Nomu

Part 40

Deku could feel his heart racing. It felt like it was going to jump right out of his chest as he flew down hallway after hallway.
He's panting, despretely trying to catch his breath as he runs.

They're right behind him! He can hear them, the dull thumping of feet pounding on concrete behind him.

Faster!! I have to go faster! I need a window! A door! something! He screamed in his head, his eyes frantically searching the cold concrete walls as he runs.

He darted left down another hallway.

Another left.

Right.

Left.

Right.

Right.

He panicked as he heard them gaining on him, only paces behind him now.

"It's all hallways! Shit! Fuck what do I do?!" His breathing quickens even more as the crippling panic begins to invade his body. He could feel his joints stiffening up as adrenaline backfires and his panic increases.

"No no no!"

He stumbles, barely keeping his balance as he races around another corner. As far as his eyes could see, it's just an endless concrete hallway, no windows, no doors, only the occasional branch off of another hallway.
His legs burn, his chest heaving with each breath. But still, he pushes himself harder.

"Faster! I just need to be faster!"

His thoughts are abruptly cut off when he rounds another corner and is now face to face with the one he's been running from.

He cries out, spinning around to run in the opposite direction, but is faced with a looming figure, its huge red wings blocking any escape as it stares down at him.
Deku feels the color drain from his face, turning back around just in time to see Shigaraki reaching out to grab him by the face.

His eyes widen in terror, unable to do anything to stop it. He feels his skin decaying, turning to dust, exposing muscle, then bone. Deku screams loudly, the pain absolutely unbearable.

He tries to run, to move, to do anything, but it's as if he's rooted to the spot.

Just before he passes out, he looks up one last time and sees a blade flying towards his face, preparing to lodge into his eye.

———

Deku bolts upright in bed, screaming.

"No!!'

His breathing is fast as he panics, before slowly coming to his senses, looking around the room. He's safe. He's in his bedroom at UA, in the dorms with his class.

He chokes back a sob. Not again, not another dream. Every single night, it's beginning to make him hesitant to sleep. It felt so real.

Deku doubles over in bed, trying to stifle his cries with the blankets.
This has been happening every night since he came back to UA, these vivid dreams, distorted versions of his memories playing on repeat in his head every time he closes his eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with me?! I shouldn't be scared anymore. I'm not there!" He buries his face in his knees, holding back more sobs.

He remembers how much progress he'd made.

He was at UA, in his second year of high school training to be a pro hero. He wasn't afraid to take on anyone, fighting villains time and time again, sometimes barely making it out alive. But he loved it, saving people, being their hero.

Why was this time any different?

He'd been doing it, finally making his dreams a reality.

But this had set him so far back, further from his dream of being a hero than he'd ever been.