The sky is gray and red. It shouldn't be, it should be bright blue, but there is wreckage everywhere and dead bodies scattered about. The bodies are much too young, merely eighteen, and it's a distressing sight. Though there are some old, some that he holds dear to him, but there are children. There are few gasping breaths on the battlefield as the dirt flies through the air.

"Fuck," Midoriya Izuku whimpers. He has an impalement in his stomach that he desperately wants to rip out, but he is still standing in front of him. He isn't defeated, not yet - and so he cannot succumb to the blood loss, to his injuries that he's sustained for a year now. He cannot succumb to his emotions, the terror he feels at seeing his family's blood everywhere. On his hands.

"Are you ready to give up yet, little hero?" All For One croons. He laughs like he doesn't have a care in the world, like he's won, but he hasn't. Not until Izuku is dead and his brains are scattered on the pavement. All For One attempts to hold himself as if he's unfazed by the entire war, but it has weighed him down. He no longer has tubes attached to him and his life force is draining rapidly just from that alone, but he is bloody. All of his army is gone, the young and the old, the desperate and the few that were not passionate. He's killed them all, led them into early deaths.

His breath comes in unevenly, same as Izuku's, and his smirks. Neither have won - it's a stalemate. One on one, a year ago, All For One would have won, no doubt. But now? Now, with training, and injuries hindering All For One? Izuku doesn't like to be cocky, but he's not sure. Uncertainty is a death sentence, though, and so he forces himself to think that he is winning. So he grins with his teeth smeared with blood, stumbling forward with a limp.

"No," he gasps, "never."

And he strikes, with white lightning engulfing his being, tendrils of black wrapping around All For One's fragile body. All For One yells, though it is somewhat drowned out by the sound of his fist connecting with him. That seems to be the final blow, and All For One collapses on his back with a hole drilled straight through him.

The world is quiet. Izuku breathes, wet with blood coating his throat and a spike impaling his side, and that is all he can hear besides blood pounding in his ears. It's unbelievable that after all of this time, All For One is finally defeated. The man that has reigned his terror for two hundred years and killed thousands, with a surplus of quirks at his disposal - the man that killed his family, is gone.

Izuku stands on wobbly legs in front of the body, adrenaline coursing through his veins and dulling his senses. He yanks the spike out of his side and impales All For One in the arm, huffing and putting his whole weight on it. His vision blurs with black and rainbow spots, his mind going all fuzzy and staticy, and suddenly he cannot hear.

He cannot hear the voices yelling at him from across the field, few as they are. He cannot hear the concern that drenches their voices or the urgency. He is merely floating in front of the man who has taken everything from him, unbelieving of his victory. He collapses on his knees in front of All For One's feet, unable to hold himself up anymore. His ankle is broken, probably needs to be amputated, but their doctor had been killed some time ago. He deals, through uneven and shallow breaths.

It's a hollow victory, really. He will keep the world safe for the unforeseeable future, saving many civilians from a death to this man's hands, but so many are dead as well. Heroes and heroes in training, villains and civilians - nobody was spared. It was grueling and long and there was so much suffering it was incomprehensible.

His eyelids get heavier and heavier and he desperately wants to keep them open, to celebrate the hard-earned win with the survivors, but exhaustion weighs him down. It's overwhelming and he finds himself slipping away blissfully, though unaware.

And right before his eyes close, there is a laugh, pain, and a flash of white.

He should have known it was too good to be true.

—-

Midoriya Izuku, aged eighteen, dies tragically in war. He dies at the hand of the man who had robbed him of everything - everyone he cared for. It was All For One who delivered the final blow before also succumbing to his injuries and dying alongside the boy. It is tragic for the few that knew him and lived until the end, with desperate wails the only sound of the world.

All that is certain is that Izuku died that day. He died, there is no other way to put it - his infected injuries due to lack of care and his stomach wound were surely fatal. Unless you were to have a revival quirk, you would never see Midoriya Izuku's smile or eyes again. He was killed by the hands of his enemy.

But there was never a body. There was white, All For One died, and Midoriya Izuku disappeared.