Heroes of Tomorrow

Prologue~The Day Before

The images moved fast in her head. She remembered holding her breath as she ran through the purple smoke. She remembered the pain in her shoulder as the bullet dug into her flesh. She remembered staring as Alfie's life slipped away.

She remembered Sero falling to the pavement, blood pouring out of his wound as Akiko took his life.

But she was fine. She was fine. She repeated it to herself. She was fine. Only two died during the attack; only Alfie and Sero lost their lives. Many others were injured. Iida's legs were broken, and Haven broke zir wrist and jaw. Midoriya broke his arm, too, but he was less of a concern (that was normal for him).

In a few days, Recovery Girl had healed every one. So it was fine.

Akiko was fine.

And when she couldn't convince herself, when she couldn't push the memories away, she would go to Ava. She would hang out with the pirates, and she would forget for a few hours, and she would be fine.

~~~

Uzu had never gone to the gym before. He hadn't seen the point, and he didn't like people staring. After he was finally allowed to leave the hospital, he went. He went to the gym.

He wasn't going to be useless. He learnt the machines, he learnt the routine, and he began training. He would never be useless again.

He didn't talk about Sero; he didn't think about Sero. Akiko would text him at least every third day, checking in on him, but he didn't want to talk about it. He knew Akiko didn't want to talk about it either. So they didn't.

Jiro and Yao-momo tried to talk to him too. He would talk until halfway through the conversation, he would be hit with a warm fuzzy feeling and remember what Shigakure told him. Then, he would hang up without warning.

He would sit, playing the conversation in his head, and when he couldn't distract himself, he would train.

Akiko would be so proud of him if he told her. But he didn't because then they would actually have to talk about it.

~~~

Naka tried to not think. If he thought he would think things, he didn't want to. So, he stayed away from thinking altogether. He tried to talk to Akiko, but she was always with her pirates. She would try, though, every third day like clockwork, a 'you okay?' but the conversation never lasted long. He tried to talk to Uzu, but he was doing stuff. Uzu was harder to talk to.

He would always go to Kirishima one way or another. He was always ready to just do something, whether it was going out, staying in, or even studying.

And he didn't think.

~~~

The villains were planning, plotting, and preparing for their next move. They didn't care about the heroes in training that got in their way; they had a mission to do. The world of heroes will fall.