Lifeless

Chapter 17 - Toska

(Tw!) This chapter contains fighting, and suicidal thoughts. If anybody needs a recap, I'll provide it in the comments of this paragraph! : )  I don't know if I've said this before, but all my chapter titles come from places like google translate, so I never know if they are actually accurate! Anyway, thank you guys for reading!!

Toska (Russian) - A sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without a specific cause; a longing with nothing to long for.

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The spy walked into the hero's building, his steps rushed compared to everyone around him. It garnered a few glances, but most simply looked away after a few moments.

"Hey! Miru!" The spy turned his head at his name, facing the man who employed him for his latest excursion. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be out on a mission?" Miru grabbed his boss, dragging him towards where he knew the higher ups meeting room was.

Once inside, Miru pushed his boss onto a chair and walked over to the intercom and called all of the people with authority in the building to the room, quoting it as an important meeting.

"Sorry boss, but I have some really bad news, or good news depending on how you look at it." Miru's boss just nodded, understanding that Miru wanted more people to be there before explaining all of it.

A few minutes later, a decent amount of people filled the room, mostly high ranking heroes, but also a few businessmen and the boss of the company. "Miru, I hope this is good, you took time out of our busy schedules." Miru nodded at the man, dismissing him in favor of looking out the doorway for any more incoming heroes.

Miru stared out the door for a few more moments before pulling it shut and turning towards his higher ups. "I was out on a mission, trying to find a smaller human trafficking ring or something, but I ended up at a place called the League. At least a hundred people went missing after making contact with them-" "Ok, and? Isn't your job to find these things? Why is this so important that you had to call all of us here?" Miru scowled before continuing. "No! Let me continue! I was successfully hired, but when I got there, it was bigger than I'd have ever thought! There were cells full of people, most of them couldn't even tell me their own names! And! The head scientist led me to this one cell, and there was a boy, couldn't be more that 13 years old, and the scientist explained that they gave him a quirk! To turn him into a monster! He made me drag the boy to a room, and I could barely hold him still! They are calling the monsters Nomus, and they could all take out the heroes, we are in danger! We need to save all the people there and save Midoriya!"

"Is Midoriya the boy?" Miru nodded his head at his boss's question, "Fluffy head of green hair, though it looks really matted now."

Miru's boss nodded, writing down some information before standing. "I trust you all to figure out our course of action. I need to make a call to Erasure Head."

;

Izuku jumped over the large hand reaching for his ankles, narrowly avoiding the crushing grip of the nomu. He knew that there was a one-way mirror across the room, it wasn't exactly subtle, but he couldn't afford to investigate. Instead, he was forced to dodge the hits aimed his way from the nomu, leaving him with no time to fight back.

The nomu threw its hand forward, Izuku dodged. The nomu charged, Izuku dodged. It was a repetitive cycle, virtually inescapable. Izuku had no time to make any moves of his own, the nomu's actions being too fast.

Izuku skid across the floor after blocking a hit from the creature, his feet squeaking against the cold tile. His feet moved on their own, running around and avoiding the nomu, just barely managing to stop all of its attacks.

Another swing towards his head, Izuku ducked. Izuku ran towards the backside of the nomu, avoiding another swing aimed his way in the process. Izuku didn't know what to do, he was inexperienced in battle and was only barely managing to get through without being hurt. His body was moving without command, only knowing the monster's next moves, avoiding them by an inch before he was forced to dodge again.

Soon, he knew he was going to run out of energy. He could feel his legs weakening and his arms burning, now it was only a matter of time before he wouldn't be able to move any more.

Izuku jumped over the outstretched arm of the nomu, landing across the room from the beast. He took the moment to observe the monster, trying to find some weakness, some way that his life might be spared in the relentless attacks of the monster.

Izuku spotted an opening in the creature's skull, what appeared to be its brain left exposed. He wasn't sure, but Izuku thought that attacking that spot might defeat the nomu, after all, not many animals would be able to survive and function without their brain.

When the nomu swung towards him again, Izuku jumped up, landing on the monster's outstretched arm and ran forward. Izuku kept remarkably balanced, something that he knew he would never be able to do before coming here. He had no time to ponder the anomaly, instead he jumped once more, landing on top of the creature's shoulders.

There was a second of hesitation before Izuku's hands dived down into the nomu's open skull. It would've been favorable if he had a knife, or any other tool so that he didn't have to get his hands so messy.

The nomu collapsed in a heap, Midoriya still standing on top of it. He watched as the last stuttering breath left the monster, his own breathing quick paced and shallow.

Izuku's feet swayed underneath him and his vision blurred. In a split second, the ground was rushing up to meet his face. It was then he noticed how everything hurt, probably some wounds he hadn't noticed before.

Izuku could only hope that this was his end. With the adrenaline no longer fueling his movements, he regretted not allowing the nomu to kill him. Then, at least, he wouldn't have to deal with this hell anymore.