Things had gone south fast. Yui had expected a lot of things, but not that the very moment they walked in the main hall of the building, rushing for the hidden elevator, they would all slip on the floor, barely managing to catch the walls. Nor had she expected to see Curator calmly walk in the corridor.
She had barely the time to shout his name before the man shifted. Where a moment ago was standing a dark-haired individual with half of his face covered by a diver's helmet, now stood a sixteen meters tall humanoid sperm-whale. The ceiling exploded, and rubble started to fall all around as the man-whale moved.
"Run!" Todoroki shouted, already creating a wall of ice to stop the rubble as a gigantic fist plummeted down from the sky, "I'll handle him."
"What about Overhaul then?!" Mineta asked, "We need you to take care of him."
Yui gritted her teeth, "I can deal with Overhaul for a bit if he gets in the way. Let's just trust Todoroki!"
Ojiro and Sero looked at each other, before her husband nodded and turned to her. "I trust you Yui." He replied. She smiled. That was why she loved him. Because when she had said she would fight a threat like that, he had believed in her.
They followed Mineta's lead down to the hidden elevator, and then Ojiro opened a hole in the floor with a hit of his tail. Then, using Sero's tape, they slowly climbed to the first elevator door they could find, while Mineta placed his sticky balls under the elevator, on the walls, to make sure that if it started to fall it would get blocked before it had time to crush them. With Yui's Size, the door was reduced to the size of a coin, letting them in.
They quickly grabbed the closest scientist, one of the man that worked in those accursed lab, and the man with a cockatoo face gasped as Sero held him up. "Are Himiko Toga and Kai Chisaki here?!" He asked threateningly in. The moment the man nodded, they rushed away.
They moved past more scientists, knowing full well they didn't have time to stop and catch them, though Mineta did take some time to bomb the nearby labs with his sticky bombs. They didn't know what exactly All for Deku was working on down there, but it certainly wasn't good. They all continued following his lead. Mineta had been the one to offer to be on the front, the most dangerous position. However, they found little resistance on the way to the two rooms Hagakure had marked, save for a few thugs that Sero and Ojiro could take down quickly. Once they found the first, however, it was when they started to run into trouble. Toga emerged from a corner, her blades swinging at Mineta. If he hadn't been so short, it might have been a deadly wound, but Mineta's height had saved him, the blade only cutting off one of his sticky balls from his head. She frowned, and Sero didn't miss the chance to tie her up, then Ojiro punched her… only for her to dissolve into mud. "It's a clone!" He shouted, and the others nodded, rushing to the fridge and opening it. Momo's blood was there, to their horror, and they looked at each other.
"So… It's time uh?" Ojiro asked. Yui smiled. Of course, he would be the most thorn by the decision. Not because he agreed with it, but because it meant betraying Todoroki's trust.
"It is." She replied, and Mineta quickly put together a sticky bomb, attaching some explosive to one of his hair balls, before putting it inside the fridge and closing it. They took a few steps back and watched as it blew up from inside.
Opening it carefully, Sero smiled. "All gone!"
"Alright." Yui answered, sighing. 'This is the best we can do Momo.' She thought, 'I hope you can rest easy now.'
They rushed back out, just in time for another Toga to appear and rush them with another knife. She dodged past Sero and cut at Ojiro, but he managed to block with his tail, the heavy muscles reducing the attack's effectiveness before Yui launched a coin toward the girl. It expanded to the size of a barrel, and Toga exploded in a rain of mud as the coin suddenly grew to the size of a garbage can and hit her in the face, flattening it.
"Think Twice is around?" She asked Ojiro, and her husband shook her head.
"They were too prepared for this. I think this was a trap."
"But then why let us blow up the blood?"
Ojiro paused, suddenly stopping in his tracks. "Shit… What if that wasn't Momo's blood."
"But Hagakure saw…"
"Yes, Hagakure saw Toga turn into her yesterday, but would that confirm it was all of Momo's blood? They might have enough somewhere else."
Yui paused, and the others did the same. "What do we do?" She asked, suddenly aware of what that might mean. If this attack didn't destroy all the blood, Toga could just turn again into Momo and continue Overhaul's experiments.
"We break in two groups." Mineta said, breaking the silence, "We need to move fast. Ojiro, you and Yui hunt Toga and take her out. We don't know where she is, but we know she is here. Go down two floors, and if you don't find her come back and rush to the exit. Me and Sero will go looking for the kids and lead them out. Rendezvous in twenty minutes outside, then we leave. Is that ok?"
Ojiro bit his lip, then nodded.
"Alright. Good luck guys."
"You too." Then they went different ways.
-x-
Ojiro knocked out a thug with a gun, breaking his arm before hitting him with a tail uppercut under his chin. The man slumped down and he rushed forward, accompanied by Yui as she used a large mace that had once been a stick to hit a man with a weak water Quirk on the head. She turned around and reduced its size back to normal to throw it forward against another man, before sizing it back up and letting him get it with what amounted to a tree trunk, to then shrink it again so it wouldn't block their way. Ojiro knocked out a second man himself and grinned to her. She smiled back.
This was their element. Before the Imprisoners, they had always been together, two against the world, and going back to that felt… refreshing. She figured she could forgive Mineta at least some of his Hero School antics for having formed those two groups. The past was the past anyway.
Then a fist came down towards her, and she had to bend back and slide on the floor to dodge. Ojiro joined in to fight the loud man that had thrown the fist. "Alright, now we are talking!" Rappa shouted, blocking the tail hit with one of his fist and turning to face them. "I just want you." He said, pointing at Ojiro, "She can go if she wants."
"What?"
"Don't act all surprised, I don't care about people with her kind of power. I want a fight between men, a true test of strength." And with that he moved forward. Yui however, instead of moving past, took out a knife and used her power.
It had taken much training to learn to only enlarge a specific part of an object, but here it was going to pay off. She watched the handle grow into the pole of a lance, and attacked with it, while Ojiro moved in as well. Their combo, Rule and Tail, had once been famous in the Hero fan community. Yui covered Ojiro with support, using her ability to keep down the villains while Ojiro pummeled them.
Of course, back then she used batons, instead of blades. Just another bitter proof of what All for Deku was forcing them to go through. However, she quickly hit with the tip, piercing the skin and opening a cut on his side. A moment later, Ojiro rushed in, turning to hit with his tail in a spin. Ignoring her blow, Rappa crossed his arms and stopped the blunt of the attack, though he still sank somewhat in the cracking pavement. "Nice! Nice! Nice!" He shouted, and started to hit with a flurry of blows. Ojiro blocked with his tail, and meanwhile Yui stepped back and threw a rain of nails. The moment they passed Ojiro, in midair, the nails and screws turned large enough to force Rappa to pause and block them, and a lucky nail even pierce is thigh. Ojiro didn't miss his opportunity and moved from offense to attack, rotating vertically and landing a hit with his tail on Rappa's shoulder. The man laughed though, Grabbing the tail and projecting Ojiro to the ground.
Yui winced and bit her lip. They didn't have the time to defeat Rappa, nor could they hope to then face Toga and the still missing Overhaul. However…
She smiled and took out another object. "Ojiro, the ground!"
Ojiro nodded and took a step forward, before hitting the ground with his tail, cracking it further to propel himself backwards. At the same time, she took out a small pebble and threw it above Rappa. Then, she released.
Her power, Rule, meant that objects grew in size. This included, somehow, growing in mass, to reach the same density they had before. So, when the pebble became a boulder larger than Rappa himself, the man had no choice but caught it.
"Ah! You think that's enough to defeat me?"
"Not you, the ground." She said with a wry smile as the broken and damaged floor gave finally way and the Villain disappeared in the hole that would take him to the floor below.
"Go!" Ojiro shouted, and Yui nodded, rushing forward.
They inspected the rest of the floor, avoiding the attack of a clone Rappa that was however defeated when Ojiro hit him with his fist, and at least three Toga clones. "They are really dragging this chase." He commented, as another Toga disappeared.
"I know…" She muttered, looking through the glass of the various rooms, before stopping. "Ojiro!" She shouted. He turned around, surprised by the call, and she pointed to a room. A girl no more than six or seven years old was hiding in a corner, crying, her short hair hanging to the side of her head.
"Let's go." Ojiro decided. She nodded, and they both moved carefully inside the room. The child was alone, her blonde hair kept loose to the side of her head, her face turned against the wall. She was trembling and sniffing.
"I think she is one of Overhaul's prisoners." She said, moving closer. "Uhm, hello kid. I'm sorry we scared you. Can you walk?"
"Y-Yes." The kid sniffed once more, and she didn't move. Yui nodded. Probably just a terrified subject.
"Ojiro, tell the others we found a child. We can't find Toga yet and we need to know how they are doing."
Ojiro nodded and turned around, keeping an eye on the corridor before moving his hand to the earpiece. "Don't worry, we are going to save you."
"Are you… Are you Heroes?" The girl asked.
"Yep. We will save all of Japan."
"You will… You will fight that All for Deku guy?" She asked. Yui was surprised she would call him that. Most citizens used to call All for Deku Midoriya. Then again, she was trapped in here. She probably only knew him as All for Deku because that was what they called him among the Hero Suppressors.
"Yes, we will."
"I see. That's… a pity."
Yui didn't register the knife that flew in the child's end and in her stomach. She barely even felt the wound itself, too shocked to realize she had been stabbed.
It was when blood started to make it up through her mouth that she fully understood what had just happened. "Ojiro!" She called, but Toga – and that was Toga, and how had they been so careless, and why did she hide here of all places, and why was she a child, and a thousand questions flooded her mind – twisted the knife before pulling it out, despite Yui trying to grasp it. She managed to stand up and Toga giggled, before she started to age up.
Ojiro rushed in, punching Toga with all his might, and to his credit he hit, her nose cracking, but as he did he was so exposed she easily cut through his arm, making him wince as red blood started to spill from his biceps. She chuckled madly and stood back up, before starting to grow. Yui, even in the haze of the blood loss, realized she must have gotten some new Quirk to change her age, and that was what had tricked her. They always thought Toga's limit was her body type not allowing her to change into someone too small, but of course All for Deku would give her a Quirk to bypass that weakness.
She coughed again and Ojiro grabbed her as she lost balance. "Yui…"
"I'm ok… I've been worse." She amended quickly. Not really true. She had been stabbed, yes, but Toga had hit straight into her gut, and not really tried to be gentle about it. She watched Ojiro grab some bandages from her pocket and she quickly made them grow to their normal size, so he could use them to tie the wound. She grunted and cried, but the blade hadn't killed her. Not yet. "Ojiro, you need to go after Toga."
"I-I know but… You… We…"
"Ojiro." She hugged him with a smile on her face, "I'm going to be fine. I will hide and you can go hunt her. Once it's done, just come back for me."
Ojiro bit his lip, looking around in despair, and she knew why. There was no assurance he could come back. There was no assurance no one would find her. "There has to be a way…"
"There isn't Ojiro. Do it, please. I can take care of myself."
Ojiro's eye were wet with tears. But slowly, he made a shuddering breath. "I love you Yui."
"I love you too." She replied, and they exchanged a kiss. It ended far too swiftly, and then he was gone, running after the assassin. Yui sighed and hid herself behind the large table in the room. With some luck, no one would check the room until Ojiro could come back.
She touched her wound, and watcher her palm, red with blood. She cried.
-x-
Ojiro ran like a madman. He followed the trail Toga had left, the trail of Yui's blood on her knife and body. His wife's blood. He turned a corner and had the split of a second to see the incoming knife. He blocked it with both palms, and the blade vibrated for a second, before he let it go clanging on the ground. "Ow, did the missy die already?" Toga asked with a large grin, "I bet she is in a pool of blood right now. Did she go still in your arm? Did you watch her eyes glow glassy and cold?"
Ojiro roared and attacked with his tail. Toga moved around and a blade sprouted from her arm, cutting a new wound in Ojiro's muscular tail.
"Kamakiri's…"
"That's right. This is all I ever wanted. And that's not all. Do you want to…" She took a punch to the face and shrieked.
"Stop talking and…" He froze and stared at the woman he was facing.
Momo.
"Oh, what is it, you don't want to beat up your fr…" She screeched as Ojiro punched her in the face, followed by a kick in the gut and another punch in the face. "Why…"
"You aren't her. You are just a murderer dressed like an old friend I will never see again because of you." Ojiro punched methodically. He punched and punched, ignoring Toga's panicked answers. She started to make knife sprout from her skin, and he cut himself on them. Ojiro's attack was as relentless as it was ruthless. He lacked his usual finesse, he was merely a swirl of blows and blood.
He panted when the bloodied figure fell to the ground, falling himself and only holding up by grabbing onto a wall. He coughed, and looked down at the bloodied figure of Toga. Except of course it wasn't Toga on the floor, but Momo, bloodied and battered. He felt bile build up and looked away.
It was only the tiniest of sounds that told him to jump back, the sound of a spark before a spike of cement almost impaled him. He turned to see Overhaul rush down the corridor. And grabbing Toga, he run away.
Of course there was a reason to grab her. He needed to make sure she died away from Overhaul and his powers, or it would all be for nothing. He turned a corner, than another, tracing back to Yui's room while Overhaul warped the room around him to impale the man with one of his spikes.
He rushed into the room to see Yui had passed out, with her eyes closed. His heart falling to his stomach, he listened to her heart, and felt the faintest of heartbeats. With a sense of relief, he picked her up too, and broke a window to run away, using Toga's unconscious body to protect Yui's. But Overhaul was getting closer and closer, now that he was carrying two people.
He had to choose, and the choice was obvious. After unbuckling the belt Toga wore to hold her blood reserves, he threw her through another glass door. Hopefully she was dead. He didn't care. He needed to save Yui now, whose skin was becoming colder even if her heartbeat was still there.
He rushed up the stairs. One floor, two floors. As he went up the stairs, Yui's eyes opened again. "Ojiro…" She muttered, and the relief he felt hearing her voice once more was palpable.
"I'm here. I'm here. I'm here." He repeated.
"Did you…"
"I hope so. Overhaul is after us. She should be gone."
-x-
Yui hugged him, for a moment, then she looked behind her husband and saw Chisaki making his way up the stairs. And behind him, bloodied but alive again, Toga.
Still alive. Still coming for them. They couldn't outrun both. Toga was rapidly gaining on the tired Ojiro, and so was Overhaul. She touched her wound, and saw it had only worsened. What Toga had done was fatal. She was alive by a miracle.
"Almost there. Almost there." Ojiro was repeating, but Yui didn't look up. Instead, she looked even higher. The building had been cracking for a while now, no doubt the result of Todoroki's fight with Curator. If it wasn't for the two poles holding up the roof, it would have certainly already come down on them all.
She smiled, and her hand reached her pocket. Ojiro smiled as they reached the door above, only for his excitement to turn into a whimper when Rappa entered from the same door. Surrounded. Soon to be killed. Yui knew what she had to do.
"Don't worry Yui. I will… I will…"
"Ojiro." She kissed him on the cheek, and she knew it would be the last time. She placed her hand carefully and the screw she had in her hand grew in size. It separated her from Ojiro and sent them two different ways. Ojiro collided with Rappa and was sent out through the door, while she was sent over the abyss. As she passed by, she touched both the metallic poles holding up the roof. Overhaul and Toga stared at her, and then the roof collapsed on all three of them, debris showering the stairs and hopefully crushing them all.
Yui closed her eyes. The last thing she saw was Ojiro extending his arm towards her, the first large chunk of the building above impacting the stairs in front of it.
'I love you. Live.' She mouthed, staring at him in the eyes, as more concrete started to fall.
Then, there was nothing.
-x-
Ojiro screamed and clawed at the debris that had completely filled the stairs him and Yui had been running through a moment before. He was so utterly desperate that he didn't even realize Rappa was behind him. He only realized when the man punched him.
He grunted as the punch threw him further down the corridor. "Yui…" He mumbled, "Yui…"
"Tch, and here I thought you'd be a good fight." Rappa replied, "Tailman, you disappoint me. She killed herself for you, and you are just going to lay there and let me kill you?"
"Why do you care?"
"I like fighting. I love fighting. I figured you'd be a good fight after having just lost your wife." He shook his head, "But if that's all you amount to, just run." He pointed down the corridor. "You know where the exit is."
"How do you know we know?"
"They figured what you were planning weeks ago. You Heroes had been investigating Overhaul and Toga, and Todoroki is the strongest Hero in the area where Toga and Overhaul were working on their big project. Plus, the Imprisoners showed up when the two had just begun working on it. Not hard to figure out." He shook his head, "Chisaki just used Kurono as bait and you went for it."
"He used Kurono as bait?! He was his right-hand man!"
"And now he is a dead man. Do you really think he cares about any of us? We are expendables, and that doesn't go just for the Eight Bullets."
"Then why do you follow him?!"
"Because one day I will beat and kill him. That's all there is to it. My strength, my fist, my power, one day they will be enough to destroy the bastard."
Ojiro sighed, feeling the tears stream on his face. "He is dead! My wife finally killed him!"
"Is he? Did you hit him once during your encounter?"
Ojiro froze, his eyes growing wide. "No…"
"Overhaul left this place hours before you hit on All for Deku's order. Why do you think he recalled Curator from the south? He needed someone strong but more expandable than him."
"At least Toga…"
"She might be dead, yes. She wanted to be where the action was, to enjoy the hunt. Maybe your wife finished her for good." He shrugged, "I don't really care."
Ojiro wimpered, his hands clawing his face. He had killed her. If he had fought Chisaki he would have found out the yakuza was a clone and destroyed it. He could have carried her and Toga away. Maybe she could be saved.
He had killed his wife by being a coward, by running from a clone. Chisaki and Toga might have been the boogeymen that forced them to make the choice they did, but ultimately the death of the woman he loved the most was his fault.
His fault.
His fault.
His fault.
He cried, clawing his face and leaving deep red marks. He didn't care as his entire body trembled. Rappa sighed.
"What a pity Tailman. There isn't even a point in fighting you, is there? You already died today, didn't you?" The bulky man towered over him. Even in his dazed state, Ojiro could tell that the man could kill him right now. He was defenseless.
But Rappa didn't. He turned around and left. He wasn't worth fighting. He wasn't worth killing.
And when Ojiro saw the opportunity, he could do nothing but run.
He run, run and run until he reached the exit. No one to see there. The others probably left a long time ago. They must have been fine, right? He rushed outside, and found the dead body of Bearhead. He had been killed by an explosion that had torn off half his face. That had to be Mineta's bombs.
There was blood in the alley, and Ojiro knew it wasn't all from the killing blow. He stumbled out, and a voice suddenly a pair of hands grabbed him. A moment later, exhausted, he fell unconscious. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed was a burning whale.
-x-
Ojiro woke up slowly, carefully. For a moment he dared to hope it had all been a dream. He looked to his left, where she would have been sleeping, but there was no one there. He was on a sofa, not on a bed, and he was alone.
He cried for what seemed like days, though they were probably only hours. He cried until his eyes were dry.
Finally, when there was no way he could keep crying, he looked up and stared at the room. It was one of their hideouts, and no one was there except for him. On the table was a folded piece of paper and a prepaid phone. He took out the letter slowly, and put aside the phone for the moment. He recognized the neat, orderly calligraphy of Shoto.
'Dear Ojiro,' The letter begun, 'I'm sorry.'
'I made a mistake. I convinced you and Yui to join me – us – and took you both on a mission we had no hope to accomplish. I talked with Mineta today, while you and Hagakure were unconscious, and he explained to me what the Imprisoners actually wanted to achieve.' Ojiro paused. He knew then. He knew that from the start the Imprisoners had never wanted to capture Toga. He trembled a bit, and then continued. 'You were right. My plan, and my actions to accomplish it, have been wrong. And I'm sorry that it took this tragedy to end it.'
'If I had not dragged you into it, you could have lived your own life. Maybe not as safe as it could be, but you could be happy. You could be together. I robbed you of that forever. And for that too, I'm sorry."
Wrong. Ojiro gripped the letter tightly. Wrong. It wasn't Todoroki's plan that had killed Yui. It had been his cowardice.
'Me and Mineta have agreed that for the time being we should go our separate ways. Sero died, killed by All for Deku. Apparently, the bastard had planned to disguise a clone of his among the children with one of his Quirks and kill me. When Sero noticed, however, he called off the plan and just decided to wipe out the Heroes that were at hand. Mineta managed to make him explode but… but Sero has died. For this, too, I'm guilty. For this, too, I'm sorry."
Wrong. Sero had died because he wanted to help those children. He stared at the words. Sero had died. It was sinking in slowly, but he couldn't help but reread the sentence again. Sero had died. Killed by a clone of All for Deku, killed because he was trying to do the right thing.
'I won't tell you were I'm going, but on the phone is Hagakure's number. I don't think we will ever get to talk to each other again. I feel too ashamed of myself to face you, my friend.' Ojiro noticed those lines had the unmistakable signs of water on the page. Todoroki had cried writing that. 'If you ever need help, however, please don't hesitate to call.'
'Your friend, Shoto Todoroki.'
'P.S: Mineta wants me to tell you he wishes you good luck and that if you ever need help you can ask him too. He also leaves you his condolences for Yui.'
'P.P.S: Hagakure woke up and is crying herself back to sleep. In her incoherent crying, she asked me to tell you she is sorry for involving you. We both know that's my fault, but she won't stay still unless I tell you this.'
Ojiro shuddered once more, than set down the letter. The date at the bottom said it was written the day after their disastrous mission. Checking the prepaid phone, that was a day earlier. By now, Todoroki and Hagakure could have been anywhere.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts, and he stood up, before moving to the door as someone knocked again and looking outside from the spyhole.
And there stood Yui, smiling calmly.
Ojiro's eyes went wide and he almost tore the door open. Had she made it out? Had she managed to survive the fall? It was possible.
She hugged him, and he hugged her back. "Ojiro…" She murmured.
And then the knife stabbed him.
"Die now."
Ojiro didn't let go Toga as his eyes filled with tears. He knew. He had known from the start. But the idea his wife could still be alive, the simple hope she had given him was something he wasn't willing to let go. "Where did you find her blood?" He asked.
"On the knife I dropped in that corridor." She answered. He didn't know why she did, but he could only assume it was gloating.
"How did you survive Yui's sacrifice?"
"I cut the Overhaul clone and used his blood to transform. Opened a hole in the wall." She smirked, and it was Yui's voice that said those words, "You did all that for nothing."
Ojiro nodded, his breath coming out in a low, trembling noise. And he knew what he had to do.
He grabbed Yui's head, his wife's, and hold it tight. Toga clearly thought he was just hugging her.
And then he slammed her on the floor. The woman shouted as he hit her again and again, keeping his eyes closed. He wasn't going to watch that, but he could hear her scream with Yui's voice. He screamed to cover the sound.
He hit.
He shouted.
He hit.
He shouted.
And then a hand touched him on the shoulder.
"Enough."
Ojiro fell to the side, gasping, as his back started to itch, an incredible sensation that seemed to extend through his entire body.
All for Deku stood there, green eyes locked on him. "You…"
"Me. My wife wanted to take you alone doing what she did, but I got worried." All for Deku leaned down, touching Toga – who at some point had broken her transformation – in the face softly, "I was right to be."
Ojiro rolled forward, hitting with a kick, but a dome of light formed around Izuku, the deceased Tengai's Barrier. His eyes filled with tears. He was going to take her away. He was going to rob him of that last chance. And so, before he could stop himself, he begged. "Please. At least one victory. At least one way to not make their death useless…"
"No." Izuku Midoriya stood back up, "Never. You Heroes are the ones that are keeping this war on the street going. And you aren't getting any victory if I can stop you."
"We are?! You are leading a dictatorial country! You kill anyone that disagrees! Your Hero Suppressors are nothing but killers!"
"And who forced me to hire those killers?" He retorted, "Oh, woe the Heroes for losing their goddamn job, but who cares if Inasa will be scarred for life, who cares if Bearhead dies."
"They were murderers!"
"So are you. So is Todoroki, so is Mineta, so was your wife." His voice grew slower and harsher, "You are just self-centered. I never wanted an all-out war. All of you had to just stay silent and live your life. No Hero Suppressors, no war on the street between you and us. But no, you had to come and impose your idea of what a world looks like on everyone like you always do."
"I just want to help people! I just wanted to be a Hero!"
All for Deku paused for a moment, before hitting him with an Air Cannon shot, sending him flying against the wall. Ojiro coughed, and All for Deku picked up Toga before turning away. "Well, you could have just joined the Police or become a doctor. I hear those jobs are as good as Heroism." He replied coldly, "Goodbye, Mashirao Ojiro. The Hero Tailman is dead. I don't care about you anymore."
Ojiro jumped back up and rotated around to hit All for Deku with his Tail. But there was no Tail to hit him, and he missed completely. All for Deku scoffed, and then a portal opened and he was gone.
Ojiro's wail of anger and grief was long and loud.
-x-
Three months later
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mineta asked him from the phone, "You are Quirkless now Ojiro. You will be defenseless."
"I still have my martial arts." The man replied, scratching his beard, "It will be enough."
"Against Overhaul, Toga, All for Deku and whoever else they send against you?"
"I'm not just giving up. She died for this. Sero died for this."
Silence from the other side for a long moment, before Mineta finally answered, "Good luck, Ojiro, I won't stop you. Have you tried calling Todoroki?"
"No. He… He feels guilty for what happened. I don't want to burden him even more. I will only call him if I think he has to be there."
"You are both shouldering a lot. You guys are far stronger than I ever was."
Ojiro sighed, "You are too, Mineta. You are still being a Hero, like we are."
"I didn't lose my wife. I don't feel like I'm guilty for those deaths that day. You both have a far higher burden than I ever had." The voice cracked a bit, "I wish all of this just never had to happen…"
For a moment, the Hero once known as Tailman stood silent, before smiling. "It's not a matter of what burden we carry. We all would want our life to be different. But it's not for us to decide. All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that was given us."
"That's… deep."
"Tolkien. Good read, you should try it."
There was a slow chuckle from the other end of the line. "Thank you Ojiro. If you ever need anything, you know I'm here. And remember that Todoroki is there too."
Ojiro smiled. "I know."
He closed the call, hiding his phone back in the hidden pocket in his coat's interior, and walked off. He was just twenty-seven, and had already gone through so much. He shuddered to think what his next year would bring, but he knew that whatever it was, he would face it with a smile and live.
That was what Yui would have wanted.
And that was the kind of man he was going to be.
(xx)
Oh man I knew this was going to be bleak but I didn't know how that would make me feel until I had to actually put on paper Yui's death.
I actually planned to show Sero's death too but ultimately decided against it, since this was meant to be heavily focused on Ojiro and Yui. Especially explaining why Ojiro hates particularly Overhaul and Toga.
For reference, Ojiro and Todoroki 28 when Into the Multiverse starts, so this happens about a year before Izuku takes his fateful leap through the infinite possibilities out there.
Honestly, don't expect me to go in such bleak territory again for a while. On Ao3 and after this I will post The Spider, which is a look into Spider-Man!Izuku (that here was posted a while back) and after that we are going to have shorter stories, mostly one-shots. The next Into the Multiverse chapter is already almost done and will be out soon as well (probably on the 4th or 5th).