Chapter Text
Katsuki was dead. Izuku had failed. Denki had passed out after radiating enough electricity to keep the entirety of UA off the ground for over an hour. Everyone knew, from the moment All For One killed All Might, Endeavor, Aizawa, and Hawks, that the world was going to go to shit. Fast. Best Jeanist and Edgeshot had passed too, and Mirko was nothing but a defeated face. Class 1-A knew it was all over, and retreated to their dorm building, which was safely on the ground, as it was a distance from the main campus. But, because the universe hates heroes, Eri happened to be hiding there. She took one look at her bloodied classmates, and her fear activated her quirk, turning them forever fourteen. The class didn’t even bat an eye. What more had they left to lose? They wouldn’t have minded if the quirk killed them. Well, that last part was mostly Denki’s thinking as he awoke in Mina’s gentle arms. He felt worse than shit. His body ached and a muscle would jerk slightly at random times. His head was pounding, and his heart was trapped in his throat. Worst of all, though, was his failure. His failure to keep UA in the sky, to save more people, to save Aizawa sensei…Denki thought it might crush him. But Mina laid him on the couch in the common room, and he soon felt too tired to think deeply about his mistakes.
Izuku’s mind was blank. Completely wiped clean. Except for one thing. One memory, playing over and over again in his head. Tumbling onto the ground of the ever-so familiar UA campus, the place of his dreams where all his fantasies came true…and his worst nightmare. On the ground in front of him was Katsuki. Why is he sleeping? He looks so calm. But Katsuki was never calm. For as long as Izuku had known him, Katsuki had never been calm. He needed adrenaline to make his heart rate faster. The nitroglycerin made Katsuki’s heart rate slower, so he needed to speed it up, or he would…but of course, that wouldn’t matter if he didn’t have a heart. Izuku doesn’t remember anything else. Not a thing. Not fighting Shigaraki, not being told All Might had died, not seeing Gentle Criminal crushed under the weight of the school of Izuku’s dreams as it plummeted back down to earth. As Izuku fell back down into reality. He didn’t remember Mirko, slumped against a tree, a defeated look creased into her features, or the so-very distant look in Tamaki's eyes. Izuku never saw all the blood on Best Jeanist’s clothes, or the way Mirio’s neck was twisted in such an odd way. Izuku never looked twice at Hado, or rather, the puddle of blood and ash behind Mirio. Izuku never second-guessed Edgeshot’s absence. His vision tunneled, leaving room only for Katsuki’s chest. Or rather, the lack of chest. There was a silent, gaping hole in the center of Izuku’s world. And nothing was going to fill it.