Don't Look Down

by AnonymousTwit

In which Bakugou is slowly losing his sense of self-preservation and Midoriya is a massive hypocrite.

He barely remembered the days where getting caught in the middle of a villain attack was a novelty.

"On your right!" Deku's ear-grating voice pierced through the sea of battle cries and explosions. The offending villain couldn't even blink before he fell to the ground with a charred face and missing teeth.

"Nobody asked you, nerd!" Bakugou yelled back, sending a spray of small explosions at an approaching villain with a particularly annoying shield quirk. "Two, six o'clock!"

The two massive fuckers sneaking up behind the freckled teen were St. Louis smashed into the next century. Green lightning crackled through the air like roaring thunder, almost completely drowning out the resounding crash that followed the attack. The ferocity of Deku's strike genuinely surprised him, but he supposed that the nerd had been in a particularly sour mood since this whole debacle started.

He blamed All Might, honestly. The man should know better than to send him and Deku out on any errand alone and expect nothing to happen, but the retired hero desperately needed a refill of painkillers and couldn't possibly pick them up himself in time after some kind of important meeting with his buddy cop partner.

"None of the other heroes are available at the moment and I don't want to raise alarm amongst your classmates by asking this of them." he'd said. "At this point, I don't think they are aware of the full extent of my condition. Besides, I trust you both."

Deku's eyes had been impossibly sad, but he'd agreed instantly, as if this one small act could repay the man for everything he'd done for the country and even the world up to this point. Bakugou, meanwhile, was more reluctant, but still caved, memories of Kamino and all the trouble he'd caused the veteran hero flashing through his mind's eye as he smiled down at him as if he'd ultimately been worth the effort.

Not the time.

Either way, they'd gone with it like a couple of utter fools, because of course a bunch of druggies addicted to painkillers would choose that pharmacy to rob, putting several innocent bystanders and even the ill and handicapped present in danger.

To put it lightly, Deku was pissed, and if Bakugou was in a better mood, he might have even admitted to himself that he was proud of the little shit for it.

"They just keep coming." Bakugou complained, watching the villain he'd mowed down struggle to his feet. "Just how powerful are these painkillers, anyway?"

"Not funny, Kacchan."

"I'm not trying to be, asshole!"

A loud groaning sound from above had them both freezing in place, gazes shooting up at the slowly shifting ceiling. Windows around them began to crack at the growing weight as the building's foundations began to fail.

"Fucking- Do not." Bakugou hissed, glaring up at the ceiling with a vendetta as if willing it to stay in place. "I swear, if this building falls on us, I will actually lose my shit."

"There's still civilians in here." Deku lamented, searching for those who hadn't been fortunate enough to flee the building before the fighting started. Most of them had taken cover behind the counter, while the two heroes-in-training had done their best to steer the fighting away from those who weren't able to get out of the crossfire. "There's no time. Either we finish this quickly or focus on rescue and forget the stolen goods."

Deku grimaced as he scanned the building, accounting for every possible casualty, civilians and villains alike. "If you can force the fight out of the building, I can get everyone out of here myself."

"Are you stupid?" Bakugou chastised, AP shooting a villain that tried to surprise attack the greenette from behind. "They're already fighting tooth and nail to stay inside the building. Forcing them out will take more firepower than the structure can probably handle. You'll all get buried."

"I'll have everyone out before then." Deku stated with conviction, looking his childhood friend straight in the eye. "Besides, you'll keep damage to a minimum. I trust you."

Bakugou's eyes narrowed. If looks could kill, Deku would have disintegrated as if Hands Bastard had gotten ahold of him. "I will never fucking understand you, you weirdo."

The nerd had the nerve to smile. "So I've learned."

Without another word, Deku darted past him, leaping for the first civilian he could see just as the shield villain lunged at him. The fucker didn't even know what hit him as Bakugou barreled into him, sending him shooting through a shattered window with a well-aimed X-catapult before rocketing towards the next villain before he could even blink. If the villains wanted to play here like a group of toddlers throwing a tantrum because they didn't wanna go home, he'd just have to work faster in booting them out than they could keep up with.

So what if it was six v. one? It wouldn't be the first time.

With each attack from either side, inside and out, another tremor ran through the two-story building, and another tremor up Bakugou's spine along with it. He could tell you from experience that getting caught in a building collapse was never pleasant, whether you got out mostly unscathed or not at all, and Deku and all those other defenseless extras still being in there did not sit well with him.

Their only saving grace was that as Deku systematically evacuated civilians, the villains took no interest in them, allowing them to escape with little difficulty. The problem was that Bakugou was sure that at least someone had gotten hurt, and priority or not, getting them out was going to be a lot harder.

Of course, all of that would prove to be complete bullshit once half of the villains were already unconscious, because his hag didn't raise no bitch, and the three still standing got more desperate than they already had been to end up here in the first place.

He saw the moment that one of them had eyed a wounded civilian as Deku was carefully helping them through the door. Her quirk had to do with projectiles, and the bitch was already aiming when Bakugou realized what was about to happen. In the back of his mind, it quickly dawned on him that even with his reflexes, there was no way he could stop her from shooting at all, so mind reeling, he grabbed the closest thing to him, which ended up being a trashcan lid, and hurled it through the air before charging at the woman.

Her projectiles sounded like a shotgun being fired as Bakugou flew at her with an explosion that had her careening down the street, several shots slamming harmlessly into the spinning trashcan lid. Unfortunately, that didn't stop every shot, Deku quickly pulling the civilian down as the building shook from the impact.

Deku's eyes went impossibly wide as he whirled around, staring back into the crumbling building as another extra quickly helped the injured civilian away from danger. He didn't even bother to meet Bakugou's stare as he rushed back in undaunted, Bakugou forced to stay and hold the last two villains back.

From there, several things happened at once.

He didn't know which heroes swooped in onto the scene, but these villains were far more resilient than half of the top dogs in the underground that he'd faced, because two more of the fuckers he'd KO'ed were struggling to their feet. Over their shouts of indignant, desperate rage, the sounds of crashing and screaming filled the air, washing over him like a tidal wave.

A woman and her baby were tossed out of the crumbling building as it toppled over and collapsed.

And they were alone.

"DEKU!"

The seconds felt like eons, everything in slow motion as dust coated the street like a heavy fog. Civilians ran for their lives as heroes rushed to subdue the villains, and that woman and child, along with a few ill people and those trying to help them, looked on in horror as those villains seemed to zero in on them.

Bakugou found his gaze lingering on the mound of rubble where the pharmacy had been, where the stupid nerd was now, status unknown. Memories of a fated disaster flashed through his mind, blurry and painted with red and pink, thunder and pain. He wouldn't wish that torment on his worst enemy.

He didn't realize he'd taken a step forward until a scream tore through the air, pulling him out of his stupor as his eyes swiveled back to the group of extras cowering in fear as a villain launched themselves at them in a rage. Every second the nerd didn't appear made pins and needles run along his skin, but the hero license now burning a hole in his pocket pulled him in a different direction.

With a frustrated howl, he barreled into the charging villain with inhuman ferocity, sending them both tumbling to the ground and rolling to a stop with Bakugou coming out on top, setting off an explosion point-blank in the bastard's face. The heat that rolled past him and into the air was almost cathartic, a familiar brush of power as smoke billowed from his hand like an incense offering.

His breath shuddered as he pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the calls of extras around him as he walked back through the dust to the pile of rubble in a daze. Heroes were already tearing through the pile, likely aware of the trapped student thanks to eyewitnesses around the area.

The flash of green was almost startling as a hero carefully pulled a limp figure from the rubble. If Bakugou's heart wasn't all but dead, he'd think it stopped altogether.

"Deku!" he shouted over the wails of an approaching ambulance, ignoring the warnings of heroes as he pushed his way through the mess towards where the pro had set his still rival on the ground, blood oozing from his head and staining the ground from some other unknown wound. His matted bangs hid his eyes as paramedics appeared, looking him over as they fought to stop the bleeding and assess the damage.

As soon as their hands were on him, Deku flinched, and Bakugou hadn't realized he was holding his breath until that moment.

"Kacchan...?" Deku called out weakly, hand reaching blindly into the clearing air for something he couldn't see. His head moved sluggishly, fidgeting as emergency personnel flitted around him until his gaze seemed to land on him, even as his eyes remained clouded. "Kacchan."

Paramedics who weren't doing anything useful wisely stepped aside as Bakugou approached, kneeling down to look the freckled teen in the eye. "You're an idiot."

Deku chuckled at that. "Everyone?" he asked with a cough, leaning back to look past the people around him. "Are they...?"

"Everyone's fine, Deku."

Deku frowned, moving his arms as if he'd try to push himself up. "Are you sure-?"

"I saw to it myself!" he snapped. "Chill the fuck out! Everyone else is fine!"

Deku stared up at him blankly, as if he couldn't even comprehend that he'd spoken at all, let alone what he'd said. However, ever so slowly, a smile crept over the nerd's face. "And you...never do things in halves." he mumbled sleepily. "I'm glad."

A stretcher was rolled out. Deku's tired smile became blinding. "Thank you...for saving them." he sighed. "If you'd...gone after me..., I would've been...so upset with you."

Bakugou's frown deepened, a vein popping as he grabbed at his pants, nearly burning them. "As if I'd waste my time on you." he spat.

The bastard grinned as if he saw right through him.

"We're heroes." Deku would say, three days later as he sat in a hospital bed staring out the window, Bakugou glaring at him from the doorway. "Civilians are our priority, who we pledged to protect... No matter what happens to us."

At the time, Bakugou didn't realize to what degree Deku fundamentally misunderstood his own statement.

---

Approximately one month after Midoriya's last hospital visit, all hell broke loose.

For all intents and purposes, the only people that Kirishima could think to blame would be Shigaraki's league, because they just never seemed to quit, did they? After seeing the...nomu factory back in Kamino, he should have known that something like this would happen. Between that and the appearance of the 'high end' that Endeavor fought, he should have known. He did know.

He just hadn't expected it so soon.

It was a bright, sunny day in the small village of Yabin, home of the famous Yabin Shrines that were flocked to by locals and tourists alike. The shrines' history was mostly shrouded in mystery, but that didn't stop them from being one of the most popular locations for tourism and school trips in the Kanto region, located in the westward mountains of the Kanagawa Prefecture.

Of course, in some ways, the trip was bittersweet for class 1-A, or at least, it seemed that way to Kirishima. After all, Kanagawa was the location of Yokohama.

And Yokohama was the location of Kamino.

Now, to be fair, they wouldn't be anywhere near the area. Yabin was well into the western mountains, while Yokohama sat along the eastern coast of the country. However, that proximity, no matter how small, made something in Kirishima's gut churn uncomfortably.

Of course, it seemed to clearly just be him, since the rest of his classmates were either super stoked or completely uninterested.

"I've never been to the Yabin Shrines before!" Ashido squealed. "I'm so excited! Kiri, aren't you excited!?"

Before Kirishima could respond, Yaoyorozu was leaning over her seat in front of them. "Do you know about the legends behind the shrines? Allegedly, one of the first publicly-recognized heroes before the modern heroics industry hid a group of survivors from a quirked terrorist attack in Yabin-yon Shrine and fought villains to the death, and all of them survived thanks to his sacrifice."

"He was also allegedly quirkless!" Midoriya yelled from somewhere up front. Bakugou, supposedly asleep, immediately chucked an empty water bottle at him.

"Yabin-yon Shrine is supposed to be the prettiest of them all!" Ashido cheered. "I can't wait! I'm so excited!"

"You already said that." Jirou sighed fondly from somewhere next to Yaoyorozu, though hidden from Kirishima's sight.

"Are you gonna see all of them?" Sero asked curiously. "There's literally over twenty of those things."

"I'll sure try!" Ashido laughed. "They're all so pretty!"

"I think I will focus on the most famous ones first." Yaoyorozu reasoned. "I especially want to see Yabin-hachi Shrine and Yabin-jusan Shrine, so I plan on going there first before I get carried away and lose track of time, you know?"

Kaminari grinned, reaching over and poking at Bakugou like you would a sleeping grizzly bear. "Hey Kacchan, are you excited?"

Bakugou was apparently in a good enough mood to just crack an eye open and glare at the other blonde before situating himself in his seat and going back to sleep. "Been there already."

"WHAT!?" Ashido's screech jolted him awake. "I thought this was a new class adventure! Come on!"

"You're so damn loud!"

"Says you!"

"He doesn't live that far away. Just a prefecture over." Kirishima explained. "I don't think it's that surprising."

"But Jirou, Tokoyami, and Midoriya are also from Shizuoka, and they've never been there! And Iida, Ojiro, Hagakure, and Sero are all from Tokyo and that's even closer, and they've never been there! Hell, Mineta's from Kanagawa! And he's never been there!"

"Yeah, well, fuck 'em."

"Oi." Sero and Jirou drawled simultaneously.

"I've only been to the shrines themselves a couple of times with my folks." Bakugou grumbled groggily. "I used to frequent the hiking trails."

"Oooooooh." Ashido hummed with interest and wisely decided to accept that answer and go back to screaming about how excited she was. With a fond smile, Kirishima rested against the window, staring out at the roads flying by. Not too far away, the adjacent bus carrying class 1-B rolled alongside them, a more controlled chaos being shown through the shadows moving behind the windows.

It took Kirishima a moment to notice, and from the looks of it, a couple of his classmates had noticed as well, but if he looked close enough, he could see what looked like Monoma shrieking and gesturing wildly at class 1-A's bus. The redhead didn't even bat an eye when a hand appeared from behind and chopped him in the neck, effectively causing him to slump against the window and slide to the floor.

If anything, the normalcy was comforting.

The rest of the trip went without incident, forty students piling out of the buses and being allowed free reign to go wherever they pleased so long as they stayed in groups of three or more. A large number of students ended up congregating in one large group and moving around as one mass. Probably terrorizing all those in their wake, Kirishima couldn't help but smile to himself.

"KAMIIIII!" Ashido squealed, grabbing Kaminari's arm. The two seemed to practically vibrate in excitement. "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Kaminari chirped. "Who's coming with us?"

"I suppose I shall accompany you." Tokoyami offered.

"Can I come, too?" Komori approached them. "If you'll have me."

"Of course!" Ashido exclaimed.

Kirishima wasn't listening all that closely, but he's pretty sure that Kaminari was muttering something like 'cute'. Off to the side, he could see Midoriya and Uraraka chatting with Yaoyorozu and Kendou, and elsewhere, Tokage and Tetsutetsu were wandering off with a flailing Monoma in their grasp. Directly next to him, Kirishima couldn't help but chuckle to himself as Bakugou aggressively texted someone with a string of expletives. Probably his mom, judging by his face.

"Hey, Kirishima." The redhead found himself blinking up at Satou. Next to him, Asui watched them curiously. "Yabin-ichi's right past this treeline. Wanna start there?"

"Everyone else is going straight to Yabin-yon first, kero. It'll be less crowded if we go in numerical order."

"Yeah!" Kirishima agreed happily. "Bakubro, going to Yabin-ichi Shrine with me, Asui, and Satou?"

Shoving his phone back in his pocket with an impressively annoyed huff, he looked his two classmates over as if sizing them up for the first time. "Whatever."

Translation: I'd be happy to. Kirishima fought not to snicker.

Considering how relaxed Satou and Asui tended to be, the trip to the shrine went extremely smooth, with a lack of irate yelling or explosions to freak out everyone within their vicinity. As much as Kirishima loved his friends, Sero, Kaminari, and Ashido were all especially skilled at getting under Bakugou's skin, so this calm quiet was a welcome change every once in a while. Between that and the beautiful scenery, Kirishima hadn't experienced this kind of relaxation in a long time.

Yabin-ichi Shrine wasn't even the most popular shrine, and yet, it was absolutely gorgeous, lined with beautiful gardens and flowering trees. Asui seemed especially fond of the koi ponds, often crouching down by the edges of the ponds and over the bridges to stare at the water. Exploring the area, Kirishima could see what Yaoyorozu was talking about when concerned about time, because this shrine alone was fairly large, especially accounting for the land surrounding it, and there were at least twenty three of them available for visitation by the public and rumored three more hidden deeper in the mountains.

That, and time went by fairly quickly, Satou wandering around the ponds to keep Asui company while Kirishima dragged Bakugou along with him to the Shrine itself. He'd brought along extra yen just for the offering boxes, so he was determined to ring as many bells as possible and give these beautiful landscapes the funding they deserve. Generosity is manly, after all.

The trip around Yabin-ichi went without a hitch, as did the walk to Yabin-ni. They spotted Shiozaki, Kodai, and Tsunotori while there, Shiozaki 'thanking God for blessing their country with such magnificent natural beauty' or something like that while Tsunotori marveled at the scenery and snapped pictures of anything she found even remotely interesting. This shrine was smaller, so the four of them didn't stick around for long.

Yabin-san was a bit more out of the way, farther along a trail leading up the mountain, so Bakugou was quick to take the lead, charging up the trail with an efficiency that had the rest of them racing to keep up. The forest seemed to thicken as they went, almost blotting out the scorching sun and showering them with the songs of birds and a soothingly cool breeze. It would've been lovely to stop and admire the view if a certain someone wasn't treating climbing up a slope like a damn competition.

The idea of letting him get out of sight wasn't sitting right with him.

The thought crossed his mind uninvited, and the sudden anxiety that came with it had something in his gut churning uncomfortably. Perhaps, at the time, he hadn't thought as much of it as he should have, since what that feeling exactly was didn't cross his mind until much later, but it was still enough for him to race forward just a little bit quicker, leaving Asui and Satou to follow after him.

It didn't take Kirishima long to catch up, as just up the trail, Bakugou had paused, staring intently into the surrounding forest off to the right. Kirishima sighed in relief, stumbling up to him with sweat on his brow. "Dude," Kirishima huffed breathlessly. "You gotta slow d-"

"Shh!" The near-silent order startled Kirishima, frozen in place as Bakugou continued to glare into the forest. Asui and Satou caught up soon after, Kirishima holding his hand out to stop them, just in case. The sudden seriousness of it had the two exchanging glances, but no words were said as Bakugou crept off the path, pushing through the brush to get a better look at what Kirishima realized was a very large something hiding amongst the trees.

"What's that?" Kirishima questioned softly, zeroing in on the shadowy...something sitting not far from the path.

"Maybe it's a bear?" Satou thought aloud. "Black bears do live in this area."

"Someone should probably let local heroes or rangers know." Asui chimed in. "Bears usually stay away from people, and a lot of people pass through here every day. They don't normally show up around here."

"You think it's got rabies or something?"

"That's a bit extreme, but not impossible, so we should still be cautious, kero."

A stick snapping had them all jumping as Bakugou returned to the path, his steps unnaturally quiet. The blatant caution had the hairs on the back of Kirishima's neck standing on end. "You good, man? Isn't it just a-?"

"That's a fucking nomu."

Kirishima distantly thought that the birds stopped chirping in that moment. The wind stopped blowing and the far-off chatter of the crowds tapered out into nothingness. A very real fear seized his heart, like a monster sinking its teeth into him and not letting go no matter how much he tried to shake it off.

"You're shitting me." Kirishima muttered in disbelief. His classmates had both gone eerily quiet.

"You can't see it from here," Bakugou barreled on matter-of-factly, as if certain death wasn't just chilling a few meters away. "But if you look over the brush, you can see its figure better. It's like..." He frowned heavily. "Like the fucker that Endeavor took out, but less lean...and female, for some reason?"

"How do you know for sure that it's like the hooded nomu?" Asui questioned quietly. "Is its brain not exposed?"

"It's the eyes." Bakugou growled. "It has those same eyes... And I swear I've seen them somewhere else before."

"Hey, sitting here and collecting our thoughts is great and all," Satou suddenly cut in. "But if Bakugou really just saw what he's saying he saw-"

"You don't believe me, motherfucker-?"

"-Then we really don't have time to sit here and just talk about it."

Kirishima swallowed thickly, a heavy frown on his face and sweat gathering on his brow as the seconds ticked on. Every sound of movement had him flinching, his skin on the verge of instantaneous Unbreakable if something was to jump out at them. The part of the forest, where the something- the nomu was, remained disturbingly still.

"Bakugou," Asui's calm tone, almost unbothered even, gave Kirishima a small amount of comfort. "You and I are the fastest out of all of us. We should go back and tell the others."

"What should we do, then?" Satou immediately said, his backpack already pulled off of his shoulders and different desserts and sugar packs nearly spilling out.

Judging by the vein popping in his forehead, Bakugou didn't appreciate being all but talked over, but he didn't dare yell. After a moment of quiet, he gripped Kirishima's shoulder, causing the redhead to jump as he glared up at Satou. "You and Kirishima go up to Yabin-san."

"Wha-?"

"There's people up there, right?" Asui reasoned aloud. "You guys should go up there in case something happens, so that any civilians caught in the crossfire can be safely evacuated."

Bakugou nodded in approval. Kirishima and Satou could only share a brief glance before their classmates were racing back down the trail.

The idea of letting them get out of sight wasn't sitting right with him.

---

"Isn't this marvelous?"

He didn't mean to ignore Yaoyorozu's excitement, but Midoriya couldn't help but stare in awe at the mountainous landscape. They, Uraraka, and Kendou had been quick to begin the long journey up to Yabin-jusan, which rested high up on a mountain peak overlooking much of the surrounding scenery. The hike up the mountain was clear, if not exhausting, and the group of four found themselves often taking breaks before they finally reached the bridge crossing over the chasms and to the beautiful shrine.

Uraraka was next to him instantly, gazing out over the forested mountains and greenery in awe. "It's amazing!" she exclaimed. "You can see Yabin-yon so clearly from up here! Oh man, my mom always wanted to come here someday, when we could afford the round trip. I wish I had a camera!"

"Would you like me to create one for you, Uraraka?"

"Oh no, you really don't have to!"

"I insist!"

Apparently, the camera she ended up making was so high-quality that Uraraka nearly tumbled over the railing in a dead faint. The bridge itself was huge, so there were thankfully no worries of getting in people's way and starting a fuss as they clambered over to the other side.

"There should be a smaller bridge up the slope," Kendou informed them. "And then we'll be at the shrine."

"Ah, I can't wait!" Yaoyorozu couldn't help but squeal. "Yabin-yon and Yabin-hachi were everything I was expecting, but Yabin-jusan has always been said to have the best view!"

"Race you to the top!" Uraraka suddenly announced, charging forward. Yaoyorozu was instantly fretting over her safety while Kendou jogged to keep up, a look of contentment in her eyes. Midoriya couldn't help but smile.

Something's wrong.

Midoriya gasped, nearly tripping over his own feet as a familiar wave of nausea built up in the pit of his stomach. The feeling of the dirt under his soles and the vibrations of civilians walking around them had pins and needles running up his legs, and all at once, the unrelenting sunlight had him seeing spots. He didn't even realize he was shaking until he turned to look back at the large bridge they'd just crossed.

This onset was so fast. Was an earthquake coming? Some other unforeseen disaster?

"Midoriya?" He didn't know which of the girls was calling to him, but he'd barely shook himself out of his stupor before Uraraka was at his side.

"Is something wrong, Deku?" she asked carefully, concern etching her features and clouding her eyes. Midoriya swallowed thickly, wringing his hands nervously as he stared out over the mountains.

"I-" he stuttered. "I-I think- no, I know. Something's happening."

Something's wrong.

"Something bad."

Yaoyorozu and Kendou had approached them by then, the former with a stern frown. "What do you mean, Midoriya? Does something not feel right?"

"Feel right?" Kendou softly questioned to herself, but she was ignored.

"I don't..." His brow furrowed as he walked back out onto the bridge, approaching the railing. "I don't know. It just started getting bad just now, so it could be any-"

And then there was a nomu in his face.

It was like slow motion, watching as a shadow flew upward right in front of him, blotting out the sun for that single moment as his friends and nearby civilians alike took in the scene without even realizing what was happening. Within that moment, if Midoriya had been paying close enough attention, he would have seen his own stunned reflection in the creature's eye.

A powerful gust of wind nearly tossed Midoriya upward with it, and all at once, time restarted.

"A MONSTER!"

People began screaming, running for the closest end of the bridge in their desperate scramble for safety. The bridge shifted under an unseen force, leaving people falling to the floor from the force of it. Midoriya latched onto the railing as the ground seemed to tremble under him, forcing him to hold on so tightly that he almost activated One For All, but his eyes never left the scene in front of him, making a silent headcount and watching for that nightmare scenario of someone careening over the side and plunging into the chasm below.

A roar sounded in the distance, Midoriya's brain barely registering that it came from a different direction than the nomu above, and suddenly, Yaoyorozu was stumbling to his side, slamming into the railing as the bridge shifted again and knocked her right over.

"We need to get these people out of here!" she yelled over the squealing of metal and the cries of terrified civilians. "If the bridge collapses, not only will those still trapped on it fall with it, but those on the side with the shrine will be stranded!"

It took Midoriya a moment to realize it, but it was true. The shrine was built on a tall rock in the middle of the mountains, far from the cliffsides and only connected by this very bridge. Because of this, the bridge had been carefully maintained for decades, only becoming more and more sturdy as time went on.

The problem was that no one braced it for any major villain attacks, since no villain would be willing to destroy such a national treasure, and those willing wouldn't bother when there were better targets around the country for causing mayhem.

Nomu were relatively new. No one considered nomu.

"You're right." said Midoriya, still watching the people around him closely. "From the sounds of it, there's more than one nomu around here. We need to get everyone to safety and then get ready to fight."

Yaoyorozu stumbled to her feet. "I'll go to the shrine and guide everyone back to the bridge and across." She wobbled to her feet, looking over her shoulder. "Kendou, head for the cliffside and defend it from nomu! Uraraka, defend those by the shrine side while I escort them across!"

Midoriya pulled himself to his feet as the bridge swayed dangerously. "And I'll defend the bridge itself, right? Until every single person's across!"

Yaoyorozu nodded grimly. "I don't want to tell you to defend it with your life. I would feel awful if something happened to any of you. However, if the bridge falls, then many people will be trapped here with the nomu. We need you to fight them and keep them from taking it down until everyone has reached safety!"

Midoriya nodded resolutely. "Got it!"

"I'm not sure what to do if it falls, though..." Yaoyorozu mumbled nervously as she backed away, heading for the shrine.

"It's okay." Midoriya said, blackwhip eagerly dancing along his fingers. "Worst-case scenario, Uraraka and I will handle it. We won't let anyone fall!"

Yaoyorozu seemed to accept that answer, smiling as she turned on her heel and sprinted to the other side of the bridge, nearly stumbling and falling on her face before Uraraka helped her to her feet, exchanging a quick word before she was running for the shrine. Meanwhile, those by the bridge edge were already beginning to crawl across as per Uraraka's order, chocolate brown eyes meeting emerald green with a steely determination that had his heart soaring.

An inhuman shriek filled the air, Midoriya's gaze whipping up towards the nomu flying overhead, eying the bridge and Midoriya himself with eery focus. One For All burned along his skin as green lightning cracked through the air, Midoriya holding up one hand to wrap the bridge in blackwhip to hold it up and the other for a flick as the nomu looked as if prepared to dive at him.

The feral animosity was starkly abnormal, even for a nomu. Even though they worked mindlessly, they always followed orders from those they're conditioned to obey. Even when they seemed to rampage without reason, they always did as told.

There was something different about this. Something wild, animalistic. Something unnatural about the way this nomu was eying him, not like an enemy it was told to target, but more like an intruder encroaching on its territory.

Or worse, like prey.

The nomu dove, and Midoriya flicked, the familiar feeling of the bones in his middle finger snapping like twigs in the face of such awesome power as the air current sliced through the air like a sniper bullet.

The freckled teen wasn't sure whether or not he should be surprised, but the shot of air pressure ripped the nomu's wing off like paper, sending it plummeting down into the chasm below. Midoriya watched in amazement as it fell, almost caught off guard by how easy it was, but then he remembered that there were definitely more of them and the fidgety roiling in his stomach came back at full force.

He thought to look down over the railing, down at the grounds of Yabin-yon in fear of finding more nomu swarming there, but before he could even think to, the bridge shifted again, people screaming as they desperately crawled for safety under Midoriya's protection, and as more shadows flew overhead, he relished in the sense of calm that washed over him.

He'd fought villains much more powerful than this. He'd faced nomu much, much more powerful than this.

In that moment, as the bridge buckled and groaned and nomu screamed from the air, he promised himself that he wouldn't let a single civilian fall from this bridge.

---

As soon as they reached the bottom of the hill, they were met with absolute chaos.

Asui barely had a chance to utter a word before three nomu had appeared out of nowhere, circling them like how a pride of lions would stalk their prey. Bakugou was barely fazed, stomping through the shrine grounds with purpose as more nomu swarmed around the outskirts of the area. The fact that they didn't seem that interested in attacking the civilians escaping the area was odd, but a blessing, either way.

An explosion startled her, and Asui whipped around as one of the nomu collapsed at Bakugou's feet in a charred heap. "Looks like these fuckers aren't that strong." he noted, a feral grin splitting his face in two. "Frog Girl, check the shrines for stragglers and start getting people out of here! I'll hold 'em off!"

Asui didn't bother arguing, giving a quick kero! in response before making her way to what she believed was Yabin-ni. Dust was beginning to cloud the air, so any minute now, everyone's vision would be compromised. However, it would also get the attention of other nearby heroes, if they didn't already know that something was going on. Aizawa-sensei was sure to jump into action soon, if not already, and her classmates and class 1-B would also likely be in action by now.

Normally, when her class went somewhere and something like this happened, it would be considered bad luck, but perhaps, this time, it was a blessing that they happened to be here when something like this took place. She supposed it depended on what reason the nomu had for being here in the first place.

For some reason, the thought made her shudder.

Despite the dust polluting the air, it wasn't hard to find civilians hiding in the debris, instantly clinging to her as soon as the words 'I'm a hero' left her mouth. They practically swarmed her she led them to safety, almost overwhelming her with the sheer number of people seeking protection.

"Hey, Asui!" The shout pierced through the dust, and Asui whirled around just as Tsunotori burst through the dust. Off to the right, two nomu were suddenly entangled in vines and smashed into the ground, effectively neutralizing them.

"You are uninjured!" Shiozaki cheered, hands clasped together in prayer. "God has been good to us!"

"Yabin-ni has been checked and double-checked! Everyone made it out!" Tsunotori shouted, just as another explosion rocked the shrine grounds. "Kodai went on ahead towards Yabin-yon, since that's usually where the most people are! We should back her up!"

Just as the words had left her mouth, a loud crashing sound sent a wave of dust wafting through the air like a gust of wind. Asui watched in awestruck horror as the entirety of Yabin-ni came crashing to the ground. Before she could blink, a thick veil of vines surrounded the three girls, shielding them from the debris and waves of dust flying through the air like a spray of bullets.

"Did the whole thing just come down!?" Tsunotori gasped in shock. "Good thing we combed it beforehand!"

"To Yabin-yon! Quickly!" Shiozaki ordered, breaking away from her vines and taking off running. "We must crusade against these vile nomu for the good of the people!"

Asui made no argument, her and Tsunotori chasing after the vine quirk user with vigor. Racing for Yabin-yon, the dust of the collapsed shrine seemed to dissipate fairly quickly. The number of nomu seemed to dwindle, a good sign that either there weren't as many as they'd feared or that her classmates were already taking care of the situation. Like a beacon, Yabin-yon appeared over the horizon as the girls ran.

Compared to the other shrines that Asui had seen, this one was absolutely massive, towering over the landscape in shining red, glistening as if coated in morning dew and teeming with life, greenery and aquatic alike. The ponds had seemed to become dirty thanks to the commotion, much to Asui's dismay, and some of the plant life had already met its tragic end, but frankly, there wasn't much to be done about that at the moment.

It seemed that they'd just arrived there before a much larger group of nomu came charging through the brush, no apparent direction in mind as they ran straight for the famous shrine. Asui didn't have the heart to let such an important symbol in the history of heroics be bulldozed through like that, so without thinking, she shot her tongue out, latching onto a nomu in the front and sending it toppling to the ground. Several nomu running up behind it came crashing down on top of it.

"Nice one!" Tsunotori cheered in excitement, striking her telltale pose and sending four horns streaking through the air, sending a four-armed nomu careening back into the forest and tumbling to the ground motionless.

In the distance, what almost sounded like gunfire could be heard, some like machine guns and others like shotguns. Tsunotori and Shiozaki looked on in concern, but Asui didn't stop. "Those are AP shots!" she told them. "Focus on your own battles!"

On one hand, hearing Bakugou going all out back where they'd come from was reassuring. They had him not far from their location as possible backup if necessary, and the dozens of explosions were evidence that he was also still well enough to fight. On the other, he had smaller explosive attacks to limit damage, so why he could be pulling out the big guns so to speak was a concerning inquiry.

Were there more nomu? Stronger ones? Considering the circumstances, these were fairly important questions, in Asui's humble opinion.

"We're surrounded!" Someone shouted, and Asui didn't quite put a name or face to it, but it was familiar, and it wasn't wrong.

Almost as if they were being summoned en mass, nomu were appearing from the forest. On the distant cliffsides, Asui could see more flying through the skies and swarming the bridge to Yabin-jusan, where a familiar blast of air pressure shot through the air and sent one spiraling to the ground.

"Asui!" The shout pulled her out of her reverie, and she swiveled around in time to see streaks of red and silver instantly take out two nomu that had been approaching from behind. With a battle cry, Tetsutetsu went charging at the next closest nomu while Kirishima ran to Asui. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks, kero." she smiled. "I shouldn't have gotten distracted like that."

"It's fine." Kirishima waved her off. "I get it. Where did they all even come from?"

"I don't know. What's especially strange is that they seem to be appearing with little to no mission in mind. Normally, they only work under someone's orders."

"That is kinda weird." Kirishima agreed as another, smaller nomu leaped at them, only to have its head smashed in by a hardened fist. "They don't seem to be that strong, either. Satou and I fought our way here with no problems, and Tetsu was with Tokage and Monoma before he ran into us and they weren't having any problems, either."

Asui could only hum as Tetsutetsu sent another nomu flying and Satou flew in out of nowhere, incapacitating a particularly large nomu with a chokehold. She wasn't sure where Shiozaki and Tsunotori went, but they were most likely helping to evacuate civilians. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be that many left in the area.

"Hey," Kirishima suddenly spoke. "Where's Bakugou?"

"You didn't see him?" Asui asked curiously. "We separated back by Yabin-ni. I could hear him fighting a moment ago."

"Yeah, I heard him, somewhere in this direction, but I never saw him. I thought he was still with you."

Well, that might be a little foreboding.

"YO, 1-A!" Tokage yelled across the battlefield, running up with a fuming Monoma by her side. Satou had returned to Kirishima's side while Tetsutetsu could be heard screaming warcries somewhere close by. "Have any of you guys seen Kodai?"

"How would they know?!" Monoma snapped haughtily. "They have their own agenda to worry about rather than paying us any mind!"

Asui frowned. "The last I saw of her, she was with Shiozaki and Tsunotori. I thought they said she'd headed this way."

"That's what they told us." said Tokage, somewhat out of breath. "She came here ahead of the others to help with evacuating, so she must have gotten here first. We haven't seen her and we're starting to get worried."

Exchanging nervous glances, the heroes-in-training looked over the sea of chaos that they'd found themselves in. Thankfully, it seemed that most people, if not everyone, had escaped the area. However, there was also a good chance that there were people hiding in the Yabin-yon Shrine, which still stood tall over the army of raging nomu and clouds of billowing dust. Wherever people were, Shiozaki and Tsunotori would likely be there too for damage control and evacuation. With that in mind, if Kodai was with those people, then the girls would know.

At this rate, if the chaos ranged for as far as it seemed to, it was no wonder that none of the teachers had been spotted yet. More than likely, they were elsewhere, with the rest of their classmates, trying to clean up more messes being made across the massive shrine grounds. With that much ground to cover and that many civilians to account for, what choice did they have?

"LOOK!" Tetsutetsu suddenly yelled, startling everyone as he pointed wildly in the direction of some nearby trails. Her two classmates had already straightened up by the time she had, Tokage and Monoma at attention a moment later. Deep within the cloudy dust, a shadow could be seen slowly approaching. The posture was wobbly, almost like a limp, and it took her a moment, but if Asui looked close enough, she could actually make out two people.

Kirishima was the first to realize it. "That's Bakugou!" he gasped, breaking into a run. Tokage was close behind him.

Dust and dirt coated his spiky hair, leaving it a darker color than normal. There was a trail of blood seeping from a hidden gash somewhere on the left side of his hair, flowing down the side of his cheek and dripping from his chin, but other than that and a few scratches, he looked mostly okay.

The person with him, however, who Asui suddenly realized was actually Kodai, looked a lot worse off, with pale skin and bloody clothes and matted hair. She was coughing into her hand, the sound uncomfortably wet as her knees buckled dangerously. The only thing keeping her upright was Bakugou, one hand holding her arm firmly behind his neck and the other gripping her waist and holding her against him. Somehow, despite Kirishima running after them first, Tokage beat him there. "What happened to you guys?!"

"Your friend had a bad run-in with a high-end." Bakugou huffed, more annoyed than anything else. "This is Yabin-yon Shrine, right?"

"Yeah." Tokage replied as the others approached.

"Are all the extras out of here?"

"We were about to double-check. There could still be people hiding in the shrine."

"Well, you better go check!" he snapped. "Most of these nomu are cheap shit, but there's a big fucker coming and I don't want any morons who should know better than to stick around and watch the show getting caught with their pants down!"

"I guess that's one way to put it."

Bakugou had been about to yell something else at her when his expression changed.

It was almost like he noticed something alarming that he should have before. He wasn't even looking anywhere or at anything specific, just off into space with that almost startled look in his eyes. A moment later, he was whipping around to meet Kirishima's eyes, wide and unseeing and terrified. "You feel that?" Bakugou asked.

Kirishima nearly jumped. "Do you?!"

Tokage looked incredibly confused, but it wasn't like she had a chance to ask what in the world they were talking about.

Because suddenly, standing behind Bakugou and Kodai and towering over the group of heroes-in-training, there was a nomu.

It was completely black in color and oddly feminine in shape, and it didn't stand or move like a bipedal creature would. It had jagged shapes sticking out around its face not unlike the fangs of an insect and fingernails and a sharp maw that could possibly saw through Tetsutetsu. It loomed over them with an eery calmness, slow-moving like a predator, eyes locked onto them.

And Asui's heart dropped.

"KODAI!"

"BAKUGOU!"

Apparently, Bakugou didn't have to look behind him to know that it was there, or what was about to happen.

Despite Tokage being the closest person to him, his gaze still managed to zero in on Monoma, who was staring up at the beast with the fakest smile Asui had ever seen and eyes filled with stunned disbelief. Without so much as a warning, Bakugou was bodily throwing Kodai over his shoulder, hurling her straight into Monoma and sending them both toppling to the ground with a painful thud.

Within that same moment, Bakugou was being slammed face-first into the ground, the impact so powerful that it knocked Tokage off of her feet. With a curse, Kirishima was already barreling forward with reckless abandon while Bakugou fought to twist his arms around so he could fire up at the beast on top of him.

The skin around the nomu's neck began to pulsate, and suddenly, small holes along its neck, down from its clavicle all the way up to its chin, were flapping open, spewing out a thin purple gas that quickly wafted around the nomu.

"'S poison!" Kodai wheezed from where she was on the ground, on top of her winded classmate. "Purple f- fog- ...Poison!"

And suddenly, Asui found herself facing quite the dilemma.

The gas was spreading fast, and anyone approaching it unprepared would reap the consequences. She couldn't tell if Kirishima could hear Kodai's warning from where he was or not, but if Asui knew him as well as she thought he did, then it wouldn't matter, either way. Judging from its effects on Kodai, it probably wasn't a very strong poison, but it was still enough to weaken them, and in this situation, that was the last thing that they needed.

Ultimately, Asui's next move came down to one question: How many people could they afford to have potentially incapacitated? One or two?

"Kirishima!"

With no time to hesitate, Asui shot her tongue, wrapping around Kirishima's middle and yanking him back before he could reach the gas cloud. He screamed in fury as he was unceremoniously thrown back to the ground, watching helplessly as the nomu seemed to eye the redhead almost mischievously.

Almost with...understanding.

Suddenly, the nomu shrieked in pain as an explosion hit it point-blank in the chest, Bakugou having been able to aim his hand upward from where he was pinned despite the dazed look in his eyes. Despite the nomu looking burnt, a solid chunk of its flesh missing from its side, the enraged monster instantly retaliated, pitching forward and sinking its teeth into his shoulder. The scream it managed to wrench out of him had Kirishima back on his feet in seconds.

However, Tetsutetsu and Tokage beat him to the punch, the former with his shirt held over his nose and the latter's disembodied hands rocketing at the nomu as they approached it from opposite sides, fists raised. With a deafening roar, the nomu swung its massive clawed hand, the resulting air pressure sending both heroes-in-training flying and the poisonous gas spreading out after them. The others had no choice but to duck in cover, covering their faces as much as they could to protect themselves from the poisonous mist threatening to envelop them.

Squinting her eyes through the wind, Asui realized in absolute horror that Bakugou had stopped moving, and it suddenly dawned on her that she hadn't asked herself a very important question up until now. If its abilities seem to revolve around poison...

Then is its bite venomous?

Asui didn't even get a chance to question it out loud before the nomu let out another roar, directly in their faces like a gust of wind and a sonic boom.

And with a deep rumble, as if it had risen from the deepest depths of the Earth, it spoke.

"BaCK oFf!"

---

Yaoyorozu, admittedly, had not been expecting any more surprise guests. Now that she thought about it, however, she probably should have.

By the time she had ushered everyone to the bridge, several nomu had, strangely, started to retreat, giving Midoriya a chance to help hold the bridge together using blackwhip while Uraraka helped Yaoyorozu get people across. Sometimes, Uraraka would use her quirk to ferry people across while Yaoyorozu created carts and wheelbarrows to carry others. It seemed as if, out of nowhere, things had started to go much more smoothly.

And they were, because the nomu had been called back.

As the bridge buckled, forcing Midoriya to put most of his weight into holding the bridge up, a smaller flying nomu approached them from above, floating down and hovering right beside them. Apparently, Midoriya was so shocked that he nearly dropped the bridge, and when Yaoyorozu looked, she instantly understood why.

Because there just so happened to be a member of the League of Villains sitting on its back.

"You!" Yaoyorozu cried, her side already glowing with the instructions for creating a cannon at the forefront of her mind.

"Yes, me!" the villain, the lizard man, snapped. "Look, kids, I ain't in the mood to fight today, okay? We didn't even know you'd be here! Probably for the best, actually."

"What?"

"What do you want, Spinner?" Midoriya cut in, voice strained as the bridge dipped dangerously. Somewhere in the background, Kendou had come running up to help Uraraka carry civilians across while Yaoyorozu and Midoriya kept the villain at bay.

Or, it would really just be Yaoyorozu, but she was going to ignore that for the time being.

"What do I want?" he laughed humorlessly. "A nap is what I want! You think this was planned?! Ha! Truth is we had nothing to do with this one!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Okay, listen." Spinner sighed. "It doesn't matter, so here's the whole truth. We had a nomu factory hidden out here, right? Well, turns out our high-end went rogue somehow and broke out, taking all the nomu with her. These guys aren't working on any orders, alright? We're trying to tell them to come back to base, but they're so disorganized that there's no way we'll get all of them back. So, good on you all for showing up. Maybe you can clean our mess for us."

"There's a high-end out here!?" Yaoyorozu exclaimed.

"That's what you got from all that?!" Spinner shouted in annoyance. "You know what? Fine, whatever. I don't care. Boss is pissed, Boss's sensei's pissed, I'm pissed, so let's just pretend you never saw me and call it a day, alright? Okay." He then turned, looking out over the smoking mountainous landscapes. "Now, if only we could get a hold of that high-end, we could-"

He froze, staring off at the ground in the direction of Yabin-yon with the blankest expression that Yaoyorozu had ever seen. After a pause, he turned to look at Midoriya, then back at Yabin-yon, then back at Midoriya. He clicked his tongue. "Yeah, not touching that."

Midoriya let out a confused noise, clouded with strain as he fought to hold the bridge in place, and craned his neck to peer over the side. As he did this, Spinner pulled out a communication device as he motioned for the flying nomu to go back up and out of their way. "Compress, it's Spinner. Tell the boss to call it off. His favorite class of kiddie heroes happened to be in the area and the high-end's probably about to be paste, so there's no point."

With that, he was out of earshot, Yaoyorozu watching in confusion as he disappeared behind the treeline. With him, the nomu within her sight moved to follow him, effectively taking away one danger from this scenario that they'd found themselves trapped in. With a sigh, the raven-haired girl felt a weight fall off her shoulders.

And then, thunder.

Yaoyorozu startled, whirling around to find a storm of green lightning lighting up the bridge. More lines of blackwhip appeared, shooting out aimlessly over the railing as if grabbing for something, and green energy crackled along the failing structure. Midoriya took a step forward, eyes wide and far away, and Yaoyorozu felt her stomach drop.

He wasn't about to... "Midoriya-!"

Too late.

"KACCHAN!"

---

" BaCK oFf! "

There was a stabbing pain in his shoulder, a dull pain in his head, and a pressure against his back. Everything else was numb.

Where was he, again?

There was shouting far off somewhere, perhaps to the right? Or was it the left? Ahead of him?

In the distance, he heard a storm brewing.

" WolVeS iN shEeP's cLOtHiNg. "

Something shifted, and Bakugou felt himself moving, his flimsy limbs useless as he found himself floating, suspended in the air by an unknown force. The pressure against his back spread, now gripping against his sides as he found himself facing the sky.

Or was he upside down. His head fell like it was, but the rest of him was somewhere else. Had he been decapitated? Was he dead?

" We LiVe. "

The world was tilted on its axis, or no upside down, but the cliff faces were still there, framing a crumbling bridge like a painting in an art gallery. The bridge was wrapped in black tendrils, forcefully holding the platform up as it dipped, and something about it was familiar. It was safe.

Good. Safe was good.

Had he been able to move, the sudden pressure against the base of his throat would have had him swinging, but he was still numb, still floating, even as his mind began to settle. The pressure was pointed and focused against his trachea, not enough to suffocate, but enough to notice. It was sharp, piercing, and for a moment, he wondered if he was at knifepoint right now.

" WE rIsE. "

Whoever was shouting had gotten louder, more muddled in the storm of movement around him, but one voice struck through the fog like an arrow, familiarity, safe, even as their name and face were lost to him.

"Let him go!"

The pressure against his throat suddenly doubled. He choked on reflex.

" BACK OFF! "

Movement died down around him, even as the world continued to tilt on its axis and the pressure around his torso increased to the point of making it hard to breathe. Sound, however, increased tenfold, but it wasn't voices.

There was a clap of thunder and the smell of ozone. Far away, the bridge came back into view as the sound of crashing roared over the shrine grounds. Above the bridge, green energy churned and writhed as all at once, the black tendrils multiplied.

Then, they disappeared altogether.

It was almost like a movie, like he wasn't even in reality and nothing around him was comprehensible, and yet, as he watched the tendrils disappear and lightning track across the sky towards them, understanding slowly began to seep into his bones.

The bridge from which the lightning had come folded as soon as the tendrils retracted, the bridge's support crumbling like wet water with nothing to glue it back together. Like a sack of bricks, like a phone dropped on a rollercoaster, like a coin tossed down a well, it dropped.

The bridge fell.

The thing holding it up was gone, a choice made between one situation and another.

The bridge was allowed to fall.

If there had been an effort to hold it up, that meant that there were people up there. There were still people up there, weren't there?

He let the bridge fall.

And then, within the next second of this slow-motion hell, the bridge was suspended in the air with a flash of pink, a nebulous mass of metal and wood floating high above the ground as detached pieces of debris plummeted to the ground below.

He let the bridge fall.

A part of him wasn't quite comprehending his own train of thought, his own realizations, but the other was consumed in a sickening dread and all-encompassing rage.

"We're heroes. Civilians are our priority, who we pledged to protect... No matter what happens to us."

He let them fall.

Within the next second, there was an impact, something attached, no, that had to do with him floating, lurched heavily, and green light danced in his vision, leaving him seeing stars. Someone screamed something about poison, but then there was a slackening, and then he was falling, no longer floating, but then there was something around him. Arms? Strong arms. Jagged. Hardened.

He was okay with being in these arms.

He was grounded now, he realized. No arms, this was the ground. He blinked sluggishly, watching color move in and out of his vision and garbled conversation was made around him. If he listened hard enough, he could probably figure out what was being said, but he found that he just couldn't be bothered.

"Kacchan?"

There was a blob of green. The anger came back.

"Don't touch me." he snarled, or at least tried to. It sounded faint in his own ears.

"It'll be okay." the nerd barreled on. "You were poisoned, but you'll be at a hospital in no time." He reached for his arm. "You'll be fine!"

"I said don't fucking touch me!"

His throat hurt from that one and the green blob jumped back, so that one worked.

"Kacchan?" The voice was wobbly now, quivering.

It had no right to be.

He let them fall .

"Liar." he spat without thinking.

"Kacchan?" There was a startled, high-pitch whine to his voice, almost like panic.

"You're a liar!" Bakugou shouted into the white noise.

"Kacchan, what-?"

"You let them fall!"

The shout echoed in his own head, and everything seemed to stop around the two of them. The shitnerd was frozen, and Bakugou wondered for a second if time had stopped around them.

"You're a liar." he said, his mind once again falling back into that floating place. "You lied. You let them fall. You're a liar."

Everything was moving too fast. There were familiar blobs and colorful blobs. Dull blobs, strange blobs, blobs that smelled like disinfectant and blobs that smelled like grass and blobs that smelled like home.

"Liar." he muttered deliriously. "Liar. Liar. Liar."

Liar.

…

..

.

---

Two days after all hell broke loose, Uraraka found herself in the middle of quite the conundrum.

As soon as Deku had disappeared over the railing, the bridge had dipped and fallen, no longer held up by force. Uraraka and Kendou had just been moving the last civilians across when it had happened, and the fear that had overtaken her had been all-encompassing.

However, she was a hero, so on instinct, she was dropping the person in her arms and slapping both hands against the bridge, and with burning determination and barely a prayer, she activated her quirk.

The bridge must have weighed a few tons at least, far beyond her limit, so the moment they were airborne, she was toppling over in a near-dead faint, her breakfast that morning barely giving her a chance to breathe before she was retching it back up. Everything else around her was a blur, but she paid no attention to it, more focused on not passing out and thus deactivating her quirk and getting her friends and the last few civilians killed, and also probably herself.

She'd been gagging on bile by the time that she felt herself being picked up, Kendou's large hands carrying her clumsily across the free-floating bridge to safety.

"Thank goodness for you, Uraraka." Kendou breathed. "You saved us."

By the time Kendou reached solid ground, Uraraka was out like a light.

It would apparently be the afternoon of the following day that she would wake up in a hospital. Which one, she never bothered to ask, but she was just grateful to hear that thanks to the heroic efforts of her class, class 1-B, their teachers, and other local heroes and emergency services, no one had died that day. There were injuries among the civilians, yes, but nothing fatal and they were all expected to make full recoveries.

Those worst affected by the incident had been amongst the heroics students. Tsuburaba ended up with several broken ribs after using his quirk and ultimately himself to shield a group of civilians from a larger nomu by Yabin-hachi, while Shishida had worked himself to exhaustion hunting down nomu all over the shrine grounds until he'd passed out similarly to how she had. Awase and Kaibara had sustained minor injuries after taking on a horde of nomu on their own way out by Yabin-junana, much further into the mountains, and it would have been much worse if Kamakiri and Vlad King hadn't come to their rescue.

Kodai was the worst off in 1-B, having been beaten around and poisoned by a high-end nomu ("There was a high-end!?") and was only saved by Bakugou's intervention. Although he was less injured than her, he apparently received a substantially high dose of venom at some point, probably from the same nomu.

Over by Yabin-ju, Jirou had been unlucky enough to fight a nomu with some kind of sound ability that really messed up her ears, so she was currently being treated for that, and elsewhere, Aoyama had also overused his quirk and fainted, though he was back to his old self by that evening. Ashido was fairly scraped up, especially after a whole tree nearly fell on her due to her acid, but she was otherwise fine. Same went to Kaminari frying himself again.

Everyone else had at least a few scrapes and bruises, but other than that, everyone would be fine. It was definitely a relief to hear, and Uraraka would be sleeping well that night, especially after receiving so many thoughtful thank you gifts from people they'd saved from the bridge. A little girl even came to say thank you and ask for an autograph.

By day two, she was cleared to be discharged and everyone else was healing well. Kodai and Tsuburaba were still recovering and Bakugou was back to his fussy self, but still not cleared, but everyone else was good as new and ready to head back to the school and wait for their last few classmates to return.

On her way out of her room, she'd just so happened to run into Deku. "Hey, you never came to visit me!" she chastised.

"Sorry, sorry!" he fidgeted nervously. "I guess I'm just embarrassed about why you ended up like that in the first place."

He wasn't really looking at her, staring down at his shoes as he fidgeted with his bandaged hands. Right, he'd broken a few fingers again. Uraraka smiled. "It's okay! It was because you saw the high-end attacking Bakugou, yeah?"

"I mean, yeah..."

"You've always been that way with him." Uraraka reasoned. "And everything turned out great, so no harm, no foul, right?"

Deku seemed to relax at that, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and she couldn't help but smile at the way he lit up when he met her eyes. "I was on my way to check on Kacchan. You wanna come?"

"Sure!"

Now, there was a problem with all this that Uraraka failed to realize, and that was that apparently, Bakugou did NOT agree with her sentiment.

When Uraraka had waltzed into Bakugou's hospital room, he'd had his normal grumpy 'why are you here!?' schtick going on. The vulgar expletives he shot at her for daring to approach him rolled off of her like water on a raincoat.

When Deku had barely appeared in the doorway, Bakugou's immediate response was to fling a glass cup at the wall next to his head.

It shattered on impact, Deku scrambling back with a shriek while Uraraka gawked in astonishment. "Are you trying to kill him?!" she shouted.

"Fucking traitor!" Bakugou yelled, completely ignoring her. "Get lost! I don't wanna see your stupid face right now unless I get to sock it, you hear me!?"

"What was I supposed to do?!" Midoriya responded hysterically, sliding the door shut behind him. "You can't convince me otherwise! That thing was gonna kill you!"

"So the fuck what!? That doesn't justify you being an absolute dolt!"

"Everything turned out fine!"

"BARELY! Just BARELY, Deku! Because there was at least ONE person there with half a brain who could FUCKING FUNCTION and she's standing RIGHT OVER THERE!"

Uraraka soon found herself in the middle of one of the biggest non-violent shouting matches she'd ever seen between the two, swiveling to stare at each one as they yelled excuses and insults at each other. Every once in a while, she would check the door for any incoming nurses, because there was no way the whole hospital wasn't hearing this spat with how loud they were getting.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO AT LEAST BE BOOK SMART, YOU DAMN NERD! USE YOUR FUCKING BRAIN!"

"WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS LIKE THIS?! GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE AND ACCEPT MY HELP!"

"MY HIGH HORSE!? MY HIGH HORSE!? I'M NOT THE ONE MAKING STUPID DECISIONS OUT ON THE FIELD BECAUSE OF FUCKING FEELINGS!"

"WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO?! IT WAS GOING TO KILL YOU! IF YOU NEED HELP, I'M GOING TO HELP YOU, AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN SAY TO CHANGE MY MIND, SO ACCEPT IT!"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS IS FUCKING ABOUT!"

"I-... Wait, it's not?"

The blank look that Bakugou gave him would have been comical in any other situation, but the silence that followed sent shivers down Uraraka's spine. "I will fly out of this bed and knock your teeth into the next dimension, you brain dead fucking amoeba."

"What-?"

"You actually missed the entire point. Fucking hell, you really are that stupid."

"Kacchan, communicate."

"You're no better!"

"Kacchan-"

"We're heroes. Civilians are our priority, who we pledged to protect. No matter what happens to us."

Deku's mouth snapped shut, his eyes going wide as he stared at Bakugou with an unreadable expression. Bakugou wasn't even looking at him, now staring down at his lap. "That's what you told me a month ago, after I had to choose between digging you out of the wreckage of a two-story building and defend a few extras from a rampaging villain.

Deku's mouth was opening and closing, searching for words that he didn't have. Bakugou still refused to look at him. "You told me, as medics dug you out and you were bleeding out on the street, that if I'd gone after you instead of saving those people, you'd have been 'so upset with me'."

The explosive tension in the room shifted. The air was still thick with it, but rather than loud, it was quiet, almost unbearable as Bakugou laid back in his bed, glaring at the obnoxious heart monitor blaring out his racing heartbeat. From the look on his face, he was ready to blow it up.

"You need me to spell it out for you?" Bakugou growled. "Why I'm so fucking mad at you?"

Deku didn't reply. Bakugou took it as an invitation. "Because you say you've never looked down on me, but then you turn around with one of the most obnoxious double standards I've ever seen. And it's not just obnoxious. It's dangerous! Yeah, nobody died from you being an absolute imbecile, but Uraraka still ended up here because of you!"

"It wasn't his f-!"

"Yes it was, Uraraka!"

Uraraka jumped back, silenced at the use of her name. Bakugou didn't even miss a beat, turning right back on Deku. "Normally, sulking over what if's is pointless, but when you make mistakes of this fucking magnitude, you need a slap back into reality. So, riddle me this, Deku. If Round Face hadn't been there, what would have happened to all those poor little extras that you oh so selflessly abandoned? Or, wait! Better yet!"

The smile on Bakugou's face was cruel. "Did you even know that Round Face would be able to do what she did?"

Did you even know?

"Fuck, you left her to die, too!"

It was slow, but Uraraka could see a deer-in-the-headlights look washing over Deku's face, a sort of understanding flooding his eyes. "I-" he stuttered in disbelief. "I-...left innocent people to die. I-... I left Uraraka and the others to die."

"And there it is!" Bakugou shouted. "We finally got there! Halle-fucking-lujah! I need a damn massage and a shot of morphine after this shit! Fuck this!"

While Bakugou continued to rant utter nonsense to no one in particular, Uraraka watched as Deku's knees buckled, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. Uraraka panicked. "Deku?! Are you-?!"

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, staring off into the distance unblinking. Uraraka knelt down next to him, pulling him into a hug. "I- I don't know what came over me. I- I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Deku." she whispered back. "I forgive you."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Uraraka wasn't sure how long they sat there for, but Deku never stopped apologizing, mumbling it like a mantra as tears streamed down his face. The brunette could do nothing but cradle him in her arms, rocking back and forth as her mother would do for her when she was this distraught.

And deep down, she wouldn't lie, the realization that Deku had basically left her to die up there hurt, and it hurt a lot, but she also knew him, and for all those brilliant snap decisions and strategic breakthroughs that she'd seen him come up with in the past, there was bound to be a slip-up here and there, a blind panic shrouded in raw emotion where he tunnel-visions as if on a mumbling tangent and makes a choice that perhaps wasn't necessarily the best choice.

And that was okay, because he was Deku, kind-hearted, smart, brave, lovable Deku, and even with all of his flaws and mistakes, he was still perfect to her.

It took a while for her to realize that the room had gone silent, other than Deku's mantra of apologies and the heart monitor. When Uraraka looked up, Bakugou was staring at them, his expression unreadable as he silently stared, and Uraraka couldn't figure out what he could possibly be thinking for the life of her. Then again, figuring out what he was thinking on a normal day was a feat and a half.

"Deku," he suddenly barked, causing the green-haired teen to jolt violently in Uraraka's arms. "Come here."

Deku peered up from Uraraka's arms shyly. "What?"

"Is your mush brain plugging your ears now?" he snapped. "I said come here, dipshit!"

Almost robotically, Deku pulled himself up and approached the bed, wringing his bandaged hands and eyes flitting elsewhere around the room.

"Sit down." Bakugou instructed, pointing at a bedside chair.

Deku sat down. Bakugou glowered at him. "Closer, you idiot."

Deku seemed surprised, but was all too eager to scoot up right next to him, watching him expectantly.

"Now stick out your hand."

Deku startled at that one. "What?"

"Just do it!" he yelled.

Deku jumped, quickly raising his hand and holding it out to him. With no warning or fanfare, Bakugou clasped his hand, Deku staring with impossibly wide eyes, as if he couldn't even believe what he was looking at. "I-... What's this?"

"We're making a pact," Bakugou said sternly. "With Cheeks as our witness, because what happened back there cannot and will not happen again! There's no fun in beating you to the top if you just annihilate your career with stupid stunts like that! Got it, Deku?"

Deku looked like he was on the verge of tears again, still marveling at their clasped hands, but he swallowed and nodded fervently.

"Good, 'cause this," he gestured at their hands. "I ain't doing this of my own volition again, or so help me."

"Got it." Deku croaked out, voice cracking with emotion.

Bakugou leveled him a flat look. "Listen up, Deku. From here on out, no matter what happens, or how, or why or where or whatever, if either of us are in a situation where we have to choose between each other and a civilian, we choose the civilian. Doesn't matter if we're about to fucking die, doesn't matter if we're being dragged off, if there's a civilian involved, they have to come first."

As touching as this scene was, Uraraka just couldn't get over the word 'civilian' and not 'extra' coming out of Bakugou's mouth.

"Now, this isn't for me, Deku!" Bakugou suddenly snapped. "I have no problems leaving your dumbass for dead, you waste of space! It's you that has to be held accountable, got it!?"

"Yeah!" Deku yelled back without hesitation.

Bakugou looked him up and down before yanking his hand back as if he'd been burned. "Good. Now, scram! I'm done with seeing your stupid face today!"

With that, Deku stood up from his chair so fast that he knocked it right over, stumbling back with stuttered I'm glad you're okay's and I'll see you later's. Uraraka simply watched on in content silence, because something about this...

She just didn't want to interrupt whatever this was, is all.

---

Midoriya's pact was challenged two weeks later.

It happened to be during heroics class, when class 1-A was all in their costumes, and Midoriya was allowed to participate again after getting absolutely reamed by Aizawa-sensei those two weeks prior for the stunt he'd pulled, that a villain with a powerful weather-related quirk went berserk in Musutafu. From rain to snow, the city was hammered with the torrential rains of a cyclone and blisteringly cold conditions. The villain had almost been apprehended, too, when their quirk went haywire and caused a citywide power outage on top of everything.

With such widespread effects, rescue operations needed every helping hand that they could get, so along with every hero in Musutafu and the surrounding area, class 1-A was dispatched to find and save as many trapped civilians as they could find.

"It never stops, does it?" Midoriya laughed. "A hero's work is never done!"

"You just love hearing your own fucking voice, don't you?" Kacchan snarled back.

The two ran up the street as freezing rain fought against them. Midoriya kept his mouth shut, for the sake of his own health, but the fact that Kacchan was not in his winter costume and thus exposed to the cold concerned him. Yes, they were both soaking wet in freezing temperatures, and that wasn't good for anybody, but Kacchan was especially susceptible to the cold, since his quirk required sweat and cold and rain were both bad mixes.

With that in mind, freezing rain was the worst-case scenario.

Kacchan didn't even bother to hide his shivering, rubbing at his bare shoulders with vigor. "Fuck this. Of all things, freezing fucking rain. Just watch! I bet it's gonna start sleeting in a moment!"

"Please don't jinx us, Kacchan."

A sudden flash and a deafening crack of thunder made them both jump, the two heroes-in-training ducking into a building for shelter. They were both sopping wet, leaving a trail of water all over the floor of what Midoriya realized was a hotel lobby as they walked.

"Well, fuck flying, I guess." Kacchan spat. "Of course, the fucker can make lightning in a snow storm! Might as well stamp 'smite me' on my forehead if I try going airborne!"

"Can you even fly right now?" Midoriya questioned without thinking. When Kacchan swiveled to him with a glare that could have set him on fire, the greenette quickly backpedaled. "I-I-I mean it's already so c-cold and we're soaked, s-s-so it's hard to sweat and that means no firepower so you wouldn't be able to create enough momentum until you dry yourself off and warm up and maybe then you could-"

"SHUT UP!"

Midoriya snapped his mouth shut.

In his mumbling, he hadn't noticed Kacchan walking away and approaching the open elevator doors. The car wasn't there, so when Kacchan peered in to look, he could see the entire elevator shaft. He squinted up the shaft, staring for a moment before he stepped back, staring back at Deku. "Feel that?"

A roiling in his stomach. Needles up his spine. Overwhelmed by his senses.

Fidgety.

"Yeah, I do."

Bakugou nodded. "The elevator car is all the way at the top."

Midoriya was already racing towards the stairwell. "Let's check it out."

The hotel itself was a skyscraper, at least fifty to sixty stories tall, and was considered one of the more luxurious hotels in Musutafu. Celebrities, foreign pro heroes, and the richest of the rich would often stay here during their visits to the area, with the penthouse taking up the top floor of the building being the crowning jewel of the establishment.

Despite its reputation, the owners were actually very generous people, and would often give massive discounts for bachelor and bachelorette parties, major milestone birthday occasions, and other such events to rent out the penthouse for the day.

Something was telling Midoriya that this was one of those days.

At some point while climbing those many, many flights of stairs, Kacchan had pushed past him, so he was the first one to burst into the penthouse when they reached the top. The clouds were low enough that the building was completely shrouded in them, the two teens literally met with nothing but gray fog in the giant windows that framed the room. Without a moment to spare, Midoriya immediately made a beeline for the closed elevator doors.

BOOM!

It was so loud that Midoriya's ears were ringing, and for a moment, he thought he'd gone blind, but slowly, the world came back into focus. Kacchan was suddenly in front of him, yelling some muffled order as the world around them regained its shape. The windows had been blown out, exposing them to the elements as freezing rain and powerful gusts of wind blasted into the room with no mercy. Somewhere in the distance, there was screaming.

"What just happened?" Midoriya's voice sounded far away.

Kacchan didn't snark back. "We were struck by lightning." he stated. "Avoid touching metal. No getting around it with those doors, but just- Don't." He backed away, his attention pulled to a far corner of the room.

In a daze, Midoriya approached the elevator doors, barely stopping himself from banging on them. "Hello? Is anyone in there?"

He was immediately met with desperate screaming from what sounded like at least a dozen people. Through the cries for help and the whines of pain when someone grazed the hot metal doors, Midoriya cried out. "Don't worry! Heroes are here! We'll get you out!"

As the screams turned to cheers, Midoriya peered over his shoulder. Off by the corner, he could see Kacchan crouched down by a sofa, trying and failing to school his normal scowl into a more welcoming expression, and Midoriya realized with dread that there was probably a child hiding over there.

The entire building lurched.

The movement was sudden, more up and down than side to side, and Midoriya felt dread pool heavy in his stomach like molasses as the telltale sounds of cracking and groaning filled his ears.

Please don't be the whole building, because something's coming down.

A loud crack sounded out, and Midoriya watched in pure, unadulterated horror as the floor just by his feet started to break away.

Kacchan realized what was about to happen within the same moment that Midoriya did, dropping any attempts at coaxing the child out and yanking her out from behind the couch. The girl screamed and cried as Kacchan made a run for the stable ground right at Midoriya's feet.

"Come on!" Midoriya screamed, holding his hands out.

A look of frustration crossed Kacchan's face as the way the floor dipped nearly made him trip and fall, catching himself with his free hand just as it all gave way.

"Catch!" Kacchan ordered, tossing the kid at him like an American football before Midoriya could even blink. The unexpected impact had Midoriya falling flat on his back as he securely cradled the girl in his arms, shielding her from the spray of debris and the earth-shattering crashing.

And by the time Midoriya was scrambling back to his feet, the floor was gone.

"KACCHAN!"

Depositing the girl by the elevator, Midoriya frantically crawled to the edge of the abyss, staring down into the sea of clouds for any sign of life.

And it was there. With luck finally taking their side, it was there.

In the midst of the chaos, Kacchan had managed to grab ahold of an exposed support beam jutting out of the side of the building. With one hand securely holding on, he tested his explosions in his other despite the onslaught of freezing conditions and no protection, only to be met with what amounted to a couple sparklers.

With a curse, he reached up to get a better grip on the beam, meeting Midoriya's eyes in the process. The freckled teen tried to reach down, but he already knew that he was too far down for him to reach with just his arm.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya yelled. "I'm gonna use blackwhip to pull you up! Just hang on-!"

More groaning, and this time, it was coming from behind him.

Midoriya whirled around just in time to see the light of the elevator car peaking through the crack shift and lurch, several screams erupting in response. Midoriya's heart stopped, so lost in the moment that he almost didn't notice the floors ever so discreetly lurching under him.

Below him, Kacchan was giving him the sternest look he'd ever seen.

"We're making a pact,"

And his throat felt dry.

"If there's a civilian involved, they have to come first."

"I-" Midoriya choked out. "I- Okay. I'll be right back, just- Wait and hang on!"

If Midoriya had been paying closer attention, he might have noticed Kacchan's expression soften.

With no time to waste, Midoriya grabbed the burning hot metal doors of the elevator and heaved, forcing them open bit by bit and people cheered for him in desperation. Inside the car, he could make out at least ten people, plus three young children around the age of the girl now standing by his feet with wide eyes.

While some people were scrambling to try and squeeze out, a woman near the front shoved them back and started pushing the kids out first. Midoriya couldn't hide his smile as the selfless woman helped him removed the children first, pulling them away from danger.

The building lurched again, creaking and groaning and giving out, and Midoriya didn't know what made his world come to an abrupt halt faster.

The crash behind him or the sound of a cable snapping.

The screams of terror and crying of the children next to him were all he heard as he finally wrenched the doors all the way open just as the car fell, taking the trapped civilians down with it. Midoriya immediately made a grab for the falling cable, barely thinking to use blackwhip to station himself in the elevator doorway before he could be yanked down with it. Rather than stopping the falling car instantaneously, he tightened his grip methodically, slowing the car's descent to avoid any possible injuries.

Because he had to think through this. No panicking. No half-assing it.

"I've got you!" he yelled down into the elevator shaft. "I'm pulling you up now, okay? Don't panic!"

He stepped back for better posture, and nearly tripped and fell straight into the abyss.

He turned and stared down into the clouds with wide eyes, mind blank as he registered just how close the gap had gotten. It hadn't been there before. More had to have fallen for it to creep up on him. The crashing-

Kacchan!

Where was Kacchan?!

His hands were trembling, his frozen state the only thing keeping his grip from going slack in shock. The implications were there, somewhere in the back of his mind, but they weren't registering, a black hole opening up somewhere deep in his chest as he turned back to the task at hand and started pulling.

It felt like he was going too slow, but in no time flat, the elevator had been pulled all the way back up to the open door. He'd barely gotten it halfway up the open entrance when people started clawing their way through the opening by his feet and freeing themselves. Despite the panic, the rescued civilians, all fairly young, remained orderly, steering clear of the sheer drop right next to them and shuffling their way to the stairwell entrance. One teenage girl had burst into tears when she saw the girl Kacchan had found, apparently her sister, mostly unharmed, if not shaken up.

Due to the state of the building, Midoriya had no choice but to escort the group down to the bottom and out to safety. He wasn't above moving quickly, since there were so few of them, and from the looks of it, not many people, if anyone, had been booked in the hotel at the time, so no escaping traffic was there to greet them as they made their way down.

The group ran for it as soon as they reach the ground floor, shouting a storm of thank you's through sobs and cheers as they all ran to a cafe across the street for cover from the storm. Only the girl that Kacchan had saved seemed somber.

And with that, Midoriya ran around the building as if his life depended on it.

"Kacchan!" Midoriya screamed into the howling wind. "Kacchan! Kacchan, where are you?!"

It was strange. The freezing rain was no longer freezing, and yet, he didn't feel as if he was slowing down. If anything, his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest with how hard it was pounding. He rounded a corner and was immediately met with a pile of debris, glass, walls and floors, and furniture scattered everywhere. Midoriya recognized the color of the penthouse walls and the couches in the back of the room and wordlessly sprinted to the pile and started searching.

"Kacchan!" he yelled, staring up at the sky and hoping beyond hope that he'd seen a streak of smoke or a tuft of ash blonde in a window. Even so, he still dug, that pooling dread pressing down on his stomach like lead and leaving him gasping. "Say something! Ka-!"

A gauntlet.

Midoriya gasped when he noticed it, hidden amongst the rubble and glistening with rainwater as he climbed up the mound of debris to it. Fear seized his heart, images of what he would see running wild in his mind as he moved chunks of debris out of the way and dug into the pile to reach-

A piece of a gauntlet.

He should have expected it, but Midoriya's world still went full stop.

He stared down at the broken piece of gauntlet with unseeing eyes, his hands shaking as the implications began to sink in. That he couldn't fly, that reaching for a window would be virtually impossible amongst a rain of debris, that they were fifty to sixty stories up.

That if he was under here somewhere, then he was asleep and wasn't waking up.

His eyes felt hot, but he couldn't tell if there were tears hitting the broken piece of equipment or if it was the rain. He held the piece close to his chest as he knelt in the broken rubble and glass that surrounded him. Kacchan wouldn't want his tears all over his stuff, he thought, even as it started becoming difficult to breathe. Could the villain mess with oxygen levels on the surface of the Earth as well?

"If there's a civilian involved, they have to come first."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, something was telling him, insisting to him that he'd done the right thing, that he did what he was supposed to do, what he promised he would do. He did his job and he did it right.

So why did it feel wrong?

Why did this feel like a failure in every sense of the word? Why did he feel like he would drown in guilt? Why did he feel at fault?

Why was there a sick, twisted part of him wishing that he'd chosen differently?

He could feel a heartbroken scream crawling up the back of his throat when his communication device suddenly blasted static in his ear. "Hey, this is Cellophane coming in! Can you hear me, Deku?"

Midoriya's heart stuttered to a stop. "S-Sero-!"

"Cellophane on the field, my man! And there's someone here who wants to talk to you!"

The crackling intensified, a rubbing sound as the device was being moved around, and then-

"Deku, where the fuck are you right now?!"

Midoriya choked. "KA-...!"

"Oi, no time for freaking out! What happened up there?!"

Midoriya sputtered as that black hole in his chest filled up so fast that he thought he was going to throw up. "I- Uh- I-!"

His voice cracked so harshly that he thought he'd forgotten how to speak altogether. "W- What happened to you!? I saw you fall, a-and it scared me!"

Understatement.

He could hear Kacchan click his tongue impatiently. "Bastard Cellophane was poking his nose into our business, like an asshole-"

"Bitch, I saved your life-!"

"So, now we're heading down from floor twenty-who-gives-a-shit to the ground floor while I use his stupid comm 'cause mine got tossed in the fucking wind. What happened to the extras in the elevator?"

"Huh? Ah- Oh, I-" He struggled for words. "I- I saved them! They're all waiting the storm out in the cafe across the street! Everyone's safe!"

His voice cracked horribly on the last word, his lips trembling dangerously. "Everyone's safe..."

"And where are you?"

"Ah! Uh, outside, by the building."

"Idiot! The top of it's still unstable! Get away from it before it crushes you like the ant you are!"

"We'll come meet with you!" Sero butted in. "Tell us where!"

"Oh! Um, that cafe, maybe?"

Sero laughed. "Alright! I could go for a drink!"

"Not now, stupid!" Kacchan chastised. "Deku, get your ass over there and I guess I'll be forced to see you then."

"Okay. Uh, be safe?"

"Why is that a ques-? You know what, fuck it. Sure, whatever. Now get off my comms."

"You mean my c-" The line went dead.

Midoriya stared off into the distant storm as he recovered from the whiplash of overwhelming grief to sheer ecstasy. The gauntlet shard in his hands still felt heavy, like a symbol of what could have been if luck hadn't chosen their side today.

And this would be a pattern, wouldn't it?

Midoriya's expression contorted into that of grief, because it would be a pattern. Danger would find them, pain would find them, risk, sacrifice, uncertainty. Loss would always be a looming threat over their heads until the day they retired or the day they died.

And this was the life they'd chosen, that they'd followed since they were kids, and Midoriya didn't regret a single second of it, because he would always need to save, and Kacchan would always need to win.

And as heroes, you can't save without winning, or win without saving. It was two sides of the same coin.

A coin that could one day, without warning, have one side scuffed beyond repair, and there would be nothing the other could do, because the call of duty would be blaring so much louder than their desperate hopes for each other's safety ever could.

Because ultimately, for the sake of the people, there were far more important things to focus on than polishing a coin.

And that was terrifying, he realized, as he finally allowed himself to wail into the storm.

"We're heroes. Civilians are our priority, who we pledged to protect. No matter what happens to us."

At that moment, Midoriya finally understood.