Chapter Text
Izuku can’t breathe.
He can’t breathe, but everyone is counting on him.
Second reminds him of that, urging him on, poking at all his insecurities.
To an extent, Izuku understands. He’s always wanted to be a hero. And a hero he has become, but he has to wonder-getting ready to strike Shig- All for One with a trembling fist-if the price he’ll have to pay in the next few minutes is worth it?
The hit lands. The monstrosity that wears Shigaraki’s face is flung across the battlefield. His body falls to the ground with a heavy thud.
For five whole seconds, Izuku allows himself to relax. To breathe.
“Strike now! While he’s down!” Second yells.
The other vestiges are strangely quiet. They’re never quiet.
“I…I…can’t…” Izuku trails off, landing lightly on the ground. His eyes flicker over to All for One’s body, making sure he’s still unconscious. Seeing that he is, Izuku falls to his knees. A wheeze escapes passed his lips.
“Get up, Ninth! The battle isn’t over yet.”
It’s then that it hits him. Like a runaway freight train, Izuku realizes the cold, hard truth.
They don’t care about him.
The thought sinks deep, deep, down into the pit of his stomach. It sits there, weighing him down. Tears prick the corners of his eyes, but he wipes them away.
(“Get over yourself, Izuku,” he tells himself. “It’s not personal. There’s much more at stake.”)
Summoning his last remaining strength, he pushes himself up into a standing position. He wheezes again; his chest is tight, way too tight. Spittle sticks to the sides of his mouth. He wipes it off with the back of his hand.
Izuku staggers his way over to All for One.
(“Someone, anyone,” he thinks, desperately, “save me.”)
He forces himself to inhale, deeply.
It doesn’t help. And-
Oh, God, he can’t breathe!
He can’t breathe!
Breathe!
Breathe!
Breat-
Izuku collapses to his knees, a mere five feet from All for One.
A string of pathetic wheezes escape from his mouth. His body trembles. His mind starts to go blank. His throat and mouth are dry, and it hurts to swallow his spit. A particularly painful cough, forces him forward.
“Ninth!”
“Midoriya!”
“Izuku!”
Izuku lays on the ground, curled up on his side. The vestiges stand over him, missing is All Might, and he has to hope that that’s a good thing.
“You have to keep going!”
“The battle isn’t over yet!”
He groans in response. Second is slowly but surely becoming the most annoying person (ghost?) that Izuku has ever known.
“It hasn’t even been five minutes yet. We have to wait for-” Yoichi is cut off by a heavy thud.
“My, my, what a sight,” a new voice says with a tsk.
Izuku fights against the oppressive force that drags him into unconsciousness, because he knows that voice.
He forces himself to look towards the noise.
Black dots dance is his vision. A sudden pain spikes through Izuku’s head, and he’s dangerously close to giving in and going to sleep. Before he’s pulled under, Izuku manages to get out, a weak, desperate, and young sounding, “.... dad…”
-x-x-x-
“-idoriya!” Someone pokes his face. “Midoriya! Wake up!”
Groaning, Izuku opens his eyes. A very young looking Shigaraki is kneeled down next to him. He looks exactly like he did in the vision the vestiges showed Izuku before his quirk manifested. Dark hair and a (relatively) scratch-free face.
Instantly, Izuku is scrambling backwards. His back hits a wall. Something isn’t right here.
“What- Shigaraki!?” Izuku clasps a hand over his mouth, because certainly that can not be his voice.
In horror, he looks down at his too small, unscared hands.
“Calm down, Midoriya.” Shigaraki sits back on his hunches. “I’m not going to hurt you. And stop calling me Shigaraki.”
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Izuku asks, “what would you like me to call you?”
“Tenko!”
“Okay…Tenko, then. You can call me Izuku. It’s only fair, I guess.” Izuku draws his knees to his chest. “Where are we?”
“Uh, that’s a good question. I have no idea. I only just got here.”
Something really isn’t right about this.
Izuku shudders.
“Are you cold?” Shiga- Tenko asks, crawling over to sit next to him.
“No, no, I’m okay. Just thinking.”
“About what?”
Despite the circumstances, his own anxiety over what being trapped here (in this form) means, Izuku is overcome with how genuinely kind Tenko used to be (and potentially still was and perhaps could have continued to be if he was given help).
“We’re here, right?”
Tenko nods.
“But none of the vestiges, All for One or One for All are here.”
It takes him a second to fully understand what Izuku is insinuating. “We’re doomed.”
-x-x-x-
Yoichi Shigaraki loved his comic books and wearing baggy clothes. He loved cats and looking out the living room window when it rained. He loved dancing (even if he wasn’t so good at it). And, most of all, Yoichi Shigaraki loved his family.
His parents, when they were around.
And his big brother, certainly.
And there’s no doubt that, had Yoichi still been around now, he’d absolutely adore his baby nephew. Heroic spirit, mumbling, and all. But, if he was still around, he’d probably be equally as horrified at everything Izuku’s been dragged into (or flung himself into). One for All user or not, Yoichi would have given his very soul to have his nephew see his inherent worth both as an individual and as someone worthy of taking up space.
One for All, First, Yoichi doesn’t have this problem. In spite of the fact that Second will occasionally call him by that name, First doesn’t consider himself to be Yoichi.
Sure, he has a dash of his personality. His face. His quirk.
Hell, he is the quirk personified.
With that being said, First does not care that the Ninth survives. Well, he does, but only until either the quirk of his older brother is destroyed for good or-
Or until they can pass on to someone else.
He should feel bad. For lying. For betraying little Ninth’s trust. For manipulating him so heavily that the boy was willing to throw himself into the metaphorical fire in an effort to save everyone.
He doesn’t.
The others probably don’t either, but it’s not like they’ve ever talked about it.
Ninth is a tool to be used. Just like Yoichi and the others were.
“Is he…dead…?” His- Yoichi’s brother says, facade of cool indifference crumbling at the sight of the Ninth.
First shrugs. “Not yet. It’s not like you care anyway. What’s another dead One for All user to you anyway?”
All for One grits his teeth, trying and failing to keep his composure. “Nothing,” he forces out, “absolutely nothing.”
“Then you won’t care if I use the rest of his remaining energy to kill you?”
Yoichi’s brother looks behind himself. Probably trying to scout anyway out of this, if not for himself then for Midoriya. Except there isn’t a way out. Little number nine was doomed the moment he accepted One for All. He may as well have waived all his rights for as much agency as he has right now.
There are a few heroes at the edges of the battlefields, weary but alive, who are watching the (to their eyes) one sided exchange. They make no move to fight or incapacitate All for One.
Yoichi’s brother looks back at First, their eyes meet, and an understanding passes between them.
No help would be coming.
-x-x-x-
Izuku has failed. He has failed and he couldn’t even save the person he wanted to save most of all. All his friends are probably dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD!
“I’m sorry I almost killed you at the mall-”
“It’s okay, Tenko.”
“-and that time I put you in a coma during the war.”
“Tenko, really it’s fine.”
“-and that other-”
“Tenko?”
The other boy looks at him, expectedly.
“If anyone should be saying sorry, it’s me.”
“Why?” Tenko asks, genuinely curious.
“I made a promise that I would save you.” The words are harder to get out than he realized. Absently, he wonders if he can cry here. He hopes not. The last thing he needs is to start sobbing.
Tenko doesn’t say anything. He puts his head on Izuku’s shoulder. “Thank you,” he says.
A few tears escape from Izuku’s eyes. “Anytime.”