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Izuku Midoriya, just for this moment as he lays on the ground, regrets leaving UA to become a vigilante. He knew it was the best choice he could make. His classmates and everyone he cares about wouldn’t be safe if he stayed. It was his job as the holder of One For All to protect them. All Might gave him this quirk and Izuku knew he couldn’t let his powers go to waste when society had fallen to pieces and villains ran amok after escaping Tartarus. It was his job to help pick the pieces up.
The thing is, even though Izuku was given this great power, he is still human, imperfect. Working so hard to save everyone else with almost no help means Izuku has let things fall by not taking care of himself. Sleep is near impossible when nowhere is safe. Food is difficult to find and when he does find it, he gives it away to the civilians he knows that need it. There are always people who need more than he does, he catches naps when he can after protecting civilians escaping, eats the scraps after everyone else. It is taking a toll on his body, wasting him away.
Izuku’s generosity in protecting everyone is what becomes his downfall. Villains are of course more likely to win when a hero isn’t at their top form and Izuku is far from his top form. In a different timeline, had Izuku not gone off completely on his own, he’d have the ability to take out this villain with no problem. He’d be strong enough, well rested enough, and had eaten enough to have the wherewithal to take down this villain, but at this moment, he isn’t.
It’s late at night when Izuku sees a horrendous villain and his thunderous quirk shaking and collapsing the already war torn buildings. The villain stands dark and broad over the collapsed building as he claps his hands together in a cacophony of sound. The shockwaves bring everything down further, revealing loot that wasn’t picked up yet by other scavengers. Izuku thinks to himself that this should be an easy take down. As he hops through the wreckage he spots a weak point in the range of the villain’s quirk, an easy path to get close and capture him. The path closer to the villain is not easy. Either the villain is faster than Izuku expected or he is moving slower than he usually is. Izuku keeps getting caught in the pressure waves of the villain’s thunder quirk. His Air Force shots are missing the villain by a concerningly large margin. They exchange blows, Izuku’s body taking a much heavier beating than the villains. Izuku feels his joints creak and his limbs ache with every hit. His vision swims as he takes another blow to the head.
It shouldn’t be this hard, Izuku thinks to himself. I should have been able to capture him by now. Everyone depends on me to do my best. I can’t let them down.
Izuku tiredly wipes the sweat dripping from his brow and looks down at his torn, bloodied uniform. This is his last chance. He knows that if he can’t land this attack, there is no way he’ll survive another concussive blast. His vision fades in and out of focus and his muscles scream in agony with every little movement. Izuku musters up the last of his strength for this one final blow. The lightning of his quirk crackles in force as he rushes the raging villain. A piece of rubble shifts underfoot, in his tired, warn-torn state, Izuku’s reflexes fail him. There is a moment of panic and then peace as Izuku practically watches himself fall into the thunderous explosion that the villain throws at him.
Izuku’s world explodes into a rainbow of pain as his body skids through the wreckage of the city. There is a terrifying snap in his back as he comes to a sudden stop, slamming into a wall of concrete. As quickly as the pain overwhelmed him when he took the hit, it disappears from his waist down. He feels warm blood begin to slowly pool beneath his collapsed body. Izuku stares up at the sky instead of looking down to inspect the warzone that was his own body. For the first night in what feels like ages, the clouds roll away revealing clusters of stars twinkling in the inky blackness of night. At this moment, he regrets leaving UA.
Through the agony, Izuku pulls his phone out to call the one person he knows would help him, the one person whose voice he wants to hear in what is probably his last moments, the one person who represents victory to him. Maybe hearing his voice and knowing he’s on the way could give him the last strength he needs to survive. The phone rings for a while before it gets sent to voicemail. Desperately, he calls again. The call is rejected again. His hands shake as he struggles to hold onto his phone while calling and getting rejected many times over and over after a few rings.
Far away, in the dorms on UA campus, after rejecting the calls again and again, Katsuki Bakugou finally answers the phone snarling, “Deku, why are you calling this late?”
“Kachan, I…”
“No, it’s 2am and YOU are the one who left all of us. It’s the choice you made””
“Help, I need..”
“Why are you calling when you said in your letter that you’re too busy saving everybody else and you can’t have any of us help. You didn’t even have the decency to say goodbye to me in person. If you’re in trouble, Deku, you have to save yourself.”
Katsuki rolls back over and turns his phone off, fuming with anger over how long Izuku fought before asking for help. He didn’t mean to say those things to Izuku but knowing how long he waited to ask for help pissed him off too much to think straight. Katsuki decided to call him back in the morning since Izuku was finally reaching out for help. He’d be in a better mindset to deal with all of this after getting more sleep.
Izuku calls one last time. The call automatically goes to voicemail. Izuku leaves his message, struggling to speak as his body fades with the last of his strength. Where he can feel, his suit is tacky with blood. One For All is but a flicker inside of his spirit. Izuku knows there is no coming back from this. No returning home. No hugging his mom. No sparring with his classmates. No heart-felt moments with Aizawa-sensei or All Might. Izuku knows that he always disappoints everyone. He isn’t worth saving. At the end of it all, he is still a useless deku.
With a sigh, Izuku slips off into a dream.
He dreams of a world where the fierce red eyes of a little boy soften as he looks up to his friend’s outstretched hand. His friend’s eyes flash not with pity but with earnest kindness as he helps him up. In this world there is a Wonder Duo like never seen before: a fearless, hope-filled, quirkless hero throwing down villains with his explosive, victorious, quirked hero partner. Their light outshines everything as Izuku walks off into nothing.
Hours later, the sun rises.
Heroes find the remains.
Another phone call is made.
Inko Midoriya identifies the body.
A scream echoes through the city as a broken mother cries out “My boy! My boy! My sweet, precious, baby boy!”
Katsuki Bakugou wakes up and turns his phone back on.
There is one final voicemail.
“Kachan… I’m… sorry… Please… save… me…”
Izuku’s words are punctuated by rattling breaths.
After one last weak sigh, the voicemail continues on in silence for thirteen minutes before it ends.