Disclaimer: I do not own Boku No Hero Academia or any of Horikoshi's original characters, nor do I make any profit off of my writing.
"He'll head to the surface in pursuit of Midoriya.. and Eri.. then.. he'll.. kill Midoriya.. and escape.. "
In the end, Sir Nighteye's prediction was nothing but factual. Though, like all things, it didn't shed a light on the entire truth.
Izuku didn't care much for the way the villain sneered at his crumpled form, he had far bigger worries than the bastard who tortured Eri. Those being the wide, ruby eyes staring down at him from where the girl crawled out from behind his back. There was a dazed look in them, he couldn't really tell if it was from the fall or from his injuries. He didn't really think he would ever find out with how foggy his own head felt.
".. Eri.. "
She didn't respond besides the tremor in her hand as she reached toward his arm, grasping the bloody fabric around his bicep.
Overhaul was cursing them somewhere off in the distance as he screamed, tearing his own body apart piece by piece, suffering the same pain he put this innocent little girl through for so long. He was ridding himself of the bodies he combined with to beat him, his face showing nothing other than disgust and repulsion for the act.
He didn't even seem to care that those bodies were his former colleagues, nor that they were now well and truly dead because of him, only that he was tainted because of them, because of him.
He glared at the hero-in-training as a gloved hand gently reached up and cupped the child's face, loathing the smile on the boy's face more than anything. Of course, the boy didn't understand just how diseased he was, he was just as bad as the girl. A curse that only causes pain. A curse that causes damage and deals damage, on the boy and his enemies. Overhaul supposed he should count himself lucky that Eri's curse fizzled out into nothing mid-fight, stopping the boy's final barrage after a single punch from either arm, his arm's nothing but mangled messes flapping through the air, unable to be used again.
It was reminiscent of the first time he used his quirk, even now with him being used to the pain it could do nothing to aid in the use of his mangled limbs.
His bloody smile was really all he could do to mask the way his teeth were gritting, masking the pain that captured his body and held his voice hostage as he brushed the girl's cheek.
"D- Deku.. "
A crimson streak glistened across her cheek as Izuku's hand fell away and back to the ground, enough of the sanguine liquid collecting for a bead to form and slip further down the girl's pale cheeks. The corners of Izuku's mouth twitched up into a soft smile as the drop of blood crested the curve of Eri's upper lip before slipping into her slightly parted mouth.
She didn't notice it as she continued breathing her shallow breaths, not quite taking in the reality of her situation besides the obvious.
Deku. Her hero.
The one whose arms were so warm, so comforting, so much like everything she had ever wanted.
He was hurt, bleeding, dying.
It was her fault.
She was cursed. She didn't tell him, not in the right way, he didn't believe her, so he tried helping her. If she had just convinced him, if she had just said the right words, then he wouldn't be hurt because of her.
Chisaki was right.
She was cursed.
".. h- hey.. "
All she would ever do is hurt those around her, she was evil, a monster, and- and- she hurt him.
".. Eri.. "
Red eyes met green as her hero – the one she betrayed and killed with her evil – smiled at her. She didn't deserve that smile. She didn't.
She deserved to be yelled at, screamed at, hurt. She deserved Chisaki.
".. you'll be an amazing hero one day.. I know you will.. you are good.. "
She shook her head. How could he still not know? How could he still not understand? She tried telling him. He didn't believe her. She showed him. He still wouldn't accept it. Why wouldn't he accept it? He was hurt because of her, bleeding because of her, dying because of her. They were lying there in a pool of blood with Chisaki walking toward them, and he still wouldn't accept it.
"Eri. Are you finally ready to accept the truth?"
She turned over her shoulder and met golden eyes inlaid above a scowling face, a far cry from the kind eyes and soft smiles of the corpse lying beneath her.
She was.
She was ready to accept it.
Her head nodded even as her hands grasping tighter and tighter into the fabric of Deku's hero suit. Shaking him slowly, then faster, then harder.
He didn't respond past the flop of his head over his shoulder, two dull eyes staring down the empty streets and no longer meeting her own.
She was ready to accept it.
Chisaki smiled as she met his eyes again, seeing the defeat held within them. It was weird, seeing his mouth, seeing him smile. He was wearing that plague mask anymore, she wished he was. At least then she could imagine Deku's smile instead of seeing Overhaul's. The images overlapped and contorted as she sat there, her white dress clinging to her legs as the blood-soaked the sheer fabric.
"So, you are. You're finally going to admit it, you are.. "
'.. you are good.. '
She blinked away the tears that filled the corners of her eyes as she stood up to her feet shakily, ignoring the words that Chisaki spoke or the echoes of Deku's arguments. She walked numbly back to the villain, not even bothering to stop as she passed him and continued on away from the gathering noise behind them.
Away from the heroes.
Overhaul was quick to follow, all too happy with her submission.
It was a good day. His operation was squandered, yes, but he won in the end.
Eri didn't even blink as metal glinted in the alleyway to her left, shooting through the air above her head and sheathing itself through Overhaul's right eye. She didn't stop walking as her captor's form crumpled to the ground, dead before it even collided with the street, or as a scowling blonde emerged from the alleyway. The girl spared a glance toward the hero's body, her ever-present smile wiped from her lips as her boot lashed out and collided with Overhaul's head. His neck snapped with a sickening crunch, but she didn't care.
Nor did she truly care about how furious Shigaraki would be when he found out she killed the bastard. She didn't care that she took away the man he wished to torture, not in the slightest.
Izuku Midoriya was hers to bleed and hers alone.
Overhaul took away that possibility from her, he bled him too quick, too violently. She didn't get to watch the younger boy's face contort as he was drained, nor did she get to take any pleasure in it.
Izuku Midoriya was dead, and she was furious.
Her eyes turned to her right as the small child continued on her way, disappearing down some side street.
She quickly followed suit, slipping back into the shadows to collect Twice and return to the league.
That was how the heroes found the street. Two corpses lying only a few dozen meters apart.
It was a horrific sight, the pain made exponentially worse by the missing child. Their mission was a complete failure, the Yakuza fell, yes, but so did the hero-in-charge and a bright new hero.
And in the end, they didn't even manage to save one child.
How can they call themselves heroes when they couldn't even save the one small girl in front of them?
It was Uraraka who found him them first.
It was her grief that brought the rest.
Her screams of pain and sorrow echoed through the burning, war-torn streets. Heroes came running to figure out what had happened, running past the sorrowful eyes of Sir Nighteye as he watched, slumped against a rock, one hand clenched and holding pressure over his wounds. The young hero-in-training Froppy hovered nervously by his side, waiting for the ambulance to stop beside them so they could load the injured man inside. Her focus on him never stopped her from flinching with every one of Uravity's cries.
Nejire was second, for once not flitting about with her abundance of energy, instead sliding across the ground to Deku's side and immediately going to with chest compressions.
Aizawa was next, caring little for his own injuries as tore his scarf apart with the blade he kept sheathed across his flank, shredding it into bandages and wrapping the boy's wounds tightly. Two perfect field tourniquets wrapped both of his arms tightly, cutting off whatever blood was still in his body from leaving through the gaping wounds marring his arms.
The rest of the capture weapon went around the boy's stomach, where Overhaul drove a hole through his intestines. Nothing changed.
What little blood remained in his body slowly soaked through the capture weapon, more emerging with each of Nejire's compressions, only serving to make the corpse paler and paler. Without an ambulance or a means of delivering more blood into his body, nothing could be done.
They didn't stop though.
When the third-year hero student grew tired, the teacher would take over, keeping his heart beating.
And when Aizawa grew tired, she would take back over.
The few heroes who arrived said nothing, already knowing that neither of them would be of any use during the search for Eri.
So, they continued to work.
Ochako sat on her knees a distance away, the hand she held in the air slowly descending until her fingertips touched down against the rough surface of the street. She stared down at the pads of her, the slight pink that she'd always been so proud of only making her sick to the stomach.
It was entirely unlike the nausea she always felt as a side effect of overusing her quirk.
And it was so much worse.
It was her fault, wasn't it? She was too weak to help.
She knew this was going to happen, she was right there when Sir Nighteye said so. He looked into the future, he saw Deku's death, he saw it. He told her.
And she did nothing.
She tried and she collapsed.
And then what?
She gave up?
She trusted in Deku to change the future? She left him all alone to fight something like that?
Sure, it was possible to believe that a quirk like Mirai's couldn't always be right, especially with a quirk like Eri's in the mix. With the ability to rewind time, how accurate could foresight truly be? Apparently, that wasn't the case today.
And at a certain point, at a certain distance into the future, his visions become vaguer and vaguer, he watches in symbols rather than visions.
But that's for events far, far into the future.
This wasn't like that.
He saw it exactly out it played out.
Starting with Deku's pursuit, all the way until the boy's vision failed him. He watched as Overhaul sneered at him and Eri shook him.
And then.. nothing.
Midoriya dies.
Deku dies.
End of story.
Yet, she believed Deku could do it and left him to fight his battle alone.
What kind of hero was she?
What kind of friend?
But, she couldn't come to terms with that. She needed something to blame.
The first time she dragged her fingertips across the rough concrete it hurt. Tiny cuts burned across the pads as she dragged them harshly over the street.
The second time it brought only relief.
The streaks of blood across the ground didn't even phase her as she continued on. A third time. A fourth.
She wasn't even sure how many times she did it before both of her wrists were wrenched away, into the air. Her eyes stared up from the torn ends of her fingertips to the person who held them.
She didn't recognize them, though she doubted she would have realized who it was even if she did know them. She couldn't really focus on anything except the throbbing pain in her heart and the tears burning in her eyes. Her jaw shook with small tremors as she tried to hold back her sobs, but it didn't hold.
The medic didn't pay her any mind as he dragged her away toward the back of a free ambulance to be treated.
Her gaze naturally turned back to where another medic was trying to pull Aizawa away from Deku's corpse. Her homeroom teacher was throwing sloppy elbows and trying to scramble back to the boy's side, yelling about.. something.
Nejire was gone, she couldn't say where, but she could see Ryukyu flying off to the north.
Time seemed to both slow down and speed up as she sat in the back of the truck, her fingers each being individually wrapped before her entire hand soon followed.
At some point, Kirishma emerged with Fatgum and two of the Eight Bullets behind them. He looked roughed up and bandaged, but he was smiling.
That smile didn't last.
It was around the same time that a small child wandered into a forest that bordered the city. As fortunate it was that the city evacuated partially before the raid, it only led to problems when nobody was there to spot the girl.
She didn't care though.
The fewer people nearby, the fewer people she can hurt.
It was better this way.
It was probably best that Chisaki couldn't follow her now. She would only hurt him more in the end.
She was more of a monster than anyone, even him.
It was better this way.
Especially without any of those heroes around her. They might be nice, like Deku, she couldn't risk that – couldn't risk them. Who knows what her curse might do to them.
It was better this way.
She leaned against an old oak tree, one of her palms resting against its rough bark, only to collapse a moment later as the tree vanished into nothing, the clocks turning back further and further until nothing remained. She stumbled back to her feet, her exhausted limbs barely cooperating as she moved deeper into the forest, away from those she could hurt.
Her shoulder brushed past a bush and her horn flashed a harsh red before it shriveled up, escaping down the other end of the timeline. Growing older and older still until it wilted and faded, leaving behind nothing but the nutrients left behind from its decomposition.
She jumped away, scrambling along the ground away from the dust scattering with the winds.
A streak of blackened, dead life following in her wake.
Her breath caught as her influence moved outward, the air thrumming with her power.
Her knotted white hair swept through the air as she shook her head frantically, her ruby eyes closed to the world as she tried to stop her curse from sweeping everything good away with her.
Her hands trembled and shook as she held them up into the air, refusing to let them drop and touch anything.
Her feet were quick to follow when the grass around her toes disappeared.
".. stop.. "
Her eyes clenched tighter and tighter as she pleaded.
".. please.. stop."
Golden light flooded the valley around her as she lost more and control over her curse, a beacon arcing through the sky and reaching the heavens.
Red light soon followed, another pillar spiraling toward the stars.
Golden.
Stop.
Red.
Stop.
Golden.
Stop!
Red.
STOP!
Eri's arms and legs fell back down to the ground as she shrieked, a pillar of light twisting up, this time bearing the mark of both colors. The world around her was thrust into chaos, trees and bushed simultaneously growing and wilting, birds falling from the sky dead only to slam into the soil a reptile.
Her world was nothing but pain as she screamed and shook and sobbed and mourned.
And then, with one last cry, it all stopped.
Her eyes closed and her breathing slowed.
And then they opened.
The world around her was cloudy, grey, dark, and altogether uninviting. There were whispers of eight different voices emerging from every direction, a source unable to be located. They were arguing about something, each one getting louder and louder until it all ended with a roar.
"ENOUGH!"
It was quiet.
She floated there for a moment, all too happy to be free of the things she could hurt. She hoped she never had to go back.
She wouldn't get her wish.
Two emerald lights appeared in front of them, shining with such kindness and love and softness and–
".. D- D- Deku?"
The orbs moved closer and she was quick to try to move away, but she was stuck, her body floating in the air without any control of herself.
She didn't know if it was him, but nobody else had ever looked at her quite like that and they looked like his and that didn't make sense because he was dead, she killed him and he was never coming back and it was her fault because he thought her curse wasn't her curse and she didn't try to convince him well enough and–
"Hello, Eri."
The sound resonated from all around her, just like the voices from before, not being tied down to one specific point.
But it was his voice.
It was Deku.
She wanted nothing more than to scramble back into his arms just like she had done when they first met, but she wouldn't and she couldn't. She was still unable to move in this void and she refused to hurt him again.
"Eri, I need you to know, none of this is your fault. None of this will ever be your fault."
She shook her head.
He didn't understand, he couldn't, he–
"Your quirk– "
Curse.
" –is nothing but good. You were hurt by Overhaul, he lied to you and he hurt you and he was wrong. Your quirk– "
Curse.
" –can do so much good. Okay?"
Another shake of the head.
"Eri, do you trust me?"
Obviously, she trusted him. Him and only him.
Him and not anyone else.
He was the first who gave her kindness. He was the last to give her kindness.
That didn't mean she could trust herself.
She couldn't see it, but it felt like he was smiling. A pressure settled around her as the clouds billowed and moved about, wrapping around her like a shawl. She felt warm despite it all, despite the cold feeling and pallor that settled on her skin, her chest felt warm as the pressure tightened.
It felt like how it all began.
His arms.
"I'm glad you trust me, I'm so, so glad. Do you think you can do something for me?"
She nodded slowly, hesitantly.
"Heroes will come and– Eri you don't need to be scared, okay? My teacher, he has black hair, he should be there, if he's not, ask for him. His name is Aizawa or Eraserhead. Tell them Izuku wants him there, he can erase quirks, he can protect you from yourself until you learn control, do you understand that? Can you do that for me?"
She nodded and the pressure tightened more, an unfamiliar weight settling over her head, various clouds carding through her silvery hair.
"Good, I'm proud of you, you're very strong, Eri. You're doing great. Do you think you can do something else for me?"
She could.
"Ask for another man, Yagi-san, can you do that?"
A nod.
The grip around her loosened and the emerald lights reemerged in front of her, shining once more even as they looked at her.
She didn't get it.
It made her sick to her stomach.
Deku should hate her. She killed him.
Didn't she?
How was he even talking to her? Was he still alive? Did he not die as she thought? Did he–
"I'm sorry, Eri.. I won't be there when you wake up, I'm so sorry, but you'll have to keep being strong when you do, okay? I wouldn't change my decision whatsoever so long as you are safe, that's what's most important to me."
She didn't think she could, it was hard enough now with him still here. Why couldn't he just come with her? Why couldn't he stay by her side?
"When Yagi-san gets there tell him.. tell him I'm sorry, I didn't want it to happen this way.. and tell him.. tell him you're the tenth. Can you do that for me?"
Two ruby eyes regarded the emerald lights warily before returning a shaky nod. Eri swore she could see the lights shrink ever so slightly like Deku's eyes would if he was smiling down at her proudly.
A pair of purple lights appeared over his shoulder and Eri tensed.
A few whispered words drifted through the air before the emerald lights turned sad.
"I'm sorry, Eri, but it seems our time is almost up."
She shook her head, frantically trying to move her body, to claw at the clouds that shirked her desires and escaped away from her. The pressure lifted and he wanted to scream, to bring it back.
But it didn't.
It wouldn't.
"I'm sorry, Eri, but this isn't goodbye. I'll always be with you, okay? I need you to be strong, okay?"
No!
She couldn't! She couldn't do that without him with her! She needed him!
Didn't he get that?
Screw pushing him away, screw not letting anybody near her. She needed him.
She couldn't do this without him.
"Oh, Eri."
The words sounded mournful, laced with nothing but sadness and misery.
"I know, I'm sorry. I'll be back soon, I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve this. Can you– can you promise me something else? Can you do one last thing for me? I want to be a little selfish, is that okay?"
She looked at him longingly, ruby eyes meeting the visage of emerald. Of course, she would nod, how could she not? He gave her everything, she would do the same.
"Can you promise me that you won't think bad of yourself? You are good, Eri, you said you trusted me, and I know it's hard for you to believe, but you are good."
Before she even had the chance to respond, to refute it, to ask for a different request for her to fulfill, she was pulled out of the comforting abyss and back into the blackened former forest she left.
At the edge of the perfect circle around her, a blonde woman watched her with sad eyes, her face partially covered with a metal claw.
Eri curled in on herself before speaking in a small voice, pleading with the woman for help.
"Can.. can you bring Ai- Aizawa and Y- Yagi-san?"
The words were soft and so very quiet that it almost didn't reach the pro heroine's ears, but she was quick to do as asked, hoping beyond hope that the two could pull themselves together enough to come.
Somewhere, in the heart of One for All, the Ninth collapsed in on himself, his arms curling up around his face as he finally let out a heart-aching sob. His entire body trembled as he fell toward the floor, only to be caught by the arms of the Seventh.
"Rest, Nine. Rest and recover, you haven't failed us, you've done so well. Ten will take it from here and we'll help her, so rest."
He cried until his body was too exhausted to continue, the last thing he witnessed being the two approaching figures and their red, puffy eyes.
Things would be okay.
Hopefully.
He just had to trust in his friends and family to help her. That was all that mattered right now. Eri would need more support than some specters in her mind.
Author Notes:
Planned for it to be a one-shot, but would consider a two-shot if people wanted a time skip with how Eri is doing in the future. Thoughts?