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An incessant beeping pulls Izuku from a pleasant dream. His eyes fly open and after a momentary panic at unusual surroundings, he remembers he spent the night at his mom’s house. He’s accustomed to waking up in a giant All Might shrine, but all his memorabilia now resides in his dorm room at UA.
Izuku clumsily reaches to the bedside table and turns off his phone’s alarm. His finger slides to unlock the phone on instinct and he’s greeted by a bunch of nervous texts from Uraraka, including a link to a very recent news story. Apparently there’s a criminal currently terrorizing a neighborhood concerningly close to where Izuku currently is. His eyebrows furrow as he reads on to find that the train he usually takes to school is currently out of commission due to the attack. Which means he’ll have to take the bus. Which means he should get out of bed immediately or else he’s going to be very, very late to class.
He shoots Uraraka a quick text saying that he’s alright, and that he’ll see her in class. She immediately sends a grateful response and Izuku proceeds to get ready in record time. Of all the days Izuku could decide to stay at his mom’s house, of course it’s the day a villain might prevent him from getting to school on time. Not even 20 minutes later, he’s practically skipping down the sidewalk in his hurry to get to the bus stop. When he arrives, there are about five other people gathered at the corner, to Izuku’s relief. He hadn’t missed it.
It’s only a couple of minutes later when the bus rumbles down the street and slows to a stop at their bench. The door opens and as Izuku boards with his fellow commuters, he is greeted by stiflingly warm air and zero vacant seats. He passes an elderly woman clinging to a handrail with a drop of sweat sliding down her temple. She catches his gaze and offers him a tight smile. He nods as he passes, wishing she of all people could at least have a place to sit…
Suddenly the bus lurches to continue its journey and Izuku grabs the first pole he sees. He tries to be mindful of his huge yellow backpack and does his best not to bump into anyone - but as more and more people board the bus, that becomes pretty much impossible. What’s the weight capacity on this thing anyway? Izuku has people pressed up against him on all sides. He’s thankful that nobody on this bus is causing a scene, and everyone is pretty much keeping to themselves. It doesn’t smell too bad either so probably nobody forgot to shower this morning.
Wait. Izuku skipped his shower this morning! To get to school on time, but still! He discreetly moves his nose closer to his armpit and sniffs quietly. Okay. He can’t really smell anything. He must be fine.
-
Izuku jerks painfully into consciousness. Wait. Had he been unconscious? What-
There’s screaming. Izuku forces his eyes to focus, though they’re blurry around the edges. All he can see are bodies. Bodies scrambling to their feet, bodies strewn limply across bus seats, bodies embracing each other and crying. He’s still on the bus. A glance at his own body shows no serious injuries - aside from the splitting headache he’s got. He runs his hand along the right side of his skull to see where- ow. Okay, so he definitely hit his head. He brings his hand back down and there’s a fair bit of blood on his fingers. That’s not great, but he’ll live. He can help.
He uses a nearby pole to rise to his feet as the voices around him get even more frantic. The bus is now sideways, and he’s standing on a window. He narrows his gaze on the emergency exit on the back of the bus. He’s gotta get these people out immediately.
He makes his way to the back of the bus, climbing over bus seats and pushing past people as gently as he can. “It’ll be okay,” he says to a woman groaning and holding her head. “Try to stay calm,” he instructs a hyperventilating man in a business suit. He doesn’t have time to check people’s injuries. Right now, escape is the most important thing.
He finally reaches the back window and glances at an unconscious teenager. He doesn’t look to be in life-threatening danger from his injuries, but he’ll probably need to be carried out. Izuku turns to the back window and his breath hitches.
Outside is a nightmare. There’s fire pouring from a nearby building, and cars strewn about the streets like a toddler’s toy racetrack. But Izuku’s biggest concern is the gigantic hole in the ground. It stretches a diameter of probably twice the length of this bus. What could have possibly-?
Izuku’s unfinished and unvoiced question is answered by a terrifying screeching noise. The ground shakes. A movement above catches his eye, and he blanches at the sight.
Some sort of giant...caterpillar, worm thing? Is curling itself around a tall building in the distance. Is that the villain he saw on the news this morning? The picture he saw showed the thing about a tenth of the size it is right now. What kind of quirk could allow someone to turn into...that?
Izuku wastes no more time and throws open the emergency exit. “Come on!” he yells. He helps lift people out of the bus, instructing them to get inside the nearest building and stay put. Now that the passengers have a bit of direction in the madness, they seem more lucid. A man even hops out of the bus with the unconscious teenager in his arms. Izuku makes sure to take mental notes on the worst injuries he sees. Once he clears the bus he’ll meet everyone in the building and get them some help. Hopefully he can find a medic quickly. He’ll have to call UA as soon as possible. Though there’s probably already heroes on the scene.
The ground shakes again, more violently this time. Izuku braces himself against the back of the bus and peers inside. Only about five people left. Almost done.
But suddenly the bus is moving.
Confused panic rises in Izuku’s throat as he watches the bus slowly move away from him. It's on its side, how can it be moving? He stumbles after it, trying to make sense of what he’s seeing. The back of the bus is slowly lifting off the ground. The people inside are screaming.
Now Izuku sees it. In front of the bus.
Another giant hole in the ground. And the bus is slowly sliding inside.
The ground is still shaking from the villain's movements, and the edges of the hole are crumbling quickly. The bus tips like a see-saw.
Izuku does what he always does. His body moves before he can think. He sprints after the bus as it begins its descent into the abyss. He grabs the back of the bus with one hand and grips the edge of the sinkhole with the other, not thinking of the consequences.
The moment he’s supporting the full weight of the bus, there’s a horrible ripping sensation in his right shoulder. He screams and grits his teeth, but maintains his grip. His skin is crackling with the green lightning of One For All. This feels like he’s being ripped in half.
Okay hero, what now?
He realizes he’s squeezing his eyes shut so he opens them, still squinting with exertion. He looks down into the bus hanging from his arm. The five people still trapped inside have fallen down to the front of the bus, but they all appear to be conscious. A droplet of sweat ventures down Izuku’s forehead, caressing his temple. It slips past his brow and falls, disappearing into the darkness below. A woman in the bus is clutching her abdomen and sobbing.
“You’re gonna have to climb!” he yells, more loudly than he intended. Terrified sets of eyes glow up at him from the dark bus. The muscles in his arms are screaming in protest. He’s used to using his quirk for explosive bursts of power, not prolonged bouts of endurance. He wishes he could give the people more time to get their bearings, but he isn’t going to be able to hold this for long. His voice cracks as he yells again. “C’mon! Climb up here now! Use the seats!”
When the glassy-eyed passengers start to follow his instructions and climb, he closes his eyes again and focuses all his attention on maintaining his grip. His fingers feel like they’re going to snap off if he squeezes any tighter. Muscles in his back are spasming, and there’s searing pain in his shoulder as well. His whole body is trembling. He has to hold on. Another strangled scream makes its way out of his throat. He will hold on for these people!
Izuku opens his eyes again and is relieved to see the first passenger has almost reached him. They look at him in awe as they stand up on the last seat at the back of the bus. They hesitate.
“Climb on out! It’s okay!” Izuku says with what he hopes is a reassuring smile. He will keep his grip no matter what. The passenger shakily lifts themself up onto the back of the bus, and are able to reach the edge of the sinkhole from there and pull themselves out. One down, four to go. Luckily the rest of them have climbed just as quickly. Izuku can hear his heartbeat thrumming in his ears as the passengers climb out one by one.
His grip falters for a moment and the bus begins to slip. He groans, wishing he was wearing his hero costume with his gloves. His hands are too sweaty for this. Only two people are left, and he’s not sure he can hold it for long enough, it’s slipping further and further-
“Go, go, go! Now!” He screams. His arms are quaking violently. One person climbs out of the hole. Izuku looks down at the last passenger, silently begging them to get a move on.
It’s the old lady who smiled at him earlier. She shakily pulls herself up onto the back of the bus, breathing heavily. She gets to her feet and it’s immediately clear that she’s not going to be tall enough or strong enough to lift herself up and out of the hole.
“Grab onto me! Quickly!” Izuku shouts, practically delirious. He cannot hold the bus any longer. His muscles have never burned like this, with white-hot pinpricks covering his arms. His vision is starting to pulse around the edges.
The old woman wraps her arms around Izuku’s shoulders, and he finally, blissfully lets go of the bus. It falls soundlessly until it crashes into the ground at some ungodly depth. Izuku groans as his arm muscles finally relax. He just hangs there for a second, feeling the blood pumping back into his aching fingers. The woman is still shaking as she hangs draped over his backpack, arms wrapped around his neck and legs dangling above his.
Okay. It’s time to go.
But Izuku’s muscles aren’t listening to him anymore. He raises the arm that was holding the bus but his shoulder screams. He can barely even manage to get his arm high enough to curl his fingers around the edge of the hole. His arm is absolutely shot. Still, he tries to pull himself up, but he’s not making any progress. It’s worse than when he would try to do a pull-up in middle school, and his arms are shaking and he’s not strong enough and he’s not going to make it and he and this old lady are going to fall to their deaths just because Izuku can’t climb two feet out of this hole-
Several hands begin pulling Izuku and the old woman out of the hole. The other passengers, they stayed - of course they did, and now Izuku is back on solid ground, and he crawls on his hands and knees and collapses onto his stomach. He feels the old woman remove herself from his back and he rolls over, lying awkwardly on his backpack and flopping his arms to each side like a starfish. He stares at the sky and breathes heavily out of his mouth. His vision is still swimming, and he squints, blinking rapidly. Pain is shooting through his arms and fingers and shoulders, but he did it - he got everyone out of the bus safely. He hears the passengers talking to him, thanking him and telling him that the villain has been apprehended by Mount Lady and there’s already a medical team taking care of the wounded people from the bus, and maybe he should get looked at too-
But no, Izuku can’t stay, because - wait-
“I’m late for class!” Izuku blurts.
-
“Uraraka, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably just running late because of the trains being shut down.”
This does not appear to ease Uraraka’s nerves. She continues to chew on her bottom lip, glancing at her phone every ten seconds.
“Uraraka,” Shouto tries again, leaning over his desk to peer past Sato. But before he can say anything else, Aizawa-Sensei enters the room and all talking ceases. Shouto faces forward again.
Aizawa drops a pile of folders on his desk and gives the class a dull-eyed once-over.
“Where’s the problem child.”
Uraraka bursts out of her seat. “Aizawa-Sensei! Deku stayed at his mom’s house last night but there was that villain attack near her neighborhood this morning and I haven’t heard from him in over an hour! I’m...worried about him.” Her confidence dwindles with her last sentence and she slouches slightly.
Aizawa sniffs deeply and takes a seat at his desk, opening one of his folders and calmly rifling through papers.
“There are heroes currently wrapping up with Wormhole. If Midoriya got caught up in that mess, he’ll be in good hands. Don’t worry. If you don’t hear from him, they’re probably just keeping him to give a statement.”
This seems to satisfy Uraraka somewhat. She nods and takes her seat, and class begins as usual.
About halfway through the lesson, Aizawa’s showing them a YouTube video about hero PR when the classroom door opens. The lights are off because of the video, but Shouto can clearly see that it’s Midoriya who enters and tiptoes across the room to his seat. Aizawa’s eyes follow him the whole way, and don’t look away even when he’s seated. Aizawa pauses the video.
“Midoriya.”
“Yes sir!”
Aizawa squints. “Where are you injured?”
You could hear a pin drop. Shouto feels his eyebrows furrow as his head swivels to look back at Midoriya. It’s dark, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him. He seemed to be walking normally before. Midoriya stutters.
“I- well, I’m not- I’m fine! I’m sorry I’m late! There was a villain, and- and my train station was closed, so I-”
“So you took the bus?”
That means something to Midoriya. He straightens in his seat suddenly, eyes wide. “You- how did you-”
“I watched it live, problem child. You were on the news.”
Midoriya’s jaw drops. Chatter erupts throughout the classroom, and phones are unashamedly yanked out of pockets.
“Midoriya was on the news?! Where! I wanna see!”
“What happened, Deku? I was so worried!”
“Yeah, Uraraka was so worried!”
“I mean- Not like, more than I should have- I was just-”
“OH MY GOD, HERE IT IS.” Jirou stands, eyes glued to her phone screen. The rest of the class scrambles to get a look, and she holds her phone high. Shouto stands and walks over to the mass of his classmates, craning his neck to watch the video on Jirou’s phone.
There’s a familiar mop of green hair and a big yellow backpack. He’s standing in what looks like a warzone, helping a bunch of people out of a tipped-over city bus. There’s a giant hole in the ground not far from the front bumper. Wormhole popping out of that hole was probably what crashed the bus. The video was taken from above, maybe from a nearby balcony. The camera pans over to a street in the distance and there’s Wormhole in all his glory, burrowing into the ground again. Shouto remembers hearing his old man talk about this villain once. He keeps escaping jail because his quirk allows him to dig through almost anything and increase in size as he goes. Like a worm. Or like the computer game Snake. Either way, if the guy goes even a couple seconds without his quirk being completely suppressed, he’s usually able to dig his way out of his jail cell and wreak havoc. Like this.
The camera pans back to the bus and the ground visibly shakes. The violent tremors cause the ground underneath the bus to crumble away into the giant hole until the bus is teetering, tottering, and sliding right in.
Shouto’s classmates gasp around him as they watch the next events unfold. Midoriya watches the bus for a moment in shock. Then he’s a yellow and green blur on the tiny screen. He makes it to the bus in time to grab hold of the rear door frame with one hand and maintain hold of hole’s edge with the other hand. Fear rises in Shouto’s throat as he watches his friend take on the full weight of a bus, screaming in agony. The camera zooms in. He’s holding an entire city bus - not just holding it, but dangling it, at a horrible angle for his body. How? Shouto knows Midoriya is gifted with incredible strength from his quirk, but he’s only ever seen that strength in the form of blows. Punches, explosive kicks, and extreme speed. Not this. Midoriya is capable of this?
Shouto’s eyes flicker to Midoriya - the real one, in the classroom - and Aizawa is speaking to him in a low voice. It almost looks like he’s being scolded. Shouto looks back to the phone. The Midoriya on the video is shouting something, and people are climbing out of the bus. He’s been holding it for what, 40 seconds now? How on Earth?
The person holding the camera is far away from the action, but even from a distance it’s clear that Midoriya is struggling. He’s shaking, and he keeps tipping his head back to the sky with his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth grit. The final person climbs out of the bus and after a frantic command from Midoriya, wraps their arms around him. He lets go of the bus and immediately goes limp, save the arm that’s holding them in place. Midoriya tries to climb out but he’s obviously spent all his strength. The people who he saved gather to help him climb out, and he rolls onto his back, visibly exhausted. The video ends.
Shouto’s classmates have been shouting in disbelief throughout the entire video, and now the volume reaches a crescendo.
“MIDORIYA! THAT WAS THE MANLIEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!”
“HOW DID YOU DO THAT?! ARE YOU OKAY?!”
“DEKU!! THAT WAS SO SCARY!!”
Someone turns on the light and Shouto finally gets a good look at Midoriya. He’s staring wide-eyed at his classmates, grinning sheepishly. There’s nothing wrong with him at first glance, but now that Shouto’s paying attention, he realizes that Midoriya hasn’t used his arms or his hands once since he got to class. They’re just laying limp in his lap, palms up. Is it possible that he...somehow didn’t think he needed medical attention? He just came straight to class? No wonder he was getting scolded by Aizawa. Shouto walks closer to his friend in the commotion to get a better look. Midoriya’s hands are a bit discolored. His shoulders look stiff. His facial expressions are tight and controlled. There’s blood in his hair. Wait-
“Midoriya,” Shouto says, stepping even closer and peeking into his friend’s hair. “There’s blood in your hair.”
“Oh!” Midoriya starts to raise a hand up to touch his head, but immediately stops himself with a wince and lowers it again. This kid definitely didn’t see a medic. Why is Shouto surprised. “Yeah, I forgot about that. That was just from when the bus crashed.”
The classroom is silent for a few seconds. Then, pandemonium again.
“THAT WAS YOUR BUS?!”
“YOU WERE ON THE BUS WHEN IT CRASHED?!”
“Well, yeah! I thought that was...self-explanatory…”
“IT WAS NOT!”
“Problem Child.”
“Yes, Aizawa Sensei?”
“Go to Recovery Girl, now.”
“Yes, sir.”