hero's shadow // mha

32) ghosts with heartbeats

Izuku has always joked about dying. He's skirted death so many times that he's taken to calling himself immortal. He won't be for long, of course, but he'll cross that bridge when he gets there.

Literally.

This must be some sort of punishment for making too many jokes. Izuku would like to apologize to whatever deity up above he's offended this time. He might not mean the apology, but there's not much else he can do to make up for it at the moment. Give him a break, dammit, he's not having a very good day.

The explosion has Izuku flying back, his back hitting the hallway wall with so much force that he ends up smashing right through it as if it's nothing more than wet paper. He hits the ground hard and chokes, inhaling a lungful of dust and ash when he tries to force the oxygen back into his lungs.

It's like a chain reaction. There's multiple clicks in the distance, and then Izuku sees stars as the building is wracked with more explosions. Bombs,his mind helpfully inputs. They're fucking bombs.

Oh, he's on fire now. That's fun.

Heat races up his arms and legs, singeing some of his hair as it reaches his neck and head. The flames make quick work of his uniform, and a scream tears its way out of his throat when another bomb goes off right next to him, this time sending him face-first into the neighboring wall.

Izuku slides down, eyes wide and unseeing. He can't—he can't breathe anymore. It's too hot in here. Way too hot. Now if he were in a better state of mind he'd make a joke about how smoking hot he is, but this isn't the time.

He tastes copper on his tongue, and then there's something wet staining the only remaining parts of his school shirt. It has to be blood seeing as he has a fucking piece of metal lodged into his side, the exposed end of it cutting straight through his bicep and exposing the muscle.

Fantastic. The day he finally gets healed and this shit happens.

Extract takes a sledgehammer to his skull, and Izuku screams. He doesn't know what the hell is happening, he doesn't know what to do, what he even can do.

There are people approaching from outside the building. A lot of them. He can feel them all thanks to his piece-of-shit traitorous quirk. There must be twenty of them out there. They were all waiting for him, which means they had this all planned out from the start.

This is why they stopped following him so abruptly the other night. You give someone the illusion of freedom, and then take what you want from them anyway; it's the oldest trick in the book, and Izuku thought he countered this. He had plans to leave the entire fucking country in just a few hours time—but he was still too late. He should've known freedom wouldn't come so easily.

This is his mistake, and now he's paying for it. No, everyone will pay for it. Missy will pay for—

His heart leaps into his throat. Missy.

White-hot pain rushes through his body immediately after he tries to move. He can barely breathe, so maybe moving isn't the best idea. The pipe in his side is limiting him, and it's not like he can just pull it. If it struck something important, that might be the only thing keeping him from bleeding out.

"Mi—!" Ash flies into his mouth and he chokes. His chest feels like it's cracking, and the blood that fills up his mouth becomes the only thing protecting him from swallowing more debris. He tries again, but this time he can't even get the first syllable out.

No. He can't lose her. He can't—he can't handle it. This is his own fault. He should've never taken her in. Should've never put her in harm's way like this. And it's so unfair that Izuku feels his eyes start to burn, and it's not just because of the fire raging around him.