Chapter Text
During the third week of April, Katsuki was where he liked to be most. Down on the streets. Surrounded by danger. It kept his mind sharp and his blood pumping. Katsuki was here to take down the unknown villain wreaking havoc on an inner-city office building. The civilians were supposed to have all been evacuated, so he took off towards the sound of a shrill scream for help. He took the stairs easily, blasting his way up to the second floor in seconds flat and blasting the door in the stairwell off the hinges.
There was another scream, and it didn’t take long to find the owner. There was a woman on the floor, hysterical and clutching her large, round belly. “I saw him! He went past me!” Katsuki tried to help the woman off the floor, but she couldn’t make compound sentences, much less find her balance. “I was trying to get out. Please help me. I didn’t even know what was going on! I was in the bathroom, and suddenly it was so loud, and I didn’t know what was happening.” Shame and panic flushed her face. “I’m so sorry! Please help me. My baby, I have to keep my baby safe.” Tears poured down her face in huge rivulets.
“Alright, calm down!” Katsuki found himself snapping, losing his patience with the civilian as easily as ever, but he tried to bring it back. “I’m a hero. I’m going to get you out of here. Just take some breaths and calm down. Talk to me about yourself.”
The woman did her best to follow orders, hiccupping out breaths and shaking slightly. Katsuki hefted her from the ground and held her in his arms. “My name is Sasaki Fumiko… I’ve worked in this office for a long time.” She took a couple more breaths as Katsuki got down to the lobby floor. “I just got married. I want to see my husband again and tell him how much I love him.” Fumiko’s tears came back at the sentence, undoubtedly imagining the very real possibility of her demise.
“You’ll see him again. We’re almost out of here.” Katsuki could see the medics through the large glass doors, just a little farther and he’d have another feather in his cap for the news to gawk over. Another civilian save for the boards. Then he could go back in and apprehend the villain and get some real work done. Except they didn’t make it through the glass doors before Katsuki saw him. There was a fire in his eyes, full of malice. He was angry that another civilian would get free.
Katsuki weighed his options. Thinking critically, he had to know if he could make it out or if he needed to find a safe spot inside for Fumiko. The second he had to decide ticked by. The villain moved on the offensive. He didn’t look strong, or even that smart, but he was pretty fast. He was nothing compared to some of the horrors he’d faced in school, but more of a threat when Katsuki had a duty to protect and both arms full. Even so, he thought he could make it. Just a few meters and he’d be out the door and in the open air where others could help.
As the villain rushed them, Katsuki kicked the door open, running as best he could without jostling Fumiko too much. Just through the doors, and the villain was silent behind him. A glance over his shoulder gave him a glimpse of the villain, primed to run. There was no way Katsuki was letting that happen. He wouldn’t get away after the hell he’d put so many people through.
“Lean on me, but you have to stand.” He didn’t wait for an answer before setting her down, one arm around her waist. Fumiko did lean on him but stayed on her feet, shock and terror planting her to the ground. The villain looked over, a smirk crossing his features before he took off in the opposite direction. He only got two steps in before Katsuki fired off an explosion. It didn’t hit its target. Instead, it bounced away from the villain, as though he’d had some sort of force field surrounding him, and crashed wholly into the ceiling and wall about them.
Again, Katsuki had one second to make a decision, but this time it seemed to happen in slow motion. He knew the course of action; he just had to execute it. He held tighter to Fumiko’s middle and blasted an explosion at the ground, the same way he’d done hundreds of times. It always worked, even at half power, even when he had extra gear. Except it didn’t. He couldn’t get off the ground and barely succeeded and got another meter ahead. Another blast, another failure. And then it was over. His time was up, and the building crashed down around them. He pulled Fumiko as far as he could and vaguely heard her scream over the calamity of it all. Over the sound of rubble hitting earth. Over the sound of the news helicopter beating about them. Over the sound of the ambulance blaring. Over the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears.
When Katsuki’s eyes focused again, they were completely surrounded. He saw Fumiko first, lying on her back. She was screaming. Her top half was seemingly unharmed, but he couldn’t see anything below her hips. He could only see the huge chunk of rebar replacing the area where her legs had surely once occupied. He must not have been doing much better because the pain in his chest and leg and everywhere was making his eyes swim. He couldn’t even register the weight threatening to make him one with the ground below him and only barely tasted the copper on his tongue as he wheezed out a cough. He had failed, and things grew too bright, forcing him to close his eyes. It was much too hard to keep them open anyway. To be able to see the crowd he has just let down.