More Than Just a Student (All Might and Deku)

Just A Child

Disclaimer: Mentions of blood and injuries in this chapter

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"Why didn't I stop him?"

Toshinori was mentally cursing himself back and forth as he continued to lay flat on the ground, waiting for the pain to pass by like it always did. The anxiousness in him was on overdrive, more so than it ever had been in his whole hero career. It didn't help that he could hear the familiar sound of punches in the distance. Punches coming from Midoriya. He tried to sit up, trying to define the pain, but it erupted through him and he fell back down.

"Ah! Come on, damn it!" He grunted through his teeth in frustration. The time for the pain to subside was different than usual and he didn't like that. Now he was blaming himself. He shouldn't have let his guard down while looking for the café, prompting Midoriya to collide into him in order to push him out of danger.

He thought back to the look of determination on the boy's face. The bright smile along with it.

"I should have stopped him. Why didn't I stop him? Why... didn't I let him go?"

Pathetic, aren't you?

Toshinori shut his eyes at the sudden thought of the word. Those words, along with others, had been lingering in his mind for a long time, but previously he didn't draw attention to it. But ever since his fight with All for One, ever since the last sparks of One for All left his body, they became more frequent, more audible in his mind.

He usually had a sense of doubt. A sense that he couldn't do anything worthwhile in his true, weakening state. And as he lied there, he truly felt useless. He was lying on the ground while Midoriya was fighting when he couldn't. While his own young successor was in danger when he wasn't.

"I was supposed to protect him, and yet..."

His train of thought stopped for a moment, bringing him back to the moment. The passage of time must have passed him by without knowing. Or the fight ended shorter than he had hoped, for the sounds of fighting had suddenly stopped.

"You... Young Midoriya?" He called out desperately. Toshinori's heart sank, fearing the worst. Suddenly, footsteps were heard coming towards him.

"Midoriya?" A quiet, chilling laugh was heard as the footsteps got louder. Nowhere near Midoriya's.

"So... this is the Great All Might?" Definitely not Midoriya.

Soon, a figure loomed over him. A female with long black hair that covered half of her face and a sinister look on her. Toshinori couldn't tell what she was wearing, because his eyes stared at what was in her hand – a long sword covered in blood that dripped from the tip.

"That... that's not...!"

The villain's laugh drew him away from his thought before he had the chance to think of the terrifying possibility.

She smirked at him, almost pitiful. "And to think... the brat wanted to protect you." She snared before raising the sword above her head. Toshinori shut his eyes and raised his arm to somehow block it.

Pathetic move. Worthless!

He felt the sword cutting through the wind. Something else came pass by him with a crackling noise, cutting just as fast. He didn't feel the expected impact.

"You don't give up, kid!" The villain shouted, now sounding further away. "Guess I really have to show you...!" Her speech stopped suddenly and now there was shouting and the resume sound of fighting.