Donnez aux prochain part two.
~0~
Shuzenji was not there even after an hour and a half. And in normal circumstances, Shouta would readily call her out on her tardiness and how someone could have lost their life. But considering that she took the reins of the medical team... and who she was tasked to treat.
No, this did not excuse it... her age, maybe, but not her lack of resources.
As they waited, news went around that Midoriya, being the problem child he was, had returned to Heights Alliance in nothing but a tea towel and holding Shigaraki...
A Shigaraki that was now lying on cold bathroom tiles, surrounded with what could only be his own blood and an ungodly amount of Trigger. A suspicious black spot where his pancreas would be located... and looking, for lack of better words, more deflated and … rather dead, or soon to be.
Seriously; a stiff wind, a half-hearted slap from Hagakure's glove or one of Mineta's balls would be enough to kill him.
And if that didn't give Shouta some awfully mixed feelings... Well, one just needed to add the Revived Midoriya now caring for him and you had a very confused underground Hero struggling with his flagging morality.
Seriously, he'd prefer not to see the asshole this weak. Let him die alone and away from the general populace.
It would be fitting to have the ancient villain die with a whimper and not a bang... since this was how Izuku...
'This was how he died... no way Deku's not a Nomu.' Shouta thought glumly. The image of another Nomu, naked from his dark mist replaying in his traitorous mind.
Deku's heart was probably long gone by now. Replaced by something else.
But... there was still, shockingly enough, some hope left.
Izuku... was still Izuku. Meaning that his Problem Child would talk, and talk he did.
Internally, Shouta resolved to teach him the benefit of holding off the rambling... then he realised that this could not be possible since he was as good as dead, just like Oboro, and was probably at Shigaraki's bidding.
And no, Shouta could not just barge in, save Shoto from their grips and mercy kill the monster who dared to do this to his kids! There was a... barrier that prevented the underground hero from even attempting to fiddle with the lock, let alone bust down the lock.
Yagi was with him in the room, sitting on the couch as he wearily looked at Shouta, his sunken, electric blue eyes filled with guilt, confusion and grief... but Shouta did nothing to help the man.
He had no idea what got him in a mess at the moment... save the... thing that dared to wear Izuku's skin.
But back to the...definitely odd conversation 'Izuku' had with Shoto. And the mess of information he'd managed to gather.
"Izuku... what happened to you?"
"Oh... One for All caused my heart to rip apart apparently, by the way, if you think your quirk overuse is bad."
"Shit... I thought it was the bones breaking, catatonia, and whatever fah Jin had was bad."
"Torn muscles... and yeah, heart failure too."
"I love my quirk more now."
"Yeah, Thank Krishna it's all gone now. I will miss Nana and Bansho though. And Yoishi, better not forget him."
"Who?"
"Previous One for All users, all died by All For One's hands because he's an overly attached fool who is too sentimental... Ah. Listen, long story short, All for One gave his terminally ill Brother One for All and after the first user gave it to the second user and died, went on a rampage while he desperately tried getting what he gave away in the first place. Because he didn't bother checking if his quirkless little brother really was quirkless... but no, Yoishi had a quirk... the dumbest quirk in existence, a quirk that's so useless except in one. Yoishi's quirk was the one that let him... well, take the quirk his bro gave him, and transfer it to another one, and then upon the transfer and the death of the previous owner, take their quirk, stockpile it, and gave them to the second user."
"Wait... I don't get it."
"Me neither, it was haunted, and AfO wanted his baby brother back."
"Wait... so you mean."
"Yep, the apocalypse was caused by a sentimental old fool more greedy than Scrooge McDuck. And you know what's the best part?"
"No."
"The best part is, the first quirk was a stockpiling one, and it was charging up for two hundred years and eight different users, all of them stuck in it, and adding to its dangerous level of power."
"You mean, your quirk was haunted"
"Yep! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, I was the ninth user, the eight one being Yagi, or All Might..."
"Ok... but I don't see the funny part yet."
"The funny part is... Me getting a busted heart was the logical conclusion of the quirk. And can you believe that I almost gave it to Aizawa Sensei?"
"I still don't get it."
"I died at... what was it? Sixteen? Fifteen? The quirk caused my heart to fail when I was still young. Aizawa-sensei is in his thirties, he would not have lived for a week."
"Fuck! OK... now that's a scary quirk."
"I know, right! Anyway, my heart failed so badly, I should have died... and I did die a few times."
"Hold on... a few times?"
"Yeah. It's a bit blurry, but I have a friend that was following me who told me I'd died in the van coming here. And I can kind of remember being in the worst pain in my life and desperately asking Bakugou for help... and him ignoring me because he thought I was taking too much time from his group chat and social media."
"Ok, that's it. The moment I see him, I'm giving him freeze-burns on his hands."
"Ha... please don't. There was nothing he could have done any way. Then Adi, that's my friend, Adi-Rasa Das, told me I somehow returned to consciousness and almost gave Sensei a time bomb of a quirk. Then someone threw a brick at my head. So that killed me too... my brain, at least. Then I died on the operation table but this time, it was medically induced and I had a wonderful hug by Kali while my old heart was cut out and replaced with her own heart... then, just for kicks, the heart stopped again just as they were closing me up, just to start again as they were about to shock me... then I woke ut. By the way, what happened to the guy who threw that brick?"
"... Nezu made him disappear."
"He shouldn't have, we need as much genetic material we can to... nah, actually, that won't be needed."
"Why?"
"Oh, Uttara mama and Mukhara Devi Dasi are planning an evacuation of this place. By the way, the Tokyo we're living in isn't real. It's part of a magical hermitage and I've been living out of this hell hole for a whole year now."
"... Izuku, you were only gone for a whole week."
...
"Oh... Well, It was longer than that, and you can ask D-Hiss-Yamada-Sensei once he's there."
"Mic-sensei!?"
"Yup, he was with me when I woke up post-op, was with me when I walked out the hospital and was with me when me and my preaching buddies went to the North American anime-con... It was great, by the way. Got to see my Izu-crew again."
"I have so many questions... and I have no idea where to start."
Returning back to the present, Shouta's mind drifted off to the current phase of the most confusing conversation in the world.
"So... what the hell happened to Tomura." Shoto asked, to which he heard... The Nomu gives a very familiar put-upon sigh.
" I exorcised AfO from him. I mean, what was I supposed to do, ight? One moment, Dabi and I are getting ready for our morning shower and the next, Boom. I'm summoned via puke to a battle field, in front of this guy who's been possessed by mister Bro-con? I had to save him."
"He's what?" Shoto asked for Aizawa.
" Bro-con. Basically, the consensus of the community is that AfO"S a little too much into his brother."
"Oh God." Todoroki sounded sick at the thought... same as Aizawa.
"Sorry about that, but unless All For One says or acts otherwise, that's how I chose to see him. " The Nomu explained apologetically. " Tenko's quirk... all of them got out of hand and... right now, it's just my magic that keeps him alive."
"Wait... Magic? You mean your freaky quirk, right?"
"No... It's magic, like, legitimate magic a la Harry Potter, Touhou Project and Final Fantasy."
'... Alright... I need to wash my sleeping bag more often. There's no way I'm awake and sober right now.' Shouto thought as he moved away from the door and checked if this was a dream or not.
He checked his hands twice, jumped while expecting to fly, and finally looked at his reflection.
He still looked like an ugly, one eyed, resting bitch-face hobo, meaning this was for real.
"Alright then," he muttered... sure, he had seen shit as an undergounder... and then the last fucking two years, but this...
That was too much.
"Where is Shoto!?" Endeavor barged in, his entire body radiating heat yet, still not ignited (thank fuck for that.)
Shouta lifted his head to meet the Number One Hero's eyes. The man looked haggard despite his stature and imposing hero costume. Her jerked his head toward the bathroom as he began to sign, not to alert the... Nomu.
(obviously, it was a bit late for that, but protocol was protocol and it would be illogical to give the abomination any more information he could use.) ''He's in there with Nomu. So far, from what I've heard, Izuk-... the Nomu pulled a machine out of Shigaraki's body, by the way, what the fuck did you do to your son for him being able to stomach a ghetto surgery?''
Endeavor's eyes grew wide. '' I... have no idea, but considering what Hound Dog told me, it's very possible that Shoto's is still delusional.'' The towering man winced. ''I... His Mother's side was not the most... stable, I'm afraid. My... t-tra-... doing what I did did not help any of them.''
''Talk about Karma.''
''Yes... anything else?'' Endeavor asked as he moved to the side, letting Hawks and an HPSC agent walk in.
''Where is Recovery Girl?'' Shouta asked as he pressed his lips tight in disapproval, hiding his features under his capture weapon.
''She won't come.'' Hawks informed them, his face devoid of all emotions. ''She says she had better things to do then entertain a terrorist and his pet zombie.''
Suddenly, Shouta hears an all-suffering sigh from the bathroom.
" Izu, what's wrong?"
"Oh, Shuzenji is apparently above the Hippocratic oath... I should've known."
Shouta winced... yeah so, the U.A. healer may have a bit of a God complex...
And by Maybe, Shouta meant that she did, and she was tired of all this shit.
Also... how the hell did Izuku managed to get that? He must have some camera or a quirk letting him see through walls and bodies or something.
"Anyway... good thing I was also O negative." He heard the Nomu sigh and... "Oh, Krishna, How am I supposed to... let's see, blood is flowing, but mine also contains miasma meaning that-" And then...
"Izu..."
"Hush... I need to focus."
"You slit your wrist."
"Yes... I did Shoto."
"Why are you giving your blood to Shigaraki?"
"Because he lost more than he can handle."
"Why are you trying to save him?"
"Why are you asking dumb questions, Shoto?" Izu... The Nomu snapped,and it was only due to Shouta's capture weapon that he did not make a fool of himself.
''... How did he manage to know what we were saying?'' Enji asked incredulously as the commission man came closer, standing unobtrusively in Shouta's blind spot.
This... put the teacher on edge. His whole digestive system screamed at him that this wasn't good...
'' I don't know... either All for One gave him a mental quirk or... ''
''Or Midoriya-kun has eyes on the outside.'' Hawks sighed from his back as he approached the suspicious lump of towel on the shelf.
Only to turn away.
Endeavor and Hawks asked Shouta some more questions as they waited for God knows what. The HCSP agent is still ghosting around. He was a rather nondescript man that looked as if he would be better suited for office work then on the field. He was just... so underwhelmingly normal, that it put the Cancel hero on edge.
Also, All Might's awkward hovering in the room... Did he mention just how uncanny it was to see this six and a half feet tall skeleton of a man meander around as if he wanted to break down the barrier, cry like a baby to run away and never look back?
Well, he did.
Suddenly, he heard something from the bathroom.
It was the Nomu again.
He was... singing..?
"Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare~. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare..."
"Oh... Izu, what is that?" Shoto asked for everyone who heard that.
" Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead in sound."
...
Shouta pressed his palms against his face as he leaned on the wall, his headache was getting worse.
Like... way... way worse...
He was dimly aware of All Might's groan of pain as he pressed the heels of his hands of his eyes and Endeavor holding onto a wall. Hawks kneeled as he turned deathly pale, blood pouring from his ears and nose...
Shouta slumped, liquid... maybe even melting brain matter flowing out of his facial orifices.. and then two things happened at once.
The bathroom door was flung open, an irate Izuku flying out as he faced the Agent... and the wad of cloth on the top of the drawer arose from the surface, and a delicate skeleton of ice grew under it, blue flames burning in it's chest like a heart...
And the thing lunged at the HCSP Agent, his needle-like fingers piercing his flesh as Izuku shot a laser at the man's chest, killing him instantly.
All went black...
~0~
The light turned back on... same as the sound.
Enji managed to crack his eye open, he's on a soft surface, probably a futon, his head's not pounding anymore and... the smell of bleach and ozone fills his nose.
And something he can't quite put his finger on... it smells sickly sweet and acrid... that's as far as he can go through his description. It is somewhat irritating to his lungs... but it's not worse than mild incense.
Taking the scene in, he concludes that whomever managed to put him on the floor mattress took great care with the positioning of his body, going as far as to remove the hard bits of his armor and turning him to the side, in case of. He's looking at the mediatech, apparently , those kids have modded their gaming console to turn it into a monstrosity that really should be bricked... and given to a proper adult to play with...
Wait, scratch that.
Enji managed to turn around with nary a sound, a skill he had to learn in boarding school. What came to his sight was Aizawa-san curled up around a cat plush, sleeping soundly as if they were not in the presence of something that dared to resemble Midoriya-kun.
Peacefully, he may add.
And they were indeed on a huge futon his son had told him about in passing, the one the A-1 class would use when they wanted to waste their time and health watching movies and playing games all night long like the Children they were...
(Privately, Enji wondered if he could commission his seamstress to do something like that but fireproof and way bigger, maybe this would help him make some strides in fixing his past mistakes and growing closer to his estranged family... he would have to run the idea by Hound Dog first, though. He didn't want a repeat of Rei's downward spiral again.)
At the far side was Toshinori, his breathing remarkably like that of a dying man. The bloody sputum that stained the judiciously placed towel reminding Enji of what the old Number One Hero had gone through to get his title.
It was... Enji knew that the title he now wore meant nothing. It would take him to utterly destroy All for One in an epic fight... and managed to survive long enough afterward.
Now, the flaming Number One could roughly shake his old rival awake... but after Izuku's... health crisis and subsequent kidnapping, it was well known that Yagi's sleep was as abundant as Aizawa-san's.
Enji ripped his eyes away from the corpse-like man and carefully got up, they had gotten attacked once, and he would not put it beyond the Nomu from doing that again.
Remarkably enough, whatever headache he had before the last one was gone, and for the first time in a long time, he now knew what being pain free felt like. And Knowing Yagi's lack of lungs and stomach, he seemed less pale than usual.
'Yagi, you idiot. I know you kept telling me you could still fight. Pah! You should have retired a long time ago. Why, if I would be in your place, All for One would have been but cinders blowing in the wind... the whole League!'
And then Touya would be dead... but with how unhinged he had become, an easy death would be better than what had happened to him.
Really, It was Enji's fau...
...
The room seemed unchanged, saved from some water damage by the wall where... the Commission man had once been, this was also where the bleach smell was at its strongest.
' So... What happened was true, The Nomus did kill Matoi-san.' Not that Enji knew him all that well, the man was like a wallflower, worse than his wife.
Still, he was not a villain, a decent human, and someone who knew his place... right under the Number One.
Japan's Number One clenched his fist and let his flames dance just under his skin... He would get his Shoto out of there... then the whole place would burn.
Mark his words.
He was about to hike the emergency stairs (no way he would take the elevator, it was both too slow and an obvious trap.) When he felt his phone vibrate.
He growled from the back of his throat. On one hand, it could be nothing but another distraction, and yet Enji knew that Midoriya could float... There had been reports about how he'd managed to clear the thirty meter walls with ease, flying all the way to Height Alliance with Shigaraki in tow.
He went to the sofa and heavily sat down, grabbing his phone out of his pocket. "Yes, Endeavor speaking, make it quick, Miruko."
"Boss, we've lost communication with you for 3 hours. What the fuck did the Nomu do?" The rabbit quirk mutant asked.
"He killed Matoi-san, All Might and Eraserhead are sleeping." he spat loud enough to wake up a dead man... only to have said two dead men mumble something incoherently as sleep still clings to them like Fat Gum's quirk.
He openly sneered at them. Was this the old Number One of Japan? How the hell did he manage for so long if he slept like the dead.
"Hawks is nowhere to be seen."
"Shit... Haven't seen hair nor... hair of him since you guys came in. Ryukyu is with me, so's Fat Gum and a bunch of other pros. We've had to threaten Class 1-A with some pretty heavy fines and crap... not sure they will listen though, we've already caught the invisi-girl and Uravity trying to sneak in there...oh, and Ground Zero's being an absolute asshole about the whole thing. He can't seem to decide if he wants to kill the Nomu, or 'save' it... think it's mostly killing him... oh, and don't get me started on Midoriya-san."
"Then please spare me the details." Endeavor grumbled as he heavily sat on the couch, rubbing the ridge of his nose as he felt the dreadful pressure build behind his eyes. And unfortunate side effect of his position.
"No prob... have you seen him? Midoriya Izuku..."
"No... But Yagi did. He couldn't speak at all but it was clear the sight was devastating." And how, if this was Shoto...
He'd rather not think about it... all this work, for nothing.
"So... what's the plan boss?" Miruko asked.
" I'm making my way up to the sleeping quarters, if my hunch is right, they are all in Izuku's room."
"... Don't burn them."
"If I can help it." Enji spoke grimly. He was a hero, not a moralist. That... thing impersonating as Izuku belongs to the hell fire, and what to say about Shigaraki. Hawks was as good as dead anyway, the Commission only keeping him around to monitor his decline...
But there was Shoto... his Shoto...
He was Enji's pride and joy for so many reasons and yet...
And yet, Enji was not as blind as he was before, and while he still felt justified (for crying out loud, He should have been the Number One Hero half a decade ago, it would have saved everyone's so much trouble but noooo. Yagi was too stubborn for that.) he knew he had done more harm than good to his precious son... both of them.
And Natsuo... and Fuyumi...
And their Mother...
He tried opening the door, only to smack his face in a wall of light... this one more... Glitch-core than the Nomu's usual one.
And no... He didn't want to risk trying to burn through it since... Well, he had the feeling it would not work, and burning the whole place would have to be a last resort.
He would give Hawks thirty minutes... maybe. And if he received nothing, then Endeavor would consider him dead...
He would... give Shoto longer. But from what he had heard from class 1-A, Shoto's phone had been broken for a while.
Endeavor trudged to the couch and heavily sat down, he was not a believer, despite the fact that his trip to the fire God shrine used to be a weekly affair before all hell broke loose. Still, right now, he felt helpless...
And yet, for the sake of Japan, the Number One Hero was willing to do the needful...
It was a war, he could not afford to be soft...
~0~
Hawks and Shoto woke up at the same time from the most restful sleep they had in a while. Everything was quite save the sound of three more lungs breathing heavily.
Both did a body check, coming up with... well, they were in a better state then before they'd felt their brain melt and shatter in their cranium.
And as for Hawks, the constant pain was gone... save from whatever the hell the Commission had stuffed in him during his last check up. But, that was usual for him.
Now, the two heroes' action diverged, while Hawks decided to play it smart and feign sleep again after he'd scanned the room to see where the hell he was. (Midoriya's room, hard to miss when it was filled with memorabilia and an omori for him.) Shoto had no such preservation instinct.
It died with Midoriya.
After opening his eyes and being greeted by the side of the bed and a dangling arm that definitely needed some moisturizer. The Todoroki heir hoisted himself up, feeling regretfully sane.
Apparently, all the abuse his... father heaped on him, the stress of school and the war had put a toll on his psyche, and Deku's death had pushed him beyond the event horizon, so to speak.
I mean really, he knew he was in denial. How the hell could a witch who was actually a wizard steal Deku's lifeless body, his English teacher, and open a door in nothing only to escape through it?
After that... the border between reality and dreams was shattered, and Shoto began to live with the afterimage of Izuku and death.
He was not aware... or maybe he was... sometimes he saw... sometimes he was blind… and sometimes, he was sadly back to reality, having to face the fact that the most amazing person in the world, the one who knew his secrets, the one whom Stain rightly called a hero... was dead.
Dead, and hated by those he had saved.
By the civilians...
They had killed him.
'But... How the hell am I in his room now? I'm banned from being there... have I sneaked in with Mineta Again?' He shook his head, trying to dislodged whatever memories of the event might remain, but coming up with a blank... save this time with the illusory Izuku and Shigaraki in the bathroom, playing Operation in the Heir of AfO and pulling out hardware and bone spurs while having a very weird conversation.
It was so vivid, so real... Shoto wished he could return to this time and never get out of there.
He remembered how healthy Deku looked. Gone were the heavy dark circles under his eyes, the unhealthy pallor and lack of body fat. He had gained another scar on his chest... and some fancy rainbow tattoos but...
the smile that he wore, his laughter despite being elbow deep in the enemy Number One's 's gut... joking about how, not even a year ago, he had been the one with a villain's hands in his innards.
'One year ago, but didn't you die a week ago?' Shoto wondered. Was it a loud? Was it quiet...
Then he realised that the hand that hung from the bed was real, heck he was touching it right now and the thing still held life in there. But God.. it was so dry and cracked...
'Ok... so this is definitely Shigaraki's hand hanging from Izuku's bed... meaning..."
"oh fuck me straight."
He heard a groan. "Sho... language please..."
Shoto's heart stopped... and gingerly came to his feet, his quirk dancing under his skin as he prepared to... to...
As he came to his feet, Midoriya's bed situation became horrifically clearer.
Shigaraki Tomura was swaddled in Izuku's All Might comforter, sleeping.
He looked... terrible. His whole body shook with tremors. He had rings under his eyes that would rival Shinsou and Aizawa-Sensei put together. His lips were cracked in numerous places and small whimpered more like pained whispers slipped from them.
But... that was not the most shocking and amazing thing Shoto had seen... It was the person curled loosely around his head like a guardian.
It was Izuku... and he looked even better than he'd remembered, even his numerous scars looked faded and healed. His skin had darkened, a clear sign that he'd been under the sun with almost nothing on.
His cheeks were fuller and brimming with life. He looked moderately well rested, no, what was Shoto saying, he looked like a cherub sleeping on the lap of God... fully rested and freed from the ugliness festering in Purgatorium.
He wore one of his fashion statement shirts, the one that read 'Mini-skirt' on it and a pair of ugly flannel pants.
Shoto stared at the sight for... he'd lost count, breathing only when needed, afraid that this image would disappear... and also because he didn't want to wake up Shigaraki. Now that would be disastrous.
Oh, and for some reason, Dabi's head was tucked to Izuku's gut, his eyes closed and scars much lighter... and his hair was heartbreakingly white, just like Touya.
It would twitch sometimes...
Shoto brought his attention back to Izuku, still sleeping soundly despite being hugged by the world's greatest villain and Dabi's head...
He had to touch.. to make sure that what he was seeing was reality and not another illusion his sick mind had conjured to escape yet another onslaught of pain and grief.
He slowly, almost hesitantly reached out, making sure not to touch Shigaraki. He didn't care if he was real or not, better he be fake, it would be easier to deal with.
And then, after what seemed to be an eternity... the very tips of his finger made contact with warm skin.
Shoto's heart skipped a beat and his breathing stuttered as he fought through his tears. And he pressed a bit more, feeling the skin give and spring back under his touch.
Izuku nuzzled deeper in the bed, holding onto Dabi's head closer as he murmured a phrase of some sort...
Just as he would before the war started... when he would fall asleep on the couch and that he had to be awakened.
Iizuku was a mumbler when he slept, he was never quiet... save when he was sedated or suffering from a nightmare, which he did often.
Too often.
Shoto pressed his hand to Izuku's cheek, feeling his warmth, the subtle movement of his muscles, the slight fluttering of his eyelids. His nuzzling his cold hand, the puff of breath dancing there...
All of it repeating over and over a wonderful mantra that had been a curse in the week he was gone, but now was a blessing.
He's alive, Izuku's Alive, Izuku's not dead.
Despite himself, despite his emotional block, despite his desperate attempt at not feeling, Shoto began to cry. It was quiet at first... then the whimpers came as he remembered this terrible evening.
They had managed to find Izuku as he was facing a terrible villain and his numerous hostages. And Deku was trying to face him alone.
Usually, Shoto knew full well that the Villain would not have lasted long against All Might's student... but in this situation, there was nothing for Midoriya.
Bakugou had come to his rescue and... Izuku ran... he ran from them.
At first, Shoto thought Izuku saw them as a burden, that he thought they were a burden, not strong enough to help him... only to realize what those eyes meant.
As Izuku ran away... trying to lose them, he never looked back, running with all he had short of his freaky power.
And all the while... Soto could not help but think that his savior, his closest and only friend, had the same eyes as his mother when Enji was in a foul mood.
Actually, all students who had once been bullied had said the same thing... it had felt wrong to attack Midoriya... even if Bakougo, his oldest friend had told them that this was the only way to make him listen...
During the ride back to UA, the same wretched feeling became more pronounced when Tsu, in the inimitable way, had told them all that she felt like shit for having bullied Izu to return to UA, where she knew he would only be met with hatred and harsh criticism.
And his mother... They had thought the petite woman would greet her son with open arms, but what they saw was a woman who was burnt out... heck, when she had received the report of Izuku's demise, she looked both heartbroken and relieved.
Izuku didn't say much about his mother, they knew she was fiercely protective of him, but at the same time... Izuku had told them that this had been the only time his mom had stood up for him...
The only time...
To make a long story short... They knew close to nothing about Izuku while the greenette knew close to everything about them... and Bakugou was as helpful as his father was loving...
No, wait, his father was making an effort... but those efforts would do nothing to the harm that had already occurred to his family.
And then... his death.
Shoto had been riding with All Might and Gran Torino, right behind his Sensei's car.
Everything was calm save for Shoto's sense of morality, wondering if this was the kind of situation where, whatever you do, people would get hurt.
And, as if to prove him right for once, He suddenly saw the van in front speed up and Aizawa-sensei jump out of the moving vehicle and onto the side of the one in which Midorya was held with Bakugou. Practically ripping the door open as he took the van's control, pushing it to its limit until it passed UA's gate.
Then it stopped suddenly, Aizawa jumped out of it and practically yanked the door of its slider...
Izuku... Was limp... oh so limp...
Fifteen minutes later, he and Hizashi were gone... and Izuku was pronounced dead, for the CAD machine would record the state of the patient for medical reasons.
Izuku's heart... it was vibrating, and that was pretty much it. His blood pressure was beyond recovery and... his chances of survival were too low to even matter.
And now, there he was... alive and well.
He was alive... and his eyes began to flutter...
and then, he opened them, revealing a pair of lively emeralds glowing with... something other than life.
But life was there, it was definitely there in all of its glories.
"I... Midoriya." Shoto croaked... more tears spilling from his eyes.
"Hey, Todoroki." Izuku murmured as he gave a stretch, checked up on Shigaraki and sat up...
He sat up...
Something everyone had taken for granted... Midoriya Izuku getting up again... Izuku smiling, Izuku speaking, Izuku... living.
the next thing he knew, he was in Izuku's arms, smelling his aroma (huh... he smelled like incense, flowers and... something intoxicatingly sweet that would make him cough. And his own heady smell sans ozone this time.) he could feel the familiar strength of his scarred arms, and...
His heart beat.
Despite himself... or because of it, Shoto sobbed harder in Midoriya's shoulder. "It's you... It's you!"
"Yes, Sho... It's me alright. Not a Nomu, and not Toga... I thought I'd already told you?"
But Shoto could not answer back... he had his life back. Everything else was superfluous.
~0~
Nedzu, having watched the whole scene from the vent, was already compiling everything young Midoriya had told young Todoroki.
A world outside, the one they knew was not the real thing. A world without Quirks... a world ruled by a hell-corvid that ruled with nuclear fire and motherly warmth, a world where everything was better despite the climate change and the filthy humans trying to lord it over everything.
A world where Midoriya had healed from his many scars, a world where he had learned to smile, where he was not just a statistic... a world where he didn't have to fight a war that should have never been his.
A world where Izuku was freed from his stigma, a world where he could be himself, and where making friends didn't require a quirk.
The world of Nedzu and UA...It was called a hermitage. And, while it was real... it was not the full reality.
The real world also contained people with metahuman abilities, but it was not as widespread, and it had more to do with supernatural creatures and magic, not human evolution.
And one year had passed, and from the faded surgical scar adorning Izuku's chest, Nedzu was inclined to believe him. No one could recover from a heart transplant so quickly, and the scar looked old.
But then came the whole magic thing, being a Hare Krishna and having Omega Zero and Copy X as a surgeon, having a nuclear mama bird and learning a bit of Kendo from the ancient prince of Japan. But what took the cake was how he'd lost One for All in the debacle and instead gained the heart of a saintly witch...
and he kept praying, calling out to Krishna, whomever he was. And then there was the subject of his... rainbow tattoos and, of course... Shigaraki Tomura.
Nedzu clutched his suit... He thought he hated the man, he thought... he'd thought his first instinct would have been to rip his throat.
But then the smell hit... the smell he had grown to despise, the stench that haunted his nightmares and waking hours.
Many drugs were made to either enhance or edit quirks. Some would subdue them while others would strengthen them like Trigger... and then there were the designer drugs used to do unspeakable things to one's systems.
What had been pumped in Shigaraki's blood... was one of those cocktails Nedzu was far too familiar with, having witnessed many of his lab-kin suffer untold brain damage from it.
"So... what now?" Todoroki's kitten asked as he sat back on the ground. Followed by Izuku.
The green haired revenant looked haggard... not in the 'I've been fighting villains as a vigilante for a whole year with no support'. But the-
"I don't know... I don't want to be there!"
Oh, Midoriya-san took the words out of his snout.
"I didn't want to come back, I didn't want to keep fighting. I just wanted to take my damn shower and dress up for the day, not being summoned by Arse for One in a middle of a God-forsaken battle field!" He sobbed as he buried his face in his palm. "And Dabi... my poor Dabi's already had two panic attacks seeing Endeavor, do you know how distressing it is to feel your familiar freaking the frick out from inside your head? And knowing that there is nothing you can do because you don't really want to kill the guy despite all the crap he actionated because, despite everything, he hadn't done anything to deserve death yet and I already killed a guy and I know I'll get taken away to parts unknown and Dabi... I know you want to give your apologize to Hawks, and I know you know it won't be enough, and I know, Dabs.-"
Izuku suddenly turned around and grabbed something from the bed... it was Dabi's missing head, blood dripping from his scrunched up eyes.
Despite lacking his bottom mandible, Nedzu could just smell the shame, guilt, fear, and sorrow rolling off in waves from the disembodied head.
As Izuku curled up around his Familiar (Again with the magical realm.) Nedzu elected to make his appearance. He may not be the best when it came to humans in general, but Izuku was his favorite human...
'He is my favorite... and yet, I did nothing to protect him...' Another discrepancy he had noticed.
He knew Aizawa expelling his whole class was wrong, yet he said nothing, he knew Yagi had no experience to teach, and yet, let him teach, causing Izuku more injuries... even life threatening ones.
He was painfully aware of Midoriya's toxic relationship with Bakugou... and how no one seemed to be there to help him.
He always carried the blame while, comparatively, the explosive blonde went away with a slap on the wrist.
And yet, despite knowing how wrong it was, despite knowing how Bakugou was another Endeavor in the making, despite seeing the flinches, the murder attempts, and the abuse... Nedzu always seemed to have something better to do than ban the explosive blonde from ever attending anything in his prestigious school... Hell, those types of people could either be a great tool of destruction with black mailed correctly but...
It wasn't worth it... the blood this child shed for one whose quirk was deemed more heroic... whose teacher was incompetent and had to pay with more blood...
Was this his punishment for having failed his duty as an educator?
Well no... But something was making it worse for Midoriya, and it was something beyond mere fate.
At the other side of the ventilation grate, Midoryia cried in Todoroki's arms, his fear and anxiety stifling and sickening to the chimera... Still holding onto Dabi's head whose tears had doubled.
Thankfully for them, Nedzu knew of a few tricks to get rid of blood stains.
He took this time to indicate his presence, a simple clearing of the throat.
The effect was immediate. Midoriya stiffened, his eyes flying to the grate as the famed rainbow tattoos flared to life on his skin, displacing the ether and filling the room with a sickly sweet fragrance.
'This... is not One for All... I don't think it's a mutation either, hmm. So interesting... no, Focus, Nedzu, you may geek out later, but now, your favorite Hero is in need of comfort.' After taking a breath and centering himself (his instincts were telling him that one wrong move and he would end up just like Matoi-san... not that the man would be missed.
"Am I a rat? A dog? A bear?" He began his catch phrase as he dramatically emerged from the grate, letting it lift up once it read its chip. "It doesn't matter, for it is I, Nedzu. Your principal, and your ally."
Midoriya and Dabi stared. "P... Principal Nedzu."
The tiny chimera raised his paws. "I don't wish you, or Tomura any harm, and I would be hard-pressed to bring any of the Todoroki siblings to the authorities when it is clear much has happened since the last time we spoke... all of us."
Midoriya let out a sob as his whole body slacken. "Please... don't lie..."
"I'm not lying... I swear it on my own head." It was an oath the literal lab rat wasn't keen to break.
He felt something in the air snap.
Izuku Midoriya sighed and his whole body sagged. "You swore your vow in front of Shinki's student. Your head will explode in a million pieces if you ever break it... same as me."
Once again, something snapped again. But this time more hesitantly.
"Very well." Nedzu inclined his head before turning his sharp glance to Shigaraki. The poor man's eyes were all dull as dried blood, and one of those orbs was pulled down by gravity alone.
"Can I offer any assistance for Shigara-"
"Shimura Tenko... please, don't call him his old name, that's not even him." Izuku asked.
"Very well."
"And... Unless you have a way to repair a broken mind and fried brain... I don't think you can do anything for him." Midoriya spoke sadly. His tone breaking Nedzu's heart.
yes, he had a heart, a fragil little thing held together with scars and pure spite, but a heart nonetheless.
"No... And from the sound of it, Recovery Girl has already denied him any help." Once again, why does he keep the old girl around, it's not like she's the only healer out there, not the most powerful. And it's clear that her old age is turning her bitter and jaded.
... no, something was pulling the strings of this absolutely chaotic and bloody play, and it was something Nedzu hated!
"Sir?"
"AH, my apologies. I have much on my mind at the moment." Then the mammal turned to the Todoroki heir. "And how about you, Todoroki-kun. Is there anything you need?"
The halfling was about to shake his head when his stomach answered for him.
"AH, I see. Soba noodles, right?"
"I don't want to take the resources meant for the civilians." Todoroki spoke quietly as he held his stomach.
"Nonsense. Lunch Rush would be more than happy to feed you." Yes, because the poor man had almost given up his apron when he learned what an insignificant group of 'civilians' had attacked the Dying Hero. It had taken one head on a platter for the man to calm down.
And by that... Nedzu had dug all the dirt he could on the perpetrator, ousting him as none other than another AfO goon.
Ah... it all made sense now... it all made a terrible amount of sense.
"And how about you, Midoriya?"
"I'm good. I don't need to eat anymore." The greenette revealed as he went on to check up on Shigaraki. " Tomura would need this... you know, the solution given to comatose people? And maybe some oxygen since he did lose plenty of blood and my own is... different. I don;t think there's anymore 0- blood avialable, do you?"
"Yes, glucose solution. I will have one of our robots get it for him. and, unfortunately, most of the blood available is not universal. And how about some clothes?"
"Something easy to slip on... a hospital gown..."
"He's... in bad shape."
Nedzu was met with some very wet laughter... and an Izuku who practically collapsed on Shi... Shimura's side, holding what was left of his hands.
"I will arrange this... just let me pass a few phone calls." The Chimera spoke quietly as he went into the vent again.
~0~
Thirty minutes later, and Shoto was (finally) appropriately fed, Todoroki senior and the rest of the Heros assured that this was indeed Midoriya; he was doing well but needed peace and quiet... and to remind Shuzenji of her Hippocratic oath, war or not.
(Oh, Nedzu was well versed in human dealing; heck, he had human intelligence and acted as such, but... he didn't have to act that way. Not with people who smelled like lies and deceit; they would have the animalistic Nedzu who loved pretending to be a human. And not the Human in Nedzu who looked like a Chimera.)
Then, the 'rat called Midoriya Inko to notify her of her Son's glorious return...
Her reaction had been... shockingly underwhelming. And thus Nedzu chose not to bring the subject up to Midoriya... not yet, at least.
"Now, Midoriya-san, can you please tell me what happened to you? The AED machine indicated that your heart suffered from a fatal failure, and from the scar on your chest, it had been remedied."
"Yep!... I got a new old heart from an ancient witch... say, what do you know about the Touhou Project?"
"Hmm... Maybe in passing, I have no time for this sort of game." Smups were quite dull to the highly intelligent Mammal; the music was excellent though.
"Oh... that will make this a bit harder to explain, but... Ok, I guess I need to start explaining from the beginning, sir. Well, maybe not since, for me, it all started about a week after my fight with Dicatore."
"I see..."
" But Hizashi got me up to speed, so I'm sure I'll be able to explain this part also... just not in detail."
"I see... and how is Present Mic?" Nedzu asked as he kept an eye and ear on the other three that had taken shelter in the room.
"... dad's doing great."
"Dad?" Hawks exclaimed... and mentally slapped himself for his dumb slip.
nedzu grinned as he caught Izuku's eyes. Huh, who would have thought this pup could be devious like that?
" Don't worry; it's nothing too secret." Izuku addressed the obvious spy. "I just don't want to be hounded by my classmates again." Nezu could clearly see the shudder travelling through the living youth's body.
And Yes, it was one of the many things the chimera hated about humans, their thirst for gossip, and one of Ashido's many, many addictions.
Hopefully, they would manage to get her... and the rest of the Hero Classes the help they needed to get away from those potent chemicals. Exposure to them at such a young age was a surefire way to get numerous cancers and mental shortcomings.
Really, if what Midoriya said was true about this being like the Truman show... then Help had to be on the way.
Now being ousted, the poor puppet stood up and tried to give one of his iconic 'oops, I messed up' plastic smiles.
And there was another person whom Nedzu felt a kinship with.
"Yeah... he's my dad. We're living in Chornobyl right now; he still runs his radio program, loves to bike around Russia, and we even planned on following Mahaprabhu's pilgrimage road in a month." Izuku explained with a crooked smile. "Mom got drunk at her bachelorette party and had a one-night stand with the DJ, they exchanged numbers, and she misspelled his name." He shrugged. "So yeah, this entire thing about my dad having left for America was a hoax; mom just got his number and name wrong."
...
The sound of Shoto choking on air (and Tenko's beeping life support.) was the only thing that filled the room.
"Well, isn't this enlightening?" Nedzu spoke as he hid his smile behind his ever-present tea cup. He owes Shoto one USB key worth of verified conspiracies. "Now... Can you tell me what happened to you? And how did you end up... back here, without clothes and with Tenko." he gestured at the comatose youth.
Izuku leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes. "It's... a bit long but... could you stream it to Aizawa-Sensei?"
"Yes, but... He's still sleeping." Nedzu spoke as he pulled out his smartphone to check up on the two slumbering men.
Indeed, both Aizawa-san and Yagi-san were still deep in Morpheus's embrace.
"Oh, ah... wait." Izuku sputtered as his cheeks turned a delicate shade of pink...
'Nomus can't blush.' For once in his life, Nedzu felt blessed to have High Speck, for he could now see all of the blood vessels flaring up in Izuku's cheeks, a sure sign of life.
And by the Gods, didn't Izuku look like a shy strawberry now.
The revived Hero made a few signs in the air, revealing magical lines and runes of unknown origins and a pair of strings.
It was... magic and oh-so fascinating for the Mammal.
"Alright...Oh, I... Yeah, I should have known... Deku, you woke up Endeavor instead of Aizawa-sensei... yeah Touyam, I know. It's ok to make mistakes... and I'm also getting tired, but there's not much I can do about that since I know my magic will be needed more with Tenko-san then with them, and I can't believe I-" Izuku descended in his all missed muttering and Nedzu took a sip of tea. And soon enough, Aizawa was (shyly) knocking on the door.
"It's unlocked, Aizawa-Sensei. Just a warning, Shigaraki is in my bed, and he's... not exactly sleeping. Oh, and Hawks is there, same as Todoroki and Nedzu, but you must already know that." Izuku spoke to himself. "Oh, and Dabi's with me... He's just a head, though."
At the other side of the door, Nedzu could perceive some quiet sobbing. "Yes, Aizawa-san. I can guarantee you that this is truly Midoriya Izuku; our lovely Problem Child has returned to us." The Mammal was inordinately proud that he managed to hide the choking of his voice.
In this time of war and death, to have someone return to the grave... and not being nomufied was like the return of spring.
'Yes... Spring, the return of the green grass and flowers... the return of Midoriya Izuku.'
Shouta finally opened the door; it was swift, decisive and without hesitation.
Meaning that Aizawa was a ball of nerve ready to have his half-mended heart broken all over again.
The imposing man stood on the threshold, behind him was... A blue ghost?
Huh...
"Hey... Sensei." Izuku began as he got to his feet, still nervously clutching Dabi's head in his arms. His whole body was trembling, and Nedzu could smell his fear. "S-Sorry I-I ran an-and I-I didn't want a-any of you t-to be-" But Shouta didn't let Izuku finish.
He placed his hands onto Izuku's stiff shoulders after two strides in the room. Then, he ran his blunt fingers in the boy's forest of curly hair, pressing against his scalp to check if his skull was still present.
After that, Shouta moved his attention to Izuku's pulse, pressing a gentle, if calloused, finger on his neck.
Tears fell from the teacher's eyes as he moved his hand to Izuku's racing heart, feeling the pounding heart...
Then, all pretense of cold professionalism flew out the window as Aizawa Shouta fell to his knees and pressed his better ear to Midoriya Izuku's chest, the once dark and brooding Hero turning into a shaking, crying mess of a man.
Izuku, despite the very awkward and... actually, very awkward position of having his homeroom teacher clutching him for dear life, his ear pressed on the shorter boy's chest, sobbing like a child, took it in stride.
"There there, Sensei. It's alright. I'm alive and well; Shoto's good too, and, God willing, I won't be going anywhere any time soon." The greenette spoke soothingly as he gently petted his teacher's hair as he let the poor man sob. All the while making sure Dabi would not fall.
And there, Nedzu realized that two whole years had indeed passed for Midoryia, and in this unknown year, Yagi's successor had matured more than whatever he'd lived through here...
'He grew up too fast... like all of them.' Nedzu's smile fell...
What a mess.