The Kamino Ward Hospital was not very large. While it had three floors, it was not a hospital with many departments. Sick people would never go here, and instead took the train to central Tokyo for a normal hospital if they felt like they needed it.

This was because the Kamino Ward Hospital was one that dealt with a very specific clientele. Not the sick, but the injured. More often than not this meant 'the critically injured'.

This was not because the Kamino Ward itself was a dangerous place, it was simply a matter of circumstance that had led to this image of the hospital. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

They say, after all, that All Might was once treated here after a very difficult fight which forced him to take a long vacation.

Izuku sat in his chair. Bandages were wrapped around his neck, hiding the bruised skin from the collar. In the end, he wasn't even that injured. All that had happened were a few cuts and bruises, nothing that he would ever call serious.

The reason he was sitting here was lying in a bed in front of him. He sat in the chair, he didn't know how many hours it had been. The surgery itself was… fast. In the end, a hospital like this had doctors with good quirks, and even more had been flown in from all around Japan within hours.

The Yaoyorozu family spared not one cent.

His stomach turned every time he opened his eyes.

There was no other word to describe it by. She looked broken. Tortured to the point where her survival could be described as a miracle. Even then, she would be scarred from head to toe, something he didn't know how she would react to.

He felt like he didn't know anything about her at this point.

Izuku touched her bandaged arm with trembling fingers. Machines were stuck all over her. A tube to keep her breathing, because her lungs had to heal. A pad that was wired to her chest which vibrated in tune with a normal heartbeat, keeping her alive.

She would heal.

Izuku could hear her parents outside, speaking to the doctors. Mrs. Yaoyorozu's voice was painful to listen to. The devastation. The mistake he had made that nearly cost them their daughter.

But, she would heal. Eventually.

He turned his head. He could hear him. In one of the bathrooms of the hospital. All Might was heaving and deflating, the liquid that hit the water in the toilet bowl made an all too familiar sound. Blood was dripping from the man's chin.

Izuku closed his eyes and ears.

He had to move his mother to Nezuko's home in the future. And if he was going to be targeted like this, he might have to avoid going back as well.

Still trembling fingers reached for his phone. He could hear Aizawa-sensei, walking into the reception hall below, likely to chew him out once he was upstairs. He walked out of the room, avoiding the gaze of Momo's parents and quickly ducking into a closet. The number he had saved but not called until today was dialed.

It rang twice before he picked up.

"News reporters are like vultures," the all too friendly voice of Tenko Shimura echoed through the phone. "How's it hanging, 'Ronin Hero: Kagura'?"

"On a thread," Izuku said, murmuring. "I messed up, no matter how much they try to pretend this was some rescue attempt gone well. Momo's…"

"Three quarters dead and probably out of commission for a good while, yes," Tenko said. Izuku flinched. His teeth made a noise as they clicked together. Tenko took note. "I'd say it's not really your fault but you're a self-flagellating little shit, so we'll just move on to 'what can I do for you?'."

"Himiko Toga got away with All For One," Izuku said. "She's hurt, possibly as bad as Momo. You know doctors, you know criminals. I need a name of where he might treat her."

"You going to kill her?" Tenko asked. Izuku shook his head. Before he could verbalize it, however, Tenko moved on. "No, you ain't. You think she can lead you to dear old dad."

"Just send me a list later," Izuku said, his voice tight. "We can go together. I need to sort some things out with my school."

"Sounds good," Tenko said. Izuku could hear him grab for another phone through the speaker. "I'll have your list by tomorrow. Is Mama alright?"

Izukiu frowned. "A few bruises. The stab happy vampire wasn't very nice to her, but nice enough not to hurt her too much. She's… too fixated on me."

"You heartbreaker, you," Tenko said, only sounding half-joking. "I'll call you back."

He hung up. Izuku pocketed the phone, slowly opening the door of the closet. Aizawa-sensei was already on the same floor, talking with Momo's parents. He could try to avoid him. Izuku was fairly certain he could just jump out of the window and get home without any issue, but that wouldn't be a long-term solution.

The sooner he got this behind him, the easier it would be.

Izuku walked up to them with slow steps. Mrs. Yaoyorozu caught sight of him first. He opened his mouth to speak. To say something. To apologize, break his back over and over in prostration—

But he couldn't.

In the end the tall woman had grabbed his head and hugged him. The grip was tight and powerful, as was expected from a blacksmith, and it made it hard for him to say anything. Mr. Yaoyorozu, a man just slightly taller than his wife, with arms to match, looked at him with a pained expression.

It was Aizawa who broke the moment. He stepped up to them, patting Mrs. Yaoyorozu on the shoulder to make her let go. Izuku took a short breath, trying to calm his nerves. He felt both cold and numbed. The mark on his arm was itching.

"I have something to discuss with him," Aizawa said. Izuku nodded at him, still mute. "I'll bring him back afterwards."

Momo's parents just nodded, entering their daughter's room. Izuku could hear her mother's heartbreak. He could hear the father's clenched fist and ripping skin. He shut his eyes, forcing himself not to push his hands over his ears.

Aizawa-sensei grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him all the way up to the roof.

The breeze was cool, even as the sun overhead was announcing the start of summer with a bright glare. Aizawa turned around, his eyes revealing nothing. His lips, however, made a motion Izuku was all too familiar with. The inability to come up with the words to say in such a ridiculous situation.

Izuku was willing to give him a hand.

"I'm sorry," Izuku said, his head bowed. "I've… failed to recognize a serious threat, I was taken and it led to… to this."

"I'm not your teacher right now," Aizawa said. Izuku blinked, looking up. Aizawa's fist was cocked back. "This is a fellow hero."

"What—" Izuku said. The sheer image of it was too much for him to realize that he should dodge. The fist crashed into his cheek and sent him sprawling.

Izuku saw stars for a moment, lying on his back and looking at the blue sky. Izuku's ears were ringing. It… really wasn't that hard of a punch. He wasn't even Breathing and he very much doubted that it would even bruise.

"That usually works to knock someone out of a funk," Aizawa said, sitting down next to him. He was nursing his hand. "But with a head as thick as yours, I probably just broke my finger."

"I should report you for battery on a student," Izuku said, touching his cheek. "I get it, I won't say I'm sorry. You'll tell me that everyone has days like these, and we can move on to talking about when I get to repeat the midterms from today."

"You're the most insufferable student I've ever had," Aizawa said. Izuku blinked.

"Now I'm a student again?" he asked. Aizawa flicked Izuku's nose.

"That stuff over your hands," Aizawa said, Izuku looked down. He really should get gloves eventually. "That's the mark, isn't it?"

The Demon Slayer Mark.

Nezuko had once told him, it was visible on the pictures of her brother.

Izuku raised his hands towards the sky, staring at the contrast of crimson against azure. It was almost appropriate. Blood stained hands for someone who was responsible for so much bloodshed.

"I've met a man in my dreams," Izuku said. Aizawa didn't say anything, but his head turned to listen. "He told me to take things slow. To become brave by defeating one fear at a time. To become kind by forgiving one bad deed a day."

"Wise words," Aizawa said. "I can't say you're just a first year anymore, with the media being all over this, the hero safety commission might just fast-track you into actual heroics before U.A. can stop it. This isn't something someone this young should have to deal with."

"I don't think I have much of a choice," Izuku said, frowning at his teacher. He let his arms fall, closing his eyes. "It's a family affair, and if it wasn't, it would be my duty as a student of Nezuko Kamado."

"I'm saying you're going to be in therapy for the rest of your life at this rate," Aizawa said. His voice was tense. Tranquil fury bubbled under the surface of his usual can't be fucked attitude. "This isn't just your mess. Remember, we had heroes stationed in your neighborhood to keep an eye out on Eri. I can't fault them for missing Himiko Toga's quirk, but their lack of vigilance ended up hurting two of my students."

"You sound angry," Izuku said.

"I am angry," Aizawa said. His fingernails dug into his palms. Izuku could see his hair whip up slightly, not due to the wind but from his quirk alone. "This is not the first time that one of my students almost died. U.A. is currently in talks about on-campus dorms due to this. Parents are livid, but willing to listen because you've become the hero of this story."

"I don't feel like one," Izuku admitted. He sat up, his fingers touching. "But if you need to prop me up as one so U.A. doesn't lose the trust of its students and their parents, do it. I don't care anymore."

"I would punch you again if I thought that'd help," Aizawa said, frowning at him. "You're a mess, Midoriya. But I don't think it's just this kidnapping thing. I'm here to listen if you have anything you want to talk about."

Izuku mirrored his frown, his palms meeting as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index fingers. There were a hundred things on his mind. Yoriichi's words, Momo's state, his father's experiments, All For One, his mother no doubt worried sick at home, Nezuko and Eri, Himiko Toga—

He sighed.

"I can hear him," Izuku said. His fists were clenched at his side. "Dying. In the bathroom on the second floor, he's spewing blood like a fountain would. It's… painful."

Painful was likely not the right word for it. Agonizing, too, would be too mild. The idea of his ideal hero, one of the two people he wished he could live up to in the future, dying a slow death as he held on simply to give people their peace of mind.

All Might's watch would end soon.

Aizawa didn't need to ask who to know. He nodded.

"When he came to save us," Izuku said. "He hesitated. I could see him ready up for battle. For a moment he was willing to let us die to get All For One."

"You know," Aizawa said, nodding. "Or you know at least enough to piece it together. You're a smart cookie, there's a nuance to this story I can't properly explain by myself. You should ask him when you have the time."

"If he doesn't want to tell me, I won't dig," Izuku said, shaking his head. "And the fact that he would have abandoned us in anger is irrelevant, because he didn't. He took the path of a true hero."

"Is that really how you feel?" Aizawa asked. Izuku nodded. "What did I tell you about lying to me?"

"Might have beens are for the dead," Izuku said. He hated it when the adults around him talked to him as if they had him all figured out. As if they knew all the intricacies of what was going on in his mind. "The living make their own fate. I'm not excusing him, I'm saying I understand."

"Because you were there," Aizawa said. He stood up, dusting his pants off. "You had that moment where you considered going for the kill instead of helping Yaoyorozu. That doesn't mean the number one hero should have the same impulsiveness."

"Who did he lose?" Izuku asked. Aizawa blinked.

"... his mentor," Aizawa said, almost whispering the word. "But that'd sell their relationship short. His mother might be more appropriate."

Izuku thought of Nezuko.

Perhaps there wasn't that much of a difference between him and the number one hero as he thought.

Izuku stood up, taking Aizawa's offered hand. Dusting himself off as well, he looked towards the door that leads to the staircase and back towards the floor with Momo's room.

"Heroics is all about sacrifice, Midoriya," Aizawa said, following his gaze. "But unlike villains, we don't sacrifice each other. We sacrifice ourselves. She knew what she was doing. All Might wouldn't have found you without her."

"I'm a hypocrite, I hate it when people get hurt for me," Izuku said. Aizawa cracked a dirty and unsatisfied smile.

"All heroes are."

It was a strange sight.

In the dojo, where Eri was swinging around a sword until she was tired, Inko and Nezuko sat together. He walked in and found himself the attention of all three. It was Eri who had reacted first, running forward and tripping, forcing him to bend down and catch her. He swung her around a bit, causing her to laugh loudly.

It was good that she could laugh now.

Izuku kept her in his arms, walking over to the women and sitting down next to them. Eri wouldn't let go of his neck, He was glad he had gotten gloves on the way here. The sight of the blood-like marks on his hands would have no doubt scared her.

His mother was on him next, her arms squeezing both him and Eri tightly. It wasn't a vice grip like Mrs. Yaoyorozu, but no less warm and no less kind. She let him go after a solid minute, leaving only Nezuko's gaze that had fixed itself on his neck, where small bits of the mark were peeking out between the bandages.

"I've failed to keep you safe in your own home," Nezuko said. She sounded out of it. Her fake breathing was nonexistent.

"I've promised Aizawa-sensei not to say 'sorry' anymore about this," Izuku said, one hand reaching out and putting it on his mother's head. She was starting to cry, and Eri would likely end up upset as well due to it. "So I don't want to hear it from you either."

She wasn't omnipotent and omniscient.

It was something he had accepted a while ago.

Nezuko simply nodded, taking no issue with his harsh tone. "How is she?"

"Alive," Izuku said. Eri's arms tightened around his neck, moving the bandages some more. He quickly adjusted them, hiding the bruise from the collar. "Healing. The doctors said half her lung had to be… regrown. They couldn't say how long until she wakes up."

"She's as sturdy in her body as she i's in her heart, I'm certain she will wake up soon." Nezuko stood up. "There is a story that a monster once told me, about the mark that now forms on your body. All those who bear it will die before they become twenty five years of age."

Izuku frowned. Eri was falling asleep in his arms, already too tired to truly listen. But Inko looked absolutely devastated at the words.

"Nothing but fable, of course," Nezuko said, shaking her head. "My brother and all the others survived well into the oldest of ages. But in a way, the monster isn't completely wrong. The mark is on those who prove their dedication in life-threatening battle, whose body burns hotter than a human should be able to survive, and whose heart beats so fast it might be ready to burst out of your chest."

"I was angry," Izuku said, his voice low. "Angrier than I had ever been. I didn't know why, but somehow things started to click. The Breath of the Sky feels… complete."

"Then you should move on to focus that Breath until it becomes your second nature."

Izuku shook his head. "I don't think I want to think about training right now."

Nezuko nodded. "You should rest. Your exams, will you still take them?"

"Yes," he said, nodding. "If nothing else it will be… a good distraction."

"From the worry?"

"From all kinds of feelings," he shifted Eri's body again, handing her over to his mother. Inko took the girl with trembling hands, smiling a teary-eyed smile at him. "But mostly that image of her lying in a pool of her own blood when I close my eyes. She didn't deserve it."

"Of course she did not," Nezuko said, nodding. She stood, walking up to him, a hand on his cheek. "Nobody ever does. The truth of the world is that it often hits those who don't deserve it. But this is a sacrifice she was willing to make to see you safe."

"I didn't like it," Izuku said. His chest was burning. He reached towards it, his fingers digging into his shirt. "This feeling, I don't like it at all."

"You are in love," Nezuko said. "An unfamiliar feeling for many who are young. It is like taking a piece of you and giving it to someone else. It's the most vulnerable you will ever be, your body can be torn asunder by the slightest touch. She could destroy you, and if she doesn't, those who hurt her can do much the same."

Love was… not something on his mind right now.

He liked Momo, that wasn't in doubt. He wasn't sure if people really fell in love that fast, he had absolutely no experience with it besides a few childhood crushes on some female heroes—

Bravery, kindness, safety.

"Yoriichi Tsugikuni," Izuku said, pursing his lips. "I met him."

"And what did he teach you?" Nezuko said, beyond the point where she could be surprised about his ventures into what she called the 'transparent world'.

"Nothing," Izuku said. Eri mumbled something into his mother's neck. "He just reminded me of things I already knew."

Chapter 29, upcoming:

The Demon Slayer Mark

The man smiled an almost pleasant smile, his long nose hiding half of it as he lowered his gaze.

"Hey, Stain," Izuku said, all but glaring at the man who sat next to him on the roof. "I always thought you were a deranged murderer."

"Any change on that front?" Stain asked, unconcerned.

"Not really," Izuku said, rubbing his chin. "But if I'm being honest with you, I was this close from killing Himiko Toga back then. I wonder if there was something like that for you."

"My father taught me to swing a sword until I bled," Stain said, standing up. "Then he made me do it until I passed out. I ain't no hero, I ain't a vigilante either. I'm just a villain who kills villains. No more reason than that."

Izuku could hear the lie on his tongue and said nothing.