Glowing blue flames licked at the air around Katsuki and the others. The air was hot and heavy with acrid fumes and smoke. His heart was racing. Katsuki stifled a cough as the flames lowered slowly — Villains surrounded them. An individual with snow-white hair and charred, stapled skin stood before them.
"Where do you think you're going?" Dabi repeated. Deku carefully set IcyHot down; green lightning pulsed along his body. How did this bastard find them?
"We're saving Todoroki from you!" Deku shouted through clenched teeth.
"Oh come now, my brother and I were just…. Bonding." Dabi said with a toothy grin. "You best put him back in his bed; he's really not well." The villain laughed, blood seeping out slightly from where the staples pulled on his face.
"Bonding my ass! You were fucking killing him. You must be bat-shit crazy if ya think we're gonna do that!" Katsuki yelled back. He crouched low and held his hands out to his sides with his palms open. Sure, he never liked IcyHot too much. The ass was too calm. Too uncaring. It always seemed like he was generally uninterested in other people. Over the last year, however, Katsuki had grown to see how the heterochromatic dweeb had been an excellent friend to Deku. If only for that reason, Katsuki was willing to do whatever was necessary to save him.
"Yeah! We're saving our friend and kicking your ass!" Eiji said, body hardening.
"Now now," the villain chided. "Let's not do something that we all regret," Dabi held his palms out in front of him in a placating manner. "Besides, I hold all the cards here."
"The hell you do!" Katsuki said, small explosions going off in his hands. Katsuki scoffed at the notion that the villain had any real chance at winning. Sure, the villains outnumbered them nearly three-to-one, but, from what Katsuki could tell, the only real danger here was Dabi. The rest were just dime-store villain wannabes with daddy issues. He had just stepped forward to attack when blue fire once again erupted from the ground, halting his progress.
"I do, in fact, actually," The villain's grin widened. "Here, let me introduce you to someone. Kisho, come here." A thin, sickly man with long black hair stepped forward. His arms and legs seemed too long and disproportionate for his emaciated body. His wiry hair was draped over his face; his features, if he had them, were covered and unreadable.
Dabi waited for the sickly man to stand beside him before he continued. "This is Kisho Kaikatsu. Don't bother remembering it; you won't find him in any database. Around here, we call him Hivemind." Dabi gave the man a pat on the back. "Kisho, why don't you explain to the children why we call you that." The man stepped forward, face cast to the ground. Katsuki didn't know what he expected the voice of someone who looked like that to sound like. Nothing he could have imagined would have been accurate. Even his darkest thoughts weren't that unpleasant.
A strained, scratchy voice came out between the long black hair strands. Each word sounded as if it had been forced through gritted teeth, laced with pure agony. Katsuki could only think it sounded like rusty iron nails being dragged across a chalkboard. "My quirk is called Hivemind." Katsuki's body shuddered. He fought against the instinctual desire to cover his ears from the din assaulting him. "It allows me to steal the souls of those around me. Once a soul has been taken, the body itself goes into a catatonic state." Katsuki saw a shudder going up both Deku and Eiji's bodies as the villain continued to speak. Eiji was clenching his fists, his knuckles white.
"You bastard!" Eiji shouted, dropping into a defensive stance. "You're the one who caused all of the comas across Japan!"
"Yes, thanks to quirk-enhancing drugs. Normally I could only affect a few people nearby. The extents of my abilities under the influence were… unexpected." The scratchy voice replied. Each word the man… thing, spoke made Katsuki want to scratch at his ears till they bled. Anything would be less painful than hearing another syllable. Hell, Katsuki would rather stand on stage and proclaim every emotional insecurity he had to Deku than sit through this verbal attack for one more second.
"Give me back Mina! Give her back!" Eiji shouted, stepping forward with raised fists. Deku grabbed Eiji and held him back. The redhead was thrashing against him, trying to get at the villain.
"Oh, I wouldn't do that," Dabi interjected. "For one, you need him alive to restore the souls. For another," Dabi chuckled, "He can kill everyone you love with a flick of his finger." Bullshit. That's got to be bullshit, right?
Katsuki's heart dropped as he thought about the situation more. Half of Japan… nearly half of japan was in comas right now. Over twenty-five million people lay in hospitals, homes, or tents on street corners right now. Could this man really kill them all instantly?
"No, it wouldn't kill them. Right away at least," the figure spoke again. Katsuki resisted the urge to tear out his eardrums. "It would take them a few more weeks for them to actually die. Bodies need souls, after all. I can discard all souls that I have collected with a simple will. Now, of course, I'll have to do that eventually if I ever want to capture a new soul." Eiji stopped fighting against Deku.
"Mina…" the redhead started to tear up. "Please, give her back." Katsuki couldn't believe he had forgotten. Mina was in the hospital bed in Musutafu. Her life, her soul, was in the hands of this Eldritch being.
"Ah, you see, I can't do that. Sadly, I don't have the greatest control over my quirk. Never have. It's a rather troubling thing. Need living subjects to test it on after all. I only know how to do three things —capture souls, destroy souls, and return 'all' souls I have collected to their bodies. I can't just selectively return one soul." Katsuki stared at the man, trying to find any hint that he was lying. He couldn't. It made complete sense, too; an individual with a quirk like his was bound to have little experience with it. Hell, he'd probably been shunned his entire life, too, ostracized from society itself. Katsuki didn't need to know his story to tell that his quirk was why he had been sent down the path to become a villain. Led him to this moment. God, society needed to change.
"Then send them back, you crazy bastard!" Katsuki shouted, his fists clenched tight. "They're dyin' out there!" The villain shook his head, his hair swaying back and forth slightly.
"That's something I'll never do. See, as long as I have the souls, I have power over you." The villain's demeanor changed; he stood up straight and tensed. His hair turned pink and hung in thick strands across his face. His hair was now the same color as…
Over the years, Katsuki had seen a lot of shit. After all of the quirks and villains he had seen, he thought he'd seen everything. That nothing could ever surprise him. He was wrong.
"Eijirou, Babe, is… is that you?" Mina's voice rang throughout the room. Katsuki gulped down the bile that was threatening to crawl up his throat.
"MINA? WHERE ARE YOU! What have you done with her, your bastards?!" Eiji started screaming and thrashing against Deku again. Katsuki held his breath. He had an idea where this might be going, and he didn't like it. Not one bit.
"Baby, please. Calm down. I don't want you to get hurt." Mina's voice called out. Eiji broke down into tears; Deku held onto him as he fell to his knees sobbing.
The villain's hair faded once again from vibrant pink to jet black. Katsuki felt a shiver travel up his spine when the villain spoke again. He fought the sudden urge to flinch. "You see, you won't hurt me. You can't. You take even one step forward, you so much as think of lifting a finger against us, and they're dead. All of them. I will kill them without hesitation." He paused for a second. The room was filled with deafening silence—a cacophony of nothing. The sounds of his friend's breathing threatened to claw away at his meager amount of sanity.
"You… you wouldn't?" Deku asked, his voice shaking. "So many people. You… you couldn't just kill them all!"
"Yes, child, what point is there to making a threat if I don't mean it?" Deku's green lightning disappeared. Katsuki figured that he must have deactivated One For All for fear of aggravating the villain.
"Come to think of it; I have someone here who is just dying to have a word with you." Katsuki's heart lept into his throat when the villain's hair changed color again. No. Please, no. Not her. Not now. Katsuki wanted to run. He wanted to grab Deku and run. He'd rather let the world burn than have his friend sit through what he knew was coming. He's been through so much already. He couldn't sit there and watch him break. Yet, at the same time, he couldn't move a muscle. Katsuki held his breath, his feet glued to the floor. A shaky yet calm voice echoed behind the villain's now deep green hair.
"I-Izuku, Honey? Is that you?" The voice of Inko Midoriya floated around the room. Katsuki turned to his frend. Deku was catatonic. Every muscle in his body tensed. His face was a mingled look of pure shock and terror — tears trailed shamelessly down his soft, freckled face. Katsuki's heart was breaking for his friend. He had to help; he had to do something.
After several seconds, Deku managed a staggering reply. A single word that cut into Katsuki's soul like a hot knife. "M-mom?"
"Yes, honey. It's me. I… I've missed you. Where am I, honey? It's… It's so dark here. And cold… I don't like this at all. I'm scared." Deku clutched at his hair and fell to his knees — his body started to shake with violent sobs. Katsuki rushed to his side and pulled him into a tight hug. He didn't know what to do. Was there anything that he could do? His friend was suffering, and there was nothing he could do to help. All he could do was hold the person he cared so much about while their world crumbled around them for the second time in as many weeks.
"Izuku, dear, please…" her voice hitched with a sob, "Please don't cry, honey. Where are you? Let mama give you a hug. It's so dark. Zuzu, where are you?" Izuku wailed louder. Katsuki let the tears he'd been holding back flow freely. He couldn't take this. He couldn't stand to hear Deku cry.
In the past, he wouldn't have been fazed. Not in the slightest. He'd been the cause of his friend's tears for so long. Ever since the battle with Shigaraki. Ever since he faced losing Deku for real, he realized how much the nerd meant to him that he meant more to him than pretty much anything in the world. That he might more than just 'like' the nerd. Having realized all of this, Katsuki's heart withered and died at the sounds coming from Deku.
The villain's hair reverted to black. Inko was gone, but she wasn't really. She was still in there. She was trapped with the other souls inside of Hivemind. They had been looking for her for months now. Hell, even Katsuki and Eiji had tried helping with the search in the first month after the attack. Katsuki briefly wondered where her body was—probably lying in some hospital in a coma. A coma she might never wake from.
Katsuki had a sudden urge to blast the motherfuckers into next week. Consequences be damned. He fought the urge. He had to. If he did anything wrong, that bastard could kill them all.
"As you can see," Dabi's voice called out. "I do, in fact, hold all the cards." Dabi opened his mouth to speak when another villain standing near him placed his hand to his ear, seemed to listen for a moment, and said aloud.
"Yes, sir! I'll tell him." The man who had been talking turned to Dabi. "Singularity has ordered all of us to return at once. He also said to 'kill the spare.' I don't know what that means." Singularity, there's that name again. Who the fuck is that?
"No, no, no! We just got started! I've been waiting for these whelps to show up for weeks!" Dabi clenched his fists with a puff of blue fire from each. What did he mean by weeks? They weren't supposed to have known they were coming. Realization dawned on Katsuki. They didn't just happen to capture them while they were escaping. This had been a trap all along.
"I'm sorry, sir, I'm just the messenger. " Dabi sighed and rubbed at his temples. He looked up, blue eyes alight with rage.
"Well," Dabi said slowly. "You know what they say about messengers." The other man took a worrying step back, raising his palms in front of him.
"What… what's that?" He asked.
"You shoot them!" He shouted and pointed at the messenger. A gunshot rang out from the crowd of villains. There was a spurt of blood as the man clutched at his heart and fell to the ground. Dabi turned back towards them.
Katsuki's ears were ringing from the gunshot. Why the fuck did they use that? Why didn't he just burn the bastard? He looked around the room; he couldn't see a gun in anyone's hand. Katsuki gritted his teeth and held tighter to Deku. His friend quivered in his arms. Katsuki was being torn apart body and soul.
"Well, it seems like we'll have to save our fun for another day. Take care of my dear brother for me, will you? I have so much I want to talk to him about." Dabi shoved his hands into his pockets and shook his head. Katsuki's head was spinning. What was going on? Were they all just going to leave? Katsuki looked up from the sobbing Deku. Eiji was curled into a ball, crying as well. IcyHot was on the ground next to him, still unconscious. Katsuki was alone. He was the only one in any fit state to do anything — and he couldn't! Rage at the unfairness of everything bubbled under his skin.
The villains started to file out of the building slowly—each casting them glances or glares of hatred as thy left. None of them made any motions or moves to hurt them. Katsuki wished that they had. It would have been less unsettling. He wanted to kill every one of them. He wanted to blast them apart till they were only dust. Dust and atoms to be blown away by the cruel wind of the world. Finally, only Dabi and Hivemind were left. Dabi was handed something as the last villain passed; Katsuki couldn't make it out through his blurry, tear-filled vision.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye. Oh, Izuku," Deku shook slightly in Katsuki's arms. "Tell Singularity I'm on my way." What? Why would he… Katsuki's thoughts were halted before they could even form. A deafening sound pierced through the air—a gunshot.
Katsuki felt a sharp pain in his side as Deku inhaled sharply with a cry. Deku's body shook slightly before going ridged. Katsuki looked down; crimson was spewing out from Deku's chest.
"No! Deku!" Katsuki shouted. He quickly laid Deku on his back and tried to apply pressure to Deku's chest. He had to stop the bleeding. He had to.
"K-Kacchan," Deku gurgled, blood pouring out from his lips.
"Deku! Stay with me, god, please! Stay with me." He pushed harder on the wound. "You're going to be ok! Do you mear me Deku! You're gonna be just fine." Deku looked up at him with those big, green eyes. They looked so sad.
"Kacchan… it's… it's bad… I don't think I'm gonna make it," tears streamed down his cheeks. Katsuki stifled a cry as he tore at his uniform to create something to stop the bleeding. No! It couldn't end like this. It couldn't. He had so much he wanted to talk about. So much he wanted to say to the nerd. He couldn't let him die. He had to tell him everything. He had to apologize for being such a shitty friend. For making his life hell for so long. He had to say to him how he really felt.
"Don't say that, nerd. We're going to get out of this, go to some shitty restaurant, and talk about all of our shitty feelings. Ya got that, nerd?" Deku breathed in with labored breaths. Katsuki couldn't stop the bleeding; it was right in the middle of his fucking chest. Katsuki figured by the pool of blood at his feet and the pain in his own side that the bullet had gone clean through Deku and into him. Katsuki didn't know the state of his own health; frankly, he didn't care. He had someone more important to worry about.
"You. You're going to t-take me to get dinner? Like… like a date?" Deku looked at him with watery green eyes.
"Yeah, Deku, like a date. Listen, nerd, you gotta stay with me, ok? Stay with me so we can go on that date. Eiji!" He screamed, voice cracking. "Call Sensei! Call fucking anyone! We need an Ambulance NOW!" Eijirou didn't respond. He was in a ball on the ground crying. "Eijirou Kirishima! Get your fucking ass off of the ground! FUCKING HELP ME!" The redhead uncurled, pulled out his phone, and started calling someone. He never once stopped crying.
"Kacchan?" One word, one simple word that he had heard so many times before, tore away at his heart. It caused a wound that would never heal. Katuski couldn't think that it could be the very last time he ever heard that nickname.
"Fuck, Deku, yes? You're doing so well. I just need you to stay with me. Ok? Help is on the way."
"I… I'm cold… It's so cold." No! Not now, not yet! Katuki pulled Deku into his chest and hugged him tightly. He tried his best to maintain pressure on his wound. Not that it would help. Fuck, no! Deku wasn't going to die! Not now! Not after everything they had been through. He couldn't give up. He had a future. THEY had a future. Together. He had to make it.
"I've got you, Deku; just keep talking to me. Where… where do you want to go for our date? Hmm?" Deku struggled a smile; tears mingled with blood pouring down his face.
"I… I don't know," He coughed up some more blood. "Could… could you cook something? I just want to be with you…." Katsuki was openly crying now. He had stopped trying to hold back his emotions a long time ago. He cried as he had never cried before. Salt and Iron stained his tongue.
"Sure, nerd," he sobbed. "I'll make you some Katsudon," Deku smiled with bloody teeth.
"I'd… I'd like that a lot, Kacchan." He coughed again with a spurt of blood and let out a pained cry when his body moved.
"Shit, Deku, just… Just stay still, ok?"
"Kacchan, I'm so cold. I-I think I'm gonna have to take a rain check on that date" Katsuki hugged Deku tighter. He refused to let this happen. He refused! Katsuki would let himself die and fail in every one of his ambitions before he let something happen to Deku. Deku was wrong! He was fucking wrong. He was stronger than this; he could make it. Katsuki had seen the nerd fight against the world tooth and nail to do what he believed in. Katsuki knew that he would do that now. That he would fight.
"Don't say that. Don't say that, Deku." He didn't respond. "Izuku! Fucking stay with me!" His breaths became more and more shallow, a faint gurgling sound with each breath.
Where was the help! He looked up. Eiji was on the phone with someone, a look of fear and pain on his face. The realization started to settle in. They were running out of time. Help wasn't coming.
Katsuki's breath stopped for fear that anything he did would hurt his friend more. Izuku started stuttering through gargled breaths. He was struggling to breathe. He placed a hand on Katsuki's cheek. All traces of fear were gone from his Veridian eyes. Eyes that Katsuki had known and loved for as long as he could remember.
"Kacchan, I…I know you don't feel the same… but…" he started, his Veridian eyes staring into his own. "I just want you to know that I love you, Kacchan," he said with a long exhale. His eyes fluttered closed before his hand fell from Katsuki's cheek and landed across his chest. He didn't breathe back in.
"No! No, Izuku! I love you too!" He shook at Izuku frantically, "Izuku! Did you hear me? I fucking love you too!" Katsuki screamed the words "I Love You" out again and again. He couldn't let him die, especially thinking that Katsuki didn't love him back. Izuku didn't respond. His body fell limp against his chest.
His thoughts were racing over his entire life. Every interaction he had ever had with his friend. He didn't know why he had kissed the nerd that night after the battle. Fuck, he thought it was just all the adrenaline in his system and his fear of losing his friend. Every sleepless night he stayed by Izuku's bedside, praying for him to wake up, he realized more and more that it was more than just adrenaline. He felt for the nerd. Hell, he did love him. He had for a while. The feelings that he kept having, the feelings he either suppressed or turned into rage. Were feelings of love. Love for the greenett that had been chasing him around his entire life. And now Izuku would die thinking that Katsuki hated him.
Katsuki's vision blurred as his mind raced. He had to do something, anything. He couldn't do proper CPR because of where the wound was, but he had to try something. Anything. Katsuki laid Izuku back on his back and breathed into his mouth. Katsuki realized with some cruel irony that the only time he'd ever gotten to kiss Izuku was when he was dying. He had to save him. He had to change that. Again and again, he breathed into Izuku's mouth and pressed lightly down on his chest, but he didn't take another breath.
He wasn't willing to give up. They would have to rip him off Izuku's body before he stopped trying to save him. No matter how futile it was. Katsuki pulled off the nerd's mouth and pulled him into a tight hug. He closed his arms around his friend for the last time - his arms passed through Izuku's body.
Izuku melted into a puddle of an all too familiar brownish-grey goo.
Toshinori rubbed at his temples. It had been a long day. He was stressed. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to a foreign principal and ask her to take his students for a semester.
The school was in ruins. Toshinori knew this. After the fight and the massive loss of staff, there was no way UA would be ready to host students in a month. Even if the school was ready, they didn't have the staff.
"Please practice particular punctuality per previously presented problems," Principal Polyglot said over the phone.
"Yes, Petunia, thank you so much for taking my call. I understand. I'll get on all the… 'problems' right away."
"Poitu varein!" The principal said across the line before hanging up. What language was that? Toshinori didn't know and, frankly, didn't care. That woman was insane. Aside from her particular problem with the letter 'p,' she constantly switched languages as they talked, which made the call… difficult. He wondered if she realized that her quirk didn't work across phone lines.
This call had been a long time coming. The moment he realized that the school wasn't going to be ready for classes, he started making arrangements with a school in the Americas where his students could do a study abroad of sorts. He signed the documents she had requested and put them in his desk drawer. He would mail them out as soon as he could. He was about to call Aizawa about the mission when he heard a knock at the door. He stood up from the desk and crossed the room in a few large strides. He opened the door and was greeted by an unexpected sight.
"Ah, young Midoriya, You're back! I was just about to call and see how the mission was going." Midoriya stared back at him. An oddly unsettling smile spread across his face.
"Hello, All Might," Midoriya said with a surprising amount of venom. Toshinori knew he hadn't been the best mentor, but he felt like that was uncalled for.
"Midoriya? Is… is everything alright? Was the mission a success?" Midoriya laughed and stepped forward, hand reaching out for him. Toshinori took a step back instinctively.
"Izuku isn't home right now. Can I take a message?" Midoriya continued to advance. Toshinori looked at the boy and grew highly concerned. His usually vibrant green hair was greying with white patches in places. His neck and cheeks were scratched and bloody. It reminded him of… of…
"Shigaraki?" Toshinori spat out the words as his heart dropped into his shoes. This wasn't possible. He was dead. Right?
"Oh, you are a smart one; it's Singularity now," Shigaraki said with Midoriya's voice. In Midoriya's body. He backed up until he was against his desk, Midoriya still advancing, arm outstretched.
Singularity stopped moving forward and looked extremely confused for a second, then his face contorted in anger. "Oh. You're back. Well, sit tight; I'll deal with you later." Was he addressing him? Was he talking to someone else? Toshinori didn't know how to handle anything that was happening. This wasn't right. His blood chilled.
"Where was I? Oh yes." Singularity took another step closer to him.
"How is this possible! You're dead!" Toshinori asked; his mind was spinning. This couldn't be happening.
"I'm afraid not. I thought I was for a bit. It looks like I just leveled up, is all. Sadly, it's game over for you. I must admit that I've been waiting a long time for this, All Might. I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got other plans." He said with a toothy smile, familiar freckled cheeks contorted in ways Toshinori had never seen. It was wrong. It was all so very wrong. Before he realized what was happening, Midoriya… Shigaraki… Singularity had grabbed him across the arm.
Searing pain erupted through his body. It felt like every part of himself was being burned alive simultaneously. He looked down in time to see his arm crumble to dust.
He looked up, and Singularity slowly walked away, leaving the room, leaving him to die. Toshinori's mind was a sea of thoughts. One bubbled to the surface and pained his heart more than anything else—a single regret.
"I'm sorry, Izuku, I've… I've failed you." He closed his eyes, and everything went black.
