Ashes of the Deceived. (Izuku Midoriya x reader.)

Chapter Thirty.

—First Person POV.—

The sensation is something like staying underwater for too long. I've foolishly used up all my oxygen, and even though I know the surface is just a few kicks away, I can barely get there through the suffocating panic.

But my eyes open on a blurry world, and I take that first breath— I don't know if I'm gasping. It feels like I am.

The face I see upon waking is Jirou's, and its far t00 close. I instinctively try to sink farther into whatever it is that I'm lying on in order to keep those dark eyes at a distance.

Her mouth is moving but no sound is coming out.

It's completely silent, not even a buzz or a ringing.

My ears haven't come back online yet.

Jirou has stepped back, thank god, and is talking to my mom. Then suddenly there's Izuku, moving into view, settling down beside me on the floor.

I try to turn my head to follow. He sweeps his fingers along my forehead but doesn't say anything. There's relief tugging at the edges of his lips.

My hearing comes back strangely. At first I can hear muffled noises, and then when they finally become clear, they don't make sense.

I think my brain figured it had been torn apart, and now it's putting out its feelers slowly, grasping at nerve endings and shouting across synapse gaps, glad to find everything still there.

"What's going on?" I ask, my brain-tentacle having finally located my tongue.

"Geez, man, I thought you were toast!" Denki exclaims, appearing at the side of what I can see now is the same sofa that they put me on when I got knocked out that first night at Izuku's.

I'm in Jirou's house.

"When they brought you in..." Denki's eyes cast to the side. He doesn't finish, but I know what he means. I put my hand on his shoulder and give it a shake.

"I'm fine," I reassure, and sit up a little with only a minimal struggle "I've been in worse scenarios."

Still standing next to my mom, Jirou gives a sigh "There's no way." She turns to me "And you're not out of this mess yet— You where hit by a quirk."

Denki, Izuku, and I all do that thing you do when someone is speaking another language: We look around at each other and then say, "Huh?"

I stretch my limbs and sit up straighter. Except for a little tenderness in my back and side, plus the swimmy head stuff, I feel fine.

"I've been hit by a quirk by another quirk user? Is this like how the Smurfs say they smurfing smurfed all the time?"

"Don't joke, (Y/n)."

It's my mother. She looks awful. She's been crying, I hate that.

"I still don't know how he got into the house.." She says with her sorry-filled doe eyes "We were always so careful— And my barrier was working. It worked on Izuku."

"It was a great barrier, Mrs. Kalani," Izuku responds gently "I could never have crossed that— No matter how much I would have liked to." When he says this last part, his irises get three shades darker.

"What happened? What happened after I blacked out— Or whatever?" I'm interested now— The relief of not being dead has worn off.

"I told him to come out and face me, he didn't do it. He just smiled— Then he was gone. There was nothing but dust." Izuku turns to my mom "What is he?"

"He was a quirk user— What he is now, I don't know. Any limitations he had left with his body. Now he's only force." She breathes seriously.

"Wait so ghosts can have quirks too??" Denki questions with wide eyes "I didn't even think that was possible like— Is your knife gonna still work on him?"