• 私のヒーロー

➳ swan song

✻ a/n
he's not actually dead, this doesnt happen. i just like torturing my characters :)

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The sound of a gunshot echoed grimly throughout the warehouse.

The bullet tore an ugly hole in his shirt and had punctured his right lung. Akihiko coughed up dark red blood. Wheezing and retching, he dropped to his knees, then his elbows. His cheek scraped against the floor. What the hell did it just do to him? The poison on his hands and body- The poison he produced with his quirk was slowly bleeding back into him as his actual blood bled out. Did it just turn his quirk off? He could still stick his fingers to surfaces, he still had his tongue and all the frog parts- Obviously they couldn't alter his major physical mutations. But the tiny things like his poison... It was supposed to be impossible. But he couldn't think of any other explanation. He couldn't really think at all at that moment.

Blink.

Think.

BREATHE.

Why was it so hard to do such simple things? It wouldn't be long before his heart stopped. His breaths were shallow as he pitifully lay there on his hands and knees. He couldn't even look at the man standing over him with a long plague mask, the man who shot him. And he couldn't see her.

" t..- toga... "

It was barely a whisper.
A weak, shaky croak that lived on his lips and shortly died on his uneven exhales.

Aki collected all of his fading strength to make himself look up. To see Boss and Dad and the lizard man and all the others, standing just a few feet away. He wanted to run towards them, to speak to them, to reach out his hand and scream bloody murder until his throat was raw. He wanted to cry. But he was just too tired. Too tired and intoxicated to do anything but die. Himiko tried to run towards him- but Tomura stopped her. Aki knew why. The masked man was still standing next to him. Watching, waiting until his untimely demise. He was just a test subject to him, wasnt he?
Was that what everyone else thought of him now, as he laid there dying?

He willed himself to call for help, but all that came from his lips was dry wheezing and pathetically soft whines. He couldn't even speak. He could only think to himself in desperation;

No, please. I'm too young-
I'm too young to die!
This cant be it!

This cant be how it ends, right?!
I dont want to go out like this.

In a refusal of his death,
he decided he should think of the life he used to live.
When his parents were still alive, when he still had the good life on the farm, when he still wanted to chase his dreams and become a hero; His mother always told him bedtime stories and legends. She filled his head with floaty-fairy fantasies and they all came crashing down.

How long did he stay at that train station crying? How long had he knelt on that cold floor, letting the angry rain hit his back? How many hours had he pointlessly sulked there before Himiko found him? Then she brought him to the League. Kurogiri took him under his wing. They fed him, they gave him a place to stay and a cause worth fighting for. He felt like he was at home.

It was stupid of him to imagine that with his new family, things wouldn't end up the same way they did last time.

His mother told him that as legend had it, a swan would be mute for its whole life until its last moments. And then it would sing a song so beautiful and heartwrenching that it could bring a tear to any man's eye. The last hurrah, the final performance. An epic ballad only remembered by those lucky enough to be graced with it.

But Akihiko Tanaka was not a pretty swan. He was a cold, slimy, poisonous frog. And no matter how hard he tried to be anything else thats all he was. He could not sing, he could not live, he could not breathe. All he could do now was crumble, retch and cough up a disgusting mixture of poison and blood. He closed his eyes and completely collapsed onto the floor. He couldn't look at them anymore. He was so tired. His breathing was so loud and painful.

" It's okay little Prince. You've worked so hard, sweetie... "

" Your Mother is right, take it easy for today. "

His eyes were closed but he could see them. The sunlight streaming through vivid green trees and hitting the wheat in the fields so they glimmered like precious gold. This was home. He was home. It was all just a nightmare, the fire never happened.
They were okay. He would be okay.

He could run into their arms. He could go to sleep in his warm bed and wake to the singing of birds outside. He could lay at the base of the tree on the hill, and he could talk to the girl next door. They would tell eachother stories under the cool light of the moon until his mother called for him.

Aki couldn't ask for anything else.

He could be happy again.

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↟

It was completely silent when he died.

And it stayed silent for roughly fifteen minutes. The boy's dead body lay in between the Yakuza Captain and the League of Villains, who could only stare. It was obvious from their expressions. Even for villains like them, killing Tanaka was completely unecessary. The warp around Kurogiri flickered, agitated. Dabi frowned. Some opted to look at Chisaki himself instead.

Overhaul could have just shot a normal guy to demonstrate how the bullet worked.
" did you have to shoot the kid..? " Tomura questioned. He was scratching his neck again. He usually sounded like he didn't care, but now there was this tone to his speech. The villain sounded beyond irritated.

" dont tell me you cared for that runt, Shigaraki? "

The annoyance was now painfully obvious in his voice.
" of course i did, his quirk was powerful. we could have used that poison... "

The two delved into idle, passive aggressive chatter.

Toga meanwhile stood there, glaring daggers at her best friend's limp corpse. Her mouth a tight, quivering line. It was sickly white, and he laid in a small puddle of blood. A puddle of his own blood. She didn't want to go near it. Like maybe if she denied it's existence Akihiko would be there in his bed the next day, and she would have to drag him out of it so he would go on missions with her. Glaring at it in angry denial, like Aki would get up and apologize say it wasnt real. So they could eat breakfast together in the early morning even if it was just old cereal. So they could talk about things only they understood and hold hands and be good friends. So that Toga could hear his soft, slow, calming voice again.

She couldn't take her eyes off of it.

It was just there.

Complete apart from his striking lack of life. You could even see the small red hole in his left chest and the splatters of blood on his shirt. It was undeniably real.
He didnt even get a fighting chance.