Chapter 7: Deku

"Uraraka! We can't go back to U.A.! We need to find a hospital now."

"Kacchan?" Deku whipped his head around to look behind him, back towards the dorms, but he didn't see Kacchan or Uraraka anywhere behind him on the pathway. He turned back around to face forward, scratching his head as he went. He tried to suppress the fluttering in his chest as he took a few paces forwards. "Weird," he mumbled under his breath, then quickened his pace as he saw All Might weave his way around the corner near a clump of trees on campus, heading his direction.

"Young Midoriya!" All Might beamed when he caught sight of Deku. "You're looking quite energized this morning! Good thing we've planned a little stroll to work off some of our excess energy. Not that I really have excess energy anymore." He chuckled slightly as they began to veer down a small path leading into the forests around campus. "Now, what was it that you wanted to chat about?"

Deku let his eyes trail to the ground, watching his chunky red sneakers march one after the other in front of him. "Well, I had a pretty strange dream last night that I wanted to ask you about. I don't really know if dreams are supposed to mean anything important, but it was so weird that I just couldn't shake it."

Suddenly a sharp cry reverberated through the trees around them, jolting Deku out of his subdued state. "Bakugo, down this alley, hurry! There's a main road over there!" He swept the surrounding trees with his vision, but saw nothing.

"Did you hear that?" He turned to All Might. "It sounded like Uraraka-san's voice."

All Might glanced up from scanning the path ahead of them. "Uh… no, I didn't." He stopped next to Deku and the two were silent for a moment, surveying the trees around them for any sign of movement or sound. "What did she say?" All Might finally spoke.

"Well, she called Kacchan to go down an alley, but there aren't any of those nearby when we're in the middle of the woods."

"Okay," All Might nodded. "Let's just continue and we'll stop and look around if you hear something again. You were saying?" He started walking again, leaving Deku no choice but to catch up.

I heard Kacchan's voice earlier, too, Deku thought as he plunged his hands into the pockets of his green hoodie and resumed staring at his feet. Should I tell All Might? He doesn't seem to believe me. Maybe I should text one of them?

He fumbled around in his pockets for his phone, coming up with nothing but a few pieces of paper he had scribbled notes on and his provisional hero license. He must have left it in his room back at the dorm. Sighing, he returned his eyes to the path ahead of him.

"Young Midoriya?"

"Oh, right!" Deku scrambled as he caught All Might's sideways glance at him. "Well, in the dream, I was alone in a room with Shigaraki and I was bound to a chair so I couldn't move. I have no idea how I got there, it just started out like that. Then, Shigaraki was trying to torture me to give up information on how to defeat you. I didn't understand at first-you've already used up what you had left of One for All-but then I thought that maybe he knew I was involved with you somehow, on a level deeper than just being one of your students."

"It's quite possible that is the case, young Midoriya. In my final fight with All for One, he acknowledged that you were my successor, that you now possessed One for All. It's very likely that he passed this knowledge onto Shigaraki. Just as I warned you, there might be one day where you will have to face All for One. Let's just hope you are fully prepared when that day comes."

Deku shuddered, recalling the tremendous amount of strength that All Might had been forced to muster on the night they had saved Kacchan from the League of Villains. "All Might, I don't know if I'm capable at this point of the kind of strength you have."

"That's why you were right to come to me about this dream of yours. Even if it isn't any sort of prediction of the future, it isn't impossible to suggest that Shigaraki would come after you while you're still a student at U.A. You have so much still to learn, which makes you vulnerable and easy for Shigaraki to handle on his own. No offense."

"No… of course not," Deku squirmed, hoping All Might wouldn't see him out of the corner of his eye.

"So," All Might stopped, turned, and placed his hands firmly on Deku's shoulders. "We will continue training you to be the best hero you can be, quickly. You will be ready to take on Shigaraki if it comes to it, and you won't have to fear any of what came to pass in this dream of yours. You will stand your ground."

Deku stared into All Might's smiling face and felt a sense of serenity wash over him. Even with All Might in the weakened state that he was in now, he still exuberated confidence and positivity. He still had all he had learned from all of the experiences he had gone through, and he would help Deku do his best to protect himself and others from Shigaraki and All for One.

"And with that smile I see spreading across your face," All Might continued, "I think we should return to the place where you first began your training and get some more practice in!"

"Yes!" Deku beamed and threw his fists into the air.

"We'll start with you carrying me all the way there on your back, while running," All Might stated mischievously, beginning to laugh when Deku's smile was replaced by dread. He jumped into the air and quickly heightened his body to his stronger state, then landed with a thud on top of Deku's shoulders. "I'll try to keep this form for as long as possible, so go!"

Deku shook his head and laughed as he regained composure in his wobbling shoulders, then he set off along the path again at breakneck speed. The sensation of his feet hitting against the textured gravel path, the force of the wind whipping at his face, and the weight of All Might on his back transported him instantly back to the days when he had first begun training with All Might, so unsure of what was to come yet so excited for all of it. Now, he was steadily progressing through his first year at U.A. and, though there had already been a lot more distressing circumstances than he had ever imagined, it felt like real hero's work and he was so happy with the progress he had made, the friends he had met, and the guidance that All Might and the other teachers had shown him. He couldn't wait to hit that training ground again and see how differently he tackled it with all of that additional experience under his belt.

"Is Deku breathing, Bakugo?"

The sudden sound of Uraraka's voice, practically breathing into his ear, stopped Deku in his tracks and almost sent All Might soaring ahead of him, if not for Deku's tight grip around All Might's legs.

"Young Midoriya? Why did you stop?" All Might looked down at him from above, the spiky tips of his hair deflating and curling up as he returned to his weakened state. Deku felt the weight on his shoulders lighten a bit, but he set All Might down on the ground to further alleviate the pressure and try to get his heavy gasping breath to return to normal.

"I… I just… heard her… again," Deku huffed, stooping down and placing his hands on his knees for support. "Uraraka-san, I mean."

All Might squatted so that he was face-to-face with Deku again. "Are you sure? I didn't hear anything at all and I was as close to you as I could possibly be." Deku locked eyes with him, noticing that All Might's eyes reflected what he could only interpret as a sort of fear. He nodded.

"Right in my ear... like she was really close," Deku panted. "She said, 'Is Deku breathing, Bakugo?'"

All Might stood to his full height again and began to scan the area around them. They had moved quickly while Deku was running, and now they were out of the cover of trees and nearing the gate of the school. It would be easy to see other people milling about, and Deku himself noticed that there was nobody around but them. Deku straightened up just in time to be met by All Might's palm pressing against his forehead.

"You don't feel like you have a fever or anything…" All Might mumbled as he let his hand fall. "Are you feeling alright, Midoriya?"

"Yes, yes!" Deku replied confidently. "I'm just as confused as you are, All Might."

"I can't tell! Maybe, uh, no!"

Deku jumped, startling All Might and causing him to step back. "Again! Right in my ear! Kacchan this time!" All Might was looking at him with wide eyes and a slack jaw. "Um, All Might, do you by chance have your cell phone on you? We can call one of them and confirm that I'm going crazy that way…" Deku's attempt at a lighthearted joke didn't phase All Might, who stared at him for a long moment before fishing his phone out of his pocket.

"Here, Midoriya. Let's keep walking while you call. Maybe you're just groggy from that dream and you'll clear your head with the fresh air." He tossed the phone to Deku and started moving again, so Deku trailed a few paces behind him as he dialed Uraraka's number.

It was early in the morning, so there was a chance she would be sleeping and wouldn't even pick up the phone at all, but relief washed over Deku as he heard the click of the receiver on the other end.

"Uraraka? It's Deku. Sorry for calling so early in the morning, I just was wondering about something…"

"Please help us! It's my friend, he's really hurt and not breathing… Yes, his name is Midoriya Izuku, he's a U.A. student… Birthday is July 15th, I don't know his blood type off the top of my head… Family? Um, oh, Midoriya Inko! She's his mom. Listen, I can't answer any more questions until you help him!"

Deku almost dropped the phone as he yanked it away from his ear and stared at it, frozen in his tracks.

"Young Midoriya?" All Might stopped walking and turned. "You're pale as a ghost, boy!"

That was definitely her voice, Deku began to panic internally, not even registering that All Might was now moving back towards him. But she seemed so far away. She didn't make any sense! I'm breathing, I'm alive, I'm fine. What is going on? He scrambled to put the phone up to his ear again, but nothing came through from the other end, so he hung up and dialed Kacchan's number with shaking fingers.

"Hey shitty Deku!"

Kacchan's voice blared after one ring.

"Oh, thank God. Kacchan, something really weird is go-"

"You better not die! Uraraka and I are going to be waiting right here and if we have to walk through that hospital door to the fucking morgue instead of a patient room, I'm going to kill you… What? Yeah I got a few bruises but take care of her first. She passed out for a sec earlier, so she might have a concussion or something. I'm going to wait right here for that damn Deku."

A click on the other end of the line signaled that the call was done, but Deku couldn't move the phone away from his ear. His brain was in shock, his body numb. He couldn't make sense of what was going on and yet… it seemed so real. It was unexplainable, even as All Might stood in front of him with his arms crossed, waiting for an explanation.

Finally, All Might took action on his own, reaching out with one hand to take the phone away from Deku while placing a light touch on his back with the other. "Let's just calm down," he spoke slowly, guiding Deku over to a nearby bench and lowering him onto it. "I'm not even going to ask what you heard, because I can tell from your face that it was not a normal conversation."

All Might sat down next to Deku, who was trying to control his breathing that was now fast-paced and shallow. He placed one hand on Deku's head and slowly began to pat it, not really sure how to calm the boy down given the situation they were in, while he glanced at the call history on the phone.

"Midoriya, both of these calls say they weren't picked up on the other end."

Deku leaned over and rested his elbows on his knees, pressing his hands over his eyes. "I don't know what to tell you, All Might. I'm at a loss."

"Okay, let's just walk this off. Let's go to training like we were planning to, and get a really good workout in, and then if things still feel off we can take you to Recovery Girl. Or maybe search for Uraraka and Bakugo in person. It will be late enough in the morning by then that they should be up and preparing for class. Hopefully this is all some kind of prank they're playing on you."

"Right," Deku breathed shakily as All Might rose and offered him a hand up. "That's all I can really do right now." But the idea All Might suggested wasn't sitting well in his own head.

Kacchan I could see wanting to play some sort of trick on me, if he wanted to exert the energy, but Uraraka? No. Deku scratched his head and stared at his feet. She and I are too close of friends for her to do something like this, right?

Minutes later, they had arrived at the old scrapyard that they had used as a training ground when Deku was preparing for the U.A. entrance exam. No longer was Deku excited to be there, now seeing training only as a hurdle, a time-filler, before he could figure out what the heck was going on with the voices of his friends haunting him. But he knew that having 'uninterrupted' time to train with All Might was a valuable and rare experience for him, with everything going on at U.A., so Deku threw on a smile and began fulfilling the tasks that All Might assigned to him.

Things were actually going well. Deku could feel the blood pumping through his veins, the wind on his face, the dirt under his feet, just as he had before, and it really was an invigorating feeling. Now, Deku was doing the same tasks he had been in the final days of his initial training two or three times faster than before, with more efficiency and finesse to boot.

All Might seemed even happier, Deku noted, as he seemed to have forgotten all about the morning's events and probably assumed Deku had, too. And that was fine-maybe Deku would forget about them if they just kept working. All Might had plenty of new exercises that he wanted Deku to try as well, so he went straight to work on those after he ran through some of his original tasks with flying colors.

"Alright, young Midoriya," All Might spoke as he raised a hand to stop Deku in the middle of his third run of the morning. "Let's see what your maximum strength is. Come over here."

Deku followed him, panting slightly, to several huge stacks of metal that towered over the scrapyard. All Might began scaling one of the stacks, then when he reached the top he pointed for Deku to stand directly in front of it.

"Knees bent, shoulders squared, arms up!" All Might shouted down to him. Then he scooped a large sheet of metal off the tower next to his and dropped it directly on top of Deku. "Catch!"

Deku braced for the impact with the sheet of metal, which turned out not to be nearly as heavy as he was anticipating, so he quickly straightened out as he held it aloft in the air. One after another, plates of metal began tumbling down on Deku. He looked up under the corner of the sheet of metal nearest his head to see that All Might was jumping back and forth between the two stacks above him, alternating the pieces that he sent falling down as the piles quickly diminished in size. Then, he shifted his eyes towards the ground and concentrated on balancing the increasingly heavy weight.

"Great job, Midoriya!" All Might's voice rang out from much closer after a few moments, and Deku looked up to see him standing proudly on the ground next to him with his hands on his hips. "Now, let's see how long you can sustain this. Stamina and endurance are just as important as strength."

Deku grinned at All Might, then looked down just in time to see one knee buckle. He righted himself, but as he did so, he noticed something. Just underneath the cutoff of his shorts, blood was flowing freely and quickly down his knees.

Weird, Deku thought. I don't remember injuring myself during any of the previous training exercises.

He didn't have much more time to think before an immense pressure started to build around his left leg, just underneath the knee, and a searing pain ran up and down his calf. Deku looked down to see blood covering the entire leg, and he looked away again before he could be sure, but he thought he had even seen parts of bone.

"All Might!" Deku looked up to search for the man and ask for assistance of some kind, but he was distracted again by his right arm, which was in almost the same sorry state as his legs. Deku followed the trail of injuries to his chest, and then began to feel a sickening shortage of air flowing through his lungs. He began to gasp. These injuries were eerily similar to the ones he had escaped in his dream. "What… the heck… is… going on?"

All Might had wandered a few paces away to inspect some other pieces of metal that were scattered across the ground. When he heard Deku struggling, he popped his head up with a smile and joked. "Giving up so quickly, Midoriya?" Then he took in the sight before him.

All Might ran to Deku, gesturing wildly for him to shift the huge stack of metal off to his right, where the ground was clear. Deku could hardly move his arms, which were now shaking and bloody, but he managed to send the metal above his head cascading away in a giant heap. His body crumbled just in time for All Might to catch him and set him gently on the ground, resting Deku's head gingerly across his own arms.

Turning his head towards All Might, Deku could now see that blood was even cascading across his own face, absorbing into the sleeve and front of All Might's perfectly white t-shirt. Everything hurt, and he couldn't figure out why.

"Young Midoriya," All Might slowly lowered Deku onto the ground and stood wobbly, baffled at the sight of his young student wounded from head to toe with no explanation. "I'm going to get an ambulance. Please hold on."

All Might slowly backed up a few paces, then turned and started running towards the entrance of the scrapyard, where he had deposited his phone along with his hero license and various other things from his pockets. Deku watched him go, thoughts racking his brain about the impossibility of the morning he was having.

That's just it! Deku felt his mind reach a sense of clarity for the first time since waking up from the horrid dream earlier that morning. This is impossible! I can't be so badly wounded like this with no explanation, and I didn't just randomly hear voices earlier. What if… what if my dream was reality and what I'm in now is the real dream? I'm already in the position that I told All Might about! I'm strong enough to stand up to Shigaraki yet!

Suddenly, Deku felt pressure between the fingers of his left hand. He sat up with all the strength he could muster, but saw nothing there besides the wounds that had already appeared. He raised his gaze to see All Might jogging back to him, his cell phone in his hands and his fingers racing to dial a number. He stopped just a foot away from Deku and brought the phone to his ear, then began talking. Deku watched his lips move, but couldn't hear any words.

I must really be messed up if I can't even hear him. My head is swimming, things are starting to go dark… This can't be a dream. People never die in their dreams. This has to be reality. Which means I could die… Lost in his thoughts and fighting to hold onto consciousness, Deku only glanced up briefly when he noticed someone approaching behind All Might. Wow, that was fast. He's not even off the phone yet.

But something didn't feel right. It was only one person, and from the blurred view of things that Deku had, he couldn't make out any sort of paramedic equipment.

"All Mi-" Deku started to say, but his words came out slurred and his chest tightened around his lack of oxygen. He tried to reach towards All Might, but his hands wouldn't move, and he began to fall backwards again.

All Might noticed and quickly turned back to face Deku as he ended his call, but by now the man was standing directly behind him. Just as All Might moved to kneel down next to Deku, the man sprang on him and wrapped both hands around his neck. As Deku's eyes began to flutter, he could just make out Shigaraki Tomura's face leering at him from across All Might's left shoulder, his fingers crushing the air in his throat.

In a moment, faster than Deku had ever seen Shigaraki use his quirk before, All Might's throat began to crack and peel. Deku was helpless and All Might didn't even have the time to react. His body crumbled completely into dust in a matter of seconds. All Might was gone.

Deku's eyes closed as Shigaraki stepped through the dust fluttering in the air, towards him. Then they opened again, and he was somewhere else entirely.

"ALL MIGHT!" Deku screamed and shot up to a sitting position, protesting against every aching muscle in his body that told him to stay down.

"Deku-kun!"

That voice sounds familiar. His head felt immensely more heavy than it had seconds before, his eyelids drooping and his throat incredibly dry. His brain was hardly processing his bright surroundings. He felt the still-present pressure around his fingers increase as he turned his head away from the blinding sunlight to look. Fingers were interlaced within his own, and he followed them upwards to a brown-haired girl with a small bandage applied to one temple, crying softly.

"Uraraka," Deku tried to speak, but her name didn't leave his lips. Only a small grunt managed to pass through, but she stood from the chair she had been in and carefully placed her weight on the side of the bed he was laying in. She spread her free hand on the back of his head, cradling his body against hers in the most cautious hug he had ever experienced.

Memories of what had actually happened began flooding into Deku's head and he slumped against her, all of the energy he had mustered in his panic over All Might completely depleted. He could still feel himself struggling to breathe slightly, which now made sense as all of the injuries he had inconceivably sustained had in fact been real, but he could feel a mask across his nose and mouth supplying oxygen to his lungs. Deku sighed heavily and Uraraka passed a hand delicately over his back.

"It's okay, Deku-kun," Uraraka spoke shakily as she placed his head back on the pillow behind him and returned to her seat. "We got you out. You're in a hospital room now. Admittedly, it's not that far away from the League's hideout, but we called Aizawa-sensei during the night and he sent some heroes to scout out the building. We haven't heard back yet."

Deku followed her gaze as she looked towards the blinding sunlight. A large, slightly open window with a wide sill was set into a white wall next to the bed. Kacchan was casually leaning against it, watching Deku. He had small bandages dotting his arms and one leg was bandaged from the knee down.

"Hey, shitty Deku," Kacchan said with a smirk and a short nod. "Good thing you didn't die. You would've been in some real trouble." Deku felt himself smiling despite how much his face hurt and how he struggled for air. Kacchan shifted his weight off the windowsill and walked over to stand next to the bed. He tapped Deku's right shoulder just above a thick layer of bandages concealing some of the damage from Shigaraki's quirk. "You look like I already beat the shit out of you, though."

Deku did his best to raise his head and inspect his body, but found the effort too taxing. Instead, he tried to feel for what had been attended to. He could feel bandages wrapped around every body part that Shigaraki had touched with his quirk, but it was hard to tell anything else. He didn't want to know what the doctors had done to try to save his limbs, what with large portions of the flesh having been stripped from the bones, but he was pretty sure that he still had all four limbs. There was an IV drip attached to a needle inserted into the hand that Uraraka was still clutching, and Deku could feel the warmth of several layers of blankets shielding his body from the cool air in the hospital room. He also heard a faint beeping noise, most likely a heart monitor, that seemed to fluctuate as Deku had tried to move around. He could just see the top of his bandaged chest from the angle his head was resting on the pillow. He was no longer wearing his hero costume, nor a shirt at all, and saw electrodes attached to wires in various places across his chest. Deku hoped for Uraraka's sake that he was wearing pants.

The events of what Deku now knew to be the real dream still lingered in his mind, now more than ever confirming Deku's idea that his dreams could be harbingers of his future. What had happened to All Might might be a sign of something to come. Deku hadn't shared anything with Shigaraki last night, but maybe Shigaraki's point wasn't really to learn more about All Might himself, but to gauge how much Deku had learned from All Might already, to measure how stoppable Deku was at this point and how easy it would be to eliminate All Might before he could teach Deku anything more.

"Kacchan," Deku spoke so quietly that Kacchan had to lean down to squat at eye level with Deku. He tried his best to be clear, but his words were labored. "I had a… strange dream… I think... Shigaraki knows about… uh… All Might's problem… and knows it would be… easier… to get rid of me… now-"

"Rather than later," Kacchan cut him off, cajolingly, but carefully, patting Deku's head. "I know. This whole fiasco wasn't just to get to All Might, although he's probably next on Shigaraki's list."

"What does he mean, All Might's problem?" Uraraka looked back and forth between them, but Kacchan didn't say anything. "What do you mean, Deku-kun?"

But darkness was converging around Deku's field of vision again. In his exhaustion-induced stupor, he thought he saw a shadow of concern cross Kacchan's face, but his brain was shutting off too quickly to keep up. He drifted into unconsciousness with the comfortable pressure of Uraraka's fingers interlaced with his own once more.