Chapter Text
He could feel the cool air caressing his hair as it passed him. Goosebumps appeared on his skin, as he stared at the scene in front of him – if it was caused by the gentle wind or the gruesome battle unfolding in front of his eyes, he did not know. Chi’ and him had ventured to a city called Hosu, and he somehow found the name oddly familiar, but he could not put his finger on said familiarity. Every time he tried remembering were the name came from, it was like a mental blockade appeared, that hindered his internal escapade through his memories. It was a reoccurring happening, since the block generally seemed to appear, when he tried remembering things from his past.
He easily remembered Chi’, and his mind gifted him with names he had yet to match with faces, but aside from that, he had little memory of his life from before waking up in the weird smelling, dark place.
Then there was the green-haired female human. He could not remember if he had learned her name. Compared to his blurred images of this world, all the garden visits were clear in his head – how he had gotten there was not. He remembered every conversation with the woman he had had. Every little detail of the place, and only wished he could transfer the image of that place, into the world he was in right now, since it seemed this world needed a bit of the prettiness his garden possessed.
Chi’ had talked about going after some “hero” or something. He called them a fake, and as far as Izuku remember, fake meant that something was not real. So, what was a “fake hero”? A “hero” that was not a “hero”? Then why even call them “hero”? He did not understand why someone would call themselves something they were not. And apparently it was that type of people Chi’ hated the most.
The human Chi’ was going to get rid of was called “Nadywe” or something. Chi’ and him, mostly Chi’, had chased the human into some small street, between to really big boxes – or houses? The human was scared. Izuku did not understand why. Since Chi’ was right, because Chi’ was a grown up, the human should trust him, right? He had always been taught to trust the adult by-
By whom?
Then, while Chi’ was fighting the human, something fast had run into Chi’, shouting something. Izuku, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground while leaning against the wall, had immediately jumped into action, trying to save Chi’. He had not taken any big weapons. Chi’ had told him to take with him some “knuckle dusters”, since his punches would be considered weak against bigger opponents otherwise.
He tried hitting the thing that had attacked Chi’, but the thing seemed to be solid and hard – nothing like the feeling his body remembered. The thing had without trouble thrown him of. While flying back, he could see two eyes widening in the thing’s head. The distraction of him hitting a wall, was enough for Chi’ to, ragefully, get the thing of the thing and thus getting the upper hand. Chi’ shouted at him to get away and that was how he ended on the roof, looking down on Chi’ ending the life of the thing, that had some sort of hard outer shell.
---
The city was crowded by noumus, and Todoroki was not okay. It seemed that neither was his homeroom teacher, who had been in Hosu by coincidence, while looking for the notorious hero killer. He vaguely remembered a small child getting dusted at the USJ, but quickly expelled the traumatic memory.
His father and the other heroes were defeating noumus with what seemed like less trouble than his teacher had at the USJ. He did not consider his teacher to be weak, but the noumus were a definite weakness.
Todoroki looked towards the rooftops and saw several winged noumus flying above him. Most of them were easily taken down. They seemed to be less bulky and generally weaker than the once on ground. Possibly because too much muscle would slow them down, Todoroki noted, as he saw one effortlessly evading a would-be-destructive slap from Mt. Lady.
He had found a somewhat safe place a good distance away from the fight on the orders of his teacher, when he heard, what sounded like metal hitting brick. The sound reminded him of the current position of the hero killer, and he made his way towards the sound with the hope of no lives having been lost.
The scene in front of him was horrid and in all ways expected. Not only were there the supposedly original victim of the hero killer, his classmate, who he remembered had an internship in Hosu as well as an injured brother, was laying on the ground blood pooling beneath his unmoving body.
The infamous hero killer was standing above him, ready to deal the killing blow and ending Iida’s life. Todoroki acted quickly, by hitting the killer with a sturdy wall of ice, pushing the killer away from his seemingly paralysed classmate, and quickly making an ice wall separating the two, before contacting his teacher.
The ice did not last long. The hero killer seemed angry and determined to kill everyone involved in the fight. Iida had shouted something about not letting the killer cut him, which Todoroki kept it in mind as his counterattacks became more desperate. He was getting exhausted and sloppy and scared.
He felt something cold and hard touch his cheek, followed by something wet trailing down his cheek. He heard the hero killer shout something to someone called Izuku (?). He heard a thump behind him and turned around. A small figure grabbed the knife that had supposedly cut through his cheek, before throwing it towards Stain.
And for a small moment, Todoroki felt a flicker of hope. For a moment he thought someone had come to help. That was until Stain caught the knife, licked it and Todoroki lost feeling in his body. Unable to stand up he fell, and the small figure made his way toward him. They were upside down, but their features were very clear. Curly, snow white hair, which reminded Todoroki painfully of his mother, in various lengths framed their face. Their right eye seemed milky and unmovable, and the whole right side of their face seemed an irritating red. They were pale, which made the few freckles that adorned their cheeks stand out, as well as make the eyebags more prominent. The child (?) looked sickly, and Todoroki felt something akin to sympathy for the small person.
It was a fleeting feeling quickly replaced by fear, as the person was now standing above him, reaching down to his face. Did they perhaps have a quirk similar to the guy from the USJ? The hand reached his face, and the expected pain did not come. He opened his eyes, which he had instinctively closed, and stared into the green eyes of the stranger above him. The hand patted his scar, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, “ouchi, ouchi”.
He removed his eyes from the person above him and found the narrowed eyes of the hero killer staring suspiciously at him.
---
Izuku felt bad for the two-colored human who could make ice. Izuku had a red side too, and he knew how painful it was. The strong feelings that would fill his body when he would look in the mirror, and the distant memory of losing layers of his face, made up a painful combination. He remembered how the green-haired woman had caressed his ouchies, one of the first times he had visited the garden. He remembered how it made him feel better, thus he began patting the ouchie on the human’s face, quietly asking it to go away. After a while of doing so, he noticed the lack of progress. The human did not seem to heal as well as he did. When the ouchie not doing as he said, he became frustrated. His patting became more violent, as his desperation grew.
The human groaned, and he noticed the discomfort on their face. He immediately stopped, something telling him he should be afraid of the human getting angry. He felt confused by the thought of fearing an angry human, since he did not seem to recall ever meeting one. He quickly removed himself from the human, and immediately found himself wrapped up in some long, white material.
He had a little trouble breathing because of the tightness of the thing. He looked around trying to find Chi’, wanting the man to help out of the uncomfortable position, but instead found the owner of the white prison. The black hair of the human was standing up in an unnatural way, and their eyes were glowing a bright red seemingly glaring at something behind Izuku.
The man seemed distracted, and Izuku could not seem to remember why the man seemed so familiar. It was not until the man looked at him and their eyes met.
The hair fell down and the eyes returned to black, and the name “’Zawa” appeared in his mind.
---
Aizawa was officially done with life. He had been on the lookout for the hero killer, having heard he was currently “rinsing” Hosu. He had an internal wish, that little 01 Izuku was still alive despite what happened at the USJ. The child had a healing quirk, and he remembered that snake Hosu talking about how amazingly strong it was. He remembers the man claiming the child was unable to die, and despite not wanting to think about how the scientist figured that out, Aizawa was grateful for the little bit of hope those old conversations had given him.
He knew, that if anyone knew whether the kid was alive or not, it was probably Stain, who seemed to have taken the kid under his wing – not the best person to look up to, if you ask him.
Then while looking for the kid and the vigilante, he had run into a frantic Todoroki, and a chaotic scene of heroes fighting deformed and genetically manipulated monsters. He had told his student to find a safe place to hide, and to not get involved.
Not even 30 minutes later, he gets a cryptic “help”, as well as a location from his student. He was, somehow, not surprised since all the people he surrounded himself with, especially the children, tended to be trouble magnets.
Now he standing in an alley, with two of his students on the ground - both unable to move -, a wounded hero – who was also unable to move -, Stain - who was very much able to move -, and some small kid – who he had wrapped in his capture weapon. He did not really notice the appearance of the wringing child he had trapped, since the hero killer had gained his attention by, almost desperately, throwing knives at him.
Out of nowhere, the killers attacked came to a halt. At first Aizawa had thought the man had run out of throwing knives. The taller man a few meters from him, observed him with a decisive look in his eyes. For a few seconds the two seemed to just stare at each other. Stain then gave him a nod, before turning his back against him, and running away. Aizawa contemplated pursuing the vigilante, but decided against it, considering he had two wounded students and a wounded hero.
He found it weird that Stain would leave his small companion, until he got a good look at the person. The curly hair and the green eyes were not to be mistaken, and Aizawa felt his heart hurt. He was filled with a sudden urge to cry, as he looked at the broken and fragile figure wrapped in the weapon, he uses to restrain villains.
He sighed. All his the kids were safe, and for the first time since the USJ, he did not feel like a failure.