Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Izuku was in a hurry.

He wasn’t running late for anything - in fact, he was heading home from school.

But he’d heard some people talking as he passed them, saying that All Might was fighting a strong villain, and Izuku could not miss it. The last big fight with the hero had been months ago, where he fought the villain Toxic Chainsaw.

Izuku had even started his homework on the walk - his mother had made a rule about not watching hero fights till after he’d finished his schoolwork.

Rushing up the stairs of his apartment building, Izuku hoped, a bit meanly, that Kacchan missed the fight.

Kacchan was visiting a famous quirk specialist in Kamino Ward with his father - which was according to Izuku’s classmates, as Kacchan hadn’t had a civil conversation with Izuku in years - and Izuku’s day at school had been marginally more peaceful. Sure, the other kids still bullied the only quirkless student in their school, but without Kacchan egging them on, they mainly ignored him.

The door got stuck as Izuku tried to open it, but it was habit now to lean his shoulder against it and push past the blockage till it swung open.

Making sure to lock the door behind him, Izuku chucked off his shoes at the genkan and all but ran for his room, slapping his school books on the desk and not even bothering to change his clothes before he was hastily scribbling away at the questions. 

His writing was barely legible, which was saying something, as Izuku had gotten very good at speed writing for his hero notes.

But really, who cared what 0.86 × 100 was? Izuku just wanted to watch All Might’s fight! It wasn’t as good to watch the replay, even if they did edit the footage to include more camera angles. It just wasn’t the same, knowing the outcome of the fight, when Izuku could be watching it in real time, on the edge of his seat and holding his breath at every attack. All Might always won in the end, no matter what, but Izuku liked the suspense.

… Maybe he could just take a peek?

Izuku’s mother wouldn’t be home for a while, so there was no way she’d find out that he’d watched some of it, right?

Izuku could even do his homework while he was watching the fight!

Casting a nervous glance to his bedroom door - Izuku wasn’t sure why, his mum wasn’t even home - Izuku started up his laptop, closing an old video of a hero fight that he had left open and pulling up the news. 

The scene on screen made him sick with worry.

Collateral damage in hero fights could be pretty bad at times, but this level of destruction was unprecedented. 

The city that the two were fighting had been completely decimated in a large area around the fight, rescue operations already going on in the background. 

All Might’s smile was straining and the villain he was fighting looked calm. 

Izuku couldn’t recognise the villain, which was odd - most of the time, villains that could go head-to-head with top pros were made well known. He floated above the ground in an almost pristine suit, brushing off the dust scattered across it. White hair, and an empty smile.

Izuku hated the villain immediately.

Something about the way his smile didn’t reach his eyes, the calm and collected demeanour when he was fighting All Might.

The news broadcaster was in a helicopter above the scene, watching with bated breaths. “The scene below is like something out of a nightmare. Half the city was destroyed in a single, horrifying instant,” the presenter reported.

Izuku’s room was silent as he stared at the fight, homework all but forgotten. 

This was bad. 

All that damage, in a single blow? It was unheard of. What was once a bustling city had been reduced to rubble and ash.

The camera panned over the damage, and Izuku could feel his heart in his throat. All those people… those homes. He wiped the tears away from his eyes.

All Might would save them!

Izuku watched the fight anxiously, flinching at every hit that All Might took, and cheering at every attack that he landed. But the excitement was duller than normal - this fight was worse than any other, and as it continued, Izuku felt more and more dread build up.

Izuku leaned over and grabbed his analysis notebook, his hands itching with nervous energy - and this villain’s quirk was good to analyse. 

Izuku had seen him make his arm twist and bulge with muscles, float off the ground and make shields in mid-air. There were manifested tendrils, healing, and even shockwave bursts. He had no idea what kind of quirk it was.

Mutation? Seemed like it. But also, an emitter. And a transformation type, too.

Izuku swore it looked like the man was using multiple quirks.

He thought hard about it.

There was a possibility that this villain had a deflection quirk of some kind, like one where he could absorb and later release attacks, but it didn’t account for the mutations.

Could it be a copy quirk? Izuku wondered. Usually, copy quirks were very limited, lasting for only short amounts of time and needing very specific activation requirements. But what if he had gotten creative? Like, he could be storing DNA to use for activating his quirk. 

Izuku studied the screen. That still didn’t explain how a completely new villain could have gotten access to so many people with powerful quirks like that.

He was stumped. The notebook page he was scribbling in had been filled to the brim with his rambling notes, and Izuku would have to go through it later to make it easier to read.

Izuku could see fatigue begin to line All Might’s body, and the villain was starting to deteriorate, too. The fight was nearing its end. 

But - Izuku had analysed All Might’s fights his whole life, so he could see the way the hero slowed down sometimes, steadying himself and panting with exertion. There were multiple wounds scattered across the hero’s body, all bleeding heavily down his torn suit. Slowly but surely, the villain was winning.

“Izuku!” Inko scolded from the other side of the door. “What have I told you about watching hero fights before you’ve finished your -” Inko opened the door and walked into the room, freezing at the scene on Izuku’s laptop. He hadn’t even heard her get home.

Izuku turned around, startled by his mother’s presence. His eyes were red rimmed from crying.

“Oh, dear.” Inko walked up to Izuku, sitting on the edge of his bed and wrapping her arms around him. 

“Why don’t we turn this off, sweetie. You can watch it some other time.”

Izuku shook his head, eyes once again glued to the screen to see All Might receive a devastating blow to the gut. “No.”

His mum chewed on her lip. “Okay,” she agreed quietly, settling in beside Izuku to watch the fight unfold.

The news reporter, who had been silent as they watched the fight, spoke up. Their voice was shaking. “The Hero Commission has issued a statement revealing the villain that All Might is fighting to be an elusive but dangerous individual named All For One. People are urged to stay out of the city, and if in the area, to head to the nearest evacuation point, following the heroes’ instruction.”

The reporter continued to talk, relaying information about the search and rescue efforts that Izuku could see glimpses of in the edges of the camera’s frame, but he hardly heard, his focus solely on All Might.

The situation looked grim. 

“Come on, All Might,” Izuku whispered at the screen, imagining that his voice could reach the hero. He eyed the television desperately as All Might fought for his life. “You can do it.”

Izuku’s mother glanced at him, reaching over to pull him close to her side and wrapping her trembling arms around him, ready to shield Izuku’s eyes at any moment, if only to spare him the pain of watching his hero’s demise.

The villain - All For One - met All Might’s punch with one of his own, face twisting with agony as he tumbled backwards from the force of it. When he heaved himself off of the ground, the villain’s arm was gone, chunks of flesh clinging stubbornly to the shoulder stump and the wound gushing blood. His skin and muscle twisted around the injury, trying to heal the damage to no avail - there was no arm there to heal, after all. 

Izuku felt sick just watching it.

All For One watched his arm impassively, looking back up to All Might with a calculative look in his eyes.

“You won’t fight me at your full power, will you, All Might?” the villain sneered. “Because doing so would endanger all those people you’ve sworn to protect.”

All For One chuckled, calm, as if he was completely in control, despite his own injury.

Izuku’s stomach plummeted as the villain’s eyes caught on something over All Might’s shoulder, a cruel smile spreading across his face.

“You’ve put yourself in quite the predicament. So, how will the ‘hero’ prevail?”

The news camera swung around to show what had caught the villain’s attention, and Izuku’s heart stopped dead in his chest.

Kacchan. 

Kacchan lay in the rubble, his leg pinned down and his face covered in blood. But even then, he was struggling to free himself, a determined scowl etched into his face, his teeth gritted to swallow down the sobs of pain.

Izuku could see the fear in Kacchan’s expression. 

All Might’s eyes scanned for whatever had caught All For One’s attention, his body freezing up as he caught sight of Kacchan.

And, in that moment, All For One charged. 

Faster than Izuku’s eyes could track, the hero and villain leapt for Kacchan. They hit the ground at the same time, a cloud of dust rising up and obscuring the three figures from sight. There were tears flowing down Izuku’s face as he watched, horror struck and unable to see if his friend was dead or alive.

When the dust finally cleared, All Might was facing the villain, collapsed to his knees in front of Kacchan with his hands pressed to the gaping wound All For One had left in his side.

Blood poured from All Might’s lips, gurgling out of his throat with every shuddering breath that wracked through his body.

“All Might… Kacchan…” Izuku whispered.

Izuku’s mother pulled him onto her lap, gently grasping his chin to turn his head away from the gruesome sight on the screen.

“No!” Izuku yelled, leaping off of his mother’s lap and scrambling back over to his desk, kneeling on the floor in front of it.

“Izuku?” Inko asked.

Izuku shook his head. “No. I have to… I have to look. I have to see. I can’t - I can’t not know.”

Inko’s face crumpled, and on unsteady legs she got up and claimed Izuku’s desk chair, one hand tightly clasping Izuku’s and the other running through his hair in a comforting gesture.

“Ok, honey.” Inko pressed a kiss to Izuku’s forehead “You don’t have to look away,” she said, unsure of what else she could do.

And so together they watched, silent as All Might stumbled to his feet, blocking punch after punch that the villain threw at him, shielding Kacchan with his own body. 

All For One’s foot hit the ground, the concrete exploding under the force of it. Izuku couldn’t hear Kacchan underneath the sounds of destruction, but he could vividly imagine the scream that ripped from Kacchan’s throat as the rubble shifted around his trapped leg. 

With deft movements that didn’t match the state he was in, All Might moved the rubble off of Kacchan, cradling him gently in his arms.

With one giant bound, All Might leapt out of the villain’s range.

“Kacchan…” Izuku whispered. His eyes were glued to the screen, the light casting him in a ghostly pallor. All Might was still holding Kacchan in his arms. “It’s okay, Kacchan. There’s no need to fear, because All Might is there. He’ll save you.”

On screen, Kacchan’s eyes widened, frozen in shock as All Might gently put him down, making sure he didn’t put any weight on his injured leg. Then, the hero turned back to All For One, a determined line to his shoulders.

Behind All Might, Kacchan began to move, limping away from the violent fighting and heading towards the other heroes who eagerly rushed forwards to help.

“All For One, this ends now,” All Might declared, loud enough for the camera feed to catch.

With one final push, All Might leapt at All For One, arm swinging with all his strength. 

All Might’s fist hit the villain dead in the face, his skull caving in from the force of the blow. From the mouth up, the villain’s face was collapsed, absolutely pulverised in a mess of blood and bone. 

The force of the punch could be felt for kilometres around, the news helicopter knocked around from the wind it generated and the debris in their immediate surroundings sent flying backwards, forcing everyone involved in the rescue operations to duck for cover.

When the news team had finally gotten control of the helicopter again, the camera pointed back at where the fight had been, all that was left was All Might, on his knees in the rubble, his face ghostly pale, eyes clouded and body quivering with the effort as he raised one bloodied fist in victory.

And then, as everyone began to celebrate, All Might collapsed to the side, letting out one final breath of air before his body stilled.

Just like that, the Symbol of Peace was no more.

Izuku sat frozen on the floor. All Might… There was a ringing in his ears, tears flowing down his face though Izuku didn’t know when they got there. At the start of the fight, he had been so innocent to the tragedy that would occur. It was All Might; he never lost a fight. But here they were, the whole world silent as their Symbol of Peace’s body was retrieved and the villain dead, his body lost amongst the rubble. 

Or so they thought.

Chapter Text

Izuku didn’t move.

The laptop on his desk had been switched off, and his tears had long since dried. But Izuku couldn’t move.

Time was moving sluggishly, blending together in his mind. 

At one point, his mum had been glued to his side, a hand stroking through his hair and whispering reassurances in his ear, that he could barely hear over the ringing of his ears. But the spot next to Izuku was empty now, his side cold from her absence.

Izuku stared vacantly at the blank screen.

Inko had moved him to his bed at some point, wrapping a plush blanket around his shoulders before she detached herself from him - though, he wasn’t sure when. Vaguely, he could recall his mother’s hushed phone call with Aunt Mitsuki. She had cried during that conversation.

Izuku hadn’t turned to look.

It was dark outside, now.

“Izuku?” There was a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking him.

Izuku turned to face his mum, neck stiff and aching from the lack of movement. His mouth felt heavy, and he couldn’t bring himself to reply.

“Hey, baby, it’s time for dinner, okay?” His mother’s eyes were rimmed in red, like she had been crying, but she had a smile across her face. “Can you get up and come to the table?”

Izuku nodded.

On shaky legs, he stood, seating himself in the chair closest to his room. 

Inko placed a bowl of food down in front of him, pressing a kiss to the hair on top of his head before claiming her own seat at the table. Izuku ducked his head to avoid looking at her, instead staring at the food in front of him - katsudon. His favourite.

Izuku felt nauseous at the thought of eating anything.

His hand was shaking as he gripped his chopsticks tightly, mixing his meal together so he could put off trying to eat. He could barely open his own mouth to say thanks for the food.

“Are you going to eat?” Inko asked worriedly.

Izuku startled, looking up at his mum and shrugging his shoulders.

She looked concerned. “Why don’t you tell me about your day, sweetie?”

His day. It was a foreign thought after all that had happened. There was breakfast, school, the walk home. And he would have to do it again. Maybe not tomorrow, but next week. He’d have to attend school, sitting at his beat up desk and following his old routines like nothing had changed - except it had. Everything would be different now - everything already was different. Because All Might - All Might was - 

A sob erupted from his throat, tears streaming from his eyes.

Inko jumped out of her chair, racing around the table to gather him in her arms, and Izuku clung to her desperately. “I’m sorry,” Inko whispered to him. “My baby, I’m so sorry.”

It was all just too much. 

“I -” Izuku started, choking on his sobs. “I’m not hungry. Can I - can I go to my room?”

Brushing the hair out of his face, Inko looked down at him. “Of course, sweetie. I’ll put your food in the fridge, if you want it later, okay?”

Izuku nodded, stepping away from his mother’s embrace and walking to his room. He hesitated as he reached the door, his hand resting on the doorknob but not making any moves to actually open it. 

He could just picture it - the rows and rows of smiling faces staring down at him. But it was different now, no longer a comforting sight.

Izuku felt sick. 

With a deep breath, he stepped into the room, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. As he reached his bed, Izuku couldn’t even summon the energy to change, instead collapsing into bed still dressed in his uniform, sinking into the mattress and wishing that he could stay there forever, ignorant to everything going on. 

He squeezed his eyes shut. The tears on his cheeks dried as he lay there, his face buried in the sheets. But, no matter how drained Izuku was, sleep didn’t come. He could still see that silent scream escaping Kacchan’s mouth, could still picture that smile, bloodied and pained, but still there. Right until the end.

Izuku rolled over in bed.

He glued his eyes to a blank bit of wall, refusing to let his gaze stray from that spot.

Izuku wondered where Kacchan was, now. If he was okay, at whichever hospital he had been taken to. Would he be awake, lying in the dark and listening to the beeping monitors? Would Izuku be allowed to visit him?

It didn’t really matter either way - Kacchan hated him now. He wouldn’t want Izuku to visit.

Izuku’s eyes drifted over to the rows of All Might figurines lining the shelves.

He smiled so brightly, giving hope to whoever saw it. There was no red on his face here, no blood flowing from a gaping wound in his stomach. All Might smiled victoriously, as if he had just won a fight.

All Might would never do that again.

Something twisted within Izuku’s gut at the thought.

All Might wouldn’t smile, wouldn’t leap in to save someone, ever again. Never again would Izuku see the hero on tv, hear his voice reassuring the public of their safety. 

With a sob, Izuku scrambled to his feet, frantic energy flooding his limbs. His hands were shaking with the need to do something, to escape. This couldn’t be reality, it just couldn’t, but All Might’s face was staring down at him from every inch of the room and Izuku could still see the hero’s body being collected from the scene. 

All Might just kept on staring. He - Izuku couldn’t - All Might was gone, and yet here he was, staring down at Izuku through the plastic and paper.

Tears blurred his vision. Those eyes had never before looked so lifeless.

Izuku wasn’t sure what happened until he heard the clutter of figurines hitting the floor. His arm swept across his shelf, knocking all his beloved All Might toys to the floor. More and more joined them, piling up around his feet as Izuku stumbled to clear the shelves of any hint of the hero. 

He felt sick. All Might fell to the floor, just like he’d fallen during that fight, and Izuku hated it, but he couldn’t stop, and he could still see All Might’s face - 

Izuku’s head spun. There were tears flowing steadily down his face, choked sobs echoing through the room alongside his panicked breathing. 

He had to - he had to get out.

Stumbling over the clutter, Izuku backed out of the room, closing his eyes as if that could block the view from him. Each breath he took was interrupted by his sobs, his steps knocking aside the fallen merchandise. 

Izuku felt a scream clawing its way out of his throat, but he swallowed it down.

He kicked his way through the mess, swinging the door open violently and lurching out of the room.

When Izuku’s door had closed behind him with a click, Izuku’s shoulders slumped.

A sob. He stood frozen in front of his bedroom door.

Izuku’s legs buckled.

With the last of his energy, he crawled his way over to his mother’s room, curling up in the blankets on her double bed and closing his eyes.

His limbs were heavy.

Izuku lay in the silence of his mother’s room. His breathing was slowing, the shaking in his limbs coming to a stop.

Maybe he would wake up tomorrow, and this would all be a nightmare.

Maybe…

Izuku’s eyes slipped closed, and his exhaustion finally caught up with him.

When Izuku woke up the next morning, curled up in his mother’s arms, he felt like he had only just closed his eyes.

Izuku blinked, mind still fuzzy from sleep and his eyes feeling strangely swollen, like he had been crying. 

But why was he in his mother’s room..?

On her bedside table, the All Might figure that Izuku had given to Inko was gone.

Oh.

Izuku closed his eyes, curling up in his mother’s arms. The tears stung in his eyes, slipping out only to be soaked up by her shirt. 

Inko’s arms tightened around Izuku. “Oh, my baby,” she whispered, sounding heartbroken.

When Izuku’s eyes had dried, Inko scooped Izuku out of the bed, cradling him in her arms like he was still a baby, when Izuku knew her back wasn’t good enough to be carrying him around like this - not anymore. But, he didn’t complain. Izuku wasn’t sure he would be able to complain, anyway. There was just something comforting about being carried around like this, knowing his mother would take care of things. 

Inko set him down on the kitchen bench, humming quietly to herself as she cooked the two of them breakfast.

Izuku stayed silent, content to bask in the warm atmosphere while she cooked.

When the food was ready, Izuku climbed off of the bench, setting the chopsticks down on the table while his mother laid out the food. He chose to sit in the chair beside her.

The food looked the same as it always did, but it tasted like ash on his tongue. He knew he had to eat, so that he didn’t worry his mum, but it was a struggle to gulp down every mouthful. His stomach churned in protest. 

“It…” Izuku looked up, breaking the silence. He knew the answer before he even opened his mouth, but he had to ask anyway. “It wasn’t a nightmare. Was it?” The words sounded so hopeless.

Inko’s eyes filled with tears that she hurriedly blinked away. “I’m sorry, Izuku. It wasn’t.”

Izuku nodded, but said nothing.

“You don’t have to go to school today.” Inko reached out and placed a hand on his forearm, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “The receptionist called to say that school would be cancelled for the rest of the week.”

Izuku nodded, and the rest of the meal passed in relative silence.

Once the table was clean, Inko cleared her throat. “Why don’t you go and get changed?”

Izuku nodded. He was still in his school uniform from the day before, and he should have felt embarrassed about it, but he didn’t. 

He made his way to his room, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet to try and rouse some kind of energy into himself, to dispel the oppressive weight that had settled onto his limbs. 

One hand on the doorknob. Izuku paused. Stared at the door, as he felt all the optimism drain away. 

There was a scratch on the corner, from when he was little, him and Kacchan playing heroes. Kacchan had been running after Izuku, shouting ‘I am here!’ at the top of his lungs. Izuku had been running like mad, not watching where he was going. He’d ran right into his mother, making her drop the pot she was holding and only just managing to dodge it as it fell into his door.

In the centre was a wooden sign, the letters that spelled out his name decorated with his five-year-old self’s painting, proudly displaying All Might’s colours. He’d insisted when he brought it home that it was never to be taken down.

Izuku couldn’t open his door.

Fighting that hopeless feeling that sunk into his gut, he blinked back the tears - he’d already shed more than enough for today - and went to find his mum.

“M - Mum?”

Inko looked up at him from her seat on the couch, a frown on her face. “Izuku?”

Izuku shuffled his feet, wringing his hands nervously. “I - I can’t -” his voice broke off, but he swallowed and tried again. “I can’t go in -” A sob. 

Inko’s face crumbled, but she pulled herself back together quick enough that Izuku almost didn’t catch it. He felt his gut twist with guilt - he was giving her so much work. His mother looked worried as she nodded her head. “Of course, sweetheart.” She stood up. “I’ll go get you a change of clothes.”

Izuku sent her a shaky but grateful smile.

Without saying a word, he accepted the clothes that his mother had grabbed for him - no hero merch, he noted - and locked the bathroom door. 

Izuku took a deep, shuddering breath, leaning heavily against the counter.

He rubbed at his eyes, splashing water on his face to rid himself of the redness that accompanied his tears.

There was a brush of cold on his neck.

When Izuku looked up, his own tired face stared back at him. Nothing else.

But - Izuku squinted, leaning closer to the mirror. Was that - yes. Feeling deceptively calm, Izuku reached up and ruffled his hair, staring at the white that was peeking out from his roots.

The dam that he had built up crumbled. Izuku made a keening noise, folding in on himself as a heaving sob shook his shoulders. He couldn’t - he - he -

Izuku shook, swiping desperately at the tears falling down his face.

Feeling so small at that moment, Izuku crumbled to the floor, wrapping his shaking hands around his head as if that could shield him from anything. He shuffled backwards until his back hit the wall, buried his face in his bony knees and grinded his head against them till his forehead ached. 

He just - Izuku sobbed. He couldn’t believe what was happening. He was living in a world where All Might was gone. It couldn’t be real. Everything was changing, already, and he hadn’t even left the house, and he didn’t want anything to change at all - 

Everything was changing. Izuku hated it.

“Izuku?” Inko’s voice called. “Oh, sweetie.”

Arms wrapped around him, once again pulling him into Inko’s warm embrace.

“I don’t want things to change,” Izuku muttered.

Inko placed a kiss on his head. “I’m sorry.” She rocked the two of them back and forth.

“I’m sorry.”

The next few days were spent the same - curled up on the couch at his mother’s side, eyes unfocused as he watched whatever mindless television was on the screen.

At some point, Inko had gone into Izuku’s room to tidy up, and now all of his hero merchandise was neatly packed away into boxes and stored under his bed.

And so there Izuku existed, curled up in his little bubble, safe from the reality of the outside world and content to pretend that nothing had happened.

Eventually, the weekend passed, and Izuku’s mother had yet to mention school.

He was grateful - Izuku didn’t want to face the outside world, didn’t want all of this to become real. He didn’t want to step outside and face the fact that everything had changed.

But he couldn’t escape reality forever.

A week after All Might’s death, a funeral was held and Izuku’s routine was broken.

Izuku hadn’t left the house all week, had barely gotten out of his bed and wouldn’t have eaten if not for his mother, but he was ready in front of the television, his best clothes on, to watch the funeral. 

He couldn’t even make it through getting dressed without tearing up, and by the time the group of pro heroes were carrying the closed coffin into the building, both him and his mother were in tears.

Izuku cried through the whole event. People from the HPSC got up to speak, heroes who had been inspired by All Might, and important celebrities he had influenced. Leaders from countries around the world gathered, and Izuku wondered how many of them actually knew the man. 

Millions of mourners around the world, and nobody knew who it was they were grieving.

Even the coffin was empty.

More and more heroes came up to say their bit, but very few knew the man. His sidekick, Nighteye, came up with a short old man, and Izuku tried his best to listen to the hero’s words. Nighteye talked of the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

The old man stayed silent, head bowed.

At the end of the ceremony, a group of pro heroes stood around the coffin, solemnly carrying it out of the building. They marched out onto the street, loading it into the car that would drive it down the road. 

In the streets, a parade started up, led by the car carrying All Might’s empty coffin. 

Floats depicting the hero’s life trailed down the streets, playing loud, cheerful music as they celebrated the hero’s well documented victories to the cheering crowds. 

Izuku felt himself smiling for the first time that day.

Then the screaming started.

A giant villain ran onto the street shown on screen, roaring as he swung his hands about, toppling vehicles and people alike. Behind him, the heroes guarding the event were caught up in a fight with a group of villains.

Izuku stared at the screen in horror.

It was common knowledge that villain team ups had become rare since All Might’s rise in fame. And normally, no villain would dare attempt an attack on such a high-profile event. And yet here it was… Izuku didn’t want to think of the impacts of this.

The screen went blank as his mother turned it off.

They were left in silence.

The day after the funeral, Inko finally mentioned it. “Do you think you’ll be able to go to school again soon?”

Izuku shook his head. 

“I know it’s hard, baby, but could you think about it?” There were tears gathering in her eyes. “Your education is important.”

“I know,” Izuku muttered, his head bowed. “But…”

Inko sighed. “I get it. Why don’t we try something smaller?”

Izuku didn’t want to, but at the worried look in his mother’s eyes, he nodded his head.

The next day was a Thursday, and Izuku stepped out of the house for the first time since All Might’s death.

He expected the change to be tangible - for everything to be unrecognisable in the wake of the hero’s death. And yet, the street outside their apartment was the same as it always was. The cafe down the road was still open, the air around it smelling of the pastry they baked there. The train was less crowded than normal, but still filled with quiet chatter. 

Nothing was that different.

It felt wrong, for life to go on like normal when All Might would never again save someone. And sure, people were subdued, places less busy and everything tinged with mourning. But nothing had changed.

Izuku hated it.

The more he looked around, the more he saw it. Everything was still the same, but it was quieter. More uneasy. 

At the shopping mall, Izuku barely paid attention to what they were getting. His mother had suggested that he decorate his room, as it was currently rather barren because of the lack of hero merch.

The room in its current state was a reminder of everything that happened, and Izuku had spent the week avoiding it, instead sleeping in his mother’s bigger bed. 

Izuku wanted to use his room again, but he didn’t really care what went into it, simply nodding his head as his mum held things out for him to judge.

The trolley was half full and Izuku barely remembered what had gone into it.

As he glanced around the shop, his eyes caught on that morning’s newspaper, stacked high on the shelf. 

‘Japan in mourning - All Might Dead’  

Thousands are dead after the tragedy that struck Kamino Ward, when the villain known as All For One attacked the number one hero - All Might. The fight was filmed live, letting us see in real time the horrors of the fight. All Might received a fatal hit during the vicious fight while protecting a young civilian from a blow from the villain, but continued to fight on till the villain was defeated, raising his fist in one final victory before he succumbed to his injuries.

The city of Kamino Ward is currently being evacuated and rescue efforts are underway to look for survivors of the tragic event. Currently, the death toll is in the thousands, including All Might, of course, but also a member of the team of rescue heroes known as the ‘Wild, Wild Pussy Cats’, Pixie-Bob, and the Hero Commission's own vice president. 

All Might’s funeral, held a week after the hero’s death, was attacked by villains during the parade held after the service, with many saying that this event sets the tone for the future of our society as we adjust to living in a world without our Symbol of Peace.

Izuku’s eyes blurred, his own tears making a return.

Why did All Might have to die? Why? The hero was so strong, and yet here Izuku was, living in a world without him.

Without warning, he sprinted off, hardly hearing his mother’s panicked yell from behind him as he blindly ran, darting around on pure instinct.

Izuku’s shoulders shook, his eyes aching with unshed tears. He was sick of this. He hated it.

When Izuku’s mum finally found him, Izuku was curled up in a ball down a small service hallway.

Inko wrapped him in her arms once again. 

“I hate this,” Izuku whispered, like it was a secret. “I hate this. The world is all the same b - but All Might’s gone.”

Inko’s arms tightened around him, but she said nothing.

The rest of the day had been spent redecorating his room.

By the time the next week had rolled around - the day he and his mother had agreed he would go back to school - Izuku’s room looked completely different.

Dark red bed covers, new green curtains and a few plants stacked up on the window frame, soaking in the sunlight. His large desk now held more stationary supplies, the shelves above it storing manga and notebooks. He had, of course, kept some of his hero figurines - his rarest All Might one in the corner of the shelf where he couldn’t see it from his bed, a Miruko figure placed on the shelf next to it and a Present Mic toy on his bedside table. Next to his pen cup was a Crimson Riot figure.

Izuku stared at the mirror in the bathroom, taking a deep breath. He could do this!

The white hair that he had noticed the week before had grown out a little more, now visible from a distance. His mother noticed it when he walked out of the bathroom, frowning at it while she ruffled his hair affectionately.

“Your hair,” Izuku’s mum said.

Izuku blew a strand of hair out of his face, trying to expel his nerves. “Yeah. I noticed it a few days ago.”

Inko smiled at him. “I like it. It looks like your fathers.”

Izuku looked up, surprised, and beamed at his mother. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Inko grinned back at him, handing over his bento. “His hair was bright white, just like that. Of course, there wasn’t any green in his hair.” She glanced over towards the shrine in their living room, a sad smile on her face before turning back to Izuku, ruffling his hair once again.

“It suits you. Now, you have a good day today, sweetie,” Inko said. “And call me if you need anything, okay?”

Izuku nodded. “I will. Love you!” he yelled behind him as he walked out the door.

When Izuku got to school, he was reasonably nervous, but it was nothing like he expected.

Izuku didn’t know exactly what he was expecting - perhaps villain attacks and tears, but that was a dramatic image. Instead, it was almost normal.

He skirted around the bullies like he normally did, relieved when they only made half-hearted attempts to trip him up, and hunched his shoulders inwards to try and make himself less noticeable. 

Some kids, he noticed as he walked down the hallways, had taken their hero keychains off of their bags, while others clung to theirs like some sort of talisman. 

In the classroom, there was a blank patch of wall that drew Izuku’s eyes whenever he let them stray from where the teacher was talking. The blank bit of wall that had once displayed an All Might poster.

Izuku wasn’t the only student staring at that blank wall.

In the row in front of Izuku, Kacchan’s desk remained empty. He knew, logically, that the other boy wouldn’t be coming to school today - wouldn’t be going for a while according to his mother’s phone calls to Aunt Mitsuki - but he couldn’t move his attention away from that empty desk. To think, they had come so close to that desk never being filled again.

Izuku shivered at the thought, turning away from the desk.

The school day ended as it normally did, and Izuku was quick to pack his things away and exit the classroom, merging seamlessly into the crowds in the hallway. 

A couple of students in the year above him were clustered around the door to his classroom, peeking in as if looking for someone. “Are you sure this is it?”

“Yeah,” another replied. “Seems the kid didn’t come to school again today. Neither would I if I was responsible for killing All Might.”

Izuku continued on as the first responded. “Heh, true.”

It wasn’t hard to figure out what they were talking about, but it still shocked Izuku. People thought that? People genuinely thought it was Kacchan’s fault that All Might died? He couldn’t understand how they could come to that conclusion. All Might was a hero, he rescued people! That was what he did. And that - that villain was the one who landed the blow. 

Izuku was tempted to turn around and tell off the two bullies for even thinking that, but he wasn’t strong enough to argue with them. They would just push him away, snickering cruelly as they did.

As Izuku walked down the hall, he kept an ear out for any more chatter like that. A few kids had figured out that Kacchan went to this school, but not too many. Izuku knew very well that rumours spread around the school like a wildfire - by the end of the week, the whole school would be keeping their eyes on Izuku’s class.

He also heard whispers of the villain that All Might fought. Izuku didn’t know what to think when one kid started to declare that All For One was actually the quirk stealing boogeyman that everyone’s parents warned them about when they were little. There were scoffs of disbelief, but less than Izuku would’ve expected. The theory answered a lot of questions about that villain’s quirk… It would explain it.

Izuku needed to write that in his notebook when he got home.

Next to the front entrance of the school was a memorial. Posters of All Might were glued to the wall, figurines and merch piled up high against it. Surrounding the All Might memorabilia were flowers - hundreds of them - and bits of food laid out around it. It had only been a week since his death, and yet the memorial was massive - if much more was added, it would start to block the school’s entrance. 

Izuku turned away from the memorial, blinking tears out of his eyes.

He wished things would go back to how they used to be. 

Chapter Text

Izuku had only just stepped into the building, but he knew that he didn’t like it.

The hospital was full of long, white halls, nurses moving from place to place and the smell of heavy-duty disinfectant lingering in the air.

Never before had he visited his mother’s work place, and now that he was there, he never wanted to be there again. Izuku didn’t get how his mother could stand working in a place like this every day.

Inko walked up to the receptionist’s desk, politely asking for directions to Kacchan’s room while Izuku looked around. The place was uncomfortably sterile, completely bleached of any colour. Around him, patients and visitors walked with purpose, clouding the air with worry, desperation and pain so that it was almost tangible. 

“Izuku?” Inko asked, getting his attention. The receptionist smiled at him, reciting the directions to Kacchan’s hospital room, which Izuku was determined to memorise. 

The two of them headed off to the hospital room, Izuku a bundle of nerves at the thought of seeing his former friend again. He wondered what state they would find Kacchan in.

It had been three weeks since the Kamino Ward incident, as the news had dubbed it, and a week since Izuku had gone back to school.

Kacchan’s desk was now covered in pen marks from the other students. Izuku couldn’t bring himself to read the words, but he had a good idea of what they said, and it wasn’t anything nice.

Stepping down the hall, faster than his mother, who had started to lag behind, Izuku followed the directions that the receptionist had told him. At the next corner, he turned, coming to an abrupt stop at the hazard tape blocking off the path before him. 

“Other way, Izuku” his mum called from behind. 

The corridor beyond Izuku was blocked off from both sides, construction clearly being done to the place. Izuku’s eyes were drawn to the hole in the wall, tracing the edges of the blackened plaster and ceiling, which had been burnt to a crisp and was now coated in ash and debris. He could even smell the faint scent of smoke, still lingering in the air. 

He wondered if maybe a villain had been there, to do such a large amount of damage. Izuku felt his gut twist at the thought - an injured villain so viciously attacking the people trying to help them. 

“Izuku? Come on.”

Izuku jumped, turning to run in the opposite direction to catch up with his mother. 

The rest of the walk was short and they came to a stop outside of a door - Kacchan’s hospital room. Izuku and his mother both took twin breaths in to steady themselves. It made Izuku smile, the habit that the two of them shared, and it helped to loosen a bit of the tension within his body.

His mother opened the door.

“Ah, Inko,” Izuku’s aunt Mitsuki greeted. “Glad you’re here.”

His mum grinned, moving forwards and into the room. Behind her, Izuku shuffled timidly in, hunching low into the shadows and hovering awkwardly next to the door as it closed.

“Mitsuki! And Katsuki, I’m so glad you’re okay.” Izuku’s mum moved over to Kacchan’s hospital bed, fussing over him. “I was so worried when I saw you on the news, that was so brave of you.” She cupped his bandaged face gently in her hands. “How is your leg, dear? And how are you holding up?”

As Kacchan replied to his mother, Izuku looked around the room. 

The hospital room was plain like the rest of the building, the only colour coming from Kacchan’s bedside table which was full of cards and flowers. Izuku vaguely remembered his teacher handing out a card for every student to sign, but it had somehow missed passing over his desk. 

On the bed, surrounded by pillows and  beeping machines, dark bags prominent on his pale face, Kacchan looked almost… defeated. Izuku hated the description, but it was the truth. 

Kacchan’s right leg was suspended above the bed in a sling hanging from the ceiling, a cast covering it and long metal poles protruding from the material in a way that made Izuku think that maybe they were actually inside Kacchan’s leg. He felt sick at the thought, wanting to curl up in a ball and cover his legs from the phantom sensations that thought sent through them. 

There was a bandage around Kacchan’s head and a stitched up cut that went from one side of his face to the other, passing directly between his eyes - Kacchan was lucky not to have lost one of them, with a cut like that. His left arm was in a cast, strapped to his chest in a weird sling. 

Izuku didn’t like it.

“Hey, kiddo.” Mitsuki made her way over to Izuku. “Why don’t you come on in?”

Izuku nodded, uncharacteristically shy, grateful to feel his Auntie’s hand come to rest between his shoulder blades and give him a gentle push, guiding him further into the room. 

Immediately, Kacchan’s eyes landed on him.

He tensed. 

Izuku could hear his own breathing. 

The room was silent for a moment, like the calm before a raging storm. 

“No,” Kacchan whispered, only just breaking the moment of silence, talking almost too quietly for Izuku to hear. What he could hear, however, overwhelmingly loud and growing stronger by the second, was the heartbeat monitor attached to Kacchan, beeping faster and faster to the pace of his racing heart.

Any colour that was left in Kacchan’s face drained away, leaving him as pale as a ghost.

“K - Kacchan?” Izuku asked, dread evident in his tone.

In the next moment, the silence of the room broke. 

“Get out!” Kacchan yelled hysterically, springing into action. 

He started to thrash desperately, fighting with the sheets of his hospital bed and the bandages, violently jerking his body in an attempt to escape. “OUT! No, get out! Get out, get out!”

The adults in the room all ran for Kacchan, grappling with his flailing limbs and trying to hold him still. 

His screams turned intelligible as the adults pinned down his limbs, Mitsuki grabbing his working arm while Masaru held down his other shoulder and Izuku’s mother held his only working leg in place. 

Heart in his throat and feeling sick at the sight before him, Izuku watched Kacchan fight against the restraining hold of his parents, his struggles not ceasing for a moment.

Explosions started to pop from Kacchan’s body, the ones on his hands the largest and most destructive. The skin on his hands burst open, blood exploding out of the open wounds and littering the hospital room. 

The adults winced as the explosions skidded over their hands, which were holding Kacchan in place, but they didn’t budge. 

“Katsuki!” Mitsuki cried over her son’s screams. “Stop moving, kiddo. You’re hurting yourself.”

The door banged open. Izuku jumped, unaware that he had been frozen in place, pinned beneath Kacchan’s panicked gaze until he was moving once again. 

“Move, please,” a doctor said, brushing past him as she hurried over to the bed, a nurse following in her wake. They started on their attempts to calm down Kacchan, talking in calming voices and urging him to breathe.

“Excuse me, young man, but I think it would be best if you could wait outside?” a nurse that had appeared beside him asked, his attention split between Izuku and the struggling Kacchan.

Izuku nodded numbly, turning his back on Kacchan’s panicked screams, squeezing his eyes tightly shut as he followed the nurse out of the room. 

At the door, he paused. 

Kacchan was still struggling feebly against the adults that held him down, face streaked with tears and twisted in panic, anger and whatever else, snarling and screaming over any words the nurse said to him. He snapped his teeth at the closest person, an explosion detonating in his bloodied palm. 

The doctor accepted the syringe that a nurse passed to her, nodding at the others in the room as she injected it into the IV tube.

Almost immediately, Kacchan went limp. The room breathed a sigh of relief as the noises ceased, and his aunt Mitsuki reached over to run her fingers through her son’s sweaty hair, glancing wide-eyed at her husband on the other side of the bed. 

Kacchan was still talking, mumbling quietly as the drug calmed him down. 

“Kid? You coming?” the nurse asked. 

Izuku nodded. He turned back one last time.

“Kacchan?”

Katsuki’s hazy eyes locked on Izuku’s. 

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

With that, Izuku turned and left. 

After Izuku had been ushered out of the hospital room, he sat on a chair in the hall and waited. He would have rather done anything other than go back into that room, not after Kacchan had reacted to his presence the first time. So, he waited.

Inside the room, the adults were no doubt fussing over Kacchan. He must have been hurt badly, and Izuku had seen the worried faces as he left. And it was all because of Izuku - as soon as he’d walked into the room and Kacchan’s eyes landed on him, it was as if he had become a different person. He’d erupted, and not in his usual way. Izuku had no idea why it had happened, but he couldn’t ignore the sting of hurt in his chest as he was reminded that it had happened because of him.

The door to the hospital room opened and his uncle Masaru walked out, his flat expression poorly hiding the concern underneath. 

“Izuku,” he nodded in greeting. “Do you want to come with me to get some drinks? The hospital has a cafe somewhere around here.”

Izuku nodded politely. He stood up and trailed behind Masaru as they followed the signs, answering the mundane questions shot his way. 

“How have you been, with everything?” 

“Um,” he mumbled.  Izuku kept his answer short, but honest. “Better now.”

Masaru smiled kindly at him. “That’s good. Your mother was worried about you recently.” The words sent a shot of guilt through his system. “What about school?”

Izuku winced as he thought of the All Might memorial and the hateful whispers from the other kids. “It’s different.”

He wondered for a second if he should tell Masaru about the bullying that Kacchan was bound to face once he returned to school. But Kacchan liked to face his problems by himself, hating when Izuku butted in to help. He decided against it.

“There's a big memorial near the entrance for A - All Might,” Izuku mumbled instead.

“That’s good to know,” Masaru said. “Maybe we’ll lay some flowers there sometime.”

They got to the cafe, and Izuku’s uncle ordered the hot drinks, waiting off to the side for them. Masaru sighed tiredly.

“About Katsuki - ” 

Izuku ducked his head with a start, averting his eyes from his uncle and feeling sick. Noting this, Masaru fell silent for a moment, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

The way Kacchan had reacted was - it was wrong. So viscerally wrong that Izuku almost felt like someone else had gone and taken over Katsuki’s brain. But he would have never allowed someone to do that. 

Kacchan was supposed to be the strongest, the bravest. Not… that. And, even worse, he had reacted like that because of Izuku.

Izuku wondered; Did Kacchan hate him now? To have such a strong reaction to Izuku, he must hate him. And Kacchan had gone and gotten even more hurt because of what had happened - it was all Izuku’s fault.

“Does - does he hate me now?” Izuku asked in a quiet voice. He knew Kacchan had disliked him for ages now, knew it in the way he would sneer and taunt and let out explosions, but Izuku still couldn’t stand it if he hated him. 

Masaru was quick to respond. “No, no, of course not,” he reassured. “I know you’ve been through a… rough patch right now, but I know my son.”

He lowered himself to look Izuku in the eye. “Katsuki’s response today was concerning, but it had nothing to do with you. He’s been through some pretty scary things recently, and though he’s been acting tough so far, it was bound to happen eventually. Anything could have set him off, so don’t feel bad that it was you, okay?”

Izuku blinked, unsurprised to find tears falling down his cheeks, quickly wiping them away. “Kacchan was really brave during the fight,” Izuku muttered. “But… if he’s still scared now, then I’ll help! All Might saved his body, and I’ll save his soul!” He grinned determinedly up at Masaru.

Masaru returned the smile, ruffling his hair. “I’m sorry for how Katsuki’s been treating you recently,” he told him. “But you’re a good kid, Izuku.”

 The next day, school seemed to drag on even more than usual. When the bell finally rang, signalling the end of the school day, Izuku was itching to get out of there. Somehow, in some twisted kind of way, school without Kacchan was even more unbearable, even with the decrease in bullying.

Izuku headed to the front of the school, making his way down the street until he found a little patch of garden. He leaned down, inspecting the flowers growing there very intently before choosing a cheery yellow one, snapping it at the stem. 

Izuku headed back to the school and stopped in front of the All Might memorial. Someone had been removing the flowers once they started to wilt, meaning that it had shrunk a bit since the first time Izuku had seen it, but people still lay flowers and other things to commemorate the hero.

Izuku lay his small flower down at the edge of the pile, ducking his head for a few seconds before he started to head home - just like he had done every day since returning to school.

Ahead of him, there was a commotion.

“Hurry up, before the heroes get here!” a person shouted, making Izuku’s heart rate spike as he realised what was happening - a villain attack! He quickly ducked off to the side of the road, heading for a nearby alleyway and hiding in it to keep away from the villains.

By the looks of it, they were robbing the jewellery store just ahead of him. 

Another villain scoffed. “Heroes? We’ll be fine. After all, All Might’s dead now!”

The villains were loading their stolen haul into a truck. 

Izuku looked up and down the street. Where were the heroes?

But, before Izuku could move another inch, the Buster Hero: Air Jet was swooping in on the scene, blasting out jets of air from the jet pack on his back in order to maneuver himself around.

Izuku had a whole page dedicated to each of the heroes in his area, but he pulled out his notebook to add a new page to Air Jet’s analysis. He could always use new analysis material!

The hero let out a blast of air from his arm shooters, dodging to the side as one of the villains leapt at him - the villain had some sort of half leopard transformation quirk. 

Another villain could send arcs of electricity through the air, but the speed was pretty slow, Izuku noted. He wondered why. 

“Jet Gattling!” Air Jet called, releasing a lot of air blasts at once, which rained down upon the villains. The man’s quirk, as far as Izuku could tell, relied on him breathing in air and shooting it off in condensed balls from any of his body parts. It made the gatling move super impressive! That much air normally would be impossible for him to breathe in, but the hero had fine-tuned his quirk to spread out the air rather than condense it, and shooting it off at fast speeds meant that it would do some damage to the villains while leaving the infrastructure undamaged. 

The quirk also meant that the hero didn’t actually breathe out any air, and instead released the carbon dioxide through his skin when not using his quirk. The quirk let out condensed balls of air, mainly made up of carbon dioxide, which made the hero good at putting out fires. It was such a cool quirk!

Izuku had never seen the gattling move in person before, and his hand was cramping with the speed he was writing his notes at.

He saw another slow arc of electricity in the air, and yelled out a warning. “Air Jet, look out!”

The hero gracefully dropped downward and dodged underneath the attack, bracing himself and holding out both arms, yelling “Buster Shot!”  

The villain yelped as they were hit dead on, falling to the floor. 

Izuku breathed a sigh of relief as the hero started to restrain the downed villains, a smile stretched across his face and adrenaline pumping through his veins. He wished he could see more fighting!

Shaking himself out of his daze, Izuku turned and continued on home.

Falling snow clung to the windows of the small house, but the inside was warm.

They were wrapped up in soft blankets, small limbs tucked up tight as they crouched near the crackling fire. The child’s head rested against another person not much bigger than them, and they were almost asleep where they lay.

“You should go to bed,” The boy whispered. 

Nudged from their light doze, the child looked up at the other - a young boy who seemed almost bleached of colour with his white hair and eyes. They let out a whine of complaint, which made the boy sigh.

“I’ll read you a story, then.” Before they could even react to the words, the boy got up from his seat, returning only moments later with a thin comic in hand. 

Their head was too heavy to hold up, but the boy kept the comic book low so they could see all the same. As the boy read, their eyes began to grow heavy, sleep trying to claim them as they fought to stay awake. 

The comic told a story of heroes and villains. The boy flipped through the pages, reading aloud as the hero swooped in to stop the villain and save the day, the people cheering and crying their gratitude as the hero handed the villain to the police. 

The child had a smile on their face as the boy read it.

Heroes and villains seemed like a foreign concept inside of the small, dimly lit house, but the boy scooped the child up and gently tucked them into bed - the closest thing to a hero they had.

Izuku woke up slowly, revelling in the warmth of that little house from his dreams. 

He opened his eyes, yawning tiredly as he blinked. 

There, in the corner of the room, was a man. Izuku screeched, jumping in alarm and falling out of his bed from the fright. He lay in the pile of blankets on his floor for a second, trying to calm himself. 

The man had looked similar to that boy in his dreams, only older, with longer hair and bright green eyes. 

 “Izuku?” Inko asked as she opened the door to his room. “Are you okay?”

Izuku looked up. “There - ” he paused, blinking in surprise when he couldn’t see the man anymore. “Nothing. I just fell out of bed,” he muttered sheepishly. 

Inko smiled in relief. “Oh. Are you hurt?” she asked. 

“No.” Izuku shook his head. 

“Good. School starts soon, so you better get ready. You slept in today.”

As Inko closed the door, Izuku spent another minute on the floor, thinking. His strange dream… and the man in his room. He wondered what they meant.

Time went on, and Izuku continued to have those strange dreams. Mostly, there were just flashes of that older boy, with the pale hair and eyes, but sometimes he would see a scene, kids bullying him or the older boy taking him somewhere. It was strange - Izuku had never seen those people in his life, but every night in his dreams he watched them like he was seeing them through another’s eyes.

All too soon, November was there and with it the hero billboard charts.

Normally Izuku would be bursting from the seams with excitement, but this year, the Hero Billboard Charts were just another reminder that All Might was gone.

It was sad - the world was moving on and All Might wasn't in it. A new number one hero would be chosen, and although they would never even closely live up to All Might's role as the Symbol of Peace, they would do their job to keep Japan safe.

“Who do you think will be in the top 5?” Izuku’s mother asked, laying out some snacks for them to eat while watching. 

Izuku thought for a moment. “Best Jeanist and Endeavour will be there again, definitely. I wouldn’t be surprised if Endeavour became the number one hero, either. And I think Yoroi Musha might be there too - he’s been gaining more popularity again, because of All Might’s death.” 

Izuku’s mum turned the television on, and the billboard charts started.

“It’s the first Hero chart since Kamino, when All Might, the Symbol of Peace, was tragically killed taking out a villain. This is an important, yet sad moment in the history of heroes. In the past, pros didn’t come up on stage during the announcements, but today we’ll see something new.”

The screen went to the stage, where the new head of the HPSC stood. “We chose to make the charts more of an event today, because we feel this time is a critical juncture for heroes. It's been less than two months since All Might’s death, and I know that most feel we are now lacking an icon,” she said solemnly.  “But the heroes who will guide us into the future are present in this crowd. Let’s put our faith in them to keep our society safe.”

There was a polite applause from the audience, before the commentator walked onto the stage to call up the heroes. “In tenth place, we have the Lion Hero: Shishida, followed by the Laundry Hero, Wash and the Rabbit Hero: Miruko,” the presenter said. The three heroes headed to the stage and lined up along it, waving at the crowd.

“In seventh place, moving up four spots since the last hero chart, is the Dragoon Hero: Ryukyu. And in the number sixth spot, from the orthodox school of manliness, is the Shield Hero, Crust.” Crust had tears in his eyes as he bowed to the audience.

“The Ninja Hero, Edgeshot comes in at number five, and number four, in a huge leap up the charts, is Gang Orca! Now, for the top three results we’ve all been waiting for.” The presenter paused for dramatic effect. Izuku was on the edge of his seat, waiting to see if his predictions would come true. 

“In the third spot, with the highest approval ratings this round, it’s Fiber Hero, Best Jeanist.”

The audience applauded as Best Jeanist walked to the stage, being offered the microphone. “In the wake of All Might’s death, the seams of our society have been ripped apart. But do not fret. Us heroes have a duty to mend these ripped seams and bring our society forwards into a new era.” He passed the microphone back to the commentator and went to line up with the rest of the top ten heroes.

“The second spot, with a massive surprise comeback, is Yoroi Musha.”

Again, when the hero reached the stage, he was offered the microphone. “The rankings are simply the tide of the times, but I’m grateful to reclaim my old spot of third place. Now, the world has changed because of All Might’s death, but our hero's objectives have not. We will continue to uphold our oaths and protect the innocent!” The crowd cheered as the elderly hero went to line up.

Izuku held his breath, knowing without a doubt which hero would fill All Might’s place in the rankings. All Might had been dead for months, and now he would be replaced in the hero charts, too. Izuku could hardly bear it, but he could do nothing but watch as it happened.

The lights dimmed, and the commentator announced that the new top hero was Endeavour.

Chapter Text

Just like Izuku predicted, Endeavour had become the number one hero. But, instead of people celebrating it, people were unhappy with the man. Izuku didn’t get it. Wasn’t Endeavour a great hero? He was the second to All Might, he had to be good. But again and again Izuku would turn on the TV and see the news criticizing the hero. The front page of every newspaper was filled with scathing remarks and bad statistics. 

Everyone knew that Endeavour would never fill the void the Symbol of Peace had left behind, but as the news continued to compare him to All Might, Izuku heard people doubt that Endeavour even had what it took to fill the number one spot. 

Every interview or bit of footage Izuku saw of the new number one hero, he was angry, growing increasingly more furious as time went on and the reporters didn’t stop. Izuku didn’t really blame him for it, but he felt sorry for the villains that the man took down. 

But that was only one of the many things that were changing. Izuku had grown used to his white hair but had found that it disappeared and grew back with seemingly no pattern. His mother and him were both stumped as to what was causing it. Izuku’s front teeth had also started to ache, but he hadn’t told his mum about that for fear of the dentist pulling them out.

Izuku had come across another thrilling hero fight as he’d walked home, only a bit more than a month after his first encounter, this time with Death Arms at the front of the fight. Never before had he encountered villains so frequently, and his notebooks were definitely fuller because of it. 

Every night the news reported on the rising crime rate in the wake of All Might’s death, and the reporters always pulled out their fancy charts, quoting the small percentages the crime rate had risen by in the past three months. Izuku didn’t think the small numbers were really a concern, but his mother was worried about it, so Izuku made sure to hurry home each night to reassure her of his safety. 

Izuku was deep in thought as he passed by the school building again, leaving his little flower at the now shrinking memorial. The route home was basically engraved into his mind, and he absent-mindedly followed it, walking as fast as he could. 

It was nearing the start of the winter holidays, and Kacchan had nearly missed a whole term of school by this point. Izuku was worried. Kacchan was always the first in their class, but what about when he came back? He had missed a whole  term of schoolwork. Izuku could hardly remember all that they’d learned that term, but he knew it was a lot - if it was anybody but Kacchan, it would be impossible for them to catch up, but Izuku knew that he could do it. 

Kacchan hadn’t been released from hospital yet, but his mum had heard from Aunt Mitsuki that it would be soon. They were invited to go to the Bakugou’s house for lunch to visit Kacchan when he was released, and Izuku wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. He could still remember what had happened the last time he had seen Kacchan. The blood from his bleeding hands, the look of terror on his face. 

Izuku shook his head, clearing his mind of those thoughts.

He was worried about Kacchan. 

Izuku had thought a bit about what Kacchan had been going through after he had heard Uncle Masaru’s words, and Izuku could understand a bit better why Kacchan had reacted like that. He supposed even someone like Kacchan felt fear. All Might hadn’t looked fearful on that battlefield, but Izuku knew instinctively that he’d been scared. If All Might could feel fear, so could Kacchan. 

A hero fight was scary, Izuku knew that firsthand. The smaller ones were thrilling to watch, but one like Kamino? It was terrifying. To be caught up in an attack so big, with no escape, thinking you could die and in so much pain from your injuries? Izuku shuddered. He hated to think about it, and it made his admiration for Kacchan even stronger when he thought about how the other had been through all that. 

Just watching the scene on the screen had been terrifying for Izuku, but living it was a whole different kind of nightmare. It made him feel sick. 

All of it just made Izuku that much more determined to help Kacchan in any way possible. 

When Izuku finally drew himself out of his head, he couldn’t recognise his surroundings. 

He was in a cemetery. 

The grass he stood on was broken up by rows and rows of grey stone, names and dates carefully carved into each one. At the base of some of them lay flowers. The cemetery itself was small, peaceful, and there was nobody visiting except for Izuku himself. 

He didn’t know how he’d ended up there. 

Izuku frowned in confusion. Last he remembered he had been walking home from school, so how had he ended up here? He couldn’t think of a single reason why he would have ended up at a cemetery. Sure, he had been to visit his grandparents or his dad at a cemetery, but Izuku hadn’t ever been to this one before. He had no idea where he even was. 

Izuku panicked for a second.

What if he had left Musutafu? Oh, his mother was going to be so worried when she arrived home to find that he’s not there. He was going to be in so much trouble. 

Izuku tried to figure out what was going on. His legs didn’t hurt or anything, so he couldn’t have walked too far, and the sun was still high in the sky. The weather was the same, too, so he probably wasn’t in a whole different city. But what if someone used their quirk on him?

Izuku scrunched up his face in concentration, trying to remember. It was hazy, but there. He’d walked to the train instead of home, and rode it to a stop not far from where he was. The whole journey was coming back to him - Izuku was in one of the richer areas of Musutafu, which meant he was a while away from home. 

Izuku still didn’t get why he’d ended up here of all places. 

 Izuku turned to the gravestone directly in front of him, inspecting it for clues. The stone was new, a rich grey rock taller than many of the other ones around it. The name engraved onto the front of the stone was Yagi Toshinori.

The man had died recently, according to the dates engraved onto the rock - just a few days after All Might’s death. He must have been pretty well off, as the cemetery was a nice one, even for the rich area he was in. Izuku guessed the man must have been well liked, too. There were plenty of colourful flowers sitting on the grave, the area around it clean and tidied. 

Whoever this person was, they were clearly missed. 

Izuku felt like an intruder, standing in front of this grave, but his feet were rooted to the spot. He hadn’t even grabbed the stuff he needed to visit a grave. But despite all of that, he sank to the floor and sat on his legs. 

Izuku didn’t know what he was doing. Why was he so drawn to this grave? It didn’t make any logical sense, but he just felt like he should stay there. 

The cemetery was peaceful, a cold breeze making the flowers sway and ruffling his hair, the sun warming his cold hands. The world was quiet, and Izuku felt comfortable there even with the chilling winter air. It was the first time he’d really felt peaceful since All Might died. 

Izuku breathed in a breath of air, relaxing. 

Behind him, someone cleared their throat. 

Izuku squeaked, jumping on the spot and landing awkwardly back in his seated position. Ouch, his ankles were going to be bruised tomorrow. 

Izuku whipped his head around to see who had made the sound, staring wide eyed at the man standing behind him. 

He felt his cheeks heating up with embarrassment. “Oh. Hi.”

The man smiled at Izuku, motioning to the spot next to him with his one empty hand. “May I?” 

Izuku nodded his head up and down immediately. He didn’t even know this person, it would be so rude to say no. Izuku scooted over to make room and the man sat down next to him.

In silence, the man started to clean the grave, brushing any trace of dirt from the gravestone, and pulling dead leaves off of the flowers. “I’m Tsukauchi Naomasa,” he said. Tsukauchi paused for a moment, before asking, “Did you know him?”

Izuku froze, feeling his embarrassed blush return to his face all at once. “Midoriya Izuku,” he introduced himself. “And, um, no. I didn’t know him.”

Oh gosh, Izuku felt dumb now. Why did he stop at some random person’s grave? The man probably thought he was so weird.

Izuku looked over, and yep. Tsukauchi was staring at him, looking confused. “Why did you stop here, then?” the man asked.

Izuku gulped, looking down at his hands, laying in his lap. “Um.” How did he even explain it? “It just… it felt right?” Izuku said.

The man looked at him curiously, and Izuku shifted uncomfortably underneath his analysing gaze. Then, Tsukauchi turned back to the grave, lighting the incense in silence, as if satisfied by whatever he had found. 

“It’s nice of you to stop here, then,” Tsukauchi said.

Izuku smiled softly to himself, staying quiet as Tsukauchi leaned over and poured a ladle full of water over the gravestone. He ducked his head, putting his hands together in prayer and Izuku stayed respectfully quiet until he was done. 

Izuku wondered if he should go, but decided against it. Tsukauchi had said it was nice of him to stop by this grave, after all. The man must not have minded Izuku’s presence there.

Once Tsukauchi raised his head, Izuku spoke up. “Could you - I mean, if you wanted to, of course - you could tell me a bit about him?”

Tsukauchi settled down next to Izuku. He was quiet for a moment, and Izuku thought he might have overstepped some boundary, before the man started to speak.

“He was a hero.” There was a bittersweet smile on Tsukauchi's face. “Everyone who ever met him could tell you that. He was always helping people, always striving to do his best.”

Izuku perked up. Was this a hero’s grave? But he’d been obsessively reading the hero news every day since he was four, and no heroes had died recently outside of the Kamino incident. Maybe the man had a charity? Or maybe he was a police officer, instead.

 “He had the weight of the world on his shoulders.” Tsukauchi smiled sadly. “That’s what did it, in the end. His own burdens were too heavy for only one man to carry, but he did it anyway.” Tsukauchi shook his head brushing away the wetness in his eyes while Izuku politely pretended not to see. 

“Oh,” Izuku said softly, not wanting to break the quiet of the sad moment. “I’m sorry.”

Tsukauchi smiled. “Thanks. And here.” Tsukauchi pulled a card out of his pocket. “My business card, for if you ever find yourself in trouble,” he said.

Izuku read the words on the card and looked up at the man, offended. “I - I wouldn’t get into trouble with the law!” Tsukauchi thought he’d need to contact a detective at some point? Izuku was a law-abiding citizen, he wouldn’t need this.

Tsukauchi chuckled. “Maybe you’ll decide to go down the hero track,” he said with a shrug, motioning to Izuku’s All Might keychain, attached to the zipper of his beat-up yellow bag. 

Izuku nodded. “Yeah…” he muttered, feeling his heart squeeze. 

As Tsukauchi gathered his things, Izuku smiled to himself. He fiddled with the sharp edge of the business card in his hands. A hero was all he wanted to be. All he’d ever wanted to be, even if he didn’t have a quirk. He looked back down at the business card, and his smile went away. Izuku didn’t think he’d ever need the card. 

Tsukauchi broke him out of his thoughts. “It was nice to meet you, Midoriya-san.”

Izuku smiled brightly up at him. “You too!”

Tsukauchi turned and walked away, and Izuku didn’t take his eyes off of the man till he had left the cemetery. He glanced once more at the card in his hand before carefully slipping it into his pocket. Izuku didn’t move from his position in front of the grave for a long time.

The next day, when Izuku walked past the All Might memorial, he didn’t leave a flower. 

Izuku wiggled his loose tooth nervously, shuffling from foot to foot and fiddling with the notebook clutched tightly in his hands as he and his mother stood in front of the door to the Bakugou household. 

Three of his teeth had grown loose over the past week, and Izuku hadn’t yet told his mum. Every time he thought about it, he was reminded of dentist’s offices and losing teeth, which Izuku very much wanted to avoid, even if they were already starting to fall out.

His mother looked over at him, taking note of all of his nervous movement, looking worried. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been quiet this whole time.” 

Although Izuku had never brought up Kacchan’s bullying, he knew that his mother knew about it - Izuku wasn’t the best at keeping secrets from her. And now that they were standing there, getting ready to visit his bully’s house… Well, his mother was worried. She’d been reassuring him that it was fine if he didn’t come for the past week.

Izuku nodded, sending his mother a shaky smile in an attempt to reassure her. “I’m fine.”

And sure, he was fine. There was no way that he was turning back now that he was here. But Izuku was still nervous. He was going to come face to face with Kacchan! After last time had gone so badly, and they hadn’t gotten along for years.

This was the first time he had seen Kacchan since he’d broken down at the sight of Izuku. What if it happened again? 

And before that, Kacchan wasn’t the most pleasant to be around, hadn’t been since Izuku was diagnosed as quirkless. What if he decided that he didn’t want to see Izuku and exploded? Kacchan’s parents were there to step in, but how much could they really do if he was so hellbent on tormenting Izuku like he had been doing these past few years.

Izuku had been preparing himself to confront his bully after the scary event for weeks, but there was no way to fully prepare. Izuku really had no clue what Kacchan might be like, not after the months since he had interacted with him.

Izuku had no idea what to expect from the other boy at all. It made him nervous.

But Izuku could scribble into his notebooks about the possibilities all he wanted. In the end, he’d still have to face the unknown. There was no way Izuku was going to back down when Kacchan needed help.

Izuku’s mum placed a hand on his shoulder, worried. “Are you sure? We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Izuku looked up with determination shining in his eyes. “It’s okay. I want to see Kacchan.”

“Okay, sweetie,” Inko said, reaching over to ring the doorbell. Izuku breathed in a deep, steadying breath of air. 

Izuku’s Aunt Mitsuki was quick to answer. “Inko, Izuku!” she said, opening the door to let them into the house. “Ah, finally, you’re here.”

“Mitsuki! How are you?” Izuku’s mother greeted, pulling her friend into a hug. 

Izuku shuffled into the house behind his mother, but grinned up at Mitsuki in greeting. 

“Fine, fine,” Mitsuki replied. She turned towards the rest of the house as Izuku and his mother started to take off their shoes, yelling, “Oi, Masaru, the Midoriya’s are here!”

From within the house, at a much more controlled volume, Masaru yelled back. “Tell them hi for me.”

“No way,” Mitsuki yelled to her husband. “They have working ears, they can hear you just fine.”

“Bastard,” she muttered as she turned back to them. Izuku smiled, giggling at the interaction and Mitsuki sent him a sharp grin. “He’s in the kitchen right now - the food's almost done. But how are you, Inko?”

“I’m good.”

Mitsuki turned to him. “And Izuku! You’ve grown so much since I last saw you.”

Izuku frowned. “But you saw me at the hospital,” he reminded her. “I haven’t grown since then.”

Mitsuki laughed, sharing a smile with Inko and patted him on the back. She turned and made her way into the house, leading them to the lounge room as she talked. “I barely saw you at the hospital. And before that, I hadn't seen you in forever.”

Inko smiled. “It is so good to see you again. We haven’t had much time to catch up lately. How’s Katsuki doing?” she asked concernedly. 

Mitsuki rolled her eyes, though Izuku noted that her expression was strained. “The brat’s been moping up in his room. Which reminds me.” Mitsuki turned to Izuku. “Izuku, could you be a dear and go drag Katsuki downstairs. Lunch is almost ready.”

Izuku quickly nodded his head, hands beginning to sweat with nerves. “S - Sure!”

Izuku quickly turned for the stairs, scrambling up them and coming to a stop outside of Kacchan’s room. 

Izuku gulped. He really didn’t want to knock. 

He knew from his scribbling about various scenarios that Kacchan was going to blow up. The second he got into the room, maybe even as soon as he made his presence known, Kacchan would start yelling and kick him out of the room - literally. Maybe he wouldn’t try something in front of his parents, but Izuku’s Aunt and Uncle weren’t here right now. 

But Izuku had to try. He’d put so much effort into filling the notebook clasped in his sweaty hands, he couldn’t just let it go to waste. It didn’t matter that as soon as he drew attention to it, the notebook would be turned to ash. Izuku had resigned himself to the likely possibility already. 

Plus, he’d made a promise. He wanted to be a hero. A hero to Kacchan. 

Izuku sucked in a breath and knocked. 

“Fuck off!” Kacchan yelled from inside the room. 

Izuku knew this would happen, but he screwed up his courage and squeaked, “Kacchan. Can I come in?”

Silence. Was the boy ignoring him? Izuku felt a bit sick at the thought - he’d rather have Katsuki hate him than be indifferent. But then he heard a grunt. It wasn’t a word, but Izuku guessed that was all he was getting.

Carefully, slowly, Izuku opened the door, practically tiptoeing into the room so as to not set off the other boy. Izuku came to a stop a few steps from the door, fidgeting with the notebook in his hands and keeping his eyes cast downwards.

“Um. H - how are you?” Izuku started. His eyes widened as he lifted his head up, bringing his gaze from the floor to look at Kacchan, eyes widening. “Oh no! You’re still hurt.”

The wound on Kacchan’s face was gone now, leaving behind a pale white scar in its place that went from the bridge of his nose to underneath his right eye. There were deep bags under his eyes and Kacchan looked sickly pale. But Izuku’s eyes were drawn to the cast on his right leg. Izuku’s stomach twisted with worry.

When Izuku was little, he’d broken his arm on the playground. But, with the doctor’s quirk, he’d had his cast off in a week.

Kacchan’s leg must be really bad to still need a cast on it. 

Kacchan glared at Izuku, but didn’t interrupt. “Are you in pain? If your injuries are still there, they must have been really bad, I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Kacchan.” 

Kacchan finally snapped at him, cutting off Izuku’s rambles. “Shut it, Deku. What are you doing here?”

“O - oh.” Izuku looked at the ground. “Aunt Mitsuki told me to tell you that lunch is almost ready.”

‘“Well you’ve done your job, so fuck off,” Kacchan snarled. But it was different - it didn’t feel right. Not like the blonde didn’t mean it or anything, because Kacchan never did anything that he didn’t want to do. But maybe… tamer. No, that wasn’t it either. It was like there was less energy in it, like the insult was lacking what made Kacchan Kacchan. 

Izuku had no idea what that meant, but it kind of scared him to see Kacchan like this. Even more than the hospital, with Kacchan freaking out. This was worse. Whatever Kacchan did, he did it loudly and boldly. This… this just felt lacking. It was like whatever fire that was once burning within him had dimmed.

“Um, Kacchan?” Izuku said, drawing the other’s attention once again. 

“What?” Kacchan asked.

Izuku held out the notebook he brought, holding his breath. For what, he didn’t know. Izuku didn’t want all of his hard work to go up in flames, but it scared him to consider that Kacchan would do anything different. “I - I brought some notes for you. I know you missed a lot of school, so I thought it would help you to catch up?”

Kacchan got up off the bed, stumbling with one of his legs in a cast. He glared at Izuku, snatching the notebook out of his trembling hands. “I don’t need your help, you stupid Deku.” 

Izuku flinched back in preparation for the explosion, but it didn’t come. He opened his eyes, widening them further when Kacchan simply turned and dumped the notebook on his desk.

There wasn’t an explosion? Kacchan really accepted Izuku’s notes? It was unbelievable, yet there on the desk was the evidence. Oh gosh, Izuku could hardly believe it.

“Oi, brat, get down here!” Mitsuki called, making Izuku jump in alarm. 

Kacchan’s scowl deepened. “Fuck off! I’m coming.” He grabbed a crutch and hobbled over to the door, brushing past a stunned Izuku on the way. 

Kacchan was slow going down the stairs with only one of his legs functional, and Izuku followed nervously behind. Izuku wished that he could do something to help the other, but he was pushing his luck with the notebook - he wasn’t sure Kacchan would accept any more of his help.

When Izuku and Kacchan finally got downstairs, the adults were seated at the table and Izuku quickly overtook Kacchan, sliding into the seat next to his mother, Kacchan sitting in the seat opposite him. Izuku said a quick thank you for the food before starting to eat the curry that his Uncle Masaru had cooked, listening to the adult’s conversation as he ate. 

“Katsuki normally helps out in the kitchen, but he’s been laid up in bed,” Mitsuki was saying, reaching over to ruffle Kacchan’s hair as she talked.

His mother grinned. “That sounds nice. Izuku’s so eager to help me out in the kitchen, but it always ends in disaster. I don’t even know how he gets into half of the messes he does.”

Mitsuki laughed. “Hah, really?”

And then they were off, talking back and forth about Izuku’s various failures in the kitchen - the ones Mitsuki remembered from when he was little and his more recent blunders - while Izuku tried hard not to slide off of his chair in an attempt to disappear. 

“Mum!” Izuku whined, screwing up his face in protest when they got to an especially embarrassing one where he’d lit the rice on fire while trying to cook it. 

“Oh, Izuku.” Inko smiled fondly. “You’re a big help cutting up the vegetables, honey, don’t worry.”

Izuku’s lips twitched from the pout at her praise, but he refused to otherwise budge his expression until, with a laugh, Mitsuki changed the topic of conversation. 

Izuku chewed his food, enjoying himself listening to his mother’s laughter as she talked to her friend. When he bit down especially hard, Izuku’s eyes started to tear up, pain lancing though his wobbliest tooth. Ouch! Quickly, Izuku swallowed down the food in his mouth, prodding the tooth with his tongue - or, where the tooth used to be. 

Izuku panicked. 

“Deku. What are you doing?” Kacchan asked, but Izuku ignored him. Oh no, oh no. He’d swallowed his tooth! Izuku’s tooth had fallen out, and he’d swallowed it!

Izuku whimpered at the pain in his mouth, tears starting to flow from his eyes. No, no, he’d lost his tooth.

“Izuku!” His mother exclaimed, standing up from her seat. “Your mouth is bleeding.”

“Oh shit, kiddo. Are you alright?” Mitsuki asked.

His Uncle Masaru got up from the table in a hurry. “I’ll get you some tissues.”

The tears prickled his eyes. Izuku wiped his mouth, pulling his hand away to find it covered in blood. Izuku sobbed, more blood coming out of his mouth and dripping down his chin. He’d lost his tooth, and now he was bleeding everywhere and his gum hurt. Izuku could even feel the tooth in his throat alongside the rest of the food that he’d swallowed down. He felt sick with worry. What if he choked on it? And what if he never grew that tooth back? That was an adult tooth! 

Izuku cried harder, latching onto his mother’s shirt as she pulled him in for a tight hug. 

“Izuku, dear, let me see what happened,” Inko pleaded, gently holding onto his face. Izuku opened his mouth, shaking and unable to stop the tears from falling now that they had started.

“Oh,” Inko sighed. “He just lost a tooth.”

Izuku hiccupped. “I - I swallowed it!”

Inko accepted the tissues from Masaru and started to gently clean the blood from his chin, talking in calming, reassuring tones as she did. “Don’t worry, sweetie. You’re fine. I swallowed a tooth when I was your age, too.”

Finally, Izuku’s cries turned to sniffles and the pain in his face faded to nothing. Inko sighed. “I’m sorry about this, but I think it’s best if I took him home.”

“That’s fine,” Masaru said.

Mitsuki gently ruffled his hair. “I hope you feel better soon, kiddo.” Then she turned to Kacchan. “Oi, brat, say goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” Kacchan said dutifully.

Izuku raised a shaky hand and waved at Kacchan. “Bye,” he said, but Kacchan didn’t acknowledge him.  Izuku hadn’t expected him to, but it still hurt. Before Izuku and his mother could even turn and leave the house, Kacchan was already heading back to his room.