𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗦 ⌈𝐈⌔𝐌 ✗ 𝔽!𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑬𝑹⌋

Chapter 060

CHAPTER 60: Understanding One Another

You stood frozen, the world around you blurring into meaningless noise. Ground Beta crackled with static tension, the air heavy with smoke and scorched metal, and the acrid stench of burnt ozone clung to your lungs like regret. The sun had long dipped beneath the city skyline, casting a dull red haze across the shattered concrete-but you didn't see it. Not really.

All you could see was Katsuki and Izuku-tearing into each other like enemies.

Not just physically.

Emotionally. Spiritually.

They weren't just fighting.

They were breaking.

And you were just standing there, a silent spectator to the unraveling of two people you cared about.

Another explosion rocked the air, the shockwave slamming against your chest as you stumbled a step back. Izuku hit the ground hard, scraping across the asphalt with a cry, his limbs trembling. He pushed himself up again-bloodied, bruised, gasping-but his eyes held no hate. Only pain.

And he still tried.

"Kacchan, please! This-this isn't going to fix anything!" His voice cracked, raw and desperate. "You don't have to do this!"

But Katsuki-gods, Katsuki's rage was volcanic. His palms sparked, explosions dancing between clenched fists, not because he wanted to fight-but because he needed to. His face was twisted with something far deeper than anger.

It was grief.

It was guilt.

It was self-hatred.

"Shut the hell up and fight me, damn nerd!"

---

Overhead, the steady hum of a surveillance drone buzzed like an accusation in the sky. Below it, Aizawa's eyes narrowed sharply, his capture weapon already uncoiling-ready to intervene, to put an end to this before it went too far.

But then...

A quiet voice cut through the air like a blade.
"Please let me," All Might said, placing a hand gently on Aizawa's arm. His eyes-sunken with age and loss-were fixed on the two boys with a sorrow only he could carry.

Because he knew what this really was.

A reckoning.

A confession neither of them could put into words.

---

Your fists clenched at your sides, nails biting deep into your palms until they stung. You'd known-you'd known-something had been festering in Katsuki since Kamino. You saw it in the way he flinched at All Might's name, in how he avoided your gaze when the League was mentioned. You saw it in the silence-the cruel kind, the kind that screams louder than words ever could.

He was drowning.

And he wouldn't let you save him.

Why didn't he come to you?

Why did he shut you out?

You were there too. You were right there beside him, tied up and helpless in that warehouse, the two of you kneeling in fear while villains played gods. You still remembered how his hands trembled against the bindings. How his eyes wouldn't meet yours. How the world shook the moment All Might unleashed his final blow-his last blow.

You both knew it.
The Symbol of Peace was gone.

And yet-Katsuki never talked to you. Not once. Not about Kamino. Not about All Might. Not about anything.