Requiem of the Broken

Izuku IX

He saw the flash whenever he closed his eyes, smelt the odor of burning concrete and flesh, could taste the smell in the air, heard the booming and the screams, he dreamt of it every night. The Shelter Massacre would haunt him to his dying day, the sight, the smell, and sounds would dog his footsteps, as would the ghosts.

Almost everyone was dead, a dozen civilians, himself, and Ahmya the only survivors. Even two weeks after the event, they all bore the signs and wounds from that survival. All the civilians bore scars and disabilities that would stay with them forever. Only Ahmya and himself came out the cleanest being at the edge of the blast. Ahmya had to have her left eye removed and was suffering from memory loss and mood swings. Izuku himself was having trouble using his right hand and had developed faint cataracts which were affecting his ability to read.

At the moment he was sitting on the floor of the living room of his home, back to the sofa. Yet that word no longer felt right, this apartment he had grown up in with his mother was no longer his home.

It was a tomb.

He had taken to sleeping on the couch, he could no longer stay in his room. He hadn't been able to get any sleep there. He had locked his mother's room and his own. He felt empty, hollowed out, and had been steadily losing energy. He hadn't eaten in days, only drinking water.

It all felt meaningless, his mother had been everything to him. He had become a police officer originally because he wanted to get as close to his dream of being a hero as possible. But that dream had died with All Might. He had discovered the harsh reality of the world and had joined the QSU to try and protect it. Yet he had failed, his mother was gone, and only when she was gone did he realize what she had truly meant to him. She had been his reason for fighting, protecting her had been the objective he had held in his heart. Yet he had failed.

He was powerless.

Bakugo had been right all along, without a quirk, without power, he could do nothing and was nothing, and now he didn't have anything either.

The sound of the clock ticking echoed through the room, the only light came from the windows where curtains only obscured portions of the light. Gloom seeped into every corner of the room and cloaked Izuku like a shroud.

Hours later, he stirred, a source of energy emerging within him and propelling forward. He left the apartment. He walked, aimlessly for hours, everything passing by in a blur of color and sound.

Eventually, he stopped as he vaguely understood where he had come. The same abandoned building where he had met All Might all that time ago. More than a year had passed, but it felt like a lifetime now. He entered the building and slowly made his way to the roof. When he got to the roof he just stood there for a long while. He saw All Might and felt the hopelessness of that moment as All Might shattered his dream, seep into him.

Then he was back in the shelter, reliving the day again, as the blast, the searing pain, the smell and taste of the air assaulted him once more. He swayed on his feet, shaking all over, feeling emptier than he ever had before. The world spun, images, sounds, and thoughts came and went in a blur. Then he was at the edge, the edge of everything.

In a burst of insane clarity, he knew what the answer was. He had seen it over and over again. He looked down, down to the ground far below him.

"Ahhh... it would be so easy." he thought.

"I could see mom again, and I wouldn't lose anything ever again."

He thought he heard something, distant and faint, like a whisper on the wind. He swayed, the wind blew around him. Then there was a jerk and he fell.