In Loving Memory

A Friend Lost

"—Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof!"

Deku smiled weakly and scooted away. "I should go." He shuffled awkwardly out of the room. Katsuki huffed in frustration. The kid was dead set on being a hero. Why did he insist on tailing behind him the whole time and dreaming of being a hero when he was quirkless? Katsuki sighed quietly. His friends chattered and laughed over the little green-haired boy's misery. Katsuki ignored them and stormed out of the classroom.

That afternoon, the hurricane that was the hedgehog-esque boy thundered home.

"Katsuki! Quiet down, we have a guest!"

"Shut it, old hag!"

Mitsuki, his mom, huffed and sipped on her tea as her son stomped upstairs.

Inko looked at her strangely. "I don't know how you do it, Mitsuki. Katsuki's so loud and... I don't really know how to describe it. How do you control him?"

"Patience and a whole lot of peppers," the blonde woman responded. "Izuku must be a lot easier than him."

"Ah, vastly," Inko laughed nervously. The two of them chatted politely in the living room while Katsuki sulked in his room, scrolling through his phone idly.

Meanwhile, Izuku was sitting on a roof, still reeling over the fact he had just met Allmight. However, his heart still hurt. Allmight had told him what everyone else had for years.

You can't be a hero without a quirk.

But that thought was interrupted by another. Katuski's words from earlier.

"—Just pray that you'll be born with a quirk in your next life and take a swan dive off the roof!"

Izuku sat on the wall keeping people from falling from the roof and scratched at his neck from the anxieties in his heart. "Maybe he's right," Izuku muttered. "And if even Allmight thinks it's not worth it, then maybe it isn't." He leaned his head back nervously. A horrible, depressive wave of misery wrapped itself around his lungs and tightened like the tentacles of a squid around a particularly tasty fish trying to get away. Against all odds, he began to cry, the kind of choking sobs that press down on your chest and don't let you breathe. Tears dripped down his face like rain. All he wanted was somebody to give him a hug and tell him everything was okay. The scratching on his neck got stronger. He buckled over, feeling as tough someone has stabbed him in the chest, the distinct feeling of an open wound fraying at the seams. His illusion was falling apart, and his dreams had been crushed under Allmight's heels.

Why am I still here if I'm just in everybody's way? The boy wondered, inching closer to the edge. He pretended that the great distance between him and the ground wasn't there. He leaned back a bit, pretending that the great distance between him and the ground wasn't there. What if there was an accident? He could imagine the news articles now. Young boy falls from building, he thought. Guardrails improved. He started to lean forward again. No, that's a terrible idea, he started to think, then a little something in the back of his head started to speak. Heroes are around, right? Like that one over there. They can save you, right? Izuku felt sick, but the thought had a point. It would be fine, right?

Right?

The door to Katsuki's room slammed open. Katsuki almost jumped out of his skin. "The heck?"

His mom didn't say anything, but her eyes were frantic. Finally, she said something. "We have to get to the hospital."

"Why?"

Inko stumbled into the room, tears in her eyes. "Izuku fell from a building. Some people found him on the street in a pool of blood and called an ambulance. They think he tried to kill himself."