The Mountain and the Sea

5

It was a massacre.

Emnine stepped over a bloodied limb.

"Messy." He said. "Very messy. It's sloppy work, Nomu-chan. I know you can do better."

Nomu crooned.

The green child kneeling at All-Might's side stared at them in horror.

"Y—you just killed your comrades." He said in horror. "Your—your allies—-you—!"

"What?" Emnine whirled around. "Allies? Comrades? Where? I don't see anything. Do you, Nomu-chan?"

A shriek.

"Didn't think so." Emnine said mildly. "I just see a bunch of lumps of flesh."

The grape kid threw up.

"Welcome to the hero world, kiddos." Emnine told them with a grin. "Where monsters like me exist in abundance."

"You're disgusting." Said the candy-cane kid who seemed vaguely familiar.

"You didn't harm any students." Tobirama narrowed his eyes. "What are you after?"

"Anarchy."

"Yes, yes, I understood that." Tobirama dismissed. "But what are you after?"

Emnine blinked. "Huh."

They were after something right?

They had a goal or a dream. They knew that. They just couldn't quite remember what it was.

"It's different for everyone I guess." Emnine hummed. "Tomura wants to destroy society. Shirakumo—-pardon, I meant to say Kurogiri wants to serve him and Sensei. Well, mainly cause he was brainwashed but that's neither here nor there."

"W—-what—did... did—-you say?"

Eraserhead looked like shit.

And he sounded like shit too.

"Shirakumo." Emnine repeated in a whisper, a malicious grin on their face. "Though, it isn't really him. Not anymore. Just a person wearing his corpse and using his quirk."

They laughed.

"And you had no idea until I told you!" Emnine said gleefully. "You never suspected—-never looked underneath the underneath—he was right there in front of your eyes. Isn't this tragic?"

Emnine paced around Eraserhead, tutting their tongue.

"I ought to kill you now." Emnine hummed. "You know too much."

Eraserhead glared at her warily.

"But I won't." They said quietly. "It wouldn't be a fair game if I didn't give you a chance to save him.

"Don't waste it."

Emnine, Nomu, and the corpses of the slaughtered vanished.

"He avoided the question." Tobirama murmured as he began using the mystic palm jutsu on Eraserhead as his clones did the same for others.

::

"I got rid of the evidence." Emnine yawned. "And I traumatized some kiddos. I still don't know why the Nomu rebelled though... he shouldn't have had a will of his own."

"Strange."

"Indeed."

Tomura scowled, scratching his neck.

"We were like ants challenging the final boss."

Emnine quirked a brow.

"We need to level up. We need better items. We need—-!"

"Emnine."

They froze.

"Sensei."

"Come here."

Ever the gentleman, Kurogiri conjured a portal for them to use.

Emnine was submerged in shadow.

Darkness.

::

They stared at the pod in horror.

"Emnine. You disobeyed my orders."

"Sen—-Sensei please—-please no, I didn't—-I didn't mean to—please!"

"You were a Bad Soldier, Emnine."

"I was—-I was just trying to help! I was just—-!" He whimpered. "Please, please, don't make me go back! I don't want to go back in the pod!"

Darkness.

And nothing.

Being surrounded by darkness and nothing.

"I believe you."

They slumped in relief.

"You were trying to help." Sensei drawled, "but help whom?"

"You Sensei—-only you—-I live for you, Sensei!" They assured.

"Turn around."

Chilled, Emnine complied.

They saw another pod filled with iridescent liquid. There was someone inside.

They froze.

The woman from their dreams was in the pod.

Her eyes—-

Her eyes were gone.

Emnine felt nauseous.

"This is Uchiha Izuna."

Uchiha Izuna.

Emnine had used her memory to torment the man, Senju Tobirama. Emnine lied about seeing her being dismembered.

How ironic it was that the lie wasn't far from the truth.

"What—what are you doing with her?"

"I believe you mean: what are we doing with her?"

"Yes..."

Their voice was barely above a whisper.

"You are a clone created with her DNA."

Emnine blinked.

"A failed clone."

They shrank at the disappointment in Sensei's voice.

"I could not replicate the power of her eyes." Sensei admitted. "So I transplanted them into you."

Emnine reached, touching the corner of their eyes.

"You have barely scratched the surface of their power."

"I—I'll do better, Sensei!" Emnine promised.

"I have no doubt that you will."

Emnine nodded.

"After all... Good Soldiers follow orders."

Their face blanked, all emotion and fear immediately washing away.

"Good Soldiers follow orders." Emnine repeated in a perfect deadpan.

"Yes... and here are your newest orders."

"I am ready to comply."

"Kill Senju Tobirama."

Emnine felt a tug in the back of their mind. A resistance that quickly washed away.

From within the pod, Izuna's finger twitched.

"Yes, sir."

(No, no, no!)

"I will kill Senju Tobirama."

(Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!)