The Shadows I Hide

Chapter 13: Slipping

It was a late Sunday evening, cold and rainy outside when Uraraka finally arrived back at the UA dorms. She had gone out for a walk an hour or so ago and had lost track of the time. Uraraka entered silently and sighed with relief at finally reaching the shelter of the dormitories while mentally vowing never to go for a nighttime walk like that ever again. The common room was almost completely dark which came as no surprise to the bubbly girl. Everyone was probably asleep at this point since they had school the following morning. The common room was completely empty, she observed as she hung up her coat. No, she corrected herself, there was one person still awake. His back was to her and he hadn't noticed her arrival but she would recognize his messy green hair anywhere. She smiled a bit.

"Hey Deku," she said quietly. The boy didn't turn around.

"Deku," she called again, a bit louder this time. Once again, he didn't turn around, didn't flinch, he didn't make any move at all. He was simply propped up with his back against his chair. Could he have fallen asleep she wondered to herself, feeling a bit unnerved by the ordeal. She began to walk around to where he was trying to get a good look at his face. When she finally made out his face in the gloom, her unease multiplied. His body was completely stiff in his chair, his head held upright facing the wall ahead of him. His eyes were open, but still, he didn't react to her presence. His eyes were unfocused as he stared across the room and didn't move at all when she stepped in front of them.

"Deku?" she whispered. Concern beginning to enter her tone.

"Deku, snap out of it," she began to shake him a bit now. "Come on," she said shaking him more, and finally he seemed to come back to reality. His eyes regained their focus and his hands flew up to clutch his head. He let out a low groan before lifting his head and sluggishly began taking in his surroundings as though he couldn't quite remember where he was. As he noticed Uraraka he suddenly jumped a bit his hand flying up to his chest.

"Jeezus Uraraka, you scared me!" Uraraka was unable to make out the blush on his face as she scoffed.

"I scared you? Do you know what was just going on with you?" Izuku closed his eyes.

"I have no idea, all I know is that my head feels like it's having hot spikes driven through it from the inside,"

"Deku, you were like, asleep with your eyes open or something! You were sitting there with your eyes open staring in front of you but you weren't moving or reacting at any sight or noise! It was creepy!"

For a moment Uraraka thought she saw Deku's eyes widened but his reply came calmly. "The stress might be getting to me," he said. "I'll try to rest more so it won't happen again," Uraraka looked at him skeptically but decided it best not to argue.

"Alright then. I guess I'll see you tomorrow,"

"Yeah, goodnight Uraraka,"

"Goodnight Deku,"

As soon as she was out of sight Izuku collapsed back into his chair and exhaled. He winced at the spike in pain from his headache. He had been afraid something like this might have been happening but he couldn't be sure until Uraraka's eyewitness account had proven it. Lately, Izuku had been having blackouts, he would be doing things as normal then he would blink and suddenly time seemed to have jumped forward, ranging from twenty minutes to two whole hours. He had no memory of what happened during this time and now he knew what was going on during it.

'Damn it,' he thought to himself. Maybe this was due to stress. It had been nearly two months since he had been kidnapped by demons, and he still wasn't any closer to finding the Nexus. He had been working himself ragged these past few weeks. His days were filled with school work coupled with strength and stealth training while his nights were spent pouring over the mysterious book he had, trying to find anything he might have missed, that one crucial thing to lead him right to the one. But no luck. Often times he would wake up in the morning with a headache and sore muscles. He was tired all the time too. Plus he thought to himself his thoughts going in a different direction. He seemed to be getting increasingly anxious whenever he was around Uraraka. Why? He brushed these thoughts aside and decided it best to simply rest as much as he could for a few days and not overwork himself so much. With that, he trudged up to his room and went to bed. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Izuku was surrounded by blackness. A vast blanket of shadow that stretched endlessly in every direction; and he was alone. So very alone. They had all left, because of him.

"Deku," came a soft voice from behind him. He gasped and wheeled around to find Uraraka standing there, her clothes scorched and her face covered in soot.

"Why didn't you protect us?" she said her words taking on a more desperate tone. She began to rise in the air and the blackness receded a bit. She was now being held up in the air. Daku holding her by the neck his smile gleaming in the gloom concealing his face. His eyes boring holes into Izuku's soul with the malevolence.

"Let her go!" Izuku shouted, all his desperation evident in every syllable. The demon ruler's smile simply widened.

"Now why would I do that little hero?" he said in a mocking tone. "Do you actually think you can save her? You couldn't save any of the others who begged you for help. Do you need a reminder?" Izuku felt the blood drain from his face and his breathing began to come out ragged. Izuku hated the way his body betrayed him, especially hated the way the demon's smile gleamed with pleasure at seeing him in such a state. He was about to cry out when the blanket of darkness abruptly vanished leaving in its place burning and destroyed the city. The sky a blazing orange above the sounds of chaos and destruction. He and Daku stood on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings allowing him to see the city stretching out in front of him. With the reveal of the destruction came the smell. The smell of smoke and ash was suffocating. Daku chuckled, standing on the edge of the building.

"You couldn't save all of those people, and now, you won't save her," Izuku had no time to think before Daku punched his clawed hands into Uraraka's stomach. Blood gushed out from her mouth as her eyes widened. He could tell he was shouting, but he couldn't hear his own voice anymore, too distraught at the sight of the light fading from his friend's eyes. He could feel the tears mixed with ashes streaming down his face, he collapsed to his knees. He was useless, he hadn't helped anyone, they were all dead, because of him. He raised his head up to the sky and screamed.

Bang! Izuku awoke with a start as his head hit the floor. He lay there for a moment dazed. Where was he? He picked himself up slowly, taking care not to jostle his throbbing head too much. He was on the floor next to his mess of a bed. He examined his bed curiosity to see that his blankets were completely disorganized and crumpled up. He sighed in relief that it had only been a nightmare he had been experiencing and not something more. As he began taking more of his surroundings into account however, he became aware of loud conversation and heavy footsteps echoing around in the hallway outside. He then became aware that the light seemed to be on, outside as indicated by the strip of light shining from under his door. He walked over to his door and eased it open. His brow furrowed in confusion as he opened his door the rest of the way and stepped out. It seemed that a lot of his classmates were awake and were all heading over to the common room hurried conversation issuing between them.

"Hey, Midoriya!" he heard someone call out. He turned to face Kaminari as he was heading towards his end of the hall.

"We should head down to the common room right now!"

"Why, what's going on?" None of this was making any sense to Izuku.

"I'm not very filled in on the details myself," he said hurriedly as they both began speed walking to the stairs. "But I heard that someone was spotted in this dorm building. Someone who wasn't a student or teacher!"