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He let out a yell, pure with emotion, when the last villain went down. The place that had once been his home was now reduced to the ash and rubble that surrounded him.
The rocklike armor of his skin faded away, though his heart still pounded with fight or flight instinct.
Right now, he was more inclined to do the latter. Memory overwhelmed him, bittersweet visions of the past that were now tainted with bloodshed and carnage.
Was it really his hands that had lead to this destruction? Was it really him that had fought without a sense of remorse? It must have been, because his hands were stained red with blood that wasn't his own.
It must have been, because the villain hadn't gotten the chance to escape this time.
But he couldn't quite make himself believe it.
A hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, and he flinched, skin hardening instinctively. Even though he shook with exhaustion, even though all he wanted was to drop everything and leave this place, with its tainted memories, he wasn't ready to run yet. He couldn't; not with the fight still running through his veins and through his memory.
"Ei."
He knew that voice. It tugged at him from the recesses of his mind. Could it be another memory, from before life as he knew it turned to rubble? His eyes narrowed. No. It had to be a trick. The past was gone, turned to broken stone and drifting embers. It had to be a trick. He whirled, ready to be met with glaring eyes and a bloodthirsty grin. Those things always made it easier.
He hadn't expected a soft embrace and memory come to life.
"Ei," his boyfriend whispered in an even yet pleading tone. "It's over now."
He allowed himself to crumble with the armor. Tears he didn't realize he'd been holding back left shining trails on his cheeks. Katsuki reached up to brush them away. His hand was red and sticky. Had Eijirou done that? Hurt the one who loved him as well as the ones that didn't.
"The villain?" he found himself asking aloud, like listening to a recording instead of being the speaker.
"Taken care of. Don't worry about it."
He listened to himself hesitate before choking out the words, "And my family?"
Katsuki held him closer, and that was all the answer Kirishima needed.
Battlegrounds could heal over time, be rebuilt, as they weren't plagued with consciousness like humans are. Wounds heal, eventually. Scars fade.
But the scars left by memory are forever.