Chapter 50:

Compared to all of the violence they had endured, the fight lasted no time at all. Kaminari's attack hadn't been enough to kill the villain, but it had knocked Shigaraki to the ground hard enough that Izuku didn't think that he would be recovering from his injuries anytime soon. The look of pure fury directed at them-them and not All Might- had etched itself permanently in the back of Izuku's mind, and he got the horrible feeling that no matter how everything fell out, he and Kaminari had made themselves a personal enemy that day. Shigaraki seemed like the type of person to hold a grudge, and Izuku felt certain that his name had just made the list. If All Might was also on the list though, at least he would be there with good company. That would be a problem for another day though.

Shigaraki stumbled as he stood back up, his clothes smoking slightly. The smell of burned flesh had intensified, and Izuku forced himself to swallow his revulsion. Legs almost giving out underneath him, Shigaraki turned halfway to see the fight that was still ongoing between All Might and the creature that had been referred to as a Nomu. Izuku had never heard the term before, but he was glad that All Might hadn't found a successor yet. Every hit the creature tried to land on All Might was matched with one of his own. Then all of a sudden it was as though a switch had been flipped. All Might had turned his full attention to the creature, and then just like that it was over. The force of All Might's hit sent the Nomu flying through the air and out of the building, the sound of breaking glass startling in the aftermath.

This was the power of One for All. Izuku had known what All Might could do, of course he did. There wasn't anyone in the country who didn't know about All Might's strength, and Izuku had been an avid fanboy of All Might's for years before his encounter with Aizawa. He knew what All Might had accomplished in the past. Knowing about his power and seeing it through videos was not the same as seeing it in person though. It was definitely not the same knowing what Izuku did about his quirk. There was a reason that All Might was number one, and the moment that the Nomu was clear of the building All Might looked at Shigaraki. Izuku hoped that he was never on the receiving end of a look like that. Shigaraki seemed to realize that his plan had fallen apart in front of him because he raised a hand to his ear and a circle of purple smog appeared behind him. Shigaraki didn't say anything before stepping into the portal, his eyes meeting Izuku's before it closed. He was gone, leaving the villains he had brought with him behind.

They had done it. Izuku knew they would be fine if they could just last until All Might came, and they had done it. Relief took what strength Izuku had left, and his legs collapsed out from under him. He didn't even feel it when he hit the ground.

Nedzu had been principal of Yuuei long enough to had dealt with the media on a few not so great occasions. None of those encounters compared to the fall out of the USJ disaster. Actually, calling it a disaster would have been a bit of an understatement. It was a catastrophe the sorts of which Nedzu had never before dealt with. He had faced the disappearance of his students in the line of duty. He had seen students who grew tired of the restrictions that came after leaving school and had turned towards vigilantism. He had made more than one condolence call in his tenure as the head of the school, and it was only luck that saved him from making any more such calls that day. Over the course of one after noon over half of 1-A needed medical attention. In half of those cases, serious medical attention. One staff member in critical condition, another emotionally traumatized. A genetic experiment recovered, and over twenty minor villains arrested. A mysterious big bad on the run after trying to kill All Might.

There would be a lot of press about this, Nedzu was stupid enough to think that he could avoid that, but it would take work to find the right way to spin it. The extent of the injuries had been downplayed, both for Aizawa's sake and for the safety of the students. If other villains got the idea that it was possible to break onto Yuuei's campus and pull off an attack on the students…well, it was a situation to be avoided. As far as anyone outside of Yuuei's staff and the parents of 1-A was concerned an attack on the school had been attempted but had ultimately been thwarted when All Might had arrived with a host of other teachers. That was technically true, although the back up in the form of the other teachers came from Iida Tenya's quick thinking.

Nedzu also knew more than to blatantly lie to the press. Redirect with the truth, and they wouldn't use a lie as an excuse to keep digging. Nedzu had kept his press release vague, answering just enough questions to keep the reporters satisfied that he had given away more details than he had meant to. That would keep them busy for a while, but Nedzu would need to be on the lookout. The more persistent reporters would be back for a scoop sooner than he would like. He would need to get a story ready to throw them off the trail in case they started getting too close to the truth.

That would be a problem for him to worry about in the future. For the moment, he had a meeting with a few very angry parents.

Hatsume Natsumi was with her daughter when she got the news. Mei had arrived at home immediately after school. When Natsumi asked why Mei wasn't out with Izuku or their new friend from Izuku's class Mei had shrugged and said that the boys had warned her not to wait for them because they were going to be late doing some kind of practical exercise on the other side of campus. Natsumi didn't think there was anything odd about that. She had enough connections to the school to know that they went all out with training, even for the first years.

The next couple of hours passed peacefully enough. Natsumi focused on her projects while her daughter did the same. Then Mei's phone rang, and everything changed.

Mei wasn't someone who cried often, and she didn't cry when she listened quietly to the person on the other end of the phone. Without speaking, Mei handed the phone to her mother and sat down on the floor, her back against the wall. Her projects abandoned. That alone was worrisome enough, but then Natsumi held the phone to her ear and recognized the subdued voice of Yamada Hizashi. He spoke more softly than Natsumi had ever heard from him before, stumbling over his words as he explained what had happened.

"Thank you for letting us know," Nastumi said just as quietly. "I…" She trailed off, because what was she even supposed to say in this case? Her eyes drifted to her daughter, who was staring at the walls, looking as shell shocked as Natsumi felt. "I know you need to get back to him. Hizashi…He'll pull through. Aizawa is too stubborn to let this stop him for long."

Hizashi mumbled a response before hanging up. Natsumi placed the phone gently on her workbench before joining her daughter on the floor. In the time it had taken for Natsumi to finish her conversation, Mei had pulled her goggles over her eyes, blocking them from view as she leaned her head against her mother's shoulder.

"I want to go see them," Mei said.

"I know."

"I can't go see them now though, can it?"

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Natsumi told her as gently as possible. She could feel Mei shaking beside her.

They sat like that for a long time, neither of them speaking, until Mei took a shaking breath and sat back up.

"Mom?" She asked, and Natsumi wished there was something that she could do to take the hurt out of her daughter's voice. Distantly, she knew that her daughters becoming friends with students in the hero track would lead to hard moments eventually, but she had never expected them to come this early. Never like this.

"Yes, Mei?"

"Can you help me with a project? I just got an idea."

"Of course, dear." That was her Mei. See a problem. Find a solution. If she couldn't stop those idiot boys from running head first into danger, then she would make sure that this kind of situation never happened again.

The first time Izuku woke he wasn't sure where he was. The sounds of machines beeping in the background along with the intense smell of disinfectant let him know he had been moved to a medical facility, but he had no clue which one or how long he had been out. He struggled to sit up, but he could feel the pain medication they had given him making his head and limbs feel heavy. The lights were off in his room, and he couldn't hear anything besides the constant sounds of the machines, so he closed his eyes and let the lull of the medicine pull him back under.

The next time he opened his eyes he had to flinch against the brightness of the light, and he most certainly wasn't alone. His mother cried out at seeing him away, her words coming too fast for even Izuku to understand through her tears. She hugged him, calling for a nurse, and Izuku's second round of consciousness came to a close as another dose of medication was administered. Izuku tried to fight against the wave of nothingness that was creeping over him, but he knew that it wouldn't do him any good.

The third time he woke up it was still light outside, and he wasn't alone, but the person in the room with him wasn't his mother. Hizashi laid out two plastic chairs at the foot of Izuku's bed. He was in casual clothes, hair pulled up into a messy bun, one arm thrown across his face as if to block out the light. Izuku could still see dark circles under his eyes, and there was a paleness to his skin that made Izuku wonder if this was the first sleep Hizashi had gotten recently. How long had it been since the attack?

Machines still beeped around him, and Izuku didn't make a move to sit up this time. He could feel bandages wrapping his throat and stuck to his cheeks. Any movement he made might be enough to set the machines off or alert a nurse that he was awake, and he didn't want to risk disturbing the sleep that Hizashi so obviously needed. Besides, he was tired of being unconscious. He must have been out for a while if Hizashi had managed to convince his mother to leave for however short a time frame. Why Hizashi was with him and not Aizawa, Izuku couldn't guess. He tried not to think about the possibilities.

Izuku's attempt at letting Hizashi rest was ruined when the man startled away, falling out of his chairs and landing on the floor with a crash. He looked around the room bewildered, glass sticking out of his hair on the top of his head, before fumbling to slip them onto his face. When he had them righted his eyes met Izuku's and he gasped loudly before scrambling to his feet.

"Izuku! You're awake!"

"And you need to sleep," Izuku said. Or tried to say, really. His throat was so dry the words came out scratchy and almost inaudible. He sucked in a short breath at the sharp pain in his throat. The bandages there made it difficult for him to move his head, but he shifted in the bed as much as he could to get a better look at Hizashi.

"I can sleep later," Hizashi said. "This is the most awake you've been since you were admitted. I mean part of that was the drugs, but still. You don't know how happy I am to see you awake, Izuku." Hizashi's eyes were shining, but he seemed to be trying to hold himself together. Izuku appreciated the effort, but he doubted it would last long. The moment his mother came and saw him the waterworks would begin, and Hizashi would have no choice but to get caught up in her wake.

"I don't think that you would give that advice to me," Izuku couldn't help pointing out.

Hizashi opened his mouth to reply, but instead of saying something he simply stared at Izuku, a contemplative expression on his face.

"What?" Izuku asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious with the attention.

"It's nothing. Really, Izuku." Hizashi moved to sit at the end of the bed, careful not to shift Izuku's feet. "It's just that sometimes you really remind me of Shouta. You'll have this look on your face, or you'll tilt your head. Or say something I know that he would say, and it hits me again."

The look on his face wasn't sad. If Aizawa wasn't okay, then there was no way that Hizashi would have been able to fall asleep in Izuku's hospital room in the first place. They had been friends since their own time at Yuuei (Izuku privately thought they would have shifted to something different from friends if their own stubbornness wasn't standing in their way), and as much as Aizawa acted exasperated by Hizashi's antics sometimes Izuku knew he wouldn't trade their friendship for anything. Keeping all of that in mind, Izuku still couldn't help the question that slipped out almost before his mind could even form the words. "Is Aizawa-sensei alright?"

Hizashi flinched, and Izuku felt his heart stutter in his chest before ramping up, anxiety flooding him like the flip of a switch. "No, no, no," Hizashi said quickly, moving closer so that he could carefully hug Izuku through the bandages and machines. "I'm sorry, Izuku. Breathe. Shouta is going to be fine. They have him more heavily sedated than you, so he's not awake yet, but I promise you he is going to be okay."

Izuku heard the words, but his brain couldn't seem to process them, and all the while his lungs refused to cooperate. He used to have anxiety attacks, back when Katsuki had still lead his merry band of idiots to torment him, but it had been years since he'd had to deal with one.

"Izuku, can you focus on my voice?" Hizashi asked. "I need you to try to breathe with me, okay?"

He nodded, shakily. How Hizashi knew how to handle anxiety attacks, Izuku didn't know, but it was the same breathing technique that he had been told by the doctor all those years ago. Inhale for a count of four. Hold for a count of seven. Exhale for a count of eight. Over and over, they breathed together until the fuzzy feeling of adrenaline faded and Izuku was left with only his exhaustion and a more moderate amount of worry.

"I-"

"Don't you dare apologize, Midoriya Izuku," Hizashi interrupted. "I'm sorry I didn't lead with how Shouta is doing. Are you okay to hear an update now?"

Izuku still felt unstable, but he nodded again. If Hizashi didn't tell him before his mother returned he would never get a word in, and Izuku would be left wondering what was going on for who knew how long until his mother calmed down again.

"Shouta is going to be okay, like I said," Hizashi started, "but his injuries were serious."

"I saw it happen," Izuku told him quietly. "I…we got there right before that monster appeared, and-"

"He's going to be okay, Izuku. It's going to take him awhile to be back to one hundred percent, I won't lie to you about that. There may be some lasting effects. But he will get better. Recovery Girl did what she could for him in the moment, and that helped a lot. They're going to keep him here a while once he wakes up, which I'm sure he will be very happy to hear."

"Kaminari?" His friend's injuries hadn't been as bad as Aizawa's, but they had certainly been worse than Izuku's own. He knew that he shouldn't blame himself for what had happened, but he couldn't stop his brain even now from going over the situation again and again, looking for something that he could have done to save Kaminari from Shigaraki. It didn't help that he continued to come up blank.

"He just got out of surgery a few hours ago," Hizashi said. "The damage to his face was…extensive, but he's going to be okay too." Izuku wanted to ask for more details, but he knew that too much might push him back towards an anxiety attack again. There were so many things Izuku had done at USJ that Aizawa would kill him for, he probably should respect his limits at the moment so that he didn't add to it.

"Was anyone else hurt?"

"A few of your classmates were injured by Thirteen's quirk. I don't know all the details on how that happened." Hizashi didn't volunteer their status at the moment. Izuku kind of hated himself, but he didn't ask. He said injured he didn't say…anything else, so Izuku would have to accept that for what it was at the moment.

"They caught that creature. After All Might knocked it out of the building, they managed to track it down before it could do anymore damage. It's locked up in a cell right now." That gave him a little peace of mind. If that creature had wandered off before they got there, the damage that it could have caused would have been a catastrophe.

Izuku was so caught up in imaging that nightmare scenario that he didn't realize that his mother had returned until she cried his name and immediately burst into tears. Inko rushed to the side of her bed, reaching across Izuku to grab at Hizashi's hand.

"It's okay, Mom," Izuku said, returning her hug as tightly as he could. "I'm fine, I promise."