Society itself has put you at such a pedestal, that the moment heroes collapse in this world, society will fall along with it.
There have been concerns about the choice I've made, but I know with your help, we will make this festival the best and safest one there is. It will be a festival never to be forgotten!
I realise now. That I would rather have an unrequited love than ruining the friendship that we had during U.A.
I hope... that we can still be friends, Deku...
"... Deku? Deku, can you hear me? Midoriya?"
Izuku could just barely hear a voice, passing through his foggy, unconscious mind. As he slowly came to, he could feel his body lying on the cold ground, with his head turned on its side, causing his cheek to be pressed against the floor. He squinted his eyes and grunted as he slowly turned his head out front, feeling it pound loudly as he did.
"Deku? Can you hear me?" He heard the same voice piercing through his cloudy thoughts, prompting him to slowly open his eyes. His head continued to pound in protest, but he persevered. His vision initially was blurring, only just making out a misshaped figure over him. As his vision started to become clearer, the blurred figure soon morphed into a blue-haired person, whose concerned expression switched into relief the moment Izuku's eyes were finally wide open.
"I... Iida?" Izuku finally spoke, feeling his voice scratch as he did.
"Oh, Deku! Thank goodness you're OK." Iida exclaimed, placing his hand on his chest and letting out a deep sigh of relief. "How are you feeling now?"
"M-My head... aches..." Izuku mentioned, coughing slightly at the dryness of his throat.
"Yeah, you seemed to have hit your head pretty bad. But don't worry, I managed to wrap it up, so it shouldn't be a problem for the time being." Iida informed him. Curious, Izuku lifted his hand up and touched his forehead, feeling the rough, but soft bandage around it.
"Oh... I see..." He simply said before attempting to sit up from his prone position.
"Oh, I don't think that..."
"It's OK, Iida. I-I'm fine." He insisted, stopping his friend's protest. With that, Iida helped him sit up, leaning him against a wall behind them.
"Is that better?" He asked.
Izuku nodded his head, but instantly regretted it as pain surged from his head. "Yeah... Thank you, Ingenium."
Iida smiled. "Of course, Deku. Always happy to help."
Izuku smiled back slightly, before furrowing his eyebrow, seemingly trying to remember something. "What... What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure." Iida answered. "We saw another explosion in the distance, but we couldn't engage as we were still focused on the civilians. But then, I got radioed by Shoto and while the audio was scratched, I understood that a few of you were in the vicinity of the explosion."
At that moment, Izuku's memories eventually came back to him – the capture of Vanish, him disappearing from their grasp again, Vulture's warning and then the explosion. His eyes widened in fear and he immediately tried to get up, but the sudden shock of pain on one of his legs, one that he didn't feel before, caused him to sit back down, gritting his teeth.
"No, Deku! You mustn't get up yet." Iida insisted strongly, placing his hands on Izuku's shoulder. "I may have allowed to sit up, but I'll not allowing to stand on your feet until we've checked you over."
"S-Sorry!" Izuku said through his teeth, taking deep breaths for calm himself from the sudden pain. Once he managed to do so, he looked at Iida again, fear still presented in his face. "V-Vulture, Shoto and Ground Zero were with me when the explosion happened. Are they...?"
"They're OK." Iida answered, interrupted his panicked words. "Luckily, none of you were close to the explosion to allow any significant injuries. Only a few cuts and bruises."
Izuku let a deep sigh that he was unknowingly holding on to, tension seeping off his shoulders. "Thanks goodness. I was so worried for a moment."
"I could tell." Iida chuckled briefly, before concern was presented on his face. "But I am worried about Vulture. He seemed to be having extreme pain on his back."
Izuku panicked for a split second before calming down. "Oh, that's just his Quirk. He gets back pains when he overuses it."
"Ah, that makes perfect sense." Iida said, no longer concerned. "I should let the other heroes know that, as well as find out if the healer is done with the others. Will you be OK on your own?"
Izuku was about to nod in response, but remembering the pain still present in his head, he instead answered visibly and with that, Iida got up from his kneeled position and went around the wall he was leaning. This allowed Izuku to look around his surroundings, allowing his thoughts to catch up with him, where he caught attention to a small crater in the distance. The edges of the surrounding area were blackened, with scorched marks stretching outwards. He could smell the smoke from the crater, which caused his blood to boil as he clenched his fists behind him.
"He... He could have killed them. He wanted to...!"
"Deku!" He was brought out of his angered thoughts as he saw Iida coming into his view, along with a young female with blonde hair tied in a bun, wearing nurse-like hero costume and white gloves. "I have the healer." The healer then kneeled down next to Izuku.
"I'm afraid I can only heal one of your injuries for now, so you have to tell me which one hurts the most." She informed him. Izuku thought about it, and even though his head was still throbbing, he could feel it slowly subsided, while his leg was still pulsing, causing his irritation.
"My leg... hurts the most." He decided. The healer nodded in response before taking off her gloves and placing her hands on his leg. He flinched at first at the contact, but immediately relaxed as a cool sensation surrounded his leg, along with a light green glow. Before long, the pain was gone, and his leg was healed up. But before Izuku could thank her, she slumped backwards and was about to fall when Iida managed to catch her.
"S-Sorry..." She said slurred. "N-Not enough... energy."
"Don't worry. You've done well. May I help you get you back?" Iida asked, to which the healer nodded slightly, prompting him to slowly stand her up and take her around the wall from where they came from.
"T-Thank you, ma'am." Izuku quickly said, where he saw her give a brief smile before disappearing behind. With his leg now healed up, he processed to get up on his feet. He felt his head go dizzy for an instance, making him fear that he would fall back down again, but it subsided quickly, allowing him to stand and use his right arm as support on the wall. While not injured from the explosion, he could feel the usual stiffness of it from his past injury on it.
But just as he was about to walk around the wall, his eyes caught something moving in the distance in front of him. Looking forward, he saw a wooden plank that was up against a building wall get knocked over and just peaking out from the shadows that the plank was in was a foot.
Immediate anger at the events that unfolded at the Hero Festival coursed through Izuku's veins and before he could think of anything else, he activated Full Cowling and dashed straight towards the direction he believed he went. He didn't hear the heroes that were there calling out to him and he couldn't feel the pain in his head no more.
He could just make out footprints on the dirt floor, leading him down between attraction buildings and down alleyways before finally dashing straight through double doors and coming to a screeching halt, having entered an abandoned house just outside the Hero Festival.
"Vanish?! Come out and face what you have done!" Izuku shouted, blood boiling and One for All still coursing through his entire body. Usually, he was a rational person, but today, with everything that had happened to the attendees and his friends, it was all out the window.
"I have to say, you're really a persistence one, aren't you?" Vanish's voice echoed through the building, mainly coming from behind Izuku. Furrowing his eyebrows and clenching his fist, he turned around, prepared to launch at the villain where he suddenly came to a stop, staring in shock. Vanish was standing at a floor above him, looking down with a smirk as he held a hand detonator with his thumb hovering over the button.
"You come at me and I'll explode this building." He said. "And just as a reminder, this building is close to the Festival."
Izuku gritted his teeth in frustration at the demand. He wanted to stop this villain right now, but it was clear that he doesn't bluff his way through things, so reluctantly, he turned off his Quirk, but his eyes continued to bore right at him.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" He demanded. "Why do you feel like you have to do this?!"
Vanish laughed. "What do you mean? I already told you why I'm doing this." His smirk then grew wider. "Or are you just unsatisfied with my answer? That you believe there must be a logical explanation for my actions? Perhaps a tragic childhood? Maybe I was wronged by heroes? Or maybe I just woke up one day and finally realise something that no one else would attempt to. And the only way for others to realise that is destruction." He lifted the detonator higher and slowly lowered his thumb to the button.
"You said you wouldn't press it if I didn't intervene!" Izuku panicked, already reaching for One for All from within.
"Oh, did I?" Vanish grinned maniacally, lowering his thumb more. Izuku activated his Quirk and crouching down, preparing to jump and stop him when, all of a sudden, a large chuck of debris came clashing right into Vanish, creating a large debris cloud upon impact. Izuku gasped at the event that came out of nowhere, as well as confused as to what caused it.
"Deku! Are you OK?"
But he couldn't think as to a reason why as he heard a voice from behind. A voice he knew all too well. A voice he thought he would never hear again.
His eyes widened and his heart pounded faster as he slowly turned around and looked up. Standing at the floor above, holding a pillar in her hands was Uraraka.
He saw a smile came on her face as she cancelled the Zero Gravity on the pillar she was holding before using it on herself to gently float herself down. She started talking, but he couldn't hear. Before he could stop himself, he ran straight towards her and collided with her, wrapping his arms tightly around her and burying his head on her shoulder.
"She's... alive... She's OK...!"
All his worries and fear had finally dissipated the moment Izuku saw her. The moment he finally saw that Uraraka was OK.