You can still be Z
By Crimson Reiter
With every breath he took he could feel the sting of his broken ribs, his legs felt like lead with every step and his vision was wavering like he was about to faint.
Bloody hell. When was the last time someone punched him so hard? Since Garp? Since he lost his men, his second family?
"C-cough..."
Zephyr raise his head too quickly and everything becomes a blur once again, but when his sight clear up enough to really see, in front of him, at the other side of the field and against a broken wall of his base, he see this damn brat getting up again. Like so many of his men after training. Like his boy after a silly fall.
Once again.
After who know how many falls. Like himself, so long ago
"W-why?"
The voice is faint, but someone he knows Midoriya Izuku can hear him.
"Why are you doing this? WHY?!"
Black ribbons bloom from this brat, the brat that he was so tempted to take under his wing damn the consecuences, hovering eerie and threatening like the tendrils of a jellyfish. A black shine of Haki covering both the boy's fists and the sharp end of each tentacle.
...
Even while covering his own arm with Haki, he couldn't help but be stunned by this bo- Midoriya Izuku's bright, bloody grin.
"CAUSE YOU STILL CAN BE A HEROOO! YOU STILL CAN BE Z!"