Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 8

Strength

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Chapter 8

The silence that followed was a breath held across the entire room.

Katsuki didn't take it well.

"The hell it is!" he barked, pushing off the wall so fast the chair beside Izuku clattered backward. "You can't seriously be giving him the call! You're gonna send him in there alone?! With that body?! That blood pressure?! The doctors said his system's hanging by a fucking thread! Even with the quirk inhibitor and meds."

Izuku's expression didn't shift as he just watched him. Katsuki kept going, words sharp with fury. "I should go with him. You need someone on the inside who ain't falling apart. If shit goes sideways—"

«Eŷn vålen, ð'saņ raķhis¡» Izuku snapped—suddenly, sharply—cutting him off in the ancient tongue. It dropped like a thunderclap in the middle of the room, echoing in syllables no one else could parse.

Katsuki froze.

The language curled through the air—rhythmic and old and sharp as stone.

«Zhår maķeþ.» Izuku's voice was quiet but fierce, his eyes steady. "Kacchan, calm down. This is the lead we've been looking for."

Katsuki's nostrils flared. "Calm down?" he spat. "And what, Deku?! What if you fucking drop dead before you even find the damn Major? What if your body gives out again and we're left with nothing? You barely made it back this time, damn it!"

His voice cracked, just slightly, just enough, and Izuku felt it like a nail through the chest. There was rage, yeah. Always was. But under it, buried in the static and the spitfire, was something he rarely let slip.

Fear, real fear. Not for himself but for Izuku.

Nezu, perched calmly on Aizawa's shoulder, tilted his head, ears flicking like a satellite dish trying to catch a signal. "Fascinating," he mused, tone thoughtful."...Fascinating, that language. You both switch into it with such fluency. And yet I can't find a single root lexeme. It's like nothing I've heard before."

Neither of them responded. They didn't even dane to look at him.

They were still staring at each other. Izuku reached up slowly and pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose, trying to ease the dull pulsing building behind his eyes. It was no use. The ache wasn't leaving anytime soon. But he pushed through it.

"Remember what you said? About trust? About sharing the weight?" His chest rose slow, steady—oxygen hiss filling the lull. "Now would be a good time to trust me, because I'm all you've got right now."

Katsuki didn't move. Just stared at him, chest heaving, jaw clenched so tight his teeth might've cracked but he didn't argue again because he had said that and he knew it, new Izuku was right.

Izuku inhaled, slow and measured before meeting the Adult's gazes. "I'll do it."

Endeavor's scowl deepened, firelight flickering at the corners of his eyes. His jaw worked once—grinding frustration against silence—then he turned sharply on his heel.

"This is insane," he muttered, shoulders tense beneath the crackling embers. "I'm not sticking around to watch a suicide mission dressed up as strategy."

And with that, he strode out, the door hissing shut behind him like a final judgment. Nezu didn't react the remark. If anything, he looked mildly entertained.