【𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 • 𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐊𝐔 𝐗 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑】

55| The Day He Lived

"The day he died."

Izuku Midoriya

one week after All Might's death.

❦

"Don't worry, we'll avenge him."

Kacchan's voice is stern, holding the anger of a thousand men ready to die for their cause. Perhaps that's what's about to happen. 

They both signed the papers. They both know they may not make it out alive. 

But it's all for All Might. They have to do this.

Deku pulls up his hood, a heavy dread in his heart, answering the fellow pro-hero with a nod. "I know."

He should be scared. This is the League of Villains; the same League that has been tormenting him since he was in high school. Izuku Midoriya should be shaking with fear.

But he's not.

The warehouse is in the middle of nowhere. It's secluded and dark, perfect for a hideout. 

"Here's the plan," Deku says to Kacchan, "go in there, and destroy."

"It's what I was made for."

The two heroes know that they're not supposed to kill anyone. But they also know that there's something different in the air tonight, as they lay in waiting for the perfect time to strike. 

A sense of rebellion, of anger, of revenge. The lingering feeling that someone will fall, if not one of the heroes.

The real mission was supposed to take place two days from now, but then the League wouldn't get what they deserve. 

Two men, with the little boys inside of them, alight with anger and the hunger for revenge.

❧

"Please," the boy whimpers, "Please, stop. Don't hurt him."

You're a hero! You're supposed to save him! His heart screams.

But despite his best efforts, Deku can only watch as Kacchan lays motionless below the lights. 

How did it go so wrong? How did they know they were coming? Is there a traitor? A spy?

Two heroes, without a plan, barging into a crowd of villains who had one. A plan to destroy. A plan to steal.

And they were well prepared.

"I'm not sure how the Agitator does it," Shigaraki says, "but I heard that your quirk is a part of your heart. I suppose it could be false, but we have to open him up to find out, eh?"

Kacchan is tied up like a present, unconscious while Toga hovers over him. 

"That drug knocked him out pretty good, Shiggy," She giggles, "normally I like them when they scream, but he's too much of a bother."

Deku's body is frozen, due to some unknown villain's quirk in the corner. He doesn't recognize him. 

Why? Why can't he move?

Even as the knife is pressed into Kacchan's skin, the green-haired hero can hardly move. Despite the adrenaline flowing through his veins, despite his erratic heartbeat, he can't move. He can't save him.

His mind flashes to something Kacchan always used to say:

"The heroes always win! That's just what they do!"

Deku mutters to himself, the smell of blood driving him mad. 

"I'm sorry . . . don't do this . . . not to him . . . just . . . "

At that moment, all he ever wanted rips from his throat like a prayer. What he was thinking when All Might was killed. What he was thinking when his mother died. Three words, that sealed his fate.

"Choose me instead!"

"Well, well, well," Shigaraki mutters, holding up a hand. Toga looks up with interest, her knife dripping with Kacchan's blood. "You're quite the little hero, aren't you? Let him go."

Kacchan is untied and pushed off the table. A villain emerges from the shadows and carries the limp hero away.

Deku's voice shakes as his body is placed on the table.

"Just let me be a hero, one more time."

"I'll grant your final wish," Shigaraki grins, "but only because we're old friends."

"Shiggy, there's no more of the drug."

"Then let him scream."

Lights shine down into his eyes, and he can't see, but he can feel the cold metal of the knife.

"If Quirks are, indeed, harbored in the heart," Shigaraki says, "then we'll have yours in no time."

Slicing, screaming, pain. 

Quirks are not harbored in the heart.

Or in anywhere else that they can be taken away from.

That's what Deku learned that day.

The day he lived.

Unfortunately, he lived. He lived through it all.

❧