Chapter 4: A Crumbling Nation
Everything had gone to shit. No sooner had they entered the building where Hand Face was holed up than the entire plan crumbled before them. Literally. The building fucking fell on top of them the moment they stepped inside.
Katsuki's team, which consisted of Racoon Eyes, Icy Hot, Pikachu, and the pervert, had just met up with Deku, Round Face, Shitty Hair, and Four Eyes as planned. The acrid smell of the ancient warehouse permeated the air assaulting them with the stench of blood and decay. This was a place of death.
Deku powered up beside him, electric green crackling along his skin. The looked at each other with a silent nod, Katsuki raised his hand and released a precisely placed explosion on the wall adjacent to the door that Deku simultaneously kicked in.
The smell of smoke mingled with the smell of mildew and blood that drifted in from the basement room beyond. As the smoke cleared Katsuki's heart dropped into his stomach. He was not even remotely prepared for the sight which greeted him. Shigaraki. No. Twenty Shigaraki's? Fuck, More than that? He didn't know. All he knew was that they were well and truly fucked.
Fear gripped at his mind. He didn't understand how this was even remotely possible. How are there so many of him? Of course, he had heard the reports of the League member who could single handedly create armies. Hell, he'd even fought against him a couple times. But… He was dead right? How did this fucker get his quirk? We can't do this, we can't, he thought. One Shigaraki nearly destroyed an entire city? How the hell are we going to deal with fucking Fifty?
Katsuki hardly had a second to quell his fears before Deku charged into the fray grappling several Shigaraki's with his Black Whip quirk. Fucking Show off, Katsuki thought as Deku crushed the 3 Shigaraki's together in the air above them, their bodies melting into puddles of grey goo.
Katsuki wasn't about to let himself get out staged here in the fight, let alone by shitty Deku. He contorted his face into his usual 'battle face', a terrifying smirk/scowl that read "Eat shit and go to hell." With that, he plunged into the breach releasing explosion after explosion.
The first Shigaraki he hit with a direct blast exploded in a shower of grey liquid. "What the Fuck is going on?" He shouted, words lost in the din.
He had only been in the room for a few moments when in several of the Shigaraki's dropped down placing their hands on the floor, others he saw grabbing at the walls. The roof came crumbling down directly on top of him. It would have crushed him and Deku too if the green bean hadn't hit him with a blast of air flinging the both of them in opposite directions.
By the time the dust settled, Katsuki realized that he and Half n'Half had been separated from the rest of the group. A wall of rubble stood in their way. Katsuki wasted no time, he couldn't if he wanted to get everyone out of here alive. He jumped to his feet and shouted to Icy Hot.
"Freeze the rubble, I need support so it doesn't come crashing down on us when I blow through it." Todoroki nodded and stomped his right foot onto the ground, a wave of ice rushing out and climbing up the pile of stone and rebar.
'I hope this holds', he thought as he raised both his hands to point at the blockage.
"A.P Shot!" A massive explosion tore from Katsuki's hands at the exact center of the ice-covered wall. The explosion tore through the rubble boring a hole clean through to the other side. He charged through the smoke and fire not waiting for either to clear. Icy Hot's ice would have to hold. He couldn't wait to check if it was stable. He needed to get through to the other side
"Mineta, you fucking coward!" A girl's voice rang out through the commotion as Katsuki emerged on the other side of the pile of rubble. The dust in the air clung to the sweat on his skin and threatened to choke him with every breath he took.
Upon entering the room, Katsuki saw the grape headed bastard ricocheting off of his gross sticky balls in a direction away from the crowd of villains. Just before he was about to bounce off of another ball, Grape's arms flailed wildly in the air startled by the sudden shockwave from Katsuki's blast. He hit his target wrong and ricocheted into another and another. Finally, to Katsuki's horror, he bounced back the opposite direction into the outstretched hand of one of the Shigaraki's.
A shriek rung throughout the room. The clamor of battle which muddied the air moments before died off instantly leaving only the screams of Uraraka to linger in the eerily silent room.
Katsuki skidded to a stop and watched helplessly as his classmate's skin turned grey and begun to flake off spreading outward from the hand clutching to his face. A piercing wail erupted from the small hero but was quickly silenced when the Shigaraki's hand clenched closed causing the decaying head of Mineta to break apart and crumble to dust. The remains of his body landed in a pile at the villains' feet. A single purple ball bounced off across the room as the Shigaraki ground his heel into the pile of remains.
Fuck… Katsuki's heart dropped into his stomach. That was his fault. He killed his classmate. His A. P. Shot had distracted the grape head and messed up his trajectory and thrown him into the hands of the villain. Katsuki had never liked the kid, hell, he thought he was a creepy ass pervert and honestly questioned how the hell he even got into the hero course in the first place. Let alone Class 1-A but Shit… He never wanted this. He never wanted the kid to die. Especially because of him.
"Player one defeated," the Shigaraki's face contorted into a devilish grin as laughter and cries of agreement erupted from all of the other Shigaraki's around the room. "All right you grunts, who's next? I wanna help the prime take on the level boss down the hall."
Katsuki flung himself into the fray. He rushed towards the crowd of enemies, vaulted in the air using his explosions to rocket himself into the center of the crowd, and cleared a landing site with a large, precisely targeted explosion. Shigaraki's melted in the flames as he stood. Katsuki realized something in that moment. These were copies. He didn't have to hold back. He could go for kill shot after kill shot without anything bugging his moral compass. Though, in his current state of mind, it's not like he was too worried about that anyway.
He took out enemies with targeted grace. Each shot a precisely calculated attack designed to kill his enemy while simultaneously evading the deadly grasp of his numerous combatants. The gravity of this fight altered his mindset. A single touch, that's all it would take to end Katsuki's fight here and now. The thought of that didn't terrify him, it drove him. It forced his mind into a place of precision, a place of Zenlike order as he conducted his attacks against the hoard of enemies.
He jumped and rotated in the air propelling himself into a tight spiral using small regulated blasts at his sides to quicken the speed of his rotation in the air. As he spun, he increased the size of his explosions decimating the crowd of Shigaraki's that had begun to close in on his position. Katsuki's tornado of destruction wiped out a significant percentage of the threat in the room. Once he begun to get too dizzy to continue, Katsuki ended his attack and landed back on the ground and sunk heel deep in the ocean of grey slime that collected beneath him. Gross.
There were maybe ten Shigaraki's left in the room currently engaged with Shitty Hair and Round Face, Racoon Eyes and Icy Hot were nowhere to be seen. Round Face fought in a way which, in the moment, impressed Katsuki. She darted between the enemy avoiding their corrosive grasp while landing he own attacks instead. She smacked one Shigaraki across the back, grabbed his shirt, and flung him into the air. As she rushed the next combatant, she released the floating villain who dropped to the ground with splat as his body broke apart into a slimy puddle.
In a similar fashion she took on another, and another, and another. Before Katsuki had crossed the distance to their fight she had already taken out eight of the remaining ten Hand Face's.
'Fuck, I didn't realize Round Face was this badass,' Katsuki thought as Round Face grappled the ninth Shigaraki and flung him into the tenth causing them both to fall to the ground.
"That was… a lot…" Round face cupped a hand over her mouth and gulped loudly as she surveyed the room. No more Shigaraki's stood against them, grey goo coated the floors, walls, and heroes.
"What the hell was that," Katsuki said running a hand through his course blond hair. "I don't even know where to fucking start with all the questions I have right now. This shouldn't have been that easy…. It's like he only had one quirk again."
"Yeah, I was just thinking that. I don't know what's going on but I don't like it. We need to find Deku and…" Her sentence was cut off by harsh gravelly voice and the feeling of pressure around her ankle.
"Player Two, defeated hahahaha," without hesitating, Katsuki rushed forward and grabbed Round Face's shoulder, pulling her back from the grip of the Shigaraki which had moments before supposedly been unconscious on the floor. He wasted the fucker with a quick blast to the head as the gravity hero's leg was torn from his venomous grasp. It was already too late
"That was close, are you…." Katsuki never finished the sentence. Round face stared back at him, her expression mingled between agony and fear and abject horror. She clutched at her ankle as it begun to flake and decay with a cry. Katsuki grabbed her and lowered her to the ground, comforting her with his strong arms.
"Stay with me round face," he said. "You're not dying here. You hear me?" Katsuki lightly shook her shoulders trying to get her to look him in the eye. "You're not gonna die to some fucking b-lister clone wannabe."
"Ba… Baku… I'm... I… I don't want to go… I don't want to die!" she cried and clutched at his shoulder as she sobbed relentlessly, tears cutting paths through the dust and dirt on her face.
"You're not going to die! You got that!" He shouted as reality contradicted every sentence. The decay had begun to spread to her other leg and lower body, her foot now turned to ash.
"B-Bakugo," Uraraka struggled, "I nee… need you to tell Deku something for me." Katsuki shook his head violently from side to side.
"Tell the fucker yourself, like I said you aint dyin here!" He practically shouted at here, his grip tightened on her costume, parts of the fabric now becoming brittle and cracking.
"Fucking shut up and listen to me!" Katsuki had never heard Round Face swear. Had this been a different time, a different place, a different circumstance, he would have given her shit for it. But now he was dumbfounded and sat there in silence, clutching his dying friend in his arms.
"I need you to tell Deku that… That I… That I always Lo..." Her voice trailed off into a wordless exhale of breath as the decay reached the middle of her chest, her lungs crumbling as she struggled to take a breath. Her chest started to cave in turning to dust which fell between Katsuki's knees. Katsuki, unable to look away, watched as her once vibrant brown eyes turned grey and matted as they too begun to crack, flake, and turn to ash. Katsuki shook violently holding back both the sobs of agony and the wrenching in his stomach as the dust of his friend filtered through his fingers like flower through a sieve collecting in a small, unassuming pile in front of the blond. Katsuki clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and let out a guttural yell.
Katsuki bolted upright in his bed, his skin sticking to the sheets drenched with his cold sweat. He took a deep breath, held it for ten seconds, then released it. Repeating this process several times as he waited for his agonizingly high heart rate to calm down. It was still early in the morning. The sun had yet to rise and his room was cast in a smothering darkness illuminated faintly by the soft glow of his floor lighting. He looked at the analog clock on his desk and read the time. 4:35. Damn, he had barely gotten 3 hours.
He hadn't been sleeping well recently, not for a long time honestly. The endless nightmares of his friend's deaths tormented him like an ever-present demon clinging to his soul. It wouldn't have been as bad if he could have just grieved their loss and moved on with life. However, the constant interviews with the authorities, the press, and the endless reminder that was their empty dorms ensured that his losses were ever present in his mind. Not to mention the biggest reminder of them all… Deku. Fuck, this is gonna be a long day.
Katsuki sighed as he pushed himself out of bed and begun his morning routine. Trying to go back to sleep would have proved futile. He pealed himself out of his sweat soaked clothing from the day before and tossed the garments unceremoniously in the hamper in his closet. Since he sweat uncontrollably when he was stressed, or in other words – always, he usually slept naked to try and cut back on the amount of laundry he had to do. Fuck, he already had to change his sweat-soaked sheets every night, he didn't need to add pajamas and other shit to that list as well. He was so tired last night when he went to bed that the thought to take off his cloths before falling asleep never even crossed his mind.
He stepped into the bathroom, the tile cold against his bare feet. As he walked towards the shower, he cast a glance at himself in the mirror on the wall to his left. Fuck… Aizawa Sensei wasn't kidding last night. He looked like shit. His hair was disheveled and he had bags under his eyes to rival those of fucking Braindead. His bruises from the battle had mostly faded completely by now, a faint purple marbling appeared in patches around his previously flawless skin. Katsuki turned away and stepped into the shower. He turned on the water not bothering to wait for the water to heat up before he let it run down his body. The shock from the cold water washed away the last remnants of sleep that clutched at the fringes of his waking mind.
As the water warmed up, Katsuki did everything he could to forget about the dream which had plagued him moments before. Like he had been doing his entire life, he took all of the disturbing emotions, feelings, and thoughts and crammed them into a dark, disused part of his mind. He bottled up his problems until all he felt was the steady stream of hot water washing over him. Having cleaned himself off, Katsuki stood motionless in the shower till the warm glow of the morning light begun to wash over his room.
He stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around his waist and brushed his teeth without looking at his reflection again. He didn't need another reminder of how tired he was. Dressing himself in a black T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, Katsuki turned and left his room heading left down the hall towards the stairs. He needed to go work out. Run. Lift weights. Blow shit up. Anything to get his head out of the funk that it's been stuck in all morning. No sooner had he left his room than a soft ding came from his pocket. He pulled out his phone to see who it was. Unknown number.
Unknown Number: Meet me in the infirmary in 30 minutes.
Katsuki Bakugo: Why the fuck would I do that? Who is this.
Unknown Number: Your teacher. Problem child. We're going to talk to Midoriya. I figured you'd want to be here for that.
Katsuki's fingers hovered over the buttons on his phone as he contemplated how to respond. Fuck, I didn't think they'd have that conversation so soon.
Katsuki Bakugo: k
With that, Katsuki put his phone back in his pocket and started down the hall again. As he passed the room on his left here heard an unfortunately familiar sound coming from the room. Oh, right… He halted in front of the door next to his and knocked on it firmly.
"Oi, Shitty Hair, open up." Katsuki heard a quick sniff from the other side of the door but it remained closed. He stood there for a few moments waiting before he knocked again.
This was way out of Katsuki's wheelhouse. He didn't deal with people. He didn't deal with shitty emotions. He sure as hell didn't deal with shitty emotional people. However, given everything the two of them had been through over the last two months. He owed Kirishima this much. Katsuki hated owing people anything. He hated feeling like he was in someone's debt. What he hated even more was knowing that there were some debts that he could never repay. Especially in the case of the nerd in the infirmary. Pushing these thoughts out of his head, Katsuki raised his voice.
"Eijirou…. I know you're in there. Open the door." Katsuki felt weird using the redheads given name but he felt like he wouldn't get a response from his best friend unless he did something out of the usual. As they often seemed to be, Katsuki's assumption proved correct as Karishma's door opened slowly revealing the disheveled redhead standing before him with wet eyes worn red from crying.
"Hey, man." Kirishima said sheepishly not meeting the red eyed gaze of the blond before him as he wiped his forearm across his eyes.
"Rough night?" Katsuki asked as he leaned his left shoulder against the door frame.
"Uh, kinda I guess." His friend said as he ran his hand through his hair, his black roots glinting like onyx against the fading red.
"I… I don't sleep much anymore." Eijirou shifted his weight slightly as he stared at his feet.
"I know what you mean, I only got 3 hours last night." Katsuki stood in the doorway in silence for several moments before he broke it once more. "I uh… remember you said you were going to go see how Rac… er… Mina was doing? How. Uh. How did that go?" This was, as Katsuki soon found out, the wrong thing to ask. His friend burst into tears and fell forward grappling the blond in an unwanted hug. Hands pinned to his sides, he made no attempt to break free of his friend's desperate embrace.
"That bad huh?" Katsuki calmly asked after Kirishima's cries had died down into soft sobs.
"She. She's unresponsive." He stuttered between labored breaths sobbing into Katsuki's chest. "The. The doctors S-said that if she d-doesn't improve s-soon they are gonna take h-her off of l-life s-support." At this, Kirishima broke down into another fit of tears, worse than the first breakdown mere moments before. Awkwardly, Katsuki brought his arms up and lightly returned the redheads hug patting him on the back. He wasn't good at this emotional shit.
"Oh..." Katsuki couldn't think what else to say. Mina had been lying in a coma at the hospital for over two months now. From what Katsuki understood, she wasn't showing any mental activity. Whatever had happened to her during that fight had essentially rendered her braindead.
"Any word on the others?" Katsuki asked trying to draw Eijirou's attention to anyone but the Racoon Eyed girl that his best friend had fallen in love with.
"Denki's still unresponsive…. But the doctors are hopeful. Apparently, he's starting to show some brain activity. So, there's that." The redhead struggled a grin which to Katsuki looked fake as hell.
"Damn, who would have thought I would have actually missed fucking Pikachu around here." Kirishima released the blond from his hug and punched him on the shoulder.
"Don't say things like that! Of course you'd miss him. He's your friend!"
"Hey, hey, take it easy Shitty Hair. I don't know If I'd go that far. I'll admit, he was pretty handy to have around. Now I gotta charge my own damn phone." This was met with another punch, lighter than before.
"Oi, stop hitting me. I got enough bruises still, I don't need you adding to them." Katsuki rubbed at his shoulder, it didn't really hurt but he felt like being a tad dramatic.
A few moments passed in silence between the two, each waiting for the other to pick the conversation back up. Finally, after Katsuki decided that the redhead wasn't going to speak again, he broke the mournful silence that lingered in the air between them.
"You uh… want to come with me to the infirmary?" Katsuki shifted in place looking past his friend out the window behind him. "were. Uh. Were gonna tell the nerd. About everything…"
"Shit"
"Yeah," The blond continued. "he's gonna lose his shit…. It would probably be helpful for you to be there. See some of his friends."
"That makes sense bro…. damn, I didn't know you cared about Midoriya that much."
"I don't fucking…" Katsuki stopped with a sigh and shook his head. "Look, I just want things to start getting back to normal around here. That can't start to happen till the nerd is out of the infirmary and back to his rainbow eating, mumbling self. If that can even happen now…" Katsuki turned to leave.
"You coming?" Katsuki asked without looking back.
"Oh. Uh. Sure, I'll come. This is going to be rough. I really hope the little guy takes this well. Though, that might be a bit of wishful thinking I guess." Katsuki simply grunted in response and continued down the hall as Kirishima shuffled behind him, eyes downcast.
Aizawa and All Might were standing in the waiting room when Katsuki and Eijirou entered the infirmary. The former number one hero was dressed in his new 'principal's attire' which consisted of a tailored black suit and a bright red tie. Fucking looks a hell of a lot better than that hideous yellow pinstriped monstrosity he used to wear. Katsuki chuckled to himself for a moment thinking about how horrible his teacher's sense of style had been before he became principal. His musings were cut short however as the gravity of what was about to happen weighed on him. The small smirk which had formed on his face when he first entered the room vanished immediately replaced with a scowl and downcast eyes.
"Problem child," Aizawa looked up from the magazine he had been reading. His teacher's eyes were so bloodshot Katsuki wondered if he had gone all night without blinking. He didn't need to wonder about his teacher's sleep. He didn't need to ask to know that Aizawa had been here all night.
"Fuck off" Katsuki retorted, none of his normal malice to his voice. He just sounded tired.
"Ah, Kirishima, you came too." Their teacher continued not acknowledging the profanity from the usually hotheaded teen, All Might turned to their direction at this point and flashed a weak, tired smile.
"Young Bakugo, Kirishima, I'm glad you two came. Midoriya is going to need all the support he can get." All Might looked over his shoulder and peered through the window into the room where Izuku was sleeping off the meds that Katsuki had given him the night before.
"So, uh… how are we going to do this." Kirishima asked looking from teacher to teacher as he wrung his hands together near his chest.
"Well," Aizawa spoke up. "I would like you and Katsuki to stand on either side of Midoriya. Bakugo, I know it's against your nature, but we need the two of you to do everything you can to keep Midoriya calm so that we can tell him everything he needs to hear without him breaking down again." Aizawa looked to the principal.
"Young Bakugo, please, don't do anything that would antagonize the poor boy." Katsuki clenched his fists.
"What the fuck? The hell do you mean by that? The fuck do ya think I'm going to do to the twerp?" Katsuki glared daggers at his teachers, a vein beginning to bulge on his forehead.
"My point exactly," Aizawa continued. "I know it's against your nature, but please refrain from your usual insults or jabs. This conversation is going to be next to impossible to get through. We really don't need you making it worse."
"The fuck did you ask me to come here then if you're so concerned that I'm gonna make it worse? Look, yeah, me and the nerd have our problems. Whoop-de-fucking-do. I've got problems with half of your shit stains. I may hate the guy but I'm not going to do anything to hurt him more than any of you asshats would." Aizawa nodded in response seeming to believe him.
"We asked you to be here because we knew that it would help Midoriya. And that It would help you too." Katsuki started to object but Aizawa cut him off. "Please, both of you, should Midoriya begin to react poorly, if necessary, I need the two of you to restrain him as gently as you can. He's still recovering and we don't want to physically injure him. Don't worry about his quirk. I've got that covered." Aizawa's eyes flashed red for a second and then back to their usual pinpoint black, his hair rising and falling in tandem.
They discussed a few more logistical points and how they would deal with different scenarios before All Might turned and opened the door to Deku's room. They were completely quiet as they stepped into the room. The darkness within vanished as the motion activated light clicked on due to their presence. Deku lay motionless on the bed seemingly asleep. Only once the rooms door closed with a resounding *click* did their classmate begin to stir.
Katsuki and Kirishima took their places on either side of Deku's bed near the green haired boys head. All Might and Aizawa stood at the foot of the bed the former shifting uncomfortably from one foot to another and the latter standing there with his hands in his pockets, face partially buried in his capture weapon which lay loosely around his neck. Damn, for being the number one hero for so long, All Might sure can't fucking handle situations like this well.
Deku rubbed the sleep out of his eyes taking several seconds before he opened them. It must have taken a moment for his eyes to adjust to the brightness of the clinically white room before his gaze finally settled on the intruders. His viridian eyes starring directly into Katsuki's. Fuck, this is going to be rough.
Deku surprisingly was the first to speak.
"H-hi guys…. What. Um. What are you all doing here?" Izuku broke from Katsuki's gaze and looked at the others. "I was actually wondering something… Am I finally well enough to go back home? I… I miss my family…. I want to talk to see my mom. I'm sure she's worried about me."
"Midoriya," Aizawa replied. "That's actually something we need to discuss with you. But I need you to promise me something before we begin." Deku's eyes flashed with concern, gaze shifting from Aizawa to All Might and finally to Kirishima and Katsuki. The former number one hero continued where their homeroom teacher had left off.
"You need to promise us that no matter how difficult this conversation is. No matter how hard it is to hear what we are about to tell you. You must listen. We need you to listen and understand. You are so strong my boy, you are stronger than anyone I have ever met. Your unwavering spirit in the face of adversity and your drive to do what is right is why I chose you to be my successor. My boy, I need you to promise to be strong for us like I know you can and not interrupt until we have told you all that we need to." All Might placed both hands on the foot of the bed and leaned against it. His face filled with care and concern for his successor who, it had become obvious to everyone by now, he had viewed as a son.
Deku was silent for several moments. He neither moved or spoke. His eyes stayed fixed at his hands cupped together on his chest. After several minutes passed, Deku finally looked up at his mentor.
"Ok, I promise All Might. What is it that you need to tell me?" Deku stared at his teacher, his concern and fear were written plainly on his face. The nerd was always an open book with his emotions, but he seemed to have taken what All Might had said to heart and was trying his hardest to remain calm given the situation.
"Well," the retired hero begun. "As you know now from your conversation with young Bakugo last night, we… we suffered heavy losses at the hands of All For One and Shigaraki." Deku tensed at this but didn't interrupt. Kirishima placed his hand reassuringly on his shoulder. Which seemed to have helped since Deku unclenched his fist slightly.
"Losses which are frankly incalculable at this moment." Aizawa picked up where All Might had paused. "Shigaraki's attack was not localized to just the city of Tokyo. His duplicates quickly spread across the country and were spotted as far away as Kyoto in the East and Iwate in the North. We don't know how long he had been planning this attack. He must have had doubles stationed in cities around the country waiting for his signal." Aizawa paused seemingly to gauge Deku's reaction to this information. Seeing that the greenette was as calm as could be expected, he continued.
"Civilian casualties are still being tallied. Current estimates place losses in the range of 25 million. However, more than twice that amount are considered missing at the moment or in comas." Tears begun to well in Deku's eyes as his breathing became labored. Still, he lay there quietly holding to his promise. He lay there and listened despite the obvious pain racking through his mind at the moment.
"The heroes who fought to save their lives suffered equally." All Might picked up, voice grave and tremoring slightly. "Of the top ten, only Jeanist, Edgeshot, and Ryuku are alive having only suffered minor injuries. Hawkes survived but has been in a coma like so many others… The others… Endeavor, Kamui, Fat Gum, Mirko… They…" All Might halted covering his mouth as tears streamed down his face.
"They gave their lives saving as many as they could. They gave their lives as true heroes till the end." Aizawa said, a slight, unhinged cadence to his otherwise stoic demeanor.
It didn't matter that it had been two months. It didn't matter that this information had been plastered on every website, news broadcast, and social media. It didn't matter that Katsuki had been there to see Endeavor decay under a literal pile of Shigaraki's. Hearing this again crushed Katsuki's soul. It threatened to unbox the feelings he had so carefully packed away over the last two months. All Might continued.
"Of the Pro Heroes who fought in the final battel, roughly 60% gave their lives in defense of others. 20% are in comas but alive. 10% are alive and well only suffering minor injuries. And 10% are missing but, at the moment, presumed dead."
Deku's body started to shake as tears now flowed freely down the greenette's face. His face was contorted in agony. His lips clenched shut let they open and he begin to wail.
Aizawa continued on, they had to press on. They hadn't even reached the difficult part of the conversation yet. "UA suffered equally tragic losses." At the mention of UA, Deku's breath hitched. Katsuki looked directly at him for the first time since the conversation had begun and felt a twinge somewhere in the sea of repressed emotions. Deku looked like he was in absolute agony. He was sweating, crying, and barely breathing. The nerd was probably holding his breath to keep him from crying more so than he already was. Katsuki knew what Aizawa was about to bring up next and it scared him. He didn't want to hear it again either. Completely out of character, Katsuki grabbed Deku's hand and clenched it tightly refusing to look at Deku and instead staring directly at Aizawa silently urging him to get this over with. This seemed to have the desired effect as his former friend inhaled suddenly and went still.
"UA's losses were staggering and heartbreaking." Aizawa said solemnly as he shook his head eyes never leaving Deku. "We lost Principal Nezu in an explosion which claimed the lives of everyone at Shiketsu High. Several of the teachers were also lost in defense of our own school when several Shigaraki's broke through the enhanced UA barrier onto school grounds. Of those lost during that particular conflict were Cementoss, Hound Dog, Lunch Rush, and Ectoplasm."
Aizawa's voice sounded clinical, emotionless. It sounded as if he were completely removed from the situation and was instead a news anchor reporting the daily events. Katsuki knew that their teacher wasn't dealing with the loss of his fellow teachers well. He knew he wasn't sleeping at all if he could manage it. So, knowing that, Katsuki reasoned that this lack of emotion was the only way Aizawa figured he could get through this conversation.
"Losses among the students…" Fucking All Might himself begun to cry at this point. Katsuki tightened his grip on Deku's hand, still refusing to look at him. He could hear Shitty Hair starting to sob again as well. Deku stayed quiet but shook slightly.
"Losses among the students," Aizawa repeated. "Were equally grave. Ashido, Kaminari, Jiro, and Tokoyami are alive, but are in comas. We don't know what happened to place them there. Nearest we can figure, one of the villains possessed a quirk which interfered with brain function and it was utilized on an extremely wide scale. We're doing the best we can for them but there's so much we don't know." Aizawa paused and looked away from Deku for the first time since the conversation started. All Might was, at this point, kneeling on the ground, leaning against the bead with his face buried in his arms. Fucking grow a pair and deal with this like the rest of us you fucking sorry excuse for a number one hero. Is that why you needed me here? Because you knew you couldn't be strong? Eyes still downcast, Aizawa continued.
"Todoroki, Ida, and Hagakure are missing. There's a chance they are still alive and we are expending every resource we have access to in order to locate them." Aizawa's voice cracked at this point. All semblance of composure crumbled as he looked back at Deku, his eyes red with tears. "Shoji, Aoyama, Asui, Ojiro, Uraraka, Sero, Mineta, Sato, Shoji, and a significant amount of Class 1-B are… are… their…" Their professor couldn't finish his sentence. He didn't need to finish the sentence. The understand of the situation was clear. Deku tightened his grip painfully around Katsuki's hand but the blond made no attempts to retract his hold. The little amount of composure that Deku had been able to maintain was completely lost at this point.
Deku started to glow and crackle with green lightning as his quirk activated in response to the soul shattering emotions racking through the greenette's body. No sooner had it activated than it was cut off by Aizawa's piercing red glare. Deku started to cry and thrash but Eijirou and Katsuki held him down firmly but tenderly. They made an active effort to hold him down as reassuringly as possible.
"I WANT MY MOM!" Deku screamed speaking for the first time since the conversation started what seemed like an eternity ago. "WHERE'S MY MOTHER! WHY ISN'T SHE HERE WITH YOU?" His cries continued but none could muster up the courage to answer him.
"Deku" Katsuki finally rasped, red eyes finally meeting green. "She's… She's missing. We don't know where she is…" Deku's cries increased to an ear-splitting level. Katsuki was sure that the nerd had to have broken his hand when the nerds quirk activated but he grits through the pain and holds tight against the nerds attempts to retract his arm. He had a job to do. Anyways, if it was broken, it's not like recovery girl couldn't fix him up.
"SEDATE ME! SEDATE ME PLEASE!" Deku cried, pleading for his friends to knock him out and take away the obvious pain coursing through his mind. He pulled desperately away from his friends grasp trying to reach for the button on the side of his bed, but Katsuki and Eijirou held tight.
"No Midoriya," Aizawa continued with a labored breath. "You… You're recovered enough to the point where you need to deal with this in a healthy way. You need to process and deal with these emotions. Not run away from them and hide."
Time seemed to blur for the four of them as they tried their best to comfort their crying classmate. After an hour or so of crying, Deku had curled himself up into a ball on his side and sobbed into his arms. Fucking Shitty hair was no help during all of this. The fucker needed just as much help as Deku did. After Deku had calmed down some, Kirishima had tried to comfort Deku by hugging him but that just caused the both of them to break down again in tears. Eijirou resigned himself to sit on the edge of the bed with his legs clutched against his chest.
As the day dragged on, neither Katsuki, Eijirou, or Aizawa left his side. All Might, being the shitty teacher he was, had to leave after a few hours because of some important fucking meeting. Katsuki was beginning to hate the fucker that he had idolized for so long. He wasn't being the mentor that Deku needed right now. Katsuki shouldn't have to be the one trying to comfort the fucking green bean. And yet here he was, sitting on the edge of Deku's bed, left hand purple and numb from being clutched by the greenette for so long. But he couldn't bring himself to move.
Despite everything, everything that he had been through, Katsuki felt that he could never fully repay the debt that he owed the nerd and that this was the fucking least he could do. And there he stayed until the sun had long gone down and his… classmate? Friend? Whatever the fuck he was to him… had cried himself to sleep.
Looks like the tutorial is finally over.
