Chapter Text
“Can I get some help please?” Amid the backdrop of sirens and a flurry of intermixed voices and cries, Uraraka’s question barely came through the headsets of the three heroes engaged in heated combat with enemies in the mall.
In a moment of respite, Kirishima spoke through clenched teeth. “Kind of busy here Uravity.”
Though he heard the familiar click of the transponder, her words were drowned out by the whoosh of flying pieces of cement hurtling towards his head. As he ducked and weaved, they missed their mark shattering on the wall and pitter-pattering on the ground around him. He used this temporary break to quickly move towards the light at the end of the corridor. When more cement chunks flew towards him at an angle he couldn’t dodge, he paused and hardened his body bracing for impact.
Impact never came as Midoriya passed him by in the blink of an eye. Shrouded by a green and teal glow, his legs crackled before making impact with the cement. A massive boom reverberated around the area as they hit their mark. The cement, illuminated by green and teal sparks, shattered into dust.
Kirishima waved his hands as he coughed through the colorful dust cloud. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” Midoriya said as he bounced off a nearby wall before back flipping and landing with a thud. Without even breaking a sweat he promptly ran alongside Kirishima.
When they reached the light, the corridor opened to an atrium. Though they had no time to look around; they were immediately yanked behind a makeshift barricade made of overturned tables and carts.
Bakugo yelled as he slammed them into the wall, knocking the air and spit out of them. “Idiot’s! Don’t just run out here blindly!”
Before they could protest and regain their composure, a torrent of bullets and other projectiles pummeled the ground from whence they stood. They covered their eyes and ears as chunks of cement and linoleum flew in all directions. Kirishima’s instincts kicked in as he hardened himself, moving forward to face his allies as he settled on a tactic to escape. He screamed over the intensifying barrage, hopeful that they could hear him. “We’re pinned down, we need to move! Now! Grenade. Bakugo!”
“Already three steps ahead of you.” Bakugo harshly tugged the flaps of his side pockets on his ripped pants up, nearly ripping them off, before he gripped the grenades. “Grenade!” he screamed as he vaulted them over the barricade. Kirishima moved into position, shielding his comrades as they heard the screams from the hostiles ring out before both explosives went off.
Amid the shaking floor, falling ceiling fixtures, and shattering glass, Bakugo scrambled out of Kirishima’s protective hold. Free, he yanked his two partners forward. “Go! Go! Go!” He shouted as he commanded them to jump over the barricade.
Not even realizing what he planned, Kirishima and Midoriya moved without thinking, trusting his judgment. Once they were safely over, Bakugo led the way. They ran pass the smoldering bodies of the enemies, sparring them no second glance or look of mercy as they kept their eyes forward.
Much of the mall looked like a warzone. Limbs and mutilated bodies of the helpless mixed in with the fallen clothes racks and other goods from the stores.
They continued to dispose of any stray terrorists as they ventured deeper into the mall. The smell of burnt pizza, freshly baked pretzels, and popcorn mixed with the scent of spent bullet casings, smoldered metal piping and insulation, and rotten eggs. Purple goo, still bubbling like it was freshly planted there, speckled much of the walkway. Red acid dripped from the ceiling where pieces of roof tiles dangled precariously over their heads. Chunks of cement pillars lay haphazardly across the landscape.
“Finally,” Ururaka exasperated as the squeaking of her chair pierced their eardrums. Apologizing profusely, she was interrupted.
“What is it Uravity?” Midoriya whispered as they huddled in a cell phone store. Kirishima kept watch while Bakugo examined a backroom for signs of hostiles.
“What I was trying to say early, uhmm. Some of the store managers say the nursery students and staff aren’t there, they think they went to the food court?” She paused as they heard muffled whispers. After humming an affirmation and clicking she spoke. “Oh it was already on. But yeah, that’s what they’re reiterating.”
Midoriya crossed his arms as he as mumbled as if in concentration. “We went through it, no one was there.” He looked to the others for affirmation.
“But there were toys.” Bakugo focused on one such toy laying in the mall main walk way. “And it’s quiet down here, much too quiet, unless they’re even deeper within?”
Midoriya and Kirishima looked to each other grimly. The eerie silence from the mall was unsettling. Defenseless and helpless children taken from their familiar surroundings ought to be making a huge ruckus, heard from all over the building. They couldn’t help to think of what the silence meant, either the kids were incapacitated in some manner or worst. They needed to move fast.
“Enough sneaking around, we need to go. Now. Right Bakugo?” Kirishima turned to him as he slammed his fists together.
Bakugo grabbed Kirishima’s arm as he reprimanded him. “No, you fool. Are you trying to make this situation even worse than it already is?”
Midoriya quickly stepped in, placed his hand on Kirishima's arm, and interjected to keep them from getting distracted. “Kacchan is on the right track, Red Riot. We should proceed as planned. Smartly, slowly, and carefully. We don’t exactly know what we’re up against.”
Kirishima would have protested but the look Midoriya gave him made him swallow them. The sudden fire in his emerald eyes paired with the stern yet determined scrunching of his brows quieted his concerns. As he felt his grip on his arm tighten, he figured that out of all of them, he probably wanted to rush in, break through the walls with fury, and save those kids the most. However, as the leader of their group, he needed to keep the big picture in mind and choose the route that enabled the best chances of success.
Hand finally falling away, Midoriya thrust his fists together as if refocusing himself before commanding them to head to the garage. As they raced through the mall, Kirishima’s eyes stayed focused on Midoriya. His expansive knowledge of enemy quirks, extensive experience creating strategies, and an uncanny ability to stay victim minded, made him one of the more celebrated of the new pro heroes. Kirishima admired him for these qualities and looked up to him. He often found himself blindly following him, fully trusting him with his abilities.
As they reached the far end of the mall, where the entrance to the parking garage lay, they heard gruff voices among whimpering kids.
“It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.”
“Kids were supposed to be in the day care, we took every effort to avoid them.”
“Then explain why they’re here. Handle it, now!”
“Listen to yourself, you’d kill kids?” A shrill womanly voice interrupted the gruff men’s voices.
Several demeaning expletives and curses were yelled in quick succession. The moment they stopped, Midoriya’s squad heard metal chinking against metal, followed by a high-pitched scream and thumping against the ground. Several kids cried.
“The animals, those bas-,” Kirishima all but yelled before Bakugo covered his mouth quieting him. Through the shredded gloves, he felt the warmth and wetness in Bakugo’s hands as the sweat thickened up almost as if ready to ignite itself.
“I know how you feel,” Bakugo growled as he kept Kirishima from moving. “But.” He looked towards Midoriya. Midoriya struggled to keep it together as he closed and opened his eyes repeatedly. His fists clenched tightly before he exhaled loud and long. He quickly closed his eyes as he spoke into the headset.
“Kid’s located,” Midoriya growled harshly as he opened his eyes and met his comrade’s eyes. They stared at him as they shifted to the balls of their feet, ready to go on his command.
Clicking in, Uraraka relayed commands from their field officer. “Stand down and hold position.”
“Hold?” Bakugo glared incredulously at the others as he shouted, forgetting where they were. “They’re right there, we can’t, Hold!”
Ururaka's voice was shaky as they heard a flurry of shouts behind her. “You can, and uhm, will hold!”
Bakugo was ready to tear into their field officer as he took a deep breath, but Midoriya's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“Kacchan.” His voice was low as he turned to him. He briefly acknowledged his glare before he threw off the headset and squashed it. “Is right, we’re going in, Red Riot! You know what to do.”
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Kirishima hardened up ready to use his body as both a sword and shield. They raced forward as loud as they possibly could. The enemies were caught off guard as they saw the blur of red, green, and black burst through the opening.
Bakugo attacked before they could. He hurled an armed explosive device at the heels of two of the enemy grunts. The ensuing explosion hurled them up through the cement ceiling. Chunks of falling cement blocks and broken steel beams crushed several other grunts around them. As he prepared to rush other grunts, two more leapt from behind a parked vehicle ready to crush him. Midoriya, ever observant of his surroundings, noticed them. He let loose a well-timed punch knocking the living daylights out of them while they were in mid-air. Before their bodies could land, he pointed as he issued commands to Kirishima.
Kirishima nodded as he moved to the location Midoriya directed. Two grunts had their backs to one another as they stood guard over the kids. He immediately moved towards them, thrusting his reinforced arm up as they attempted to hurl steel spikes and glass shards at him. Everything bounced off him as he drew closer. By the time they could switch to their guns, he was on them. His reinforced arms added the extra oompf to his punch enabling him to knock them back with incredible force. They were torpedoed through several vehicles and into the wall.
Midoriya and Bakugo remained on the offensive, targeting the suspected leaders. As streams of acid and poisonous miasma flowed their way, Midoriya clapped his hands together generating a burst of air that moved the liquids back towards the enemies. With the opening made, Bakugo used his mini explosions as thrust to propel himself forward faster than he could run. As he landed in front of them, they stumbled backwards, falling and looking upwards at him. He hit his fists together as he growled at him, snickering as they shrieked.
“Not so tough now, eh,” he chided as he looked down his nose to them.
“Behind you!” Kirishima shouted disrupting Bakugo’s banter.
Everyone turned their heads as they saw an armored vehicle come barreling into the garage. It cared little for pillar or car, knocking each aside. A sliding door on its side opened with gunners aiming their weapons at everyone.
“Let us go, or they fire,” the acid user said as he scooted backwards to get away from Bakugo.
Bakugo towered over the man, still as imposing as ever. His fists were clenched as he stared at him. His eyes red with anger, a nerve pulsing, throbbing in his temple, and his scowl all but looking at the man as if he was rotten filthy trash caused the man to shiver.
“Kacchan, stand down,” Midoriya said in between clenched teeth.
Bakugo stopped in the middle of his stride as if contemplating his captain's orders. He side-eyed him briefly wondering if this was the right decision. It went against all reason. The enemy was right there. The people responsible for hurting and killing people were right in front of him. Letting them go seemed utterly preposterous. They had to pay for their crimes and misdeeds. He couldn’t just stand down.
Midoriya watched as Bakugo moved towards the man, before he crouched and extended his hand to the man’s collar, ready to hoist him and throw him aside. Midoriya looked for anything that could help him get him to stand down. Any mistake now could turn things deadly. “Think of the kids Kacchan,” he yelled.
Bakugo hesitated, a good sign.
“Yeah.” The acid user smirked as he rose to his feet. “Think of the kids.” With a flick of the hand, a pop suddenly happened just before a child screamed.
Bakugo's face morphed into something akin to murdering intent. He immediately raised his hand hoisting the man several feet off the floor.
“You all only have yourselves to blame for this.” The man laughed before shouting to the men in the vehicle. “Do it now!”
“Nooooo,” Midoriya yelled as he watched the guns come to life. He clapped his hands together attempting to deflect the bullets from him and Bakugo with a massive burst of wind. Any that were not reflected pierced through car windows sending shattered glass everywhere. Midoriya endured the cuts and scrapes as he continued to repeat the motion.
“Red Riot!” Midoriya yelled not even looking for him but trusting he was where he needed to be.
“Right!” Kirishima responded accordingly. He overturned several cars then quickly shuffled the kids and their teacher’s behind them for protection. They screamed and squirmed as the bullets pelted the car. Once he made sure they were at least safe, he quickly peered around the vehicle, eyes watchful for some moment to jump in. The armored vehicle was mobile and went in circles around the garage, though its guns focused on one spot, there were some moments where, if he timed it right, he could get close.
He bet everything as he used an opening to rush forward. The drivers in the vehicle were caught off guard as he planted himself right in its path. As he hardened up ready to use his sheer power, staunch defense, and solid resiliency, he heard Bakugo and Midoriya screaming his name, telling him to move. However, he ignored them as he stood his ground. It was an all or nothing gamble, him vs car, to protect kids, women, and his friends. Giving it his all he yelled that one phrase that inspired them all, “Plus Ultra!”
The moment the truck made impact, everything went dark.
Kirishima awoke to himself floating in a deep darkness that was darker than the deepest black he's ever seen. Weightless, he did a barrel roll to assess his surroundings. That same blackness extended for as far as the eye could see. He chuckled darkly when he realized that he must be in the afterlife.
While he never entertained thoughts about what the afterlife would be, he knew he expected something different. Movies, books, and TV made him think it would at least be Earth 2.0 where he got to live happily with others that were dearly departed. At it’s worst, he thought it would be a sort of place like a world of endless pastures and flowing rivers. This darkness, this silence, this was terrible. This was not what he thought he would receive for such a manly legendary hero’s death that he always desired.
What he thought sounded amazing when he was alive, he now realized that maybe it wasn’t. The awe from dying to save someone else, the allure of the satisfaction for being a selfless hero was fleeting. While the people he saved were free to live another day, he was dead. His spirit was all that remained and would remain trapped and suspended in this world of total darkness.
While he thought he would feel content over his decision, he now felt regretful and disappointed. Was it truly worth it to spend an eternity alone, floating forever and ever, with only his thoughts to keep him company?
With an eternity before him, he bid the time thinking of all the things he would miss, like Kaminari's endlessly corny jokes but his comforting smiles and wonderful laugh and presence, or Bakugo's rough abrasiveness and demeanor but warm perceptive presence who was always there to have his back, or Midoriya's strong, fierce determination, always friendly presence, and an unparalleled sense of empathy that made it easy to confide in him, trust him, and admire him. These thoughts were supposed to make him happy, but they only left him feeling depressed as he realized he would never see his closest friends ever again.
He would never feel the warmth in his arms as he hugged then. He would never smirk, smile, or laugh as he fist-bumped them after landing a nicely timed joke or reacting excitedly to his friend’s achievements. He would never see those familiar goldenrod eyes brightly twinkling as he pulled his blond-haired electric friend into a hug. He would never again get to expertly shield his jokester of a friend from one of Bakugo’s much too powerful to be taken as a joke explosion against him. He would never again get to chill out and veg out from sundown until sunup with Midoriya as he and Kaminari showed their more sheltered friend what he missed all those years he had no friends. Though worst of all he would never have any chance to every tell his friends how much they meant to him, and one, in particular, he would never have the chance to tell him how much he honestly enjoyed, admired, loved, and wanted to spend his forever with him right by his side.
Curling in on himself, gripping himself as he violently shook, cried, and shrieked as his friends smiling faces danced around his head but slowly faded as if they were mere memories that vanished with time, he eventually passed out.
He couldn’t tell if minutes, hours, days, months, years passed when he finally awoke. Joints popping and cracking, he exhaled in loud relief as he finally moved. Slow to move, he struggled to push his way overgrown hair out of the way do he could wipe the dried tears from his eyes. Crusty snot that dried nearly sealing his lips were wiped away. Though after he did, thoughts of his past life overcame him. Teary eyed and sniffling, he found himself collapsing into despair again. He wanted to see his friends again. He wanted to hear them. He wanted to touch them. He would give anything to trade this darkness, this deep blackness, for the chance to see them again. Why couldn’t he go back? Why did he sacrifice himself like that?
Though just as he wiped his eyes again, he realized that the darkness ever so slightly receded to a point before him. It gave him some hope that there was, perhaps, a light at the end of this proverbial tunnel. As he focused all his energies and thoughts on getting there, he felt himself speeding up to that destination. Though he slowed when the dark receded faster than he expected. When he did, projections, which were hazy at first, but grew clearer as he moved, appeared. When they became clear enough to recognize the faces and bodies, he grew emotional.
It was like a clip show. He saw Bakugo and Midoriya rush up to his body as it remained standing even while the armored truck was split in half. They completely ignored the frantically scrambling fleeing enemies as they reached his body and tugged on his shoulder. They yelled through the tears, their eyes hopeful but their emotions betraying their thoughts. They knew. They knew he was gone. His body fell on the ground. So hard and so brittle, it shattered upon impact.
When that clip faded to black, another appeared. Now everyone he knew was dressed in their deep black formal wear as they cried on one another’s shoulders staring at a portrait of him as it sat over a casket. It too faded to black before it gave way to another clip. Kaminari, Midoriya, and Bakugo held roses as they stood over his gravestone. Engraved on the stone were the names of all his classmates from UA. Another clip showed his friends banging on Kaminari’s door, demanding that he come out. When they finally knocked the door down, they saw him gripping Kirishima’s picture in his hand as he lay unbreathing on the floor, an empty medicine bottle beside him. Another clip showed Bakugo, originally romantically involved with Midoriya, now physically abusing him while constantly yelling at him and always reminding him that his bad directions was why Kirishima died. The final clip showed Midoriya, though, the greatest hero in the world, secretly murdering villains in the dark, unhealthily obsessed with a contorted definition of justice, all to prevent any more people from dying.
As soon as the clip ended what remained of the darkness totally gave way to a blinding light.
“On your right!”
“Above you!”
“Go, go, go!”
“We can’t go!”
“Gahhhh!”
Indiscriminate voices raced around Kirishima’s head. Combined with the frantic beeps, explosions, and other assortments of sounds he couldn’t identify, it coalesced into an unintelligible and unfollowable mass of noises giving him an aching headache. His fading blindness didn’t help. Each time he blinked, the many bright lights of the frantically moving dots and lines on the display in front of him grew brighter. Once he could finally see clearly, his eyes couldn’t resist following the display. His eyes darted in every direction, which helped to make the entire situation more nauseating than it already was.
Eventually he focused his eyes on one object in the display. Something in the center attracted his attention. Whatever it was grew bigger by the second, as if he were moving closer to it. As he focused, he felt himself sliding deeper into his seat as the object in the center grew bigger even faster. Soon he noticed that it was a massive giant robot, painted in a black, orange, and red paint scheme. It seemed familiar.
“Collision in three minutes,” a vocal alarm pinged around him.
Joysticks at each of his hands beeped before glowing red. Panicking, he tried to move them. The moment he did, obnoxious foghorns blared around him, enhancing the throbbing headache he had.
“Intruder alert, unauthorized access, intruder alert!” Vocal and visual messages played in both his helmet and on the screen before him.
“Intruder?” This time he recognized one of the voices in his head, it was Monoma’s. Yes, it was Monoma’s, he remembered. He felt some relief at a familiar voice. It had been so long since he heard anyone’s voice.
“Monoma?!” Kirishima croaked, it was like he hadn’t used his voice in years. It almost sounded foreign to him. He coughed again and spoke clearer. “It’s me, Kirishima, help!”
“Monoma, you dweeb,” Bakugo shouted causing Kirishima to wince. “If you’re playing another joke on us, I’m gonna come over there.”
Monoma scoffed before speaking sincerely. “As much as I’d like to have seen you fall for yet another prank today, I must admit, I have no idea what’s going on here.”
“You fiend,” Todoroki said accusingly, though he said no names, it was clear it was directed to Kirishima. “What have you done to (+_+) (@_@).”
Kirishima felt taken aback. Todoroki had never used that tone with him. Confused, he quickly answered. “Todoroki. It’s me, Kirishima!”
“I don’t know a Kirishima,” he said as what sounded like switches being clicked was picked up by the microphone.
“Missiles locked. Evade.” Another vocal alarm rang around Kirishima. Panicking he spoke frantically.
“Listen, I have no idea who, whoever you said is, and I have no idea what’s going on here. I just woke up in this thing.”
“This is your final warning,” Todoroki said as something else clicked in the background. A missiles ready to be engaged warning played as he repeated his question. “What did you do to (+_+) (@_@)?”
“For the final time, I have no idea who that is. Can you please tell me what’s going on?” Kirishima paused before offering a very sincere plea. “Please.”
“Stand down, Todoroki,” Midoriya’s steady and level voice was a relief. Kirishima leaned back for just the slightest moment. Midoriya would understand.
Todoroki quickly protested, but at least going by the visual message vanishing, he put down his weapon. Kirishima finally sighed as even more of the tension left him. However, the collision warning kept him antsy. If he couldn’t get through to anyone then he’d die by impact. Dying, in space, was not what he ever imagined his fate would be. He briefly thought back to one of the scenes he saw. He died a hero’s death at least, but the sight of all his friends unable to handle his death made him rethink what it meant to die and the effects it left on those around him. Was it worth it? Were the lives he ruined worth his sacrifice? Is that what he wanted to result from his death? Hurting those closest to him, was this the true cost of being a hero?
“Collision in one minute.” The voice jarred him from his thoughts.
To go from the ultimate act of self-sacrifice to now one of the worst types of death, almost self-inflicted even as he’d ram into another robot at high speed would have made him laugh if this was any other type of scenario. He almost decided to stay calm as he let himself go for the ride. He’d already died once, dying another time wouldn’t hurt.
“Collison in thirty seconds.”
He frantically moved the joysticks hoping that he could avoid crashing into it. He didn’t want to go through that situation again. Floating in dark nothingness, alone, for eternity, watching the scenes of his friends' lives fall apart repeatedly was the worst type of fate. It was too soon for it. He had a life he still wanted to live.
“Collision in ten seconds. Nine…”
“Bakugo move!” Kirishima hoped his guess was right. He hoped that the giant robot in front of him was Bakugo’s. The color scheme matched his hero outfit.
Though it was too late. Before Bakugo, or anyone for that matter, could respond, Kirishima rammed into the robot before him. He was immediately ejected out of his seat and launched at the display in front of him. He was knocked out immediately upon impact.