Irusu (A BNHA x IT AU)

by Seroyonin

It started in the winter of 2004, after the death of Midoriya Izuku's little sister Eri, and it would end almost 16 years later, after Kaminari Denki made his six phone calls. After all, they had all promised that they'd come back. (An "IT" AU with *that* part removed) (Cross posted from Ao3) (Every trigger warning imaginable applies- seriously, proceed with caution)

35. Out

—1—

MAY 31ST, 2020 / IRUSU / 9:00-10:00 A.M.

By 9:10, Irusu windspeeds were being gaged at an average of fifty-five miles an hour, with gusts up to seventy. The anemometer in the courthouse registered one gust of eighty-one, and then the needle dropped all the way back to zero. The wind had ripped the whirling, wrought iron, cup-like device on the courthouse's cupola roof off and thrown it into the rainswept dimness of the day. Like Toshinori Eri's boat, it was never seen again.

By 9:30, the thing the Irusu Water Department had sworn was now no longer possible seemed not only possible but imminent: that downtown Irusu might be flooded for the first time since December of 2004, when many of the old drains had clogged up or caved in during a freak rainstorm. By 9:45, citizens with grim faces were arriving in cars and pick-up trucks along both sides of the Canal, their foul-weather gear rippling crazily in the freight-train wind. For the first time since the December of 2004, sandbags began to go up along the Canal's cement sides. The arch where the Canal went under the three-way intersection at the heart of Irusu's downtown area was full almost to the top; Main Street, Center Street, Taiko, and the foot of Up-Mile Hill were impassable except by foot, and those who splashed and hurried their way toward the sandbagging operation felt the asphalt beneath their feet trembling with the frenetic flow of the water, the way a house will rattle as a train barrels by. But this was a steady vibration, and the volunteers were glad to be on the north side of downtown, away from that steady rumbling that was felt rather than heard.

Shimano Yori shouted at Furuta Masaaki, who was both a manager at the Apple Store that stood where Aizawa Shouta's Drug store once had (Aizawa now did business in Shinri), and who had been looking at de Vargus sketches when Sero Hanta had been visited by Pennywise in the library the afternoon before, and asked him if the streets were going to collapse. Furuta said hell would freeze over before something like that happened. Shimano had a brief image of Adolf Hitler and Ghenghis Kahn handing out ice-skates and went on heaving sandbags.

The water was now less than three inches below the top of the Canal's cement walls. In the Barrens the Shibui was already out of its banks, and by noon the copious greenery would be poking out of a vast shallow, stinking lake. The populace continued to work, pausing only when the supply of sandbags ran out... and then, by 9:50, they were frozen by a sundering ripping sound. Shimano Yori later told his wife and daughter he thought maybe the end of the world had come.

It wasn't downtown falling into the earth -not then- it was the Standpipe. The only person to see it happen was Togata Mirio, who had started to head downtown to begin helping with evacuation proceedings after seeing his wife and daughter off to his in-laws in Nagoya. He was drenched to the skin, trudging ankle-deep through mud on the cusp of Memorial Park, when he was knocked off his feet and nearly deafened by the sheer loudness of the noise that crackled through the air.

When he finally got to his feet, he realized the Standpipe now had a pronounced lean, like the tower in Pisa. "Oh, wow!" Togata cried, his eyes widening in disbelief- they looked as if they might be on small tough springs now- as the splintering sounds began again, but even louder this time- truly not knowing what else to say. The Standpipe's lean was becoming more and more acute as he stood there with his jeans sticking to his legs and his drenched blonde hair plastered to his forehead. White shingles were popping off the downtown side of the great round standpipe... no, not exactly popping off; it was more like they were spraying off. And a definite... pucker... had appeared about twenty feet above the Standpipe's stone foundation. Water suddenly began to spray out through this pucker, and now the shingles weren't spraying off the Standpipe's downtown side; they were spewing into the windstream. A rending sound began to come from the Standpipe, and Togata could see it moving, like the hand of a great clock inclining from noon to one to two. The hand that had been pushing his hair out of his eyes dropped heavily by his side, his mouth was agape. He was in shock.

Large twanging sounds came from inside the Standpipe, as if the strings of the world's biggest guitar were being broken one by one. These were the cables inside the cylinder, which had provided the proper balance of stress against the water-pressure. The Standpipe began to heel over faster and faster, boards and beams ripping apart, splinters jumping and whirling into the air.

"Holy..." Togata Mirio whispered, thanking the heavens he had gotten his wife and kid out of town before this got to bad- his verbal indication of surprise and horror was lost in the Standpipe's final crashing fall, and by the rising sound of one and three-quarter million gallons of water, seven thousand tons of water, pouring out of the building's ruptured spouting side. It went in a gray tidal wave, and if Togata Mirio had been on the downhill side of the Standpipe, he would have exited the world in no time. But karma was real, both good and bad, and since Togata Mirio had charged towards downtown with the intention to evacuate as many as possible, the universes energy favored him greatly. Togato was standing in a place where he could see it all and not be touched by a single drop.

Togata yelled, finally starting to back away, as the water rolled over Memorial Park like a solid thing, sweeping away the sundial beside which a small boy named Iida Tenya had often stood watching birds with his father's field glasses. The stone birdbath also went. Togata saw it for only a moment, turning over and over, pedestal for dish and dish for pedestal, and then it was gone. A line of Japanese maples and birches separating Memorial Park from center street were knocked down like dominos. They took wild spiky snarls of power lines with them.

The water furled across several streets, beginning to spread now, beginning to look more like water than that mind-boggling solid wall that had taken the sundial, birdbath, and trees, but it still had power enough to sweep almost a dozen houses on the far side of West Broadway, two streets away, off their foundations and into the Barrens at the edge of Taiko Street. They went with sickening ease, most of them still whole.

As one of the house went over the edge and down the slope, a man named Tokoyami Fumikage, who had gone to school with the loser's club, realized he could see someone sitting on their front porch, and he wondered briefly if he might be mentally highsiding it. There was an explosion from the Barrens and a brief gout of yellow flame as someone's backup generator exploded. Tokoyami stared towards the far side of West Broadway from his kitchen window, where until just forty seconds ago there had been a neat line of middle-class houses. They were gone now- In their places were ten cellar-holes that looked like swimming-pools. Tokoyami wanted to advance the opinion that this was insanity- pulled out of his depression-filled stupor for the first time since the death of his daughter at the hands of Pennywise the dancing clown during the newest cycle, but he just- couldn't find the words. His diaphragm felt weak and useless. He heard a series of crunching thuds, and though only Togata actually saw it, Tokoyami assumed correctly that it was the Standpipe rolling down the hill two streets away, a huge white cylinder still spouting the last of its water supply, the thick cables that had helped to hold it together flying into the air and then cracking down again like steel bullwhips, digging runnels in the soft earth that immediately filled up with rushing rainwater.

As Togata watched and Tokoyami listened, the Standpipe, horizontal now, better than a hundred and twenty-five feet long, flew out into the air. For a moment it seemed frozen there, a surreal image straight out of rubber-walled strait-jacketed toodle-oo land, rainwater sparkling on its shattered sides, its windows broken, casements hanging, the flashing light on top, meant as a warning for low-flying light planes, still flashing, and then it crashed down on top of one of the few remaining houses on the other side of West Broadway, diagonal from Tokoyami's own home. He was knocked off his feet, all his dishes destroyed, his windows shattered. He landed on his back on top of a large pile of glass, slicing his back
To ribbons. He was evacuated with his wife forty-five minutes later, and sent to a hospital in Ashikawa.

The water rushed through to Ori Road and now it began to rush toward downtown by way of Up-Mile Hill. Taking more power lines, trees, light poles, and even cars with it. Reducing everything in its wake to an almost apocalyptic hell scape.

—2—

THE KILL / 10:02 A.M.

Deku and Bakugo saw It turn toward them, Its mandibles opening and closing, Its one good eye glaring down at them, and Deku realized then that It gave off Its own source of illumination, like some grisly lightning-bug. But the light was flickering and uncertain; It was badly hurt. Its thoughts buzzed and racketed-

('let me go! let me go and you can have everything you've ever wanted- money, fame, fortune, power- I can give you these things! I can! I will! Just let me go!')

-in his head.

Deku moved forward empty-handed, his green eyes fixed on Its single red one, faced stained with bloody warpaint. He felt the power growing inside him, manifesting in him, knotting his arms into cords, filling each clenched fist with its own force. Bakugo walked beside him, his lips pulled back over his teeth.

('I can give you your wife back- I can do it, only I- she'll remember nothing as the seven of you remembered nothing!')

They were close, very close now. Deku could smell Its wretched aroma and realized with sudden, cold, horror that it was the smell of the Barrens, the smell they had taken for the smell of sewers and polluted streams and the burning dump... but had they ever really believed those were all it had been? It was the smell of It, and perhaps it had been strongest in the Barrens but it had hung over Irusu like a cloud and people had just become nose-blind to it- the way zoo-keepers don't smell their charges after awhile, or even wonder why the visitors wrinkle their noses when they come in.

"Us two," he muttered to Bakugo, and Bakugo nodded without taking his eyes off the Spider, which now shrank back from them, Its monstrous spiny legs glittering with it's timeline and universe blood, brought to bay at last.

('I can't give you eternal life but I can touch you and you will live long long lives- two hundred years, three hundred, perhaps five hundred- I can make you gods of the Earth- I can make it so you remember your past lives when the universe resets- if you let me go if you let me go if you let me-')

"Deku?" Bakugo asked hoarsely.

With a scream building in him, building up and up and up, Deku charged. Bakugo ran with him stride for stride. They struck together with their right fists, but Deku understood it was not really their fists they were striking with at all; it was their combined force, augmented by the force of that Other; it was the force of memory and desire; above all else, it was the force of love and unforgotten childhood like one big wheel.

Light exploded around them- Red and yellow, behind Bakugo, white and blue behind Deku. The grey-ish purple wrapped around both of them. Green light erupted from Deku's eyes, orange from Bakugo's. It was a hauntingly beautiful sight.

The Spider's shriek filled Deku's head, seeming to rip his brain in half. He felt his fist plunge deep into writhing wetness. His arm followed it in up to the shoulder. He pulled it back, dripping with the Spider's universe blood. It's glittering Ichor poured from the hole he had made.

He saw Bakugo standing almost beneath Its bloated body, drenched with Its darkly sparkling blood for the second time, standing in the classic boxer's stance, his dripping fists pumping into It's soft underbelly.

The Spider slashed at them with Its legs. Deku felt one of them rip down his side, parting his shirt, vest- parting his freckled skin. Its stinger spurt It's living venom uselessly across the floor. Its screams made his head throb. At some point, his and Bakugo's eyes began to bleed again. It lunged clumsily forward, trying to bite him, and instead of retreating Deku drove forward, using not just his fist now but his whole body, making himself into a torpedo. He ran into Its gut like a sprinting fullback who lowers his shoulders and simply drives straight ahead.

For a moment he felt Its stinking flesh simply give, as if it would rebound and send him flying. With an inarticulate scream he drove harder, pushing forward and upward with his legs, digging at It with his hands. And he broke through; was bogged down with Its scorching fluids. They ran across his face, in his ears. He snuffled them up his nose in thin squirming streams.

Deku was in the black again, up to his shoulders inside Its convulsing body. And in his clogged ears he could hear a sound like the steady whack-WHACK-whack-WHACK of a big bass drum, the one that leads the parade when the circus comes to town with its acrobats, lion tamers, and strutting capering clowns.

He realized, after a moment of delirious mind-whirling, it was the sound of Its heart.

He heard Bakugo scream in sudden pain, a sound that rose into a quick, gasping moan and was cut off. Deku, panicked now, suddenly thrust both fisted hands forward. He was choking, strangling in Its pulsing bag of guts and juices.

Whack-WHACK-whack-WHACK-

Deku plunged his hands into It, ripping, tearing, parting, seeking the source of the sound; rupturing organs, his gunked and slimed fingers opening and closing, his locked chest seeming to swell- he was going to run out of air soon.

Whack-WHACK-whack-WHACK-

-And suddenly Its heart was in his hands, a great living thing that pumped and pulsed against his palms, pushing them back and forth. It was very warm.

('NONONONONONONO!')

"Yes!" Deku screamed, choking, crying, drowning. "Yes! Try this, you bitch! TRY THIS ONE OUT! DO YOU LIKE IT?! DO YOU LOVE IT?! DO YOU?!"

He laced his fingers together over the pulsing antechamber of Its heart, palms spread apart in an inverted V- the seven light's rushed through his veins, underneath his skin, and when they reached his fingertips, he brought his hands together with all the force he could muster.

There was one final shriek of pain and fear as Its heart exploded between his hands, running out between his fingers in jittering strings.

Whack-WHACK-whack-whack-wha...

The scream, fading, dwindling. Deku felt Its body clench around him suddenly, like a fist in a slick glove, and felt as if his own guts were about to be squeezed out the top of his head- Then everything loosened. He became aware that Its body was tilting, slipping slowly off to one side. At the same time he began pulling back, his consciousness leaving him.

The Spider collapsed on Its side, a huge bundle of steaming alien meat, Its legs still quivering and jerking, caressing the sides of the tunnel and scraping across the floor in random scrawls. It was struggling.

Deku stumbled away, breathing in whooping gasps, spitting in an effort to clear his mouth of Its horrible taste, wiping at his eyes to clear them. He tripped over his own feet and fell to his knees.

And clearly, he heard the Voice of the Other; the Turtle might be dead, but whatever had created it was not.

("You did good, Kid... You all did. Your jobs are done. You're all free from the burden now.")

...Then it was gone. The power went with it. He felt weak, revulsed, half-insane. He looked over his shoulder and saw the dying black nightmare of the Spider, still jerking and quivering.

"Kacchan!" He cried out in a hoarse, breaking voice. "Kacchan, where are you!?"

No answer.

The light was gone now. It had died with the Spider. He fumbled in the pocket of his matted shirt for Todoroki's lighter. It was there, but it wouldn't light; it had run out of lighter fluid.

"Kacchan!" he screamed again, beginning to sob now. He began to crawl forward, first one hand and then the other groping in the dark. At last one of them struck something which yielded limply to his touch. His hands flew over it... and stopped as they touched Bakugo's face- it was covered in sticky and warm fluid.

"Kacchan!... Katsuki!"

Still no answer. Struggling in the dark, Deku got one arm under Bakugo's back and the other under his knees. He wobbled to his feet and began to stumble back the way they had come with Bakugo in his arms, hoping with everything in him that he wasn't dead. He really didn't think he would be able to handle that- not after Kiri and- most likely- Ochako.

In fact, he knew he wouldn't.

—3—

IRUSU / 10:00-10:15 A.M.

At 10:00 the steady palpitations which had been running through Irusu's downtown streets increased to a rumbling roar. The Irusu News would later write that the supports of the Canal's underground portion, weakened by the savage assault of what amounted to a flash flood, simply collapsed. There were, however, people who disagreed with that view. "I was there, I know," Shimano later told his wife and daughter. "It wasn't just that the Canal's supports collapsed. It was an earthquake, that's what it was. It was a freaking earthquake."

Either way, the results were the same. As the rumbling built steadily up and up, windows began to shatter, plaster ceilings began to fall, and the inhuman cry of twisting beams and foundations swelled into a frightening chorus.

Cracks raced up the bullet-pocked brick facade of a branch of The Hokkaido Bank like grasping hands. The cables holding the marquee of the Aladdin Theater out over the street snapped and the marquee came crashing down onto Main Street. The parking lot where the ice cream bars had once been, suddenly filled up with an avalanche of yellow brick as the surrounding mini mall came crashing down. A huge screen of jaundice-colored dust rose in the air and was snatched away like a veil.

At the same time, the Fox form of the Kitsune statue in Ukiyo Park exploded. It was as if Bakugo Mitsuki's threat to blow it up had finally proved to be dead serious after all. The head of the Fox flew straight up into the air. One leg kicked forward, the other back, as if the Fox had attempted some sort awkward, four-legged, split so enthusiastic it had resulted in dismemberment. The statue's tail blew out in a cloud of shrapnel, disappeared, and then came down again, twirling end over end. It sheared through the roof of the red gazebo, and then its floor.

And then, at 10:02 A.M... downtown Irusu simply collapsed.

Most of the water from the ruptured Standpipe had crossed Taiko Street and ended up in the Barrens, but tons of it rushed down into the business district by way of Up-Mile Hill. Perhaps that was the straw that broke the camel's back... or perhaps, as Shimano Yori told his wife and daughter, there really was an earthquake. Cracks raced across the surface of Main Street. They were narrow at first... and then they began to gape like hungry mouths and the sound of the Canal floated up, not muffled now but frighteningly loud. Everything began to shake. The neon sign proclaiming KŌYŌ: OUT-LET MALL in front of what once was the natural foods store, hit the street and shorted out in three feet of water. A moment or two later, the Hokkaido Bank branch, began to collapse in on itself. Mezo Shoji was the first to see this phenomenon. He elbowed Ojirou Mashiroa, who looked, gaped, and then elbowed Sato Rikido. Within a space of seconds the sandbagging operation stopped. The people lining both sides of the Canal only stood and stared toward downtown in the pouring rain, their faces stamped with identical expressions of horrified wonder. The bank branch appeared to have been built on some huge elevator which was now on the way down. It sank into the apparently solid concrete with ponderous stately dignity. When it came to a stop, you could have stepped onto the roof with ease. Water sprayed up all around the building, and a moment later the banks manager, Sakaguchi Kimiko herself appeared on the roof, waving her arms madly for rescue. Then she was obliterated as the office-building next door, the one which housed a Daiso, also sank into the ground. Unfortunately, this one did not go straight down as Mrs. Sakaguchi's bank had done; the Daiso building developed a pronounced lean. As it tilted, bricks began to shower from its top and sides. Mrs. Sakaguchi was struck by several.

Ojirou Mashiroa saw her reel backward, hands to her head... and then the roof of the Daiso building slid off as neatly as pancakes from the top of a stack. Mrs. Sakaguchi disappeared. Someone on the sandbag line screamed, and then everything was lost in the grinding roar of destruction. Individuals were knocked off their feet or sent wobbling and staggering back from the Canal. Shoji Mezo saw the buildings which faced each other across Main Street lean forward, like ladies kibbitzing over a card-game, their heads almost touching. The street itself was sinking, cracking, breaking up. Water splashed and sprayed. And then, one after another, buildings on both sides of the street simply swayed past their centers of gravity and crashed into the street- the Muji, The Shoeboat, The House of Blue Leaves, Japan Tobacco, Japanzen Internet Cafè. Except that by then there was really no street for them to crash into. The street had fallen into the Canal, stretching like taffy at first and then breaking up into bobbing chunks of asphalt. Ojirou saw the traffic-island at the four-street intersection suddenly drop out of sight, and as water geysered up, he suddenly understood what was going to happen.

"We've gotta get out of here!" he screamed at Shoji and Sato. "It's gonna backwater! Guys, Its gonna backwater!"

While Shoji nodded, grabbed a as many people as he could, and began to run, Sato gave no sign that he had heard. His face was pale, his throat working in disbelief, eyes bugging. He stood in his soaked yellow and white coat, in his black T-shirt, in his soaked through blue-jeans that were now nearly black with water, in his black rubber rain boots. He was watching the town he had spent his whole life in collapse before his very eyes.

Mr. Furuta was in a very similar state- he was watching perhaps 103 million yen of his own personal investments sinking into the street, 400 or 500 million yen of his friends investments- the guys he played poker with, the guys he golfed with, the guys he watched the baseball championship with. Suddenly his home town, Irusu, Hokkaido, for fuck's sake, looked like something out of a dystopian film. Water roiled and boiled between the buildings that were still standing. Ori road ended in a jagged black diving board over the edge of a churning lake. It was really no wonder Furuta hadn't heard Ojirou. Others, however, had come to the same conclusion Ojirou had come to- you couldn't drop that much shit into a raging body of water without causing a lot of trouble. Some dropped the sandbags they had been holding and took to their heels. Ojirou, Shoji, and even Sato were some of these, and so they lived. Others were not so lucky and were still somewhere in the general area as the Canal, its throat now choked with tons of asphalt, concrete, brick, plaster, glass, and about 500 million yen worth of assorted merchandise, backsurged and poured over its concrete sleeve, carrying away bodies and sandbags impartially. Ojirou kept thinking it meant to have him; no matter how fast he ran the water kept gaming. He finally escaped by clawing his way up a steep embankment covered with shrubbery. He looked back once and saw a man he believed to be Kai Katsumi, the payroll lawyer for Ojirou's hotel and sauna, trying to start his car in one of the parking-lots of the Canal Mini-Mall. Even over the roar of the water and the bellowing wind, Ojirou could hear the K-car's little sewing-machine engine cranking and cranking and cranking as smooth black water ran rocker-panel high on both sides of it. Then, with a deep thundering cry, the Shibui poured out of its banks and swept both the Canal Mini-Mall and Kai's bright red K-car away. Ojirou began climbing again, grabbing onto branches, roots, anything that looked solid enough to take his weight. Higher ground, that was the ticket. Behind him he could hear downtown Irusu continuing to collapse. The sound was like artillery fire.

—4—

MIDORIYA IZUKU

"Shouto!" Deku shouted. His back and arms were one solid throbbing ache. Bakugo was deadweight in his arms, feeling as if he weighed no less than five hundred pounds.

'Put him down, then,' his mind whispered. 'He's dead, you know damn well he is, so why don't you just put him down?'

But he wouldn't, couldn't, do that. Not after Kirishima. Not after Ochako.

"Shouto!" he shouted again. "Hanta! Anyone!"

He thought: 'This is where It threw me- and Kacchan- except It threw us farther- so much farther. What was that like? I'm losing it, forgetting...'

"De... ku?..." It was Sero's voice, shaky and exhausted, somewhere fairly close. "Where are you?"

"Over here!... I've got Kacchan... He got... he's hurt."

"Keep talking." Sero was closer now. "Keep talking, Deku."

"We killed It," Deku said, walking toward where Sero's voice had come from, feeling more warm blood from Bakugo's face seep through his shirt. "We killed It. And if Kacchan's dead-"

"Dead?!" Sero called, alarmed. He was very close now... and then his hand groped out of the dark and pawed lightly at Deku's chest. "What do you mean, dead?"

"I... he... " They were supporting Bakugo together now. "I can't see him," Deku said, his voice was weak, cracking. "...That's the thing. His face- there's blood all over it- but I can't tell if it's his or- I just- I cuh-cuh-han't suh-suh-see him!"

"Katsuki!" Sero shouted, feeling along until he had him by the shoulders, and shook him violently- hard enough that Deku could hear Bakugo's teeth clicking together. "Katsuki, come on! Come on, goddammit!" Sero's voice was blurring now, becoming shaky. "KATSUKI WILL YOU WAKE THE FUCK UP?"

And in the dark, Bakugo said in a sleepy, irritable, just-coming-out-of-it voice: "can... can you... shut the... shut the fuck up?... goddamn my head hurts... or is it my face?..."

"Kacchan!" Deku screamed, overjoyed. "Kacchan, are you okay!?"

"Nn... Fucking bitch slashed one of her stupid-ass legs at me..." Bakugo croaked in that same drowsy, just-coming-out-of-sleep voice. "Felt something hot... That's all... all I remember... Where's half and half?"

"Back this way," Sero said. Quickly, he told them about the eggs. "I stamped over a hundred. I think I got all of them."

"I fucking hope you did," Bakugo muttered. He was starting to sound better. "Fucking- let go of me, Deku... I can walk... Is the water louder?"

"Yes," Deku said. The three of them were holding onto one another in the dark. "How's your head?"

"Hurts like hell. What happened after I got knocked out?"

Deku told them as much as he could bring himself to tell.

"And It's dead," Bakugo marvelled. "Are you sure, Deku, one hundred and ten percent?"

"Yes," Deku insisted, nodding for emphasis, despite knowing they couldn't see him. "This time I'm really shuh-hure."

"Thank fuck," Bakugo said, and then hissed in pain. "Ah- shit! What did that bitch do it my face?..."

"I guess we'll have to see." Sero shrugged, they heard a clicking noise, and a few sparks flew out of the darkness- they saw a glimpse of Sero's blood caked face before the light was gone again. "Or not... lighter's out of fluid."

There was a collective sigh, and when that was done they walked on. Every now and then Deku's foot struck something brittle that rolled off into the darkness. Parts of the Spider's eggs that Sero had tromped to pieces, he supposed, and shivered. It was good to know they were going in the right direction, but he was still glad he couldn't see the remains.

"Shouto!" Sero shouted. "Shouto!"

"Here-"

His cry was faint, almost lost in the steady rumble of the water. They moved forward in the dark, calling to him steadily, zeroing in.

When they finally reached him, Deku asked if he had any matches left. Todoroki put half a pack in his hand. He lit one and saw their faces spring into ghostly being- and they all gasped when they got a good look at Bakugo.

He was still covered in multi-colored blood- but there was more now- and it was fresh. There was a long, grizzly, cut going from the right side of his jaw all the way to the left side of his forehead, barely missing his eyes. Bakugo, using Sero's lighter as a makeshift mirror, grimaced.

"Great." He spat, "That's just fucking perfect."

"Now you guys can't call me scar face," Todoroki said softly, weakly, he sounded a little ill, "we have two of those now."

"We never called you scar face." Sero mumbled, "and we won't call Trashmouth that either."

Sero with his arm around Bakugo, was caked in blood and alien placenta. Todoroki, still drenched in Kirishima's blood, still had said man's head in his lap and- oh god- Ochako was laying limply to his left, her head resting on Todoroki's shin. Her head was turned away from Deku, the webbing had mostly melted off her.

The match burned Deku's fingers and he let it drop. In the darkness he misjudged the distance, tripped over her, and nearly went sprawling.

"Ochako! Ochako, can you h-h-hear m-me?"

He got an arm under her back and sat her up. He slipped a hand under the sheaf of her hair and pressed his fingers against the side of her neck. Her pulse was there: a slow, steady beat.

He lit another match, and as it flared he saw her pupils contract. But that was an involuntary function; the fix of her brown-eyed gaze did not change, even when he brought the match close enough to her face to redden her skin. She was alive, but unresponsive. Hell, it was worse than that and he knew it. She was catatonic.

The second match burned his fingers. He shook it out.

"Deku, I don't like the sound of that water," Sero said. "I think we ought to get out of here."

"How will we do it without Ejirou?" Bakugo murmured.

"We can do it," Todoroki said. "Deku, Hanta's right. We have to get out. Now."

"I'm taking her."

"Of course. But we need start walking now."

"Which way?"

"You'll know," Todoroki said softly. "You killed It. You'll know, Deku."

"We killed it, actually," Deku murmured, thinking of the lights, "It was my body, but it was all of us... Tenya, Denki, and Ejirou included..." He picked Ochako up bridal style, adjusting her head so her neck
wasn't strained. The feel of her in his arms was disquieting, creepy; she was like a breathing waxwork.

"Which way, Deku?" Sero asked.

"I d-d-don't-"

('you'll know, you killed It and you'll know.')

"Well, c-come on," Deku said. "Let's see if we can't find out. Sho, gruh-gruh-hab these." He handed him the matches.

"What about Ejirou?" Todoroki asked. "We have to take him out."

"How c-can w-we?" Deku asked, sounding miserable. "It's... Shuh-Sho, the pluh-hace is f-falling apart."

"We're taking him." Bakugo insisted stubbornly, "Im not leaving him to rot alone in the dark."

"Kuh-Kuh-Kacchan, we can't-"

"It's too dark!" Bakugo yelled angrily, sobbed. The salty tears stung his wound immensely. "You know!... it's too dark! Shitty hair... he..."

"Okay," Sero nodded, and walked over to Bakugo, And the two of them managed to hoist up Kirishima's body. "Okay- we're taking him- just let me help you, alright?"

Bakugo nodded- as did Deku and Todoroki, who lit them back to the fairytale door. Deku took Ochako through it, holding her up from the floor as best he could. Bakugo and Sero carried Kirishima through.

Bakugo got up and turned toward the door once they were all through it. "Fuck you, Bitch!" he cried suddenly, and kicked the door shut with his foot. It made a solid chukking sound as it closed and latched.

"Why'd you do that?" Todoroki asked "What was the point? Its dead."

"I don't know," Bakugo said, but he knew well enough. He looked back over his shoulder just as the match Todoroki was holding went out. His eyes widened.

"Deku- the mark on the door-"

"What about it?" Deku asked, adjusting Ochako in his arms again.

Bakugo, slipping his body underneath Kirishima's remaining arm, said: "It's gone."

—5—

IRUSU / 10:30 A.M.

The glass corridor connecting the adult library to the children's Library suddenly exploded in a single brilliant flare of light. Glass flew out in an umbrella shape, whickering through the straining, whipping, cherry blossom trees which dotted the library grounds. Someone could have been severely hurt or even killed by such a deadly fusillade, but there was no one there, either inside or out. The library had not been opened that day at all. The tunnel which had so fascinated Sero Hanta as a boy would never be replaced; there had been so much costly destruction in Irusu that it seemed simpler to leave the two libraries as separate unconnected buildings. In time, no one on the Irusu City Council could even remember what that glass umbilicus had been for. Perhaps only Sero himself could really have told them how it was to stand outside In the still cold of a January night, your nose running, the tips of your fingers numb inside your mittens, watching the people pass back and forth inside, walking through winter with their coats off and surrounded by light. He could have told them. but maybe it wasn't the sort of thing you could have gotten up and testified about at a City Council meeting- how you stood out in the cold dark and learned to love the light. All of that's as may be; the facts were just these: the glass corridor blew up for no apparent reason, no one was hurt (which was a blessing, since the final toll taken by that morning's storm- in human terms, at least- was sixty-seven killed and better than three hundred and twenty injured), and it was never rebuilt. After May 31st of 2020, if you wanted to get from the Children's Library to the adult library, you had to walk outside to do it. And if it was cold, or raining, or snowing, you had to put on your coat.

—6—

OUT / 10:54 A.M... MAY 31ST, 2020

"Wait," Sero gasped. "Give me a chance... rest."

"Let me help you with him," Todoroki said softly. They had discussed leaving Kirishima behind, but none of them had liked that idea- so when Sero had insisted along with Bakugo that they take Kirishima with them, there had been no fight. Now, the two of them were starting to lag behind.

"I'll do it," Sero said between choked gasps for air. "Just give me a second."

"Bullshit. You'll give yourself a fucking heart attack. Let him help you, skelly."

"How's your face, Katsuki?" Sero panted.

"Hurts," Bakugo said. "don't change the subject."

Finally, Sero let Todoroki switch places with him. "Thanks, Sho,"

"No problem." Todoroki smiled softly, "We're all tired."

"Oi, Skelly, it looks as if you've lost fifty fucking pounds in less than twenty-four hours."

"Beep-beep, Katsuki," Sero said, and Deku grinned in spite of himself. It was a tired grin, and it didn't last long, but a little was better than none.

"Which way, Deku?" Todoroki asked. "That water sounds louder than ever. I don't want to drown down here."

"Straight ahead, then left," Deku said, almost automatically. "We should try moving faster."

They went on for half an hour, Deku calling the lefts and rights. The sound of the water continued to expand until it seemed to encase them. Deku felt his way around a corner, one hand trailing over damp brick, and suddenly water was running over his shoes. The current was shallow and fast.

"Upstream now." Deku, having to adjust Ochako over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. If she'd only protest... move... do something. "How are we on matches, Sho?"

"Not many. Five or six left. Deku... do you know where you're going?"

"I think I d-d-do," he said. "Come on."

They followed him around the corner. The water foamed about Deku's ankles, then it was up to his shins, and then it was thigh-deep. The thunder of the water had deepened to a steady bass roar. The tunnel they were in was shaking steadily. For awhile Deku thought the current was going to become too strong to walk against, but then they passed a feeder-pipe that was pouring a huge jet of water into their tunnel- he marvelled at the white-water force of it- and the current slacked off somewhat, although the water continued to deepen. It-

'Wait- I saw the water coming out of that feeder-pipe! Saw it!'

"H-H-Hey!" he shouted. "Can y-y-you guys see a-any thing?"

"It's been getting lighter for the last fifteen minutes or so!" Sero shouted back. "Where are we, Deku? Do you know?"

'I thought I did,' Deku almost said. "No! Come on!"

He had believed they must be approaching the concrete-channelled section of the Shibui that was called the Canal... the part that went under downtown and came out in Ukiyo Park. But there was light down here, light, and surely there could be no light in the Canal under the city... But it brightened steadily just the same.

Deku was beginning to have serious problems with Ochako. It wasn't the current- that had slackened- it was the depth. 'Pretty soon I'll be floating her, he thought.' He could see Sero on his left and by turning his head slightly, he could see Bakugo and Todoroki somewhere behind, struggling with Kirishima's body. The footing was getting decidedly odd. The bottom of the tunnel was now heaped and mounded with detritus-bricks, it felt like. And up ahead, something was sticking out of the water like- like a sharks fin.

Sero splashed toward it, shivering in the cold water. A soggy cigar box floated into his face. He pushed it aside and grabbed at the thing sticking out of the water. His grey eyes widened. It appeared to be a large sign. He was able to read the letters AL, and below that, WHI. And suddenly he knew.

"Deku! Katsuki! Sho!" He was laughing with astonishment.

"What is it, Hanta?" Todoroki shouted over the roar.

Grabbing it with both hands, Sero rocked it back. There was a grating sound as one side of the sign scraped along the wall of the tunnel. Now they could read: ALADDI, and, below that, A WHISKER AWAY.

"It's the fucking marquee for the Aladdin," Bakugo said. "How-"

"The street caved in," Deku whispered. His eyes were widening. He stared up the tunnel. The light was brighter still up ahead.

"What, Deku?"

"What the fuck happened?

"Deku? Deku? What-"

"All these drains!" Deku said wildly. "I knew these were the old drains! There's been another flood! And I think this time-"

He began to struggle ahead again, holding Ochako up. Sero, Todoroki, and Bakugo fell in behind him. Five minutes later Deku looked up and saw blue sky. He was looking through a crack in the ceiling of the tunnel, a crack that widened to better than seventy feet across as it ran away from where he stood. The water was broken by many islands and archipelagos up ahead- piles of bricks, the back deck of a Plymouth sedan with its trunk sprung open and pouring water, a parking-meter leaning against the tunnel wall at a drunken slant, its red VIOLATION flag up.

The footing had become almost impossible now- mini-mountains that rose and fell with no rhyme or reason, inviting a broken ankle. The water ran mildly around their armpits.

'Mild now,' Deku thought, having to bite his lip to keep down a bark of hysterical laughter. 'But if we'd been here two hours ago, maybe even only one, I think we might have gotten the ride of our lives.'

"What the fuck is this, Freckles?" Bakugo asked. He was standing at Deku's left elbow. There was a loud splashing sound behind them, suggesting Sero had taken over Bakugo's position of carrying Kirishima with Todoroki. Bakugo's face, now scarred, but mostly clean due to the water- which was up to Bakugo's collar bone- Was soft with wonder as he looked up at the rip in the roof of the tunnel- 'except it's not the roof of any tunnel' Deku thought. 'It's Main Street... At least it used to be.'

"I think most of downtown Irusu is now in the Canal and being carried down the Shibui River. Pretty soon it'll be in the Teshio and then it will be in the East Sea... Can you help me with Ochako, Katsuki? I don't think I can-"

"Sure," Bakugo said.

He took Ochako from Deku. In this light, Deku could see her better than he perhaps wanted to- her pastiness masked but not hidden by the dirt and ordure that smeared her forehead and caked her cheeks. Her eyes were still wide open... wide open and innocent of all sense. Her hair hung lank and wet- the natural pink hue in her cheeks barely visible now. She might as well as been a corpse. The only difference was her slow, steady respiration... and that might have been a clockwork trick, no more than that.

"How are we going to get up from here?" he asked Bakugo.

"Get Hanta to give you ten fingers," Bakugo said. "You can yank half and half up, and the two of you can get your wife and Kiri. Hanta can boost me and we'll all get him- shit, did all your brains disappear when you killed It?"

"Beep-beep, Kacchan."

"Beep-beep your ass, Deku."

The tiredness was going through Deku in steady waves. He caught Todoroki's level gaze and held it for a moment. Todoroki nodded to him slightly, and Deku made a smile for him.

"That good with you, Hanta?"

Sero, who also looked unbearably fatigued, nodded. A deep scratch ran down his shoulder and chest, splitting his shirt a little. "I think I can handle that."

He stooped slightly and laced his hands together. Deku hiked one foot, stepped into Sero's hand, and jumped up. It wasn't quite enough. Sero lifted the step he had made with his hands and Deku scrabbled for the edge of the broken-in tunnel roof. He caught hold. He yanked himself up.

The first thing he saw was a white-and-orange crash barrier. The second thing was a crowd of milling men and women beyond the barrier. The third was a Muji's- only it had an oddly bulged-out, foreshortened look. It took him a moment to realize that almost half of the Irusu Muji's branch had sunk into the street and the Canal beneath. The top half had slued out over the street and seemed in danger of toppling over like a pile of badly stacked books.

"Look! Look! There's someone in the street!"

A woman was pointing toward the place where Deku's head had poked out of the crevasse in the shattered pavement. He barley registered it.

"Oh my- oh thank everything- there's someone else!"

She started forward, an elderly woman in a pale pink nightgown. A cop held her back. "Not safe out there, Mrs. Harada. You know it. Rest of the street might go any time."

'Mrs. Harada,' Deku thought faintly. '...I remember you... you were Eri's grade one teacher... you made us dinner one night when my mom was to depressed to do anything but lay in bed...' He raised his hand to show her he was all right, and when she raised her own hand in return, he felt a sudden surge of good feelings- that hope stuff Kaminari had talked about the day before.

He turned around and lay flat on the sagging pavement, trying to distribute his weight as evenly as possible, the way you were supposed to do on thin ice. He reached down for Todoroki. He grasped Deku's wrists and, with what seemed to be the last of his strength, he pulled Todoroki up. The sun, which had disappeared again, now ran out from behind a brace of dark clouds and gave them their shadows back. Todoroki looked up, startled, caught Deku's eyes, and smiled.

"I love you, Izuku," Todoroki said softly. "And I hope she'll be alright."

"Thuh-hank you, Sho," he said, and his kind smile made Todoroki feel content. Everything that had needed to be said between the two of them had.

The two of them turned, and helped Ochako and Kirishima up. There were a few startled cries from the crowd behind them, but neither of them really noticed. Bakugo came next, and finally, the three of them pulled Sero out.

'It really does feel like he's lost fifty pounds,' Deku thought, frowning a little- but the thought didn't linger long.

When they were all out, Sero pulled Todoroki and Bakugo into a side-hug, which Todoroki turned into a full hug. With a 'tch' of annoyance, Bakugo shot his arm forward and yanked Deku, stumbling, into the middle and the small crowd gathered behind the crash barrier applauded. A photographer from the Irusu Weekly News snapped a picture. It appeared in the June 1st edition of the paper, which was printed in Ashikawa because of water damage to the News's presses. The caption was simple enough, and true enough for Deku to cut the picture out and keep it tucked away in his wallet for years to come: SURVIVORS, the caption read. That was all, but that was enough.

It was 11:06 A.M. in Irusu.

—7—

IRUSU / LATER THE SAME DAY

The glass corridor between the Children's Library and the adult library had exploded at 10:30 A.M. At 10:33, the rain stopped. It didn't taper off; it stopped all at once, as if Someone Up There had flicked a toggle switch. The wind had already begun to fall, and it fell so rapidly that people stared at each other with uneasy, superstitious faces. The sound was like the wind-down of a 747's engines after it has been safely parked at the gate. The sun peeked out for the first time at 10:47. By midafternoon the clouds had burned away entirely, and the day had come off fair and hot. By 3:30 P.M. their weather apps were reading it as 28 degrees C, the hottest of the new season. People walked through the streets like zombies, not talking much. Their expressions were remarkably similar: a kind of stupid wonder that would have been funny if it was not also so frankly pitiable. By evening reporters from all over the country, and even all over the world, had arrived in Irusu, and the network news reporters would bring some version of the truth home to most people; they would make it real... although there were those who might have suggested that reality is a highly untrustworthy concept, something perhaps no more solid than a piece of canvas stretched over an interlacing of cables like the strands of a spiderweb. Seeing themselves on TV, in interviews, photos, and all sorts of other ways, would make it all real- make it more concrete. But, before all that, there were only the people from Irusu, walking through their rubble-strewn, mud-slicked streets with expressions of stunned unbelief on their faces. Only the people from Irusu, not talking much, looking at things, occasionally picking things up and then tossing them down again, trying to figure out what had happened during the last seven or eight hours. Many stood on Taiko Street, smoking, looking at houses lying upside down in the Barrens. Other men and women stood beyond the white-and-orange crash barriers, looking into the black hole that had been downtown until ten that morning. The headline of that Sunday's paper read: WE WILL REBUILD, VOWS IRUSU MAYOR, and perhaps they would. But in the weeks that followed, while the City Council wrangled over how the rebuilding should begin, the huge crater that had been downtown continued to grow in an unspectacular but steady way. Four days after the storm, the office building of the Hydroelectric Company collapsed into the hole. Three days after that, The Soba Noodle House fell in. Drains backed up periodically in houses, apartment buildings, and businesses. It got so bod on Shinrinyoku that people began to leave. On June 10th, there was a baseball game scheduled for 8:00 P.M. and that seemed to cheer everyone up. But a section of bleachers collapsed during the second inning, and half a dozen people were hurt. One of them was Toyomitsu Taishiro, who had managed the Aladdin Theater until 2018. Taishiro spent two weeks in the hospital, suffering from a broken leg. When he was released, he decided to leave Irusu for good.

He wasn't the only one. Irusu was falling apart.

—8—

They watched the orderly slam the back doors of the ambulance and go around to the passenger seat. The ambulance started up the hill toward the Irusu Home Hospital. Bakugo had flagged it down at severe risk of life and limb, and had argued the irate driver to a draw when the driver insisted he just didn't have any more room. He had ended up stretching Ochako out on the floor.

Kirishima had been added to a growing stretch of covered and ragged corpses on the sidewalk. Sero had cooked up something about a section of Street severing his arm when the Street fell in- and though anyone with a medical degree would of been able to tell that Kirishima Ejirou's arm had been torn off instead of sliced off, it was never questioned. Bakugo sent him off with a kiss to the cheek. He'd also end up taking home one of Kirishima's prescription bottles and a light jacket he'd brought with him- bright red, of course- but that would be later.

"Now what?" Sero asked. There were huge brown circles under his eyes and a grimy ring of dirt around his neck.

"W-We should go see D-Denki," Deku said. "Then I'll g-go back to the Shajima... G-Gonna sleep for about suh-hixteen hours."

"I second that," Bakugo said.

Sero nodded, and looked hopefully at Todoroki. "Got any cigarettes?"

"Yes," Todoroki said, and handed him one. They both lit one with a match. "I think I'm going to quit again, though... this'll be my last one."

"Sensible enough idea." Sero nodded, "And I think I'll do that too."

They began to walk slowly toward the hospital.

"It's o-o-over," Deku said.

Sero nodded. "You did it, Deku."

"We all did it," Todoroki said. Deku nodded in agreement.

They reached the hospital. A kid in a red rainslicker and rubber boots was sailing a paper boat along the brisk run of water in the gutter. He looked up, saw them looking at him, and waved tentatively. Deku thought it was the boy with the skateboard- the one whose friend had seen Jaws in the Canal. He smiled and stepped toward the boy.

"It's all right n-n-now," he said.

The boy studied him gravely, and then grinned. The smile was sunny and hopeful. "Yeah," he said. "I think it is."

"It i-is. I swuh-swear it."

The kid laughed.

"You g-gonna be careful on thuh-hat skateboard?"

"Not really," the kid said, and this time Deku laughed. He restrained an urge to ruffle the kid's hair- that probably would have been resented- and returned to the others.

"Who the hell was that?" Bakugo asked.

"A friend," Deku shrugged. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "...do you remember it? When we came out before?"

Todoroki nodded as they pushed their way inside. Sero asked about Kaminari, and they were directed to his room on the second floor. "...Ejirou got us back to the Barrens. Only we ended up on the other side of the Kenduskeag somehow. The train yard side..."

They knocked, and there was a soft "huh?"- they pushed inside, and Kaminari sat up bolt right.

Kaminari's hair was down, nearly touching his shoulders, standing up staticky in places. He had a pouch of blood dripping into him, as well as a helpful amount of morphine. He was dressed in hospital attire, and had a bandage wrapped around one hand. Kaminari's eyes darted around them, searching for who was missing- searching for the jolt.

"...Ejirou?..." Kaminari asked softly. They all looked at him gravely.

"Shit."

"Its dead." Sero said softly, "he didn't die in vein- Tenya either."

Kaminari nodded, "I knew... I knew you guys were fighting it- I felt the draining... and I saw the burst of light... felt the jolt when Kiri died... but... you're all certain Its dead? I'm not gonna have to disrupt all your lives and get two of you killed in another fifteen years, heh?..."

"You didn't get anyone killed," Todoroki said softly, moving to sit at the edge of his bed. He grasped Kaminari's unhurt hand in his own, "Don't ever think that..."

"Its dead." Deku reassured tiredly, collapsing into a chair next to the door, "I crushed Its heart in my hands."

Kaminari, face flushed, felt his lips quirk up a little in a smile: "Hardcore."

Deku shrugged, also beginning to smile a little. "Hardcore."

"Now..." Kaminari started, turning to look at Todoroki, his cheeks growing a little redder, "Is now the time to tell you that this was all an elaborate scheme to get you to go out with me, or?..."

Todoroki stared at him blankly, and Kaminari felt his face flush in embarrassment- realizing that now was probably not the best time for jokes- not that his timing had ever been particularly good...

"Uh... haha- I'm sorry- that wasn't appropriate-"

Todoroki's head ducked forward, and his shoulder's started to shake- and for a harrowing moment, Kaminari was sure he had made Todoroki cry. He opened his mouth to apologize when Todoroki's head shot up again, and the sound of barely contained, snorting, giggles, began to float through the air.

He was laughing.

Todoroki Shouto was actually laughing.

"Holy shit-" Todoroki cackled, his face flushed red, his hand clamped over his mouth, "You really do have less tact than Trashmouth-"

Kaminari stared, barely hearing this, open-mouthed at the sight before him. Todoroki's cheeks were cherry red, he was letting out little snorts, and that shimmery glow seemed to have returned- Everyone in the room thought he was magnificent- and that maybe Kaminari had been right all those years ago- maybe Todoroki's laugh really could bring about world peace.

"Marry me." Kaminari mumbled, not meaning to say it out loud.

Todoroki, finally beginning to reign in his laughter, felt his cheeks flush a little more, "...how about we start with coffee?"

—9—

"...You and four eyes pushed the lid off one of those pumping-stations," Bakugo said to Deku, "because the two of you had the most strength."

They were all still in Kaminari's hospital room. Sero and Todoroki sat with Kaminari on the bed, Bakugo and Deku sat in chairs pushed up against the wall. A nurse had come in soon after Todoroki's coffee proposal, and insisted on cleaning Bakugo's wound. Half of his face was covered with tightly packed gauze- which he hated and scratched at constantly.

"Yeah," Sero said. "You did. The sun was out, but it was almost down."

"Yeah," Kaminari nodded, his cheeks seemed to be permanently stained pink. "And we were all there.

Deku nodded along, remembering.

"But nothing lasts forever," Bakugo said. He looked around the room with his uncovered eye. "Look at this shit."

He held his hands out. The tiny scars in the palms were gone. Todoroki put his hands out; Sero and Kaminari did the same; Deku added his. All were unmarked.

"Nothing lasts forever," Bakugo repeated. He looked up at Deku, and Deku saw tears slowly start to well in his eyes, undoubtedly thinking about Kirishima's dead-eyed stare.

"Except maybe for love," Sero said simply. Kaminari nodded, and glanced shyly at Todoroki from the corner of his eye.

"And desire," Todoroki added.

"How about friends?" Deku asked, and smiled, nudging Bakugo softly with his shoulder. "What do you think, Trashmouth?"

"Well," Bakugo said, smiling tiredly and rubbing his eyes. "I wouldn't know, since none of you fucking losers are my friends." Kaminari laughed wildly at this.

Deku rolled his eyes, and put his hands out and they joined theirs with his and sat there for a moment, seven who had been reduced to five but who could still make a circle. They looked at each other. Sero was crying now too, the tears spilling from his eyes. But he was smiling.

"I love you guys so much," Sero said. He squeezed Todoroki's and Kaminari's hands tight-tight-tight for a moment, and then dropped them. "Now could we see if they've got such a thing as breakfast in this place?"

"Don't bother, it's terrible." Kaminari waved his hand, "best bet is having someone go and pick it up."

"I'll do it." Deku said.

"I'll go too." Bakugo added, "otherwise Deku'll fall through a crack and split his dumbass head open."

The room was filled with laughter, and when Todoroki turned his head, he caught sight of something which he never spoke of but never forgot. For just a moment he saw their reflections in the window- only there were seven, not five, because Kirishima was in the empty chair next to Bakugo, with an arm around his shoulder, and Iida was standing beside Deku, leaning against the wall.

They were laughing right along with them, just like old times.

—10—

OUT / DUSK, AUGUST 14TH, 2005

The sun sits neatly on the horizon, a slightly oblate red ball that throws a flat feverish light over the Barrens. The iron cover on top of one of the pumping-stations rises a little, settles, rises again, and begins to slide.

"P-P-Push it, Teh-Tenya, it's bruh-breaking my shoulder-"

The cover slides farther, tilts, and falls into the shrubbery that has grown up around the concrete cylinder. Seven children come out one by one and look around, blinking owlishly in silent wonder. They are like children who have never seen daylight before.

"It's so quiet," Todoroki says softly, the glow is gone now. He's caked in dirt and sewage- his brother's jacket is ruined, and past this day, he'll never put it on again.

The only sounds are the loud rush of water and the somnolent hum of insects. The storm is over but the Shibui is still very high. Closer to town, not far from the place where the river is corseted in concrete and called a canal, it has overflowed its banks, although the flooding is by no means serious- a few wet cellars is the worst of it. This time.

Iida moves away from them, his face blank and thoughtful. Deku looks around and at first he thinks Iida has seen a small fire on the riverbank- fire is his first impression: a red glow almost too bright to look at. But when Iida picks the fire up in his right hand the angle of the light changes, and Deku sees it's nothing but a Coke bottle, one of the glass ones, which were the only kind they sold in the gas station on the outskirts of town. He watches as Iida reverses it, holds it by the neck, and brings it down on a shelf of rock jutting out of the bank. The bottle breaks, and Deku is aware they are all watching Iida now as he pokes through the shattered remains of the bottle, his face sober and studious and absorbed. At last he picks up a narrow wedge of glass. The westering sun throws red glints from it, and Deku thinks again: 'Like a fire.'

Iida looks up at him and Deku suddenly understands: it is perfectly clear to him, and perfectly right. He steps forward toward Iida with his hands held out, palms up. Iida backs away, into the water. Small black bugs stitch along just above the surface, and Deku can see an iridescent dragonfly go bussing off into the reeds along the far bank like a small flying rainbow. A frog begins a steady bass thud, and as Iida takes his left hand and draws the edge of glass down his palm, peeling skin and bringing thin blood, Deku thinks in a kind of ecstasy: 'There's so much life down here!'

"Deku?"

"Sure. Both."

Iida cuts his other hand. There is pain, but not much. A Sparrowhead has begun to call somewhere, a cool sound, peaceful.

Deku looks at his hands, both of them bleeding now, and then around him. The others are there- Kirishima with his aspirator clutched tightly in one hand; Sero, looking thinner than ever, dark circles under his hallow eyes; Bakugo, his face oddly naked without his cockiness and snark; Kaminari, pale and exhausted, his blond hair caked with all manner of crud. And Todoroki, his head up, his heterochrome eyes wide and clear, his multicolor hair still somehow lovely in spite of the dirt that mats it.

'All of us. All of us are here.'

And he sees them, really sees them, for the last time, because in some way he understands that they will never all be together again, the seven of them- not this way. No one talks. Todoroki holds out his hands, and after a moment Bakugo and Sero hold out theirs. Kaminari and Kirishima do the same. Iida slices into them one by one as the sun begins to slip behind the horizon, cooling that red furnace-glow to a dusky rose-pink. The bird cries again, Deku can see the first faint swirls of mist on the water, and he feels as if he has become a part of everything- this is a brief ecstasy which he will no more talk about than Todoroki will later talk about the brief reflection he sees of two dead men who were, as boys, his friends.

A breeze touches the trees and bushes, making them sigh, and Deku thinks simply: 'This is a lovely place, and I'll never forget it. It's lovely, and they are lovely; each one of them is gorgeous.' The sparrowhead cries again, sweet and liquid, and for a moment Deku feels at one with it, as if he could sing and then be gone into the dusk- as if he could fly away, brave in the air.

He looks at Todoroki and he is smiling at him- not in the way he smiled at Kaminari, but in that soft, familiar, way. Todoroki closes his eyes and holds his hands out to either side. Deku takes his left; Kaminari his right. Deku can feel the warmth of Todoroki's blood mixing with his own. The others join in and they stand in a circle, all of their hands now sealed in that peculiarly intimate way.

Iida is looking at Deku with a kind of urgency; a kind of fear.

"Swuh-Swear to muh-me that you'll c-c-c-come buh-back," Deku says. "swear to me that if lh-Ih-It isn't d-d-dead, you'll cuh-home back."

"My parents are moving us out." Bakugo cuts in before anyone can say anything, "How the hell am I supposed to know when It comes back? How are any of us that move supposed to know?

"I'll call you," Kaminari says softly, "I told Deku down there that I would... I promised... I've got the farm, so I doubt I'll be leaving anytime soon..."

There was a pause, and then a collective nod. Sero and Todoroki squeezed Kaminari's hands, and he squeezed them back.

"Swear," Sero said finally, "I swear, that when Denki calls, I'll come back."

"Swear." Bakugo nods.

"Yes- I swear." Todoroki whispers.

"Swear it," Kaminari mutters. "I'll call."

"Yeah. Swear." Kirishima, his voice a thin and reedy whisper.

"I swear too," Iida whispers, but his voice falters and he looks down as he speaks.

"I-I swuh-swuh-swear."

That was it; that was all. But they stand there for awhile longer, feeling the power that is in their circle, the closed body that they make. The light paints their faces in pale fading colors; the sun is now gone and sunset is dying. They stand together in a circle as the darkness creeps down into the Barrens, filling up the paths they have walked this summer, the clearings where they have played tag and guns, the secret places along the riverbanks where they have sat and discussed childhood's long questions or Sero and Todoroki smoked cigarettes or where they have merely been silent, watching the passage of the clouds reflected in the water. The eye of the day is closing.

At last Todoroki drops his hands. He starts to say something, shakes his head, and walks away. Bakugo follows him, then Sero and Kaminari, walking together. No one talks; they climb the embankment to Taiko Street and simply take leave of one another. And when Deku thinks it over fifteen years later, he realizes that they really never did all get together again. Four of them quite often, sometimes five, and maybe six once or twice. But never all seven.

Deku's the last to go. He stands for a long time with his hands on the rickety white fence, looking down into the Barrens as, overhead, the first stars seed the summer sky. He stands under the blue and over the black and watches the Barrens fill up with darkness.

'I never want to play down there again,' he thinks suddenly and is amazed to find the thought is not terrible or distressing- but tremendously liberating.

He stands there a moment longer and then turns away from the Barrens and starts home, walking along the dark sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, glancing from time to time at the houses of Irusu, warmly lit against the night. Bakugo is up ahead, he and Kirishima are hugging, it seems- but Deku doesn't move to catch up with them. The two part ways, and Bakugo doesn't stop to wait for him either.

After a block or two Deku begins to walk faster, thinking of supper... and a block or two after that, he begins to smile.