Chapter 16: Risen from the Ashes

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Third Person POV

Todoroki, Iida, and Midoriya watched in utter horror as Tanaka's body went limp. "N-no... no!" Todoroki cried out, shaking her body. 

Iida looked up at the Hero Killer with rage, Midoriya doing the same. Iida runs over with Recipro Burst and kicks him up into the air. Midoriya, able to move again, shot up, straining his legs in the process, and hit Stain the same time as Iida. Todoroki creates an ice slide for them to be able to land softly as he stares at Tanaka in disbelief. He hesitantly puts two fingers up to her neck, and his heart sinks. He looks up at Iida and Midoriya and shakes his head, tears gracing his eyes for the first time in a long, long time. Midoriya burst into tears and knelt beside Tanaka, hugging her. 'She was my first friend...' Todoroki thought to himself as silent tears ran down his cheeks.

'She came to save me...' Iida thought to himself as he thought about how she died saving him.

'I could've saved her... if I was only fast enough... Mr. Aizawa was right, I can't save anyone!' Midoriya thought to himself as he wept. 

Suddenly, Midoriya felt Tanaka's body grow warm. He looked down and saw that she had started to glow, until she was eventually too hot to touch. Midoriya let go of her body and they watched as she eventually burst into flames. They watched in awe and fear as the inferno slowly died out to show a pile of ash in the shape of a body. Midoriya instantly gasps and digs through the ash, 'D-does she work like the phoenixes of Greek and Egyptian mythology?!' he thought to himself as Todoroki and Iida protest, not understanding the situation.

Then, Midoriya's hand lands on something solid, but soft. His eyes light up as he grabs the solid and pulls it out of the ash. 'A wing...' they all think as they too dig through the ash to partly reveal Tanaka's body. Midoriya's eyes travel to her midsection and notice that there's a lack of knife wounds. He gasps and instantaneously presses two fingers on her neck.

...Bum bum... bum bum...

Midoriya instantly starts crying and sighs in relief, "She's alive!" he cries out, hugging her shoulders. 

Todoroki then observes that she is lacking clothing, so he walks over to a dumpster and finds an old blanket, throwing it over her body. Midoriya realized the situation and blushed fiercely, uttering a small thanks as Todoroki picked up her body. Native finally regains his movement and offers to carry Midoriya as Iida uses a rope to bind the Hero Killer. Pro heroes start to show up and see the winged girl in Todoroki's arms as well as the unconscious Hero Killer. Then, Miruko comes running, "Endeavor said that people needed assistance at this location, but- PHOENIX!" she shouted, pushing through the crowd and taking Tanaka out of Todoroki's arms, "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE?!"

The boys struggled to speak in the presence of the worried and infuriated bunny hero, as she glanced over at Stain. "W-we can explain," Midoriya said.

Tanaka's POV

Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep

I slowly opened my eyes to reveal a hospital room. My entire body felt hot and groggy as I tried to move, but I was so tired that I couldn't. 'Wait, what happened? I was fighting the hero killer... then I got stabbed... and everything went black... wait, did the thing happen again?! The last time that happened... I was twelve. I was starting to think I had imagined it or that it was just a nightmare... but now...' I looked around and saw Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida sitting on other beds. "G-guys?" I asked.

They all turned to me and ran over to my bed. Well, Todoroki and Iida did, Midoriya hobbled over on a crutch. "TANAKA!" they all cry out.

Midoriya was instantly sobbing as they crowded me. "Y-you were dead!" Midoriya cried out.

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