Entering the police station had felt like a blur to Izuku.
The receptionist had taken one look at him as they walked in and immediately began fussing over him with wide, concerned eyes, offering to make hot drinks and get him a towel. Tuskauchi had politely declined and led Izuku to a room where people took samples of his DNA and the blood on his skin before handing him a bag and instructing him to put his clothes inside as soon as he took them off. Izuku had asked if he would get his uniform back when they were done and they had regretfully informed him that they would probably have to keep it for a while.
Upon hearing that, he'd reminded himself to check how much money he had saved up when he got back to the dorms. It might mean that he'd have to postpone ordering some of the new hero merch that would be dropping in a few weeks' time, but at least it would save his mother from the burden of having to spend money on a new uniform for him.
After that, he had been handed a plain grey top and sweatpants to change into and a towel and Tsukauchi directed him to the men's locker room.
He had taken a shower, scrubbing desperately at his skin and washing his hair multiple times, to make sure all the blood had been removed. After changing into the new, clean clothes, he had returned to the shower room to stare at the mirror that stretched along the wall opposite the shower cubicles for an unknown amount of time. He was both intrigued and disturbed by his lack of reflection, but he could also see it becoming a hindrance as soon as he had to look presentable for something. Eventually a few officers had walked in and he had speedily ducked out of the room, mumbling a quick greeting as he passed them.
He had been a little anxious that Tsukauchi and Gran Torino would try to lead him into one of those interrogation rooms with a big two-way mirror for his police interview, like the ones in the police dramas his mother sometimes watched. To his relief, it was just a plain room with a table, four chairs and a tape recorder.
As they sat down, Izuku saw that Tsukauchi and Gran Torino were holding files, probably containing information about the case and questions they intended to ask him. Gran Torino placed his file on the desk in front of him, whereas Tsukauchi propped his up against his lap and the edge of the table, holding an uncapped pen in his hand ready to add some notes.
Before pressing the record button, the detective calmly explained to Izuku that it would be ok, that he wasn't in trouble and that all he had to do was tell them what he remembered. Izuku still eyed the tape recorder nervously though as the detective went through the motions of stating the date, time and his name and asking Izuku to state his own name for the tape. Gran Torino seemed to be watching Izuku like a hawk zeroing in on an unsuspecting field mouse and Izuku wondered why that was the case if he wasn't in trouble as Tsukauchi had said.
The questions started off in easy territory, where Izuku would not have to be too careful about his responses.
"First of all, can you tell us what you were doing at this address on the night in question?" Tsukauchi asked.
"I was at a party," Izuku answered. "My dad works for the company of the people who live there and they told him to invite me."
"Could you state your dad's name?" Tsukauchi requested.
"Midoriya Hisashi."
"Ok," the detective replied, making a note of the name. "So, his bosses told him to invite you specifically?" Tsukauchi questioned.
Izuku nodded, but then realised he would have to speak up for the tape. "Yes," he said.
"Why?"
"They overheard my dad talking at work about how I went to UA and saying that I was All Might's favourite student and they saw it as an opportunity to gain connections," Izuku explained. "My dad agreed to bring me because he recently returned from working abroad when he was offered the job. He's been gone for as long as I can remember and he said it would be a good opportunity to spend time together. So I asked permission from UA to leave the dorms for a night and I went with him."
"Where is your father now?" Gran Torino piped up as Tsukauchi jotted something down in his file.
"Um. I don't know," Izuku responded. He swallowed, trying not to tear up. "The last time I saw him, he left me to go talk to someone from the company in private. He said that it was important and that he would be back soon." He took a shaky breath. "I-I don't know if he got out alive."
Tsukauchi put his pen down. "I understand that this is very personal for you. So if it feels like too much at any point, you can tell us and we can take a break," he offered.
Izuku shook his head. "I'm fine."
The detective nodded and Gran Torino reached into his pocket to pull out a small pack of tissues, which he placed on the table and slid towards Izuku quietly. "Do you know what kind of company your dad works for?"
"I don't know. He didn't talk about it much," Izuku answered. "I just remember him telling me and my mother that they were on the verge of some kind of breakthrough in their research and product development and that the party was to celebrate that."
"When you first entered the mansion was there anyone or anything that seemed suspicious to you?" Gran Torino asked as Tsukauchi became preoccupied with writing something else in his file.
"No," Izuku replied, "There was nothing unusual about anyone's behavior and nothing seemed out of the ordinary."
A few moments of silence followed as Tsukauchi caught up with his note taking and Izuku waited for the inevitable.
Meeting Izuku's eyes with a kind, reassuring expression, Tsukauchi delivered the next question. "I realise that this may be difficult," he sympathised, "but could you describe the events that occurred following your arrival at the party and your father departing to talk to the other guest?"
Izuku took a deep, grounding breath. "I was waiting for a while, about half an hour at least, and there was no sign of my dad. I started to feel awkward standing around by myself, so I went to the garden to get some fresh air at around seven thirty." He fought to keep his voice steady. "While I was outside, I heard a loud crash from the main hall. At first I thought maybe someone had just dropped something or knocked something over, but then a few minutes later people just started screaming."
He could recall the scene as plain as day in his head, how he had jumped when he had heard the almighty crash, but tried not to pay it any mind until a chill had shot down his spine at the sound of blood curdling screams that followed shortly after.
"I rushed back towards the building to see what was going on because it sounded like people needed help," he continued.
His heart had beat wildly in his chest as he had activated One For All to get to the back entrance of the building as quickly as possible. The green sparks had illuminated the path in front of him in the dark as adrenaline thundered through his veins.
"When I got closer, I looked in through one of the windows to try and find the safest point of entry to the main hall and it was chaos. There were these monsters everywhere, just attacking people," Izuku relayed. "I also saw villains… about four of them, but they weren't doing anything. They were just standing there, watching the monsters attack the guests."
He felt a little uncomfortable referring to the beings that he saw as "monsters" when he didn't know if they were the exact same creature that he felt himself slowly transforming into, but it was the only word that felt like a fitting description. They had looked like they'd been summoned directly out of the most twisted nightmares of the most sadistic villains just to inflict pain and unleash havoc on the world. There had not been a single flicker of humanity left in their eyes as they clawed and bit at people's skin, desperate for blood. Izuku's skin crawled even at the possibility of becoming like one of them.
Gran Torino seemed deep in thought, his face clouding over with a grim look. "What did these 'monsters' look like?" he questioned.
"They weren't anything like nomu if that's what you were wondering," Izuku responded, assuming that was the direction the man's train of thought had been taking. "They looked kind of like humans, but they had really long, sharp nails and their canine teeth were so huge that they couldn't close their mouths. Their eyes were completely red, like even the pupils and everything. They were super fast and strong too, they could make it across the room before I even had a chance to blink. They didn't look like they recognised that the people they were attacking were real living things. They looked kind of… possessed… like they weren't in control of their actions and had just been programmed to kill. The only people they weren't attacking were the villains."
A voice at the back of Izuku's mind told him that maybe giving the police an accurate description of the monsters was a bad idea, that it could potentially come back to bite him in the ass later, but he couldn't help it. He had never quite been able to hold his words back when there was something on his mind and this time was no exception, especially since he could still see it all so vividly.
Tsukauchi's pen was flying across the page in front of him. He hadn't stopped writing for a second throughout Izuku's description. "What about the villains?" he asked. "Did you recognise any of them?"
"At first, they were too far away," Izuku explained, using his phrasing to buy himself some time to think. He had to be careful about how he worded this part if he didn't want to give away too much about what happened after he was bitten. "Later on I recognised at least one of them from the league of villains," he settled on, deciding that it was safe to mention the first encounter he'd had to Tsukauchi and Gran Torino as they were already aware of his wrist injury.
Two sharp intakes of breath followed his admission and Izuku could tell that they were probably wondering the same things he had. Why had they targeted this particular party? And why had their approach changed so drastically? Why were they using these new monsters to do the dirty work for them?
"Could you describe the attack in more detail?" Gran Torino requested.
In his mind Izuku could see the party goers' horrified faces as they cried out for help. "It was brutal," he said. "People were literally being torn apart," he took a shuddering breath as he reached out for the tissues Gran Torino had placed in front of him with shaking hands. "There were too m-many of them and they were so violent. They were breaking people's bones if they tried to get away, ripping people's throats out, fighting each other to get to people... there was blood everywhere… people were dying."
Izuku remembered a splash of blood spraying across the glass in front of him and obscuring his view slightly as one of the monsters tore into the neck of a wealthy looking man. Before he could look away, he had seen the man's eyes roll back in his head as his immaculate white suit was quickly stained with scarlet.
Similar things were happening to the other party guests throughout the main hall. Some scrambled to get away and knocked priceless ornaments and pieces of furniture over in their wake, some tried to use their quirks in self defense against the monsters and left trails of destruction as they went. In the end it was no use though, the monsters were just far too quick on their feet and even when they were caught in someone's quirk, they either recovered at an alarmingly speedy rate or another monster would use the quirk wielder's moment of distraction as an opportunity to attack.
What had once been a high class party had rapidly turned into an absolute bloodbath and Izuku felt powerless to do anything about it as his stomach had turned at the sight and his limbs had locked with fear.
"I couldn't do anything. I just stood there," Izuku said, tears spilling down his face as he felt the weight of his actions. "I froze... I… I should have moved quicker, but I wasted time and in the end it meant I couldn't save anyone." He clenched his hand around the pack of tissues, feeling the plastic crinkle against his palm as he mentally scolded himself over his failure to act.
"Eventually I tried to approach quietly because I remembered that my dad might still be in there somewhere and I just kept thinking I had to at least try to get him out," Izuku continued, "but I didn't think to check if the villains might have people keeping watch over the outside. I made it a few steps before someone grabbed me by the arm. I panicked and pushed them away using my quirk, but they were able to injure my wrist." He briefly held up his arm to show the bandage. Gran Torino's eyes followed as he lowered it to his lap again, a suspicious frown on his face.
"I tried to run through the building because there was nowhere else to go, but I tripped over a body on the floor. After that I passed out. When I woke up there was no sign of the villains and the paramedics were already on the scene," he finished.
It was only the short version of events, he'd left a lot of details out, but hopefully it would be enough for them.
"Are there any other details you would like to add?" Tsukauchi inquired. "Anything else you remember?"
Dammit.
Izuku thought about it carefully. There was one more detail he guessed it would be safe to reveal. "The villain who grabbed me was Toga Himiko."
Tsukauchi nodded. "Ok. I think we have all the information that we need from you for now. Thank you for your cooperation, Midoriya." He stopped the recording and picked up his documents, shuffling them against the desk before pushing his chair back and standing.
"I'm sorry to keep you here any longer, but we also need you to fill out a written witness report," he informed, placing some forms and a pen on the table in front of him. "You can stay here to do it or you can go use one of the comfier chairs in the main office. I'm going to make some phone calls, but I'll be back shortly."
Once the man had exited the room, Gran Torino stood and stretched, his bones making a cracking noise. "Alright troublemaker, you need to come with me for a walk," he commanded, quickly striding towards the door.
"Huh?" Izuku questioned, "but Tsukauchi said I need to-"
"You can do that later," Gran Torino brushed off his concerns, reaching for the door handle, "or bring it with you, it doesn't really matter either way, but I have to talk to you about something important and we can't discuss it here."
Izuku stood, his chair scraping loudly against the floor as it was pushed back. He hesitated, unsure if he should really be going with the other man and what he could possibly want to talk about. Gran Torino tapped his foot impatiently. "Are you really gonna leave a frail old man waiting?" he asked, putting on a voice to match his description he gave himself.
Izuku raised an eyebrow at him. "Frail?" he repeated skeptically. Gran Torino held his stare until he relented and let out a sigh, slowly gathering his things and turning to push the chair back under the table.
"Just hurry up, kid," Gran Torino demanded, "and watch you don't rip the door off its hinges on your way out. I won't be taking the fall for that like I did with Tsukauchi's car back there."
Izuku froze, sucking in a harsh breath as the muscles in his shoulders tensed and his body fell rigid with panic. He turned stiffly to look at the other man, his eyes wide and a hundred excuses prepared to fly out of his lips. Gran Torino, however, didn't seem phased by the situation if his relaxed body language and mischievous, knowing smile that seemed to say 'caught you' were anything to go by.
"Yeah, I know it was you," he clarified. "So you better get a move on before I decide to let you pay for his new mirror." He slipped out of the door and Izuku cursed under his breath, scrambling to pick up his things and follow the man.
He heeded Gran Torino's warning, taking extreme care not to do any structural damage to the door, its hinges or the surrounding wall on the way out. It only took a second to catch up and fall into step with him, Izuku wondered if he had gotten faster or if the man had waited for him before speeding up his pace.
"So where are we-"
"Shhhh!" Gran Torino cut him off.
They made their way through the building in silence, their hurried footsteps echoing through the corridors the only sound made between them. If Izuku listened closely though, he could hear the sounds of people having quiet conversations in the various rooms that they passed. He wondered if he would be able to listen in on Tsukauchi's phone calls if he focused hard enough, but decided against it as he didn't want to do anything to encourage the changes that were happening to his body.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he quickly realised that they were near the men's locker room again as a couple of officers carrying bags and wearing their civilian clothes emerged from around the corner in front of them.
"If it's something important, then why are we going to the locker room to tal-"
"Shhhhhh!" Gran Torino shushed him again, unintentionally grabbing the attention of the two officers. "Just getting this tall young lad to help me get my medication from my locker," he explained to them with a smile. "I really should request to move my stuff to one of the lower ones, my height isn't what it used to be," he chuckled.
It was forced and fake, but the officers seemed too tired to question it. They nodded at him before continuing towards the exit of the building, their feet dragging a little in their fatigue. Izuku listened out for more people while he and Gran Torino rounded the corner and made their way into the locker room. He could swear he heard a pen scratching carelessly against paper and a muffled yawn in the reception down the hall as the two officers that they'd just encountered signed themselves out.
"Now, would you do me a favour and make sure the coast is clear?" Gran Torino requested, his voice hushed.
Izuku nodded. He placed the forms and pen he'd been carrying down on one of the benches and did as he was asked as quickly and quietly as possible, making sure to look between each row of lockers and listen out for any signs of movement besides his and his ex mentor's footsteps. When he returned, Gran Torino was making his way back from the direction of the bathrooms.
"Well?" he questioned.
"It's just us," Izuku replied.
"Perfect," he answered, slipping a set of keys out of his pocket and locking the door.
"Where did you get those?" Izuku inquired.
"You sure do ask a lot of unimportant questions, kid," Gran Torino responded bluntly, leaving Izuku's query unanswered as he walked towards the row of lockers. He stopped at one of the middle rows. "Come here," he instructed, moving a block that was at the end of the row under one of the lockers and standing on it to reach up and twist the numbered dial on the door. Izuku moved to stand behind him.
"Do you know why I have a locker here?" Gran Torino asked.
"No," Izuku replied, softly shaking his head.
Gran Torino reached into the locker and pulled out a blue cooler bag, tossing it behind him. "Catch," he commanded. The bag hit Izuku square in the chest and winded him slightly, causing him to let out a puff of air as he quickly wrapped his arms around it to stop it from falling.
"Now this isn't public information, so don't go blabbing about it to any of your friends, but recently there have been a string of suspicious murders. The only two things they all have in common, are that the victim always has two small puncture marks somewhere on their body and that the body is always completely drained of its blood. They think it might be the result of a quirk or something turning people into vampires."
Izuku almost dropped the bag. "Completely drained of blood?!" he parroted back.
"Yes," Gran Torino confirmed. "We managed to capture a few of the culprits of these bizarre murders and they all looked very similar to the monsters that you described earlier. A team of scientists have been running different tests on them ever since and it's been determined that they display numerous traits typically associated with vampires so that's the label we're going with. Tsukauchi called me in because he thought there was a chance the League of Villains could be involved considering that we know Toga Himiko and Stain, both people who have been linked to the league, have quirks related to blood. You confirmed his suspicions tonight."
Izuku stared at him, slack jawed as he tried to process the tidal wave of new information the man just sent his way. "I-"
"And now you're gonna confirm one of my suspicions," Gran Torino interrupted. "Remove your bandage and show me your wrist." He stepped off the block towards Izuku.
Izuku shuffled backwards slightly. He felt himself begin to panic like a cornered animal, he glanced at the locked door before looking back at Gran Torino with a pleading expression.
"I can't! The paramedic told me that I have to leave it on for at least a few days!" He argued frantically.
"That's funny, Tsukauchi told me you didn't seem all that serious about hearing what the paramedics had to say earlier, even after being injured at the scene of a mass murder," Gran Torino countered. "And you didn't question it when I brought up the possibility of people being turned into vampires earlier, even though most people would think it was ridiculous. You only seemed phased by the damage they were causing to their victims. Seems like you're hiding something to me and you're not very good at it," he continued, stepping forwards every time that Izuku stepped back. "Take off. The bandage."
Izuku shook his head, keeping his arms as close to his chest as possible as he still held the cooler bag firmly against his chest and Gran Torino glared at him.
"I'm not h-hiding anything!" Izuku protested, removing his bandaged arm from the bag to gesture with it as he talked. "I just didn't want to waste any paramedic's time when there could have been people who needed their attention more urgently than I did and I don't think vampires are that far fetched in a world where everyone's used to people having quirks and becoming super heroes, that's all! I r-really don't think it's a good idea to remove the bandage! The wound will probably start blee...ding again."
Gran Torino had made his move while Izuku was distracted, moving too quickly for the boy to stop him with only one hand free. Before Izuku could even think to react, the man had grabbed his forearm and pushed the material up to uncover his wrist.
Izuku was expecting to see angry, swollen red skin and wounds that looked distinctly like two rows of teeth. Instead, the wounds looked like they were almost fully closed up already. In the next couple of hours he would probably just have two crescent shaped scars left on his wrist to go with the collection of other scars that decorated his arms.
"Would you look at that? I'm no health expert, but I'd say that's about a few day's worth of healing," Gran Torino said with all the smugness of someone who'd just been proved right. "Then again, vampires do tend to heal extremely quickly. In fact, the scientists have informed us that they could potentially be almost immortal. Looks like your days of causing doctors a great deal of stress are over as long as you don't go doing anything to get yourself injured beyond repair."
"Please don't tell anyone!" Izuku begged. "I don't want to hurt anyone! I promise I won't!"
"Calm down. I'm not going to turn you in so they can use you as a lab rat like the others. I'm not that cruel, kid. Besides, Toshinori would never let me hear the end of it if I let you get taken into custody without explanation," Gran Torino huffed. "Open the bag."
Izuku did as he was instructed. He took hold of the lid and looked at Gran Torino for reassurance. Gran Torino nodded in encouragement and Izuku slowly, cautiously peeled back the material to reveal several transparent, plastic sports bottles surrounded by small ice packs, each of them filled almost to the brim with a viscous, dark red liquid.
"Oh my god! Are these… bottles of blood?" Izuku questioned. He abruptly, but carefully placed the cooler on the ground and slid it away from him with his foot, wringing his hands out with a thoroughly disturbed expression.
"What else would I be giving you, boy? Tomato juice?" Gran Torino asked, his eyebrows raised as if he couldn't fathom why Izuku had a problem with it. "Use some common sense."
"Where did you even get this? Whose is it? Actually wait I don't want to know the answer to either of those questions," Izuku backtracked quickly. Peering past the man, he could see that the locker contained three more bags. One at the front and two at the back stacked on top of each other. He shook his head in disbelief as a new question occurred to him.
"When did you get this?" He pinched his bottom lip between his index finger and thumb, crossing his other arm over his stomach to rest his elbow on it as his mind raced. "It couldn't have been any time after the party because I was in this room just after we first got here so I would have noticed you coming in, but the rest of the night you were with me and Tsukauchi and I don't remember you leaving at any point. So that would mean you would either have had to ask someone to bring it and put it in your locker or you already had it here. It would probably look suspicious if someone just walked into the police station with four of these bags and I doubt you would give away your locker code to just anyone. So you must have already had this."
"Are you done?"
"Why do you just have a locker full of blood?"
"Luckily for you, there are quite a few quirks in existence that cause blood loss and I have a friend in the medical profession who owes me some favours. I figured some poor unsuspecting fool would get themselves turned into a vampire just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time eventually so I wanted to be prepared," Gran Torino shrugged. "Didn't think that fool would be you, but it turned out I was right to plan ahead."
He walked over to the cooler and casually picked out a bottle, before holding it out. Izuku stared at it warily.
"Drink," Gran Torino prompted.
"Um… I don't-"
"Midoriya, you've used up a lot of energy tonight. I'm not letting you out of here until I've seen you drink at least half a bottle. I will fight you on this if I have to," Gran Torino warned. "Am I clear?"
Izuku nodded reluctantly. He gulped and brought a trembling hand up to take the bottle from the man's hand. He held the bottle up to look at it in the light, tilting it left and right a couple of times, studying the liquid as it moved inside. Finding his resolve, he slowly opened the lid and held it up to his nose to smell it curiously, wondering what he was letting himself in for. When he found that there was no unpleasant smell, he finally, tentatively brought the bottle to his lips. He squeezed his eyes shut firmly and hoped that he could just get it over with quickly.
To his dismay, the blood actually tasted good and he found himself able to drink the whole bottle without even realising it. He only stopped drinking when he went to take another sip only to be met with air. His fangs had extended uncomfortably when the first few drops landed on his tongue, which he assumed was probably his body's natural reaction to thinking it was feeding on something.
He was pretty sure he could figure out how to control them to do that if he needed to, it almost felt like he had a new muscle that needed training, but decided that he didn't want to think about it too much. This had all already been more than enough to take in for one day. Luckily, they retracted again once his body registered he had finished drinking.
"I'll replace that one and then you should have enough to last you at least a week," Gran Torino spoke up as he held out his hand to take the empty bottle away and handed Izuku a tissue to wipe any excess blood from his mouth with. "I'm gonna have a small refrigerator full of it delivered to your dorm some time this week. After that, I need you to tell me whenever you need more. That is my one condition. Do you understand?"
"Yes," Izuku nodded.
"Right then," Gran Torino answered, going to pull a bottle out of one of the spare coolers, swapping it with the empty one before closing his locker. He put the new bottle in the bag he'd given to Izuku, zipped it shut and handed it back to him. "I'll keep you updated if anything new comes up that I think you need to know and if you notice anything unusual, you know my number. I think that's all for now."
Shortly afterwards, Izuku found himself sitting alone in the reception area. His written witness account had been handed in and Tsukauchi had called both his mother and the school to let them know what had happened. The entire time he had been sitting there waiting for someone to pick him up, it was like he could sense the presence of the cooler that Gran Torino had given him in the chair next to him.
Without his phone, the minutes seemed to tick by a lot slower. He soon found himself staring at the now kind of useless bandage around his wrist and his mind began to wander. Now that he knew that the vampires only had to use their fangs, he was feeling pretty resentful towards Toga for needlessly breaking his skin with all of her teeth, but he really wasn't that surprised considering that it was her who had bitten him.
In his mind he could still feel the sting of her teeth as they stabbed through his skin and the strange sensation of liquid pouring into the wound similar to the feeling of an injection going into the bloodstream. He could still hear her vindictive giggling as she pulled away.
"Now I can hurt you as much as I want and as long as I don't go too far, you won't die!" she had proclaimed gleefully, her wide grin stained crimson with his blood. "It's such a relief because you look so much cuter when you're covered in cuts and bruises."
She had moved back in to lick at the wound and Izuku had shoved her away, One For All giving him enough strength to knock her to the ground so that he could make a run for it. His wrist had started to burn in the place where she bit him, but he was running on One For All and adrenaline at that point so he had barely noticed the pain.
Unfortunately, in his haste to get away, Izuku had chosen the quickest path, which was through the house. With Toga most likely back on her feet and on his tail, it was too late to turn back. He had been set on trying to get as many people as he could out and searching for his dad, but then a sharp, blinding pain shot through his arm and all he could do was gasp and clutch at it. The wound looked bruised and swollen and some blood was still dripping out of it, but all he could do was hold it up and close to his chest as he was overwhelmed by a surge of nausea.
Poison, he had realised as he connected his symptoms with the sensation he had experienced when she bit him. Toga's bite had poisoned him somehow.
If the lives of others and himself weren't on the line, Izuku would have taken more time to puzzle over how it was possible. Knowing that the monsters and the villains were still present and that there was no telling how fast acting the poison was, he realised he would only have one very small window of opportunity, so he continued to run. He would just have to try and make a dash for the front door and find somewhere safe to phone for help.
As he made it to the main hall, the pace of his heart rate had picked up. There was a strong possibility that he wouldn't be able to make it across the room without being caught, but he had to cross it to reach the front doors. Taking a deep breath, he had plunged himself into the chaos. There were people screaming and fighting all around him, a couple of times he found himself having to leap out of the path of falling objects. Drops of blood splattered against his skin, hair and outfit in the midst of the ruthless attacks, but he kept pushing himself forwards even though his head spun and his limbs had started to go numb.
Izuku had made it about three quarters of the way across the room when his vision blurred, causing him to trip over a body on the ground. He'd cried out in agony as he hit the floor with a loud smack, his body skidding a little from the momentum he had built up before falling. His features twisted in dismay as his phone skittered across the wooden floor tiles in front of him, out of his reach. Ignoring the pain as much as possible, he'd tried to drag himself across the floor towards it, reaching for it desperately as he felt the power of One For All begin to dwindle.
Just as he had managed to brush it with his fingertips, a shoe came down on top of the device, the screen shattering under the pressure with a loud crunch.
"Isn't this an interesting twist," a voice remarked snidely.
Izuku whimpered in defeat as his eyes trailed upwards to land on the unmistakable hand obstructed face of Shigaraki Tomura. He attempted to push himself backwards away from the man, but his chest suddenly felt constricted as if an invisible hand was wrapped around his windpipe and squeezing tightly until it blocked the flow of air to his lungs. The green sparks of One For All fizzled out as it deactivated and Izuku slumped to the floor, wheezing and feeling at his throat as he curled up a little on his side.
"Looks like you're reaching the final stages," Shigaraki mused, crouching down to hover over Izuku with a smirk. "Bet it takes up a lot of your hp just to breathe right now, huh?"
Izuku found himself unable to respond as his lungs burned and tears pooled in his eyes. He reached out weakly, unsure of what he even planned to do, but snatched his hand back to his chest quickly as one of the monsters nearby let out a primal shriek.
"They won't hurt you," Shigaraki chuckled. "They don't go after their own kind. We don't smell good to them."
Izuku narrowed his eyes at the man, wondering what he meant by that, but unable to voice his question.
"That's a nice mark you got there by the way, Toga did an excellent job with you. Not that I expected anything less." He stood up, but continued to watch Izuku with a cruel grin. "Your face is so red, I bet your lungs are screaming right now, limbs probably feel numb too, am I right?"
Izuku refused to give him any kind of response.
The cold, blood covered sole of Shigaraki's shoe pushed against Izuku's face, grinding it into the ground.
"I could squash you like a bug right now and there wouldn't be anything you could do about it," Shigaraki laughed, pressing down a little more. Izuku closed his eyes tightly, fearing the worst, but suddenly Shigaraki let up. He blinked his eyes open in confusion only to see both of the man's feet planted firmly on the ground in front of him.
"Unfortunately, you'll be more useful to us with a head this time around," Shigaraki stated, actually sounding a little disappointed. "I'd love to stay and watch you die, but this level has been completed for now. So I think I'll leave you here as a nice little bonus gift for the authorities to find. Don't worry though we'll be back for you."
Izuku had watched the villains retreat, their footsteps and laughter echoing in the distance. With the resounding slam of the front door, Izuku was alone.
He had led on the floor in agony for what felt like hours, teardrops joining the puddle of blood beneath him. The room was completely silent apart from a constant noise in the distance that he was sure was the sound of blood dripping. For the first time in a long time he'd felt helpless as his body was drained of all its strength. He knew that nobody would get to him in time and he couldn't do anything about it.
Izuku's body had begun to feel heavy and a tear streamed down his cheek as he felt something flicker out inside him like a candle that had been burned to the end of it's wick. He knew instinctively that it had been One For All. He wondered if All Might felt just as much despair and dread as he did when he'd lost One For All at the end of his battle with All For One. Knowing that he was going to die without getting to complete any of his goals, follow through on his promises and make All Might proud was far more excruciating than the physical pain. Izuku just hoped that All Might and the rest of his loved ones would be alright, that they wouldn't be too upset when they heard the news and that someone would stop this from ever happening again so that they would be safe.
It was childish and maybe a little bit selfish, but in Izuku's last few moments, when he could feel his heartbeat slowing down, he'd wished that he could see his mother or his friends one more time. He wished that Kacchan could be there. Even if the other boy would probably chew him out for being so careless, he knew all of Izuku's secrets and could read him like a book at times, so he would understand the guilt and grief Izuku felt at losing the gift that All Might had trusted him with.
He wanted the comfort of seeing a familiar face. He wanted someone to hold his hand and tell him that it would be alright and that he'd tried his best. Instead, he was alone, only cold and silence had accompanied him.
The reception doors suddenly slammed open and Izuku flinched as he was pulled out of his reminiscent state. A spike of panic shot through him at the sudden burst of sound. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he took in his surroundings and reminded himself that he was at the police station now, that he was no longer dying on the cold floor of an unfamiliar building.
Izuku felt like his heart leapt into his throat upon comprehending that it was his mother standing in the doorway. She started to make her way towards him and he felt like he couldn't breathe all of a sudden. This time it was less like something was blocking his airways though and more like he was holding his breath.
Inko's hair was unkempt and she was wearing pyjama bottoms with a large green jacket that probably belonged to Izuku's father over the top. On her feet were brown boots that looked to be a few sizes too big. She'd clearly left in a hurry when she'd received the call from Tsukauchi, throwing on whatever items of clothing she could reach first. The skin under her eyes was red and puffy like she'd already been crying and on further inspection, Izuku noticed that there was a used, crumpled and torn tissue clenched in her right fist.
She bypassed the receptionist, her expression determined as her boots clunked against the linoleum floor tiles. A fluorescent light flickered above and Izuku held on tightly to the edge of his chair. After the last time she had picked him up from the police station, part of him worried that this was it, that she was about to tell him his time at UA and his hero career were over. He looked down at his feet, his shoulders drawing up towards his jawline as he braced himself for whatever was about to happen.
Izuku was surprised when her hands reached out to gently frame his face and tilt his head upwards. He had to compel himself not to follow the urge to push her away. It was hard to accept someone's hands touching his face when he could still feel the ghost of the sensation of blood on his skin and a shoe pressed hard against his cheek, but he knew how much it would hurt her if he rejected her attempt to comfort him. So he forced his shoulders to relax and met her gaze head on.
She looked at him as if she couldn't quite believe he was there, unshed tears glistening in her eyes. "Midoriya Izuku," she choked, "don't you ever do anything like that to me again."
Izuku nodded, his own eyes starting to feel watery.
His mother started crying softly. "I was so scared when I saw the news," she whispered, tears sliding down her cheeks. "I thought you were..." she took a calming breath and removed her hands from his face to dab at the wet, irritated skin under her eyes in a similar fashion to that of a makeup artist dabbing concealer into their skin. "I'm so glad you're alive," she settled on, her arms dropping back down to her sides.
Izuku shot out of his chair, taking care not to use too much of his new found strength and unintentionally hurt his mother as he wrapped his arms around her. She immediately hugged him back, letting out a small sniffle. The smell of her perfume and his dad's clothes combined with the sound of her pulse beating close to his ear provided him a sense of security and solace. For the first time that night he felt truly safe.
The memory of how much he wanted to see his mother in his final moments, the relief that the last time he saw her wasn't the final time and the guilt about letting his father out of his sight only to be unable to find him again hit him all at once and just like that the dam broke. He clutched the material of the jacket she was wearing tightly in his hands and broke down, burying his head into her shoulder as he wept.
Izuku's shoulders shook with the force of it as he tried to get air into his lungs between the floods of tears. He didn't even pick up on the reception door opening and closing again over the sound of his own harsh sobs. His mother tried to whisper that it was ok, that he was going to be ok, but she was in a similar state of upset. He was very much aware of her tears soaking into the shoulder of his borrowed grey shirt. At that point, Izuku wasn't even entirely sure if her soft spoken reassurances were meant for him or for her.
"I'm sorry, mum. I'm so sorry," Izuku cried. "Dad's missing. I couldn't find him. I-I couldn't-"
"Shh, shh. It's ok, sweetie. It's not your fault. I'm just happy you got out of there safely," she whispered in a soothing tone, reaching up to run her fingers through his hair delicately. Izuku only cried harder. He didn't feel like he deserved to be treated so nicely when he'd let so many people down, when he'd let himself get caught off guard, when he was slowly becoming like the monster's who'd caused all of this. "We'll get through this, Izuku," his mother promised him. "We always do."
All that Izuku could do was hope that she was right as he sensed that he was being watched and looked up from her shoulder to meet the serious stares of All Might and Aizawa.