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MANGA SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 362.
Izuku is halfway across the waters when he feels something wrong.
Cold fingers wrapped around his heart; a full-bodied sharp and sudden pain. It feels like he’s missed a beat; a fist clenched around the muscle; a jagged stop-start.
“What’s happened?” he whispers, and he shares a look with Yoichi. Neither of them like the feeling that’s overcome them.
His comm crackles. “—help… down… Send—!” There’s interference. He can only hear every few words, but he can make out enough.
Izuku’s stomach stirs. It’s frozen dread that traces up and down his spine.
“We need backup at the U.A. Fortress!”
That’s where he was supposed to be. God, anything could have happened—but it couldn’t have, right? Kacchan was there; Lemillion was there. Hell, Mirko and Best Jeanist were there—the number five and three. They have to be fine.
But they had needed backup.
Something happened.
And that jolt that he felt—
God, no.
Izuku comes down with rain and glass. Denial is thick in his lungs, chest heaving and mind racing; he’s analysing, theorising, refusing to believe. Deep within his heart, where One for All dwells, he knows the truth. But the heart that grew up with Bakugo as a symbol of victory dismisses the very idea without a second thought. Izuku plays a dangerous game, but he is already familiar with trophies of self-destruction; collected scars and crooked hands.
He doesn’t remember the fight.
No, all Deku remembers are his eyes scavenging the battlefield until—
Kacchan.
Red.
Green lightning crackles and from one second to the next, he’s already collected Bakugo in his arms and laid him further away from Shigaraki.
“Kacchan?” It feels stupid, the way Izuku lifts his fingers to the blond’s neck, hoping for a pulse. There is nothing.
The blooming red on Bakugo’s chest should be enough of a sign.
“Dek—Midoriya.” Aizawa’s voice.
That had been Aizawa before, as well, asking for backup. Izuku had come as soon as he could.
He hadn’t been fast enough.
“You have to get out of there.”
Izuku bows his head. He’s bent over a… corpse. The corpse of his friend—of his… something. Izuku doesn’t think it’s fair, that soon after Bakugo had tried to mend things between them, they’d end like this—that Bakugo would end like this.
“Midoriya, do you hear me?”
“No.” Izuku sniffs, before lifting his head.
Shigaraki is still trying to make his way towards Izuku, but the Big Three, Mirko, and Best Jeanist are doing what they can to slow him down.
One last look at Bakugo before he stands. He takes in the blood around his mouth; the card—those cards that they had gotten all those years ago. “Shigaraki’s mine.”
Everything is a blur. Fire has ignited within his bones, and it burns.
It burns so much that he feels numb; there is nothing but a coiling mass inside, demanding to be let out.
And so he does.
Judgement has clouded his ability to fight. Izuku is knocked aside, unconscious before he hits the ground.
“Wake up.”
He wants peace. He wants rest. He wants—
“Oi. I said ‘wake up’.” Someone grips Izuku’s shoulder and shakes.
Eyes flying open, sitting up in a flash.
“K-Kacchan?”
And there he is. Picturesque; frozen in time. Bakugo is crouching in front of him, looking the same as he had before Izuku had been taken to Uraraka’s and Asui’s battle.
“Kacchan?” he whispers, afraid to ask; afraid of confirmation.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“I thought… I thought you were dead.”
“Look around, Izuku.”
And he does. There’s inky darkness surrounding him, and when Izuku looks down at his hands, they blur with smoke and green shadows. Here, but not quite. “One for All.” He’s inside the vestige realm again, and if he’s here, and Kacchan’s fully formed, then—
“Yeah.”
Izuku’s gaze turns back up to Bakugo. “You’re really…?”
“Yeah, I guess I am. It’s not so bad.” Bakugo shrugs.
“Am I also…?”
“No, Izuku. You were being stupid and got yourself knocked out.”
Izuku drops his eyes to his hands again.
“You’re not dead yet, though.”
“But you are.”
“I’m still here.”
“It’s not the same.”
“I know.”
Izuku stays silent, staring at his hands.
“Oi.” Bakugo flicks Izuku’s forehead.
“Ow, Kacchan!” Izuku presses his hand to the stinging skin, looking up at Bakugo with a pout.
“Listen, nerd. You’re the hero Deku—the one that can do it, right? So get your ass up and fight properly, this time. I will beat you up if you even think about losing again.”
Bakugo rises to a stand, and reaches out a hand.
“Come on.”
Izuku stares, green eyes flickering towards the offered hand and Bakugo’s face. He feels his eyes prick, tears welling up.
“There’s still people that need saving, so get your ass up, Deku.”
“Kacchan…”
“I’ll be here with you.”
Izuku takes Bakugo’s hand…
… and gets up, blinking away darkness.
Between the falling rain, he can almost hear Bakugo— “You ready, nerd?”
His hand feels warm, sweat collecting, little explosions sparking in the palm of his hand.
“I’m ready.”
