With A Snap

I own nothing.

Chapter 04: Decay

Being a hero often means sacrifice is needed. Shota Aizawa was the hero known as Eraser Head and school teacher who taught the next heroes. And right now, he knew he was going to make a big sacrifice.

All the teachers were gathered in a meeting; he hated waking up early, especially for an appointment. It was bad enough that he had to be there on his usual day off, but he foolishly agreed to have a training day with Ketsubutsu Academy High school. It just happened that this was the only day that the schools could meet. It was supposed to be a class from there and his Class 1-A, but now 1-B was tagging along. Sure the other teachers would be there to help out, but it seemed it would be a long day.

A small white-haired creature, maybe a bear or a dog no one was sure, sat at the end of the table. That was Principal Nezu, a super-intelligent creature with a quirk that made him more intelligent than most humans on the planet. In these words, most people were born with superpowers called quirks.

"Thank you for coming so early," Nezu informed the assembled teachers. "I will try to be brief as I know that another school is coming. There is a threat coming, and I don't believe we can stop it."

The teachers gathered around looked confused before the cowboy-themed hero asked, "Threat? Something up with the League of Villains?"

"I'm afraid not." Nezu said, "How to explain it? While my quirk gives me intelligence like few would dream, I am still an animal since this morning; my fur has been on end. Much like how it was before an earthquake, but much worse."

Vlad, the teacher for class 1-B, spoke up, "So, it's just a bad feeling?"

Nezu shook his head, "No, I wouldn't say anything if I didn't have anything to back it up." He pulled out some paper and spread them across the table for the teacher to look through.

"I did my research. All across the world, people with precognitive quirks have been having strange episodes. Some are having strokes, some passing out, most needing to be hospitalized, a few managed to say something akin to ash or dust before they did. I can't fathom what it means, though."

It seemed silly at first, but they all saw reports from all over the world and all said the same thing, and it was happening all around the same time.

Nezu followed up, "I can't say what is going to happen or even when, but this is worrisome. All I can ask is for all of you to be on alert."

Nezu was not one to worry needlessly. The teachers took his words to heart and hoped for the best.

0000

The students were excited by the prospect of a chance to test their skills against another school, and they were even allowed to use their hero costumes. They had gathered in the field, and most were starting to get warmed up or just making small talk before everything got started.

Aizawa was walking along with a small girl called Eri close behind. Eri had a quirk that allowed her to rewind a person's body to a previous state. This ability was sought by criminal organizations and led her to an abused life. She was saved, and Aizawa adopted her. She wasn't all that comfortable around people, but Aizawa's ability to cancel out quirks gave her some comfort, that her power would go wild or hurt people. Still, she was curious when she heard about more students coming over and wanted to tag along to watch.

Considering Nezu's news, Aizawa felt it would be better to have her near him.

Nearby an almost skeletal figure stayed in the shadows; this was All Might. Once he had been the number one hero and looked way more buff, but after an injury and passing down his powers to a successor, he found it near impossible to hold that state. His last heroic act was televised, and All Might revealed his form to the world. He wanted to help, but for the moment, he stayed back, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. It was time for the students to stand out, and he'd just take away from their moment.

Nearby he spotted Deku, the boy he decided to pass down his powers. Deku was a hero fanboy and looked at his phone at a news broadcast of a hero fighting to happen somewhere in a nearby city. He was talking rapidly as he took notes of all of the heroes in the fight.

Other students mingled, and Aizawa watched them closely.

"Hey, Eraser Head!"

Aizawa's body grew stiff. Miss Joke, the teacher from the other school, approached him with a big grin. He had forgotten about her.

He sighed, "Hey."

"Eraserhead, let's go out on a date!"

"No," He shot her down quickly; she tended to do this. Even now, she was finding it hard to stifle a laugh.

"Date?" Eri asked curiously.

"Who's this cutie?" Joke asked.

"I'm Eri." She blinked, unsure.

"That's a lovely name." Joke bent down to look her in the eyes.

Eraserhead didn't want to admit it, but Joke might be helpful here, Eri had trouble smiling, but Joke had a talent to bring out joy even without her quirk to make people laugh.

"Aw! Isn't this a cute picture?" Present Mike walked up, "Aren't you guys the perfect picture of a family?"

"Really?" Joke's eyes glimmered as she picked up Eri and cuddled her.

"Don't get her started." Eraser Head groaned.

"Family?" Eri looked unsure.

Eri blinked her red eyes, looking around, unsure. She pushed back a strand of her white hair. She didn't know what to make of this, but it didn't feel bad.

Eraser Head didn't waste any time before pulling Eri away.

"Who is she?" Eri asked.

Ms. Joke started, "I'm his fiancé!"

"Fiancé? What's that?"

"Person he's going to marry."

"Marry?"

Aizawa was trying to stop it, but for every question, the curious girl had Joke answered it before he could even think. In the background, Present Mike was laughing all the way. He was enjoying his friend's misery.

"Say that again to my face!" A loud voice cracked the air.

That was Katsuki Bakugo, his power was explosions, and he was just as loud. He was hot-headed, prideful, and arrogant. The issue was he could back it out. He was super talented, and he had a terrible personality.

"What did I say that was wrong?" Monoma began, "I only said that with a personality like yours, you'd have to work extra hard to catch up to everyone since you failed to get your hero license."

Monoma was a member of class 1-B, and he couldn't help put down 1-A; he too was kind of an ass.

Kirishima was trying to pull Bakugo away; he was a kind young man with a good heart and put up with him.

Itsuka Kendo, the class rep for 1-B, also had red hair, but her method was a little more practical. Her quirk let her grow her hand which she used to smack Monoma unconscious.

"I'm so sorry for him."

Bakugo huffed, "Keep him in line."

Deku wasn't paying much attention; everyone had kind of got used to this stuff. Ochaco was sitting next to him as he watched the news on his phone.

A villain with the ability to turn into a giant was fighting Mt Lady, a hero with the power to grow as well. They were fighting while various other heroes provided support and helped clear out civilians.

They almost didn't hear the other students running around.

"You little perv!" Jirou was chasing after the mini hero Mineta.

"What did he do now?" Ochaco noticed that a reasonable sum of the female students turned their attention to Mineta.

"Kaminari, help!" Mineta begged for help from a nearby blonde friend.

Kaminari held out his hands, "I didn't do anything, and you probably had this coming."

He wasn't dumb enough to get all the girls angry at him for no reason.

"Now, now," Ida 1-A's class rep got in between the groups, "If Mineta did something wrong, let's have our teacher decide his punishment. There is no need for violence."

0000

The fight was going on much like any other giant fight to be going. Mt Lady was doing a great job keeping the fight from damaging buildings and protecting civilians, her hero agency making that a huge point with her. The villain swung his fist to strike at the hero, and she said he tried to block it, but it kept going and going.

The villain expected to make contact with something, but his fist went right through her arm and her head. As he looked before him, he didn't see Mt Lady but his fist going through ash shaped like the hero. Her entire body was turning into ash, and as winds picked up, the ash swirled all around and filled the streets.

The other heroes gathered turned to the villain. The villain fell back into a building, "I didn't do it! I didn't do that! I can't-"

The streets were suddenly filled with panic as another hero dissolved into ash, followed by several civilians.

0000

A reporter quickly switched the news report to make sense out of it. It didn't help that he, too, started to turn into ash.

"What?" Deku gasped, "Is this a quirk? I've only ever seen one quirk like that, and he couldn't use it on multiple people like that."

"Wha-" Mineta yelled out.

Deku looked up from his phone to find the grape boy Mineta yelling out. "What's happening?"

His body was slowly dissolving.

Eraserhead jumped into action, using his quirk to cancel out other quirks. He tried to use it on the boy.

"Help!" Mineta yelled out as ash consumed his form.

The students all started to yell in panic as several classmates began to turn into dust. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, two more competent students, looked around confused as everyone as their friend around them began to turn to ash.

"This is impossible!" Yaoyurozu let out, "This is far too wide-ranging to be any quirk."

Todoroki looked around, hoping to spot someone doing something, maybe someone sneaking in with the other class.

"Well, it's happening; something has to be causing it. We have to find it."

"Ah!" Kirishima fell to the ground as his legs dissolved, he tried to harden his body to prevent this, but it wasn't helping.

Mina, a pink-colored hero, moved over to her friend, "Kirishima! Stay with me! Come on!"

"Mina…" Kirishima was doing his best not to show his fear, "Yeah, I'm trying…." He felt all his strength leave him, "Thanks… I wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for you…."

"Kirishima, don't talk-" Mina felt him turn to dust and filter through her hands.

"What sort of madness is this?" Tokoyami yelled out as his body dissolved like so many others.

Jiro stared in horror as Toru, the girl with invisibility powers, became visible only as her body was covered in ash and then consumed. Then she watched Koda, Sero, and Sato turn to ash.

She stumbled backward, bumping into Kamanari, "Jirou, you okay?" His voice was trembling.

"Yeah, you're still here?"

"Yeah," They went back to back.

They hoped to spot the attacker, to try to get a head start if they were targeted.

Kaminari shuddered as he saw Tetsutetsu, Tokage, Honenuki from class 1-B turn to dust.

"Mind doing me a favor?" Jirou asked him.

"Ah, what?"

"Use your power to fry your brain. I could use a good laugh." Jirou tried to make a joke, "What, no comeback?" She

turned around and only found ashes.

Ida and Kendo were trying to keep their classes calm. Ida yelled, "Everyone back to class in an orderly and calm process! We need to stay calm."

As everyone panicked, Ida felt someone bump into him after tripping over the crumbling Monoma. Tsuyu, their resident frog girl, had been pushed to him.

"Tsuyu, are you all right?"

"No," Tsuyu told him.

"Just stay calm. We can get Recovery Girl-" Ida's voice dropped as he saw her body begin to fade away.

She looked at him with tears in her eyes, "Please tell my brother and sister that I loved them. I just want them to-"

She didn't get to finish the sentence.

"It's not working." Eraser Head felt his eyes going dry as he tried to cancel it out.

"What's going on?" Present Mike let out as his body was consumed.

"Aizawa?" Eri clung to him. With everything that was happening, he forgot he was carrying her. "It hurts."

Aizawa looked down into his arms as Eri was turning into ash. She was crying clearly in pain. It took him a moment to understand, whatever was happening was affecting her too, and her powers must have been working unconsciously, desperately trying to reverse it. It pained her body, her ability always did, but this was far worse. Whatever this was, it was far more potent than the scared little girl.

"It's going to be okay." Aizawa held the crying girl closely. "It's going to be okay."

He whispered as he felt her weight dissolve in his hands. He couldn't bear to look at his hands.

"Eraser?"

"What?" He snapped at Miss Joke.

"I- I- I-" She stuttered.

Aizawa looked at her as she took a step forward and dissolved into a pile of ash.

0000

In Tartarus, the most secure prison on the planet, All for One waited. He had managed to stockpile many powers over the many years and was considered one of the worst villains in the world. He was in a perfect prison, guns pointed to him, and if he ever even tried to use one of his powers, they'd open fire.

So he sat and waited for plans to go into effect. There wasn't much for him to do. It got boring, and sometimes he'd try to talk to his neighbor Stain to kill time. Not that the conversations would go very far.

Alarms rang out, and he couldn't help but wonder what that was about.

"Stain has escaped!" One of the guards passed his window, yelling at a walkie. "He vanished in ash-"

The guard quickly vanished into dust himself.

One for All could hear panic through the halls both from inmates and guards. Was someone launching an attack?

He wouldn't risk it.

He huffed and activated all his power, ripping through his binds, and rushed to the glass wall. He heard gunfire but didn't feel it. He didn't feel it.

As he reached the glass, he felt weak; there wasn't blood or anything… just ash.

He was going to break through the class and escape, but he never managed to.

0000

"What happened to Spinner?" Toga, the young villain, yelled out, having seen the lizardman turn into ash.

"Yeah, it's happening here too." Twice let out. "Uh, Boss, mind not doing it!"

"It's not me!" Shigariki let out, it was a lot like his power, but it wasn't him. Sure, he'd been tempted a few times, but he didn't have any reason to do it right now.

"It's not!" Kurogiri, an almost smog-like being, looked at a nearby screen. "It's happening at the Nomu tanks too, and news reports are coming in. It's happening all over."

"Then what's doing this!" Flames shot around Dabi, as he panicked as his body began to turn.

He reached for Shigaraki but failed as his hand only turned to ash.

"Someone help!" Twice let out.

Mr. Compress was speechless, watching as his allies turned to ash. His mask hides the expression of terror. He was helpless as Twice turned into dust; he just wondered if he'd be next.

Soon the room became quiet as half the members of the league vanished.

0000

All Might was near but unsure of what to do, he didn't have his power anymore, and this wasn't a moment where strength could help. His students, colleagues, and friends were turning to dust, and there wasn't anything he could do.

"Ah!"

"Deku!"

All Might turns to see Deku collapse to the ground, his body slowly turning to ash.

"Deku!" Ochaco yelled out, "Please, you have to hold on! Just a little longer."

Ochaco felt helpless, she was supposed to help people, but she was just there watching as her friend began to turn to ash. Now Deku was going away, she didn't know what was happening, but there was an old instinct. Something that she felt when the league of villains arrived, the feeling of death lingering.

"I- I- don't feel so good," Deku muttered, his hands shaking.

"Deku!" All Might yelled as he ran towards the boy, but he found himself tripping and falling to the ground.

Deku felt his chest tighten, his body screaming to do something. He looked at Ochaco, his hand gripping hers.

"Deku, it's going to be fine," Ochaco tried to smile, like how he often smiled. "It's going to be okay. It's go-"

Ochaco didn't say anything else as she found Deku leaning and kissing her. Her heart skipped a beat as she felt his

lips against hers. Her mind went blank, forgetting about the world, but she felt a tiny spark between them.

He pulled away, and she gasped, gulping at surprise.

"I- I- " Deku stuttered both of the teens blushed wildly.

Deku caught sight of All Might in the corner of his eye, "All Might-"

The wind blew by just as his body turned to ash, and his remains were blown away.

Ochaco shook, horrified, her hand going to her lips. Deku was gone. It was strange she could still felt his lip's warmth and his taste.

Bakugo looked shocked as everything began to settle. He couldn't move; he didn't know what to do. He just watched as they turned to dust. He whispered, "What happened?"

0000

Days had passed, and there were no answers to so many questions. Recovery Girl was now in charge of the school, and Nezu was one of the many people to vanish. The world was grieving, and things were going insane as riots and villains were going crazy worldwide. The remaining heroes were trying their best to keep the peace.

At the school, those who survived were getting ready for a ceremony to mourn all the teachers and students that were gone now.

Ochaco sat in Deku's dorm room, trying to make sense of it all.

"Why did he kiss me at the end?" Ochaco asked no one.

"He kissed you?" Passing by the open door was Bakugo. He walked inside, looking at the girl. "Right," He almost laughed, "That little twerp manned up and kissed a girl. Heh, even when he was about to die- I didn't think he'd have the balls to try something like that."

Something snapped inside Ochaco, Bakugo had always picked on Deku, and now he was gone. This was just too much for her to deal with; she couldn't stand him belittling him anymore.

"Stop it!" Ochaco slapped Bakugo.

0000

All Might was walking down the halls, checking in on the students. The ceremony would soon start, and this was important for everyone. They had to grieve. They had to try to move on.

He knew he had to. His successor was gone, and with him, the power that he had helped cultivate. All For One was gone too, but that was little comfort. He had tried to inform Deku's family, but his mother and father were nowhere to be found. It seemed that the decimation happened to the whole family. It was a bitter pill; at least they would not have to grieve for each other.

There was no battle to fight, no enemy to defeat, and he was no longer the symbol of peace the world needed. Even Endeavor and Best Jeanist were missing. The world required one now to give them hope.

He still hadn't heard from his friends overseas, and that haunted him with possibilities. His mind was boggled, how many people were missing, how many were hurt, how many were lost forever. There was nothing he could do and no one that could help.

CRASH!

One of the walls ripped apart as Bakugo shot through it.

Bakugo groaned out in a pile of drywall, "What the hell?"

All Might looked into the room to find Ochaco confused and scared, with sparks of lightning jumping over her body like How Deku was when he used One for All. Ochaco held her arm in pain, it almost looked like it had suddenly been broken.

The kiss.

Deku knew what was happening and acted to pass on the quirk that needed a new host to swallow DNA from the one giving it up. It wasn't an act of desperation from someone who barely had a chance to experience life. It was him making sure a gift for the world was passed on. Deku gave up this gift to someone he trusted and maybe even cared about.

"What's happening to me?" Ochaco asked, looking down at her hands as energy crackled around her.

All Might walked towards her calmly, a small smile finding its way to his face for the first time in days, "Calm down," he placed a hand on her shoulder, "I have something to tell you about."

They might no longer have a symbol of peace, but there was a chance for a symbol of hope.

Author's Notes: Okay, did the Snappening in the My Hero Universe… yeah, I hate that Bakugo survived this too. Still, this was probably my most hopeful ending so far, so there is that. At least Grape Boy is gone.