
“Neither. I’m talking about copying someone’s quirk and then giving the copy to another person.”
Shinsou gaped.
“Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds impossible, but I can assure you that it’s not. I’ve already done it once, so there’s proof!”
Shinsou blinked. And blinked again. “You… gave someone someone else’s quirk.”
“A copy of it,” Neito corrected.
“You gave someone a quirk .”
“A copy of one, but yes, that’s what I said.”
“Who?” Shinsou choked out.
Ah, now that’s something Neito prepared for him to ask! “Have you heard of the Hefty Hero: Heifer?” Shinsou nodded cautiously. “If you read any recent articles about her, you’ll think that she went through a recent quirk mutation because she held up a collapsing building for so long. But that’s not the full picture! I was there, and I gave her a copy of All Might’s quirk, since I… might have… eavesdropped on All Might multiple times and learned his quirk—but that’s not important! The point is that All Might still has his quirk, and now Heifer has a copy of it, too, so she’s going to become just as strong as him! Or maybe even stronger!”
“What?!”
“So, what I’m wondering is if you want All Might’s quirk, too. I was originally going to give it to you by sneaking it into your coffee one time, but since we’re friends, that doesn’t seem fair.”
“All Might’s quirk can go in coffee?!”
“Well, it just has to be a piece of his DNA—”
Shinsou choked on his spit.
“—or, rather, mine, since you’d be getting One for All from me.”
The bags under Shinsou’s eyes seemed to have grown tenfold. “I don’t know if I want to ask, but what the fuck is One for All?”
Neito decided that that was the perfect time to inform Shinsou of everything he had heard about One for All’s history. What better opportunity was he going to have?
He made sure to stress that All for One was not actually confirmed to be dead. And that he wasn’t actually sure if One for All was really just a strength and speed enhancer, since Heifer seemed to have had other quirk enhancements, too, and when Neito had One for All, he could sense other people’s quirks.
“That’s… something,” Shinsou said after Neito finished his explanation.
Neito nodded grimly.
Shinsou squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced, flopping onto his back on the bed. “Okay, say that I decided to get One for All—which I’m still not sure about—how would I explain the sudden change? A mutated mental quirk doesn’t usually come with a side of super strength.”
Neito hummed. “You could just make something up, like that you get energy from the people you brainwash and it builds up so you get really strong,” he suggested, “You could twist it to explain why you still look like a twig, too, if All Might’s quirk doesn’t change how you look.”
“Hey!” Shinsou sat up just to glare at Neito. Then he sighed. “...But I guess you do have a point.”
Neito smiled a small smug smile.
Shinsou sighed. “I’m still not sure.”
"Well, you certainly don't have to decide now," Neito said, "But in the meantime, I don't want to pass up an opportunity if I do come into contact with All Might again. So," he grinned "Do you want to help me choose some other people to get One for All?"
Shinsou’s eyes lit up. “Have you ever heard of Eraserhead?”
As it turned out, tracking down the elusive underground hero was harder to do than finding out the secret of One for All. Luckily, having Eraserhead’s self-proclaimed biggest fan on hand made the whole process exponentially easier.
“So, this is everything I’ve collected about Eraserhead’s general patrol area. I couldn't get much more specific, since even underground hero forums and that one cryptid Eraserhead spotting blog aren’t that good,” Shinsou said, smoothing out a massive map covered in a bunch of pen scribbles, “Most of this stuff is from a few months ago, but I can ask around online to see if anyone’s noticed any changes since then.
“I also know that he goes to Beans and Friends, that café I like, pretty often in the morning. It was a total coincidence I saw him there, though, since I had just started going there ‘cause they have good coffee. And cats.”
Neito stared at the paper, mouth agape.
Shinsou didn’t seem to notice. “Then the only problem is how we’re going to get you to copy One for All from All Might and give it to Eraserhead within the ten minute limit your quirk has.”
Neito blinked, still looking at the paper in awe.
“Monoma?”
He startled suddenly, a hand waving in front of his face. “Huh?”
Shinsou sighed. “I said we need to figure out how to get you from All Might and to Eraserhead within ten minutes.”
“Hmm…” Neito said, stroking his chin, “I think I might have an idea, though it’s kind of risky.”
“Riskier than everything you’ve done so far?”
Neito and Shinsou dedicated all of their free time in the next week taking turns stalking (or attempting to stalk) All Might, mostly while he was in his skinny civilian form. They both set up their phones so that they were notified whenever a new article about All Might came out, and when they put those together, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out where he was most of the time. Especially since they knew where All Might’s residence in Musutafu was.
Neito’s mom was happy for him, since she thought he was just spending a lot of time out with his new friend. It wasn’t really a lie, but Neito still felt a curl of guilt in his stomach when he made up excuses about going to a café or mall with Shinsou. He shoved it down every time it rose up, though, since he was doing this for the good of everyone around the world, including his mom (but maybe discluding his scumbag of a father who had abandoned them).
There needed to be more heroes who could go toe-to-toe with villains like All for One, and if he was the only one who could make that possible, then he wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity, no matter how challenging it was, or how many laws against stalking they had to break.
It was on Tuesday at lunch when Neito had a breakthrough. He was hiding behind a bush yet again, as All Might sat on a bench with his friend, Naomasa, who was some sort of a police officer. (Admittedly, the fact that he hung out with a cop made it a bit nerve-wracking to be stalking him, but at least neither himself nor Shinsou had been caught yet.)
At first, All Might and Naomasa were talking about trivial things, and it was taking a lot of effort on Neito’s part not to tune them out. But then All Might said something that made Neito perk up.
“I’m a bit worried about my meeting with Nezu.” All Might sighed. “I was going to work there to find a successor, but now that I have chosen Young Midoriya, I’m not sure whether the position is still open for me.”
All Might was meeting with Nezu? Nezu, the principal of UA?! So was All Might planning to work at UA?!
Was that why he came to Musutafu?
Naomasa hummed sympathetically. “At least there isn’t too much time to stress about it.”
Please , Neito begged in his head, say when the meeting is!
“Yes,” All Might said, “There is that.”
Come on!
“It’s Friday, right?”
Bingo!
All Might nodded. “Right when school begins, in fact. So thankfully, I don’t need to come in with my quirk activated, otherwise the media and students would never leave me alone!” He laughed, and it turned into a coughing fit. Neito winced, watching as Naomasa fussed over his friend.
Neito took the chance to check his phone for the time, and his eyes widened. Lunch was nearly over, and he couldn’t be late for class! He crawled along the ground, hiding behind bushes until he was far enough away that All Might and Naomasa wouldn’t think he was spying on them. Then he jumped up, scaring a random passerby, and sprinted to his school, repeating what he heard in his head so he wouldn't forget it before he could tell Shinsou.
An idea was beginning to form in the back of his mind.
“So you have a plan?” Shinsou asked as soon as they met up after school.
“Don’t sound so skeptical!” Neito chided, “It’s a flawless plan!”
Shinsou raised an eyebrow.
“...Okay, maybe there are a few potential flaws—”
“Knew it.”
“—but otherwise, it’s flawless!”
They started off with the flyers.
One went in All Might’s mail box, and another on the front door of his house. They taped some to the doors of a few shops he passed by on his commute, but they got taken down soon after by staff. They managed to sneak one into the police station where Naomasa worked, too, since All Might frequented there.
Neito dropped a few on the ground near where All Might was fighting a villain, and the wind blew one of the flyers directly into the criminal’s face. It helped to stop the battle before it got too destructive, and afterward Neito saw All Might reading the flyer.
During lunch, he got a text from Shinsou that consisted of two photos. The first was of the bench All Might and Naomasa frequented, with a flyer sitting on its surface. The second photo, which was clearly taken quickly and from a distance, was of All Might and his friend sitting on the bench and staring at the poster in puzzlement.
After school, Neito posted a few more flyers on poles, trees, and in the train stations along the path he knew All Might took to get home.
Really, they should be getting paid by Beans and Friends for all the advertising they were doing for them.
The next step was a bit harder.
Neito made sure to ‘accidentally’ bump into Yuki, a classmate that he knew had a lock-picking quirk, before he practically sprinted out of the school for lunch.
They were lucky All Might’s house was nearby, or else their plans might as well have been a fantasy. It took him only seven minutes to meet Shinsou near All Might’s house, and then another one and a half to actually make it to the door, since they wanted to look nonchalant to any neighbours who might be watching.
Neito used Yuki’s quirk to unlock the door, holding his own apartment key in his hand so that it looked like they hadn’t just broken in. He made sure not to leave fingerprints anywhere, too, by pulling down his jacket sleeve to cover his hand.
Once they made it in the house, they didn't have to rush, but their anxiety still made them work quickly.
They searched the kitchen, finding All Might’s (admittedly small) coffee and tea stash. Neito dumped the coffee grounds and tea into a plastic bag to throw away once he got home, while Shinsou worked on searching the house for any extra caffeinated products All Might might have.
Neito replaced the now-empty containers for coffee and tea in their places, so that All Might would think he had just forgotten to refill them after he used them up.
Shinsou returned with a small box of black tea, saying that he couldn't find anything else. Good. It would be less suspicious if All Might didn’t have a lot to begin with.
Neito stuffed the black tea and now-full plastic bag in his backpack, and they headed out, trying to act as if they hadn’t just stolen from the Symbol of Peace.
Miraculously, they managed to make it back to school and through the rest of the day without combusting due to stress or guilt, but, as soon as they met up at Neito’s apartment after school, it was a different story.
His mom would still be at work for another hour, thankfully, or else they would have gotten a lot of questions about the inhuman screams that Neito and Shinsou made after they fully acknowledged that they had broken into All Might’s house and stolen from him.
Neito could only hope they wouldn’t get any complaints from the neighbours.
On Friday morning, Neito woke up from his alarm at 6:00 AM. He fell out of bed trying to silence the alarm (so much for being quiet) and groggily went through his morning routine. He had already told his mom he was hanging out with Shinsou before school, so all he had to do was eat a quick breakfast, grab his bag, and leave a note on the counter before heading out.
It was just after 6:30 in the morning. At least they were going to a café, because he was going to need coffee to get him through the day.
Shinsou met him at a park between their homes, somehow looking even more tired than he usually did. Neito was surprised he managed to get to the park alive, let alone on time.
They went over the plan a few more times, trying to simultaneously ignore and plan around any unexpected situations that may come up. Neito was practically shaking from nerves, because no matter how much he tried to deny it, their plan was far from flawless. It relied far too much on the actions of people other than themselves, namely Eraserhead and All Might.
But, there was nothing more they could do right then, so at a quarter past seven, the two boys headed towards Beans and Friends.
A bell above the door chimed when they walked in, and Neito greeted the barista—who might even be more tired than Shinsou, by the looks of it—with a pleasant smile. They ordered their drinks (Shinsou’s being a highly sugary monstrosity that shouldn't be allowed to exist, and his, a simple black tea) and Shinsou nudged him in the direction of a table in the far corner of the café. It had a good view of the whole café, but, more importantly, it was just past a table seating a lanky blonde man who was trying to convince a pitch-black cat to let him pet it.
All Might.
Neito sagged in relief once they sat down. The first part of their plan had worked.
"Now we just have to hope Eraserhead shows up," Shinsou said under his breath, though Neito could tell he was confident he would.
The barista called out their order, and Neito went up front to get it. After he came back and was just about to take a sip from his drink, a bell chimed, signalling that the door had opened.
In walked a man in a black jumpsuit and a white scarf piled around his neck. Shinsou perked up as soon as he saw him, and Neito took that as a hint that this was the pro hero Eraserhead.
Neito watched as Eraserhead shuffled up to the counter, talking momentarily with the barista before paying and sitting down at a nearby table. One of the cats jumped onto his lap immediately. Eraserhead glanced in their direction briefly, and Neito looked away as quickly as he could, catching a frankly terrifying glare from Eraserhead in the corner of his eye. There was no way he already knew their plans, or even who they were.
…Right?
Neito felt eyes on the back of his head, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
“Are you sure he won’t notice?” Neito hissed, knuckles turning white as he gripped his cup.
“He has no reason to suspect us, and besides, it’s Eraserhead! He wouldn’t hurt children!” Shinsou whispered back.
Neito gave him a deadpan look. “Even if those children look like they're trying to poison him?”
“Oh look, the barista’s almost done making his drink,” Shinsou pointed out, completely ignoring Neito’s question, “You should go up before our whole plan is ruined.”
Neito sighed, getting up and making sure to ‘accidentally’ brush into All Might on his way to the front counter.
Todoroki Natsuo was not having a good day. He was tired, and stressed, and had a project due in one of his university classes that he hadn’t even started. But hey, at least there were cats at the café he worked at.
It was kind of surprising to see two middle schoolers walk into Beans and Friends before seven thirty in the morning, but it wasn’t anything too unusual. The purple-haired kid was a regular, though he usually came later in the day (and alone). However, there was one thing that really got Natsuo: the second middle schooler.
He honestly thought the blond kid was a hallucination at first. Natsuo was positive he was the same kid he had spotted spitting in a bottle of water before giving it to a hero holding a building up a while back. He had been too far away to warn the hero or do anything at the time, no matter how disgusting and downright confusing it was, but the memory had stuck with him.
Just who was this kid? Did he always spit in the water of heroes trying to rescue innocent civilians? The strange thing was that the kid had looked genuinely worried about the hero, even though he must have some sort of grudge against her—why else would he do something so rude?
Or maybe it was a quirk thing? Natsuo doubted it. And even if it was, that didn’t change the fact that it was really fucking weird.
So when the purple-haired kid came up to order a frankly disgusting-sounding sugary coffee, with the blonde kid beside him, the logical conclusion that Natsuo came to was that he was hallucinating as a punishment from staying up all night for the second time that week. That was, until the purple-haired kid turned to the blond kid and pointed out where on the menu their tea selection was.
Natsuo didn’t remember taking the rest of their order. Or making their drinks. Though he knew he had, since the kids were sitting at a table in the corner, drinking from cups with Beans and Friends’ logo on them. Eh, they weren’t complaining, so his muscle memory must’ve served him well.
After a few minutes of contemplation and a mini-crisis, he had convinced himself that he wasn’t hallucinating, which meant that the kid that spat in some hero’s water had actually come to the café he worked at.
That was until the kid came up to the counter again, right as Natsuo put the next customer’s drink down and was about to call out his name.
The kid leaned on the counter, clearing his throat. “Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you have any straws?”
Natsuo blinked. This kid wanted to drink hot tea with a straw? “Um. Yeah, they’re right next to you on the counter,” he said, pointing to them. Seriously, how had the kid missed that?
The kid looked up from where he was pulling something—was that a nail file? —out of his pocket, and had the audacity to act surprised when he saw the straws. “Oh! Silly me, I’ll just grab one now.” He reached towards them very slowly, and then suddenly froze just before he touched one, retracting his hand. “Wait, do I have to pay for these?”
“No, you’re allowed one with your drink. Though you might want to be careful—” Natsuo cut himself off.
The blond kid had taken the lid off the drink Natsuo had just set down, and was filing his nails overtop of it .
“What do I need to be careful about?” The kid was looking at him with a perfectly innocent expression on his face, as if he wasn’t filing his nails into another person’s coffee.
Should he… say something? But then again, there was no way this was actually happening. The kid wasn’t acting like anything unusual was happening. This had to be a hallucination. “Uh, it’s just dangerous to drink hot drinks through a straw. You could burn yourself,” Natsuo said after too long of a pause.
“I guess I shouldn’t get a straw then.” The kid frowned. Then he smiled at Natsuo. “Thanks for helping me out!”
Then he turned around and went back to his seat. Natsuo looked down. The lid was back on the coffee cup. Natsuo just stared at it, unblinking.
“Is that mine?” A gruff voice came from in front of him. Natsuo recognised it as Aizawa’s, the man who had ordered the drink sitting on the counter in front of him. The one that had motherfucking nail dust (or whatever it’s called) in it.
“Yes, but—”
Aizawa grabbed the drink, taking a large gulp of it. “Thanks.”
Natsuo stood there, gaping and unable to speak, as Aizawa walked out the door.
He hoped he had hallucinated the whole thing. Maybe that was wishful thinking, but how was he supposed to believe that was real?! Natsuo rubbed his eyes and looked over at where the two kids had been sitting.
They were gone. The only person in the café besides himself was a tall blonde man with a black cat in his lap.
“I think you broke that poor barista,” Shinsou said, doubled over and wheezing, “I can’t believe that plan worked!”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Neito said dryly. Then he groaned and buried his face in his hands, “I’m never going to be able to go back there, am I.”
Shinsou patted his shoulder, still half-leaning against the wall of the back alley they had escaped to. “Look on the bright side, now Eraserhead has One for All.”
Neito thought back to the paralysing glare Eraserhead had sent him. “The bright side,” he muttered, “...Sure.”
Aizawa Shouta was having a normal day. The key word being “was” .
He had gone to Beans and Friends in the morning, like he always did, to pick up a coffee and pet a few cats before he headed to UA. He had taught the classes he had in his schedule that day (which was a lot less than every year previous, having expelled his entire homeroom class), and then he had gone on patrol.
That was when everything went to shit.
Shouta spotted a mugging taking place in a convenience store, and had stepped in to intervene. One of the criminals had jumped at him from behind, so Shouta had kicked them in the gut, quirk activated.
The criminal had flown into the wall of the store. And then through it, and to the other side of the street, leaving Shouta, the cashier, and the other two criminals to stare at them through the gaping hole in the wall.
By the time the police arrived, the two remaining criminals had surrendered peacefully, too terrified of Eraserhead’s newfound strength to even try to put up a fight.
What the actual fuck had happened to him?