-x- Shoto -x-

Recovery Girl came into the dorm, with the majority of the class only with healable injuries, all of them asleep. Either on the floor or the couches. Kaminari was sleeping on the coffee table. Aizawa woke them up gently. Shoto found that Hawks and Touya were gone. He couldn't hear them anywhere and their scents were stale, old.

Aizawa had an eye patch and looked exhausted. Shoto sighed, frowning deeply. He did not heal fully from the fight, but it wasn't wounds anyone else gave him. The sun did it. Could the teacher not see out of that eye anymore? Shoto wasn't going to ask, but Hagakure did. Shoto could tell under his pants there was a prosthetic.

"I can't see well out of it anymore. My days as the hero Eraserhead are over. I'm still your teacher, though. I'm very sorry you were all put through this. It was not something that should have ever involved children. But you all helped exponentially on the battlefield," he said sincerely. Many started crying as Recovery Girl went around and helped heal their wounds, which ended up with everyone back to sleeping.

Katsuki was with Kirishima in his room. Recovery Girl went up to them to help, following Aizawa. So, Katsuki's wounds were all healed. Shoto was the only one of the three to have more permanent issues. But it was fine. He was alive, that was what mattered. His friends were alive, he called his parents and they were alive. He called his biological siblings, and they were fine. Rei was safe as well.

Him being injured was more than preferable than others he loved being hurt. "Sensei, can we go home soon?" Tsu asked quietly. Uraraka was sleeping with her back against the couch. Everyone was there, now, safe and at school. Shoto was awake, Izuku sleeping with his head in his lap. They all needed long baths. To scrub the blood and dirt and grime off. For now, it was mostly sleep that was needed.

"I don't know yet. The principal has not yet made a decision. It might take a little longer to see how things play out to let the students return home. The Paranormal Liberation Front's main players are gone. Re Destro is dead, Gigantomachia is imprisoned. All For One is still in jail, and the nomus are being hunted down by getting information out of the creator. You may have to wait just a bit longer. Luckily, none of our student's houses were in the compromised areas."

"I wished it didn't end like this," Shoto said.

"I know about what happened with Touya, Shoto." He bit his lip in worry. "I am not upset that you handled those members that way. I am not happy that you didn't stay where you were assigned." Then he sighed. "But you changed the outcome of the ending battle. I am glad I was not there to see it, but I wish I could have helped you."

Shoto looked down at his leg, and moved his unoccupied hand to his black and crinkled ear. With his old hair, it could have been hidden. Now there was another ugly spot in complete view. "I'm okay. I'll get used to it," Shoto said. He always did. Why would this time be any different? "Besides, many others had harder injuries than I did."

He had no idea the amount of pain some of his classmates had. He only knew his own agony, so he couldn't really compare it to another, and wasn't really interested in having a pity competition. He was tired of pity, and was just glad most of his burns would be hidden. He hoped Izuku still thought he was pretty, even with a fully charcoal black leg and another that was bright red from the calf down from being dissolved. Same with his hands, both of them. It was just nice his face wasn't even more damaged.

"I know it won't feel any better, but you got those wounds fighting on your own, Shoto. You were stupid reckless, but brave. What was your plan?" Aizawa said, sitting down with difficulty. He sounded sincere and caring. So Shoto quietly explained his theory about Shigaraki only having use of one arm. He answered the teacher's question in detail.

"Figured targeting his remaining arm would work, would render him useless. His regeneration was just too good. I only got so close because I had already been decayed and healed. When I went after Katsuki at the summer training camp. I don't think I would have just jumped in without any prior knowledge or plan. But… I forced myself to be detached from everyone around. I… don't want to talk about it anymore," he said, shutting down.

For a moment, all he'd thought about all the humans around were that they were his next meal. And he was do glad he reverted back to normal. Thanks to Izuku… strangling him. Poor Izuku. Shoto didn't fall asleep, he was haunted a bit by what happened and couldn't get his brain to shut down.

Tsu fell asleep, but Shoto stayed awake. Aizawa made him some hot chocolate, and he was careful drinking it over Izuku's head.

He ended up falling asleep after a few hours of being awake and lost in thought. When he woke up, he was happy that all the curtains were drawn. Izuku sat up, and rubbed his face, his hand coming back with flaky blood. "We're all still so filthy," he said, sounding surprised.

"Everyone just passed out," Shoto replied. "I need a bath, too," he added quietly. Izuku agreed. They both carefully got up, Izuku helping Shoto limp to the elevator. He was getting the feeling back in it slowly, it wasn't only pain. The sensation of his muscles moving felt hard and awkward. Unnatural.

He walked down the hall to his room, doing his best not to limp. He grit his teeth at it, again wishing he was a human. All the humans in the dorms were healing mostly by Recovery Girl. This couldn't be fixed with medicine of any kind. Maybe if he skinned his leg it would work, but the thought passing through his head made him want to vomit. How could he think of skinning his own leg?

Though, if this was how it always would be… he might do it, without telling anyone, of course. Izuku walked beside him in the hall, not pressing to help him, thankfully. But he did help him get a bath ready. He filled the tub for him with hot water, and then helped Shoto get the pants off. They'd seen one another in their underwear and more many times before, so this wasn't odd.

Shoto didn't want to see his looks at his burnt up body. "I keep getting uglier for you…" he murmured. Izuku crouched in front of him since Shoto was sitting on the closed toilet lid.

"You're beautiful to me. These… they're battle scars."

"At least they're not ugly self harm," Shoto admitted, touching the scar that ran across his face. "What if I can't be a hero, cause I have trouble moving my leg?" he asked. "Would you not want to anymore and drop out?"

"No, I still want to be a hero," Izuku said. This made Shoto relieved and he smiled.

"You'll make a good hero. You'll never think of humans as meals, or go rabid and hurt other people, good people. Like I did. I'm so sorry I fought you, and you had to strangle me to stop me," he said quietly, miraculously holding in tears. Izuku took his hands and kissed them.

"I love you, that - that didn't change anything. I know you did it because you saw no other option. You don't like that feeling." Shoto shook his head. "C'mon into the bath, you'll feel a lot better clean." Shoto nodded. Izuku looked away and Shoto undressed and got into the tub, pulling the curtain closed enough just so his head was showing so Izuku could stay inside. Instantly, the water turned a dull brown with a light red tint. He immediately drained the tub. Izuku sat on the toilet seat, and took his own clothes off to look at the extent of his permanent damage.

It wasn't nearly as bad as Shoto's, and that was good. He would rather be more hurt than Izuku. The freckled teen had a very thick stripe of black on his arm, and that would be uncomfortable often. Does someone use their legs more than their arms? So which was worse, a damaged leg or a damaged arm? Shoto had both.

"You didn't get that hurt," Shoto said in relief. "I'm glad. I hope Katsuki isn't that bad, either."

"He's not, he had a lot of cuts, but they were stitched up and then healed by Recovery Girl. So that's really good." Shoto nodded in agreement. "We worked together really well… we fought together well. Did you ever think, like consider, being a team? A trio? Hawks said it before…" Izuku asked slowly face red and seeming worried to ask Shoto, like he'd hate it.

"Not really. I don't think I'd want that, because I'd always worry, on some level. And, if I didn't protect you well enough, it could be my fault. Or vice versa."

"I didn't think of that. Makes sense." Thankfully, he didn't seem too disappointed or upset. After Shoto was clean, with Izuku deciding he wanted to wash his hair from the side of the tub, scrubbing all the gunk and ash and dirt out, he left to take his own bath while Shoto relaxed in his room. He didn't know how school would start again, if it would start again.

All For One and Shigaraki were gone. Dabi was long gone, Toga and Twice were detained. Kurogiri was also put away. Compress was detained. Spinner and Magne were put away awhile ago. It really seemed like the League was over. But what would happen now? Who would be the new threat?

Would he ever get to go home or would the rest of his foster years be here? Surrounded by humans. At least they were understanding now, though. He just hoped nobody found out about his episode, regardless of whether it helps take Shigaraki down in the end. It didn't. It only injured him and Touya, it was Hawks that killed him. Not even using a quirk, but a crude hunk of metal.

Shoto walked around his room a few times, and did leg exercises. It was worse on his leg than his arm, so it was more prudent to work on the worst part. It hurt. It really hurt to extend it fully, and close it fully. He had a smaller range of motion. He could move it, but it hurt to do so. Was he a crippled hero like Endeavor? If Shoto cut off his leg, would it regrow normally?

Going to the bathroom, he got a shaving razor he had and broke the razor out. It sliced his finger a bit, but it healed over. He sat on the desk chair, and propped his leg up on the bed beside it, and carefully sliced off a small chunk of the burned scar tissue. He expected to see lots of blood, but all there was was black. He licked his lips and sliced deeper. More black.

He got the jist pretty easily, and his leg healed over to be another chunk of black. The tissue was burnt all the way through. The only way he might be able to get rid of it would be to sever his leg at the mid thigh, and hope it regrew. But having a painful leg was better than no leg. He would get used to it. He'd dealt with the agonizing thirst for over a year. Well, he hadn't dealt with it well, he had just made it through without dying. Somehow.

Then for years after that, the thirst was present. Yeah, he could deal with this. It was just lucky he didn't usually show skin, as this was… quite unsightly. He never wanted anyone else to see it. Was this how Touya had felt with all his burns? They were all over his body, in places he couldn't hide it.

He wondered if Touya partially went villain because he could not hide what he must have thought of as wrong or ugly. It wasn't, clearly, to Hawks. They'd been 'hooking up' even before Touya's burns were reversed.

Shoto's phone buzzed, and he saw it was Endeavor, but from a different number. How are your wounds? Shoto was not full of bitterness. He remembered the shout in fear the man had when he'd run out to go against Shigaraki alone, when they couldn't seem to hurt him. Endeavor had sounded very scared and worried, even though he was a failure vampire son.

He would never love Endeavor, but he could at least give him an answer now.

I have sunburns. It's fine.

He replied almost immediately. Will they affect your day to day? He didn't make a big deal that Shoto responded. This was not a show of love or forgiveness, Shoto was just being what he considered a decent person.

Walking is hard. I'll get over it.

I hope so. I am glad you are alive. And Touya. Shoto didn't respond, and he got no further texts, which was what he would prefer. He gave Endeavor his answer, and now… he could leave them alone. He had no idea how Endeavor would react with Touya, though. He'd been around Endeavor in this state before and was a complete asshole to him. Clearly it showed that Touya held no fond feelings for him.

Shoto didn't know if Endeavor was angry, happy, relieved. Didn't know how he felt about both sons being alive, one he thought was dead and the other he tortured and then abandoned. Lost custody for life and got a restaining order that he didn't respect. It felt like such a tiny problem. A father-son spat when the country was falling to shit. Well, Shoto didn't know how bad, he was avoiding his phone, turned off all notifications but personal texts and calls. He didn't need to see the news. Didn't need to see the destruction, the death, the hero failures.

Yes… they did what they aimed to. But they'd pulled it off so, so poorly. As a whole, the heroes did not do a good job. And the civilians would punish them.

After everyone took baths and changed clothes, their hero costumes in tatters or just very dirty, they all had some food, cooking breakfast, the most depressed meal prep ever. Nobody spoke. Momo still had a painful headache and made herself eye masks to hide the light. Shoto had trouble walking right, but did his best even though it hurt. He helped make the scrambled eggs.

"Shoto… is your leg okay?" Sero asked. Shoto felt he could relate the most out of them because his tape elbow was no longer fully functioning.

"It hurts, but I can move," Shoto said, and then put the massive pan of eggs on the counter and scooped it out with the big spoon while Tsu made the bacon and Sato worked on the french toast. When everything was put down on the table, nobody found they could eat any of it. They just sat at the table, staring at their plates before the first person broke into tears. Pretty soon, every student was crying in some fashion, whether it was silent, slow tears like Shoto, out right sobbing like Aoyama and Uraraka, or sniffling stubbornly like Katsuki.

They were just kids, heroes students or not. And nobody felt ashamed to cry over it. They all went through shared trauma and had to navigate the aftermath together.

-x- Shoto -x-

Hero basics classes had resumed, finally. It was good, it kept them distracted. Both Shoto and Izuku had new suits, extremely durable, thick bodysuits beneath their uniforms or hero clothes, and then the latex sunscreen on everywhere else. It dried invisible on their faces, ears, and hands, the only exposed places, even though the rest of their bodies were lathered up, too.

It was itchy at first but the sense of safety was important. Shoto had a brace on his knee that only allowed him to bend his leg in the comfortable way, which was enough and kept him from crying out every time. Everyone was very careful to not try to handicap him, ask if he was alright. He wasn't, but he would continue as a hero no matter the pain.

All Might had done it for six years with a missing stomach and ruined internal organs. Shoto having a heavily damaged leg was nothing compared to that, at least to him. Katsuki was nice and agreed with him. He said it, at least. He may not really think that.

"We're working on rescuing. You learned fighting more than enough during the war. Now we're working to successfully rescue," All Might said. They went to ground gamma, which was a complete mess, destroyed. But not looking like how Shigaraki had done it, so it wasn't too triggering.

Shoto had trouble digging out the dummy bodies all around. He had to plant his leg down, and his super strength didn't work right on that leg anymore. He was hoping it would come back, as it had only been two weeks since he had it burnt to the bone, a charred hunk of muscle and bone and skin.

But he kept any pain off his face expertly. He had to focus hard on anything but the pain, and managed to keep up. Only after they were done, he took a break to himself to cry and cringe at the pain. No doubt Izuku could hear him, but hopefully the others just thought he headed to the bathroom to pee and not cry.

After class, All Might took Shoto inside and to his office, the lounge area. He made them both some tea. "I'd like to talk to you about your injury, Young Shoto." The red and white haired teen didn't say anything in response, so the former number one continued to speak. "I know what it feels like to be a hero with a chronic injury that can affect your work. This will take time to get used to and practiced. But you can do it. You're determined and driven. The pain might continue, and it would be completely understandable if you dropped out due to pain. But if you continue to push on, I have some mental exercises for you to do to help, what I did. I can understand your pain, so I'm always here to speak with. I promise," All Might said sincerely.

Shoto nodded and thanked him, feeling a little better.

Until he was climbing the steps, a short set of steps, up to the dorm, and fell, unable to lift his leg properly. That was it. He could not handle this. He discretely went inside, glad nobody noticed, and grabbed the biggest knife from the kitchen, a massive butcher knife, and snuck it up into his room.

Izuku was out training with Katsuki, and he was a human right now, so Shoto saw nothing wrong with stealing all the blood in his room. He uncapped every bottle from Izuku's and his room combined, and got in the bathtub, filling it was a little bit of water. He undressed and got inside, ripping a washcloth up and wrapping it around the handle of his toothbrush. He also had his jug of blood powder handy.

He took a deep breath, chugged three large bottles, put the tool in his mouth and started to saw.

-x- Izuku -x-

Izuku smelled a huge amount of blood inside and sprinted up the stairs to the source that he knew what Shoto's. A horrifying thought went into his head, that the pain was too much and Shoto lost his life. Anything would be better, but what he found when he forced his way into Shoto's room and broke the handle of the bathroom, the stench of blood wafting through the door, he saw the bathtub was soaked in blood, and Shoto was sitting there, having cut his whole leg off and watching it slowly regrow.

"SHOTO!" Izuku screamed in horror and anger. He was pale, but all the blood bottles were empty and he'd consumed a large amount of the blood powder. His ruined, severed leg was propped up against the wall. He saw even the bone had turned back. The reforming leg looked normal, but seeing bone and muscle and fat as it reformed made him almost vomit along with the sight of his leg.

"I'm okay," Shoto assured him, looking tired but sounding coherent. Tears were out of his good eye, though. Izuku would not yell at him, not now. But there was so, so much blood, he was covered in it, the bathwater was red, the faucet slowly dribbling more while the water went down the drain.

He had so much trouble not vomiting.

He stayed with him and Kacchan ran up, too, finding both of them in the bathroom and looking at the mess hat was Shoto and his bathtub. Bakugo could not old it in, grabbed the trash can by the toilet and got sick in it. Even he could smell the coppery scent of blood. He didn't yell either and they both watched as Shoto's leg regrew, watching in sick fascination as his joints formed, everything reformed.

After about half an hour, the leg was back, no longer black. It was a red, like the burn on his face, but it wasn't chunky and brittle, dry. He lifted it slowly, and bent it to bring his knee to his chest. He gave a tiny smile, and cried quietly in relief. Izuku smiled, even if he was angry he'd done this all alone. What if he'd bled out, and nobody knew and had found him dead?

Kacchan got him some new clothes and a towel from his closet. Izuku helped him up, the teen wearing his underwear, which were stained with blood. Shoto put some weight on his leg, and winced, Izuku feeling such horror. But then the full vampire smiled. "It's not nearly as bad as before," he said in relief.

He was helped to change without Izuku looking, and then walked out. Izuku helped him walk less and less as it was clear he could walk. When he tried jumping, he cried out at the landing, but still looked fairly satisfied. He bent it quickly, and found it only hurt when he jumped. But luckily, he could make up for that by only using his left leg or using ice to propel him up.

He was tearing up at the relief. "Hey, can we get rid of your fucking severed leg?" Kacchan asked, but not with much venom. Both best friends were angry he did it alone, but they would have protested the idea. So he had to do it alone. Aizawa-sensei would be furious.

Shoto went into the bathroom and grabbed his damaged leg and carried it out of the room and tossed it outside via balcony. He jumped down, landing solely on his right leg, and burnt it to ash, using barely any fire to do so. He hadn't used his fire once willingly after losing his memories, and nobody pressed him.

He jumped back up, and hugged both of them. They hugged him back, wishing they could have helped in some way other than helping him get dressed afterwards. But, he'd be much, much more careful with the sun, no doubt. The latex sunscreen really helped, and the thick, ridiculously strong fabric made of the body suits underneath their clothes gave security as well. "We need to get refills for blood," Kacchan stated. "You drank all of the supply." That was true, so they walked to the teacher's dorms, and buzzed the thing on the front door, which called what teacher was needed.

"Aizawa-sensei," Izuku said. Shoto was without limp and without any sort of walking assistance. Aizawa came down. "Hi, we need to replenish the blood supply for Shoto." The teacher rose his brows before becoming suspicious.

"Why? We bulked up only last week."

"I drank it all," Shoto said. "So my leg could heal."

"What did you do?" Shoto lifted his pant leg and rolled up the body suit under to show no more black.

"I sort of cut it off and let it regrow. Now it only hurts if I jump." Aizawa was furious, and demanded to know if he'd done it alone. Shoto nodded, showing zero fear and zero regret. "I didn't make a mess, I did it in my bathtub."

The teacher took a deep breath through his nose, his jaw tight and lips pressed tightly together. "I already regrew my limbs after Shigaraki dissolved them."

"And what if it hadn't worked?"

"Then I would be pain free and have a prosthetic," Shoto replied simply. His voice was also firm, like it was the end of the conversation. Aizawa sighed tiredly, and agreed they'd get him blood ASAP. Then they left, and Izuku knew the teacher was watching Shoto move much less awkwardly and more quickly.

Both friends watched him carefully, but he looked content. Some difficulty with hard exertion on one foot was better than what he had before. When they made it to the dorms, many were already there since it was later and they were working on homework, they saw Shoto walking mostly normally, and were confused.

"Ooh! Did it finally heal?!" Sero asked.

"I cut my leg off in the bathtub and it grew back," Shoto said bluntly. "I'll clean the knife." Izuku put his hand to his face. The room was absolutely silent, and many faces turned green. "It didn't hurt that bad," Shoto added at the awkward silence.

"Dude… what if it hadn't healed?" Kirishima asked, Kacchan going to sit next to him.

"Then I would be pain free with a prosthetic."

"That's crazy, man. Where's the leg? Is it still in your room?" Sato asked, looking like he regret the question.

"No, I burned it. It's gone."

"What about your arm? Are you going to cut that off too?" Ashido questioned slowly.

"No, my arm can move normally. Just aches sometimes, but not nearly as bad as my leg had." He left to go upstairs and notify his family about the new development. Both sides were angry with him for it, but were happy it regrew, and he wasn't in chronic pain anymore. Touya was especially happy for him. His burns had healed over.

They gave heavy scarring, but he'd decided to keep them as a reminder of what would happen if he did it again. Shoto was kicking his new leg back and forth very satisfied, the pain of sawing it off with a butcher knife was completely worth it for some mild discomfort but able to walk with it without being in agony.