"It's really not that complicated. All you have to do is cut the blue and yellow wires simultaneously." He told the young child. Looking into her terrified red eyes, he wished that there was another way. But there wasn't.
"What does 'simultaneously' mean?" she asked, the picture of innocence.
Izuku's throat tightened for a moment. He swallowed thickly and forced himself to keep speaking. "It means do it at the same time. That's why I'm giving you two pairs of scissors. Do you remember what color wires to cut?" Satsuka bit her lip and furrowed her brow as she struggled to remember.
"Blue and… green?." Before he could correct her she shook her head and squinted her eyes. "No… yellow?" In response, he gave a shaky nod, not trusting himself to speak right away. She smiled brightly and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Good job. I guess your dad was right. You really are the smartest 5-year-old in the city." As soon as the words were spoken, he regretted them. He shouldn't have let himself think about Satsuka's father.
"You need to go now." He spoke past the lump in his throat.
All the pride and excitement drained from the girl. She slumped into herself before looking up at him. "I'm scared, Uncle Zuku." No matter how this ended Izuku knew that he would never forgive himself. And that he would never be able to look Satsuka or her father in the eye again.
"I know, Satsuka. But if you don't go now, you won't make it in time. I would go, but you know I can't fit through that window. You're the only chance those people have. They're counting on you. Can you be strong for them?" Satsuka slowly nodded before her face set with determination.
Izuku lifted her up, so that she could climb through the window. His heart skipped a beat when she struggled to get her shoulders through. He wasn't sure if the emotion he felt was despair, or relief. Before he could figure it out, Satsuka had figured out the right way to twist her body to get through the window.
"Oof." She moaned as she fell to the floor.
"Are you ok?" Izuku fought to keep the panic out of his voice. He didn't want to worry her.
"Uh huh. You said go left first?" As she asked, she stood up and started walking towards the door. He smiled at her eagerness to help.
"You need the scissors, remember?" He held them out to her, but she was too short to reach his hand. "Back up a bit. I'll drop them down to you." She nodded and ran to the other side of the room.
He dropped the scissors. As she ran to get them, he thought about how when this was over, he was going to make the villain behind this pay. He hadn't known that it was possible to feel this much hate towards one person, just as he hadn't known that he could feel this much self loathing.
Glancing down at his watch, he realized that Satsuka had less than a minute and a half to find and defuse a bomb that would kill close to 400 people. He looked through the window and met her eyes.
She looked terrified. He wanted to comfort her, but he knew that they were out of time. "Hurry!" Something in his voice must have gotten through to her, because she immediately ran to the door and out of sight. Now all he could do was wait and hope.
Katsuki, I hope you can forgive me.