Suicidal Todoroki x Midoriya | What it Means to Love

29 | Sacrifice to Rise

Izuku Midoriya

My voice is ensnared by perturbation, but the pervasive thoughts running riotously through my mind are unrestrained in a state of discord. I-I-I'm sorry, K-Kacchan! I want to cry out, but I have no voice with which to speak with. Crap, he's really going to let me have it this time! A frightened smile perks up on my lips.

Kacchan doesn't slam my body into the ground like I anticipate, but instead, he glares at me with morose eyes. "Damn you and that stupid-ass smile of yours, Deku," he mutters, dinning his ferocious gaze into my memories. "Do me a favor and wipe that damn look off your face and make Half-Emo, Half-Broken wear it instead." After squinting his eyes, he pulls his arms out from under me—I knew it was coming sooner or later because it's Kacchan I'm referring to here.

Moments after I find my balance on my feet again, Stain sails down from the sky and lands on his feet. His bedlam upon landing results in sputtering words and berserk laughter spurting up from his mouth. He slowly approaches me with a deranged expression, so I hold up a dithering fist and shift into a fighting stance. He may have extricated me from the clutches of the nomu, but that means little in the end when he's been given the title of Hero Killer.

Another step in my direction from Stain and Kacchan slides his hand off of his wound to spar with him. No, you've been through enough, Kacchan. I hold out my hand to him and stare into his red eyes. "No," I state assertively, conscious that my anxious stuttering will never convince Kacchan of anything. "I've almost lost Shoto... Now he's injured again, and so are you and Iida-kun. I will not lose you, Kacchan." My unorthodox death stare jabs at Kacchan precisely how I intended it to.

I-I've seen people die before... I caused All Might to abdicate his position as Number One Hero... I didn't even realize how badly I was hurting my own boyfriend... I became the seal on the plans of my very own boyfriend's plan to c-commit suicide... I've caught Sh-Shoto in the act of cutting himself in his room... I-I've held tight Shoto's shivering body when he was weeping... Now I've seen Kirishima-kun fall and still get back up to save a wounded person, Iida-kun fight and fall for the sake of his brother, Shoto fall for the sake of our classmates, and K-Kacchan stumble and almost fall for the sake of our classmates... I could state so many other things, but for now, this will suffice.

"You've declared war on the wrong person, you damn nerd!" I know I have, K-Kacchan. "And stop acting like I can't do whatever you can do! Goddamn... Don't be looking down on—"

In the midst of Stain's drunken movements and uncanny laughter, he suddenly stands stiffly still. Unstirring like a sentry, I wonder if, by some supernatural means, time has stopped. I have to twiddle my thumbs to ensure that time still flows like an endless river, and sure enough, everything is as it should be—save for Stain's eerie position frozen in place.

My heart quivers once I can see the faintest flicker of motion from Stain. Leaning forwards unhurriedly, like viscous honey, Stain droops down until his weight bends him completely over and he face-plants into the ground.

"K-Kacchan, is he—"

"Why're you askin' me, Deku?" Although his sizzling words press the inclination to believe he's vexed, his eyes don't lie—just like with Todoroki. His livid red eyes have widened to two sad spheres of onyx. "Go check 'im yourself."

Facing the cold, glaring facts, we both know that Stain is dead.

An acidic bile rises up in my throat as I unconsciously stare at the body on the ground. Even Kacchan refuses to take so much as a step closer to the body. We're both dangling in a hefty silence, uncertain of what to say or do.