~BNHA~ Everything That I Am

Chapter 2

It was quiet around him; they had probably moved on after destroying everything in the area. Izuku lifted himself, rubbing the tears from his eye as he started pulling some of the debris out of the way. He wasn't sure where to begin as some of the pieces were too big for him even to lift.

"Midoriya?" The familiar voice of his neighbor who lived one floor below them reached Izuku's manic mind.

He turned to find the older woman watching him with concern from the sidewalk. "What are you doing?"

Izuku stood back from the rubble, eyes dazed as he tried to process that they were standing there in front of him. "Mrs. Saotome...my mom."

He could feel the pinprick of fresh tears, and the older woman looked at him with pity. She pulled out her handkerchief and reached out to dab at his face. "Oh you poor thing."

Her husband moved to stand next to his wife, taking note of Izuku's rough appearance but didn't comment. "Don't worry, your mother wasn't here when it happened."

Hope-filled every crevice of his chest, his mother was safe, not buried under tons of concrete. Like a weight lifted off his shoulders, his knees gave out again, dropping him to the floor with a loud thump. "Oh...thank god."

Mr. Saotome was a rather tall and lean man, even if his shoulders slumped a bit with age; he wasn't as frail as his petite wife. So when Mr. Saotome picked Izuku up to stand on his feet, he didn't struggle. He tapped Izuku's back, making him straighten his stance. "You boys are too soft these days, you have to be strong now for you mom."

"Don't be mean, honey, I'm sure he thought the worst." Mrs. Saotome tisked at her husband.

"He's right I can't let myself get overwhelmed right now." Izuku took a few deep breaths as he wiped the tears from his eyes; Mr. Saotome gave him a nod of approval.

Things were different now, and Izuku needed to be stronger if he wanted to survive. His nerves were still shot, so he released the air from his lungs as his heart rate settled back down. He took a glance up, and finally, he noticed the luggage the old couple had left behind on the sidewalk.

"Do you know where she is?"

The couple looked at each other; Mr. Saotome shrugged in response, so Mrs. Saotome responded. "No, honey, all I know is she left to run errands before it happened."

They turned at the sound of a car as the familiar red of their eldest son's car pulled up next to them. Their son barely put the vehicle in park before he hurried out to his parents.

Mrs. Saotome's son rushed over to hug his mother, the unmistakable sign of relief on his face. As the eldest son, he was responsible for them in their old age and often visited them on the weekends

"I'm so glad you're both okay." The thin layer of ash coating every inch of his body. It made the apparent cut over his left brow stand out as the dry blood left a trail down the side of his face.

"Daisuke, what happened to you?"

His mother fretted over him as he tried to shrug her off with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine, but we really need to get going before the safety area gets full." Daisuke grabbed both of their luggage, putting them in the trunk of his car. He didn't waste from there as he swung around to open the back door for his parents.

"Safety areas?" Izuku asked. He considered the likely chance that his mom might be there.

Daisuke held his mother's hand to help her inside, but she paused to look back at Izuku. "Yes...tthe closest one is the hospital nearby, maybe that's where your mother is."