Ashes of Love and War - TodoMomo

||Chapter 7 ~ Part II||

It was midday by the time Tsuyu Asui, as the nereid was known, pulled the raft into a sandbank.

"We have to go the rest of the way on foot, kero," she said, setting off towards the shore.

Shouto lifted his head. The sun was high in the sky now. Carefully, he slid off the raft, then turned and picked up Yaoyorozu. She shivered slightly, and he pulled her into his chest to share his body heat.

"Todoroki."

Shouto paused and turned back around.

Tokoyami was staring at him with a pained expression, his right hand clenched tightly against his stomach where the sutures had ruptured.

"Do you think we can trust her?" he asked with a short nod towards the nereid who had walked out of earshot.

Slowly, Shouto raised his head to look up. Above them, cliffs rose up towards the sky, towering ramparts of stone dusted with the faint greens and browns of shrubbery. It looked uninhabitable, but Shouto could already feel the cold, oppressive eyes of the island's inhabitants. Yaoyorozu shivered as a breeze rolled off the water. Anger and something else curled in his chest.

They had to stay. There was nowhere else to go. Yaoyorozu needed help.

"What choice do we have?" he finally said. "Besides, the nereid saved us already. If she wanted us dead, she would have let Moonfish have us."

He tightened his hold on Yaoyorozu and followed after Asui onto the gravelly shore.

"This way. Aizawa lives up top. Kero," Asui said, leading them to a sandy path that looped up through the craggy, gray face of the mountain.

The climb was slow. Tokoyami lagged behind him, slow and unsteady on the gravelly path. He was so pale that Shouto thought he'd faint any moment from blood loss, but there was nothing Shouto could do. He wouldn't be able to carry both Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami.

As they climbed, a dense fog began to roll off the ocean. The hair on the back of Shouto's neck stood on end. It was almost dusk. If Asui was correct, then they were running out of time.

Shouto's eyes narrowed on the back of the nereid's head. She hid it, but Shouto could feel it in the pit of his stomach. She was on guard. He wondered briefly if the situation was not what it appeared. Shouto's lips thinned; he turned to scan the cliffs surrounding them, but nothing moved.

They continued on. He could see a statue of Hephaestus, the god of the forge and protector of cripples, peeking up over the ridge. They were almost at the top.

The air suddenly chilled and the putrid smell of dark magic curled around them like a heavy mist. Shouto shifted to gently place his hand on Yaoyorozu's upper back. He tried to summon his fire magic again, but his body felt empty, like all his power had left him. He scowled. Without magic at his disposal, he felt bare. Even with Endeavor at his side, it was difficult to suppress the sense of being weaponless.

Yaoyorozu shivered, and he pulled her back into his chest. Her hair smelled of salt and brine, offsetting the thick stench of magic weaving through the air. It unexpectedly calmed him. Shouto unconsciously leaned down to press his nose against her temple, then caught himself and drew back.

His lips thinned. It was the curse, he reminded himself. Whatever feelings he was experiencing were fabricated, just like the ravaging fear he had felt upon waking and not finding Yaoyorozu on the raft.

Shouto looked down at Yaoyorozu's unconscious face and his heartbeat sped up. She was pale and beautiful and, yet, there was strength in her as well. She had fought off Moonfish by herself, stood up to Bakugou and protected Tokoyami. And she had most likely been the one who had saved him. Shouto swallowed. In the back of his mind, Shouto realized that there were worse people to be tied to than her.