Life After Death

Chapter 41

Once reuniting with Nighteye they gave him the rundown of how the encounter played out as the two teens had felt guilty with themselves for letting the little girl go. Nighteye told the duo to return to the academy and wait for further orders. Upon arrival at the dorms, Izuku noticed everyone in the common space looking at him. “Hey Midoriya, you ok man?” Kaminari asked this with Izuku giving a weak smile. “Yeah, just a little worn out from today’s work.” “You wanna hang with us man? We got some room here and an extra controller.” Sero held up a controller to the Xbox they had with Izuku politely declining. “I think I’m just gonna relax in my room.” As he went up, Ochako noticed how lifeless he was to text Nejire. She mentioned how Mirio was kinda down in the dumps as well with Tamaki going to talk to him. The blue haired girl said she’d be right over knowing that if it bummed the always smiling Mirio out, it had to be something horrible.

As this happened, Izuku laid on his bed looking at the ceiling with his hand up. ‘I...had her.’ His hand immediately went to a fist to slam it on his bed in anger. ‘I HAD HER DAMMIT! I COULD’VE SAVED HER IF I DID SOMETHING! SO WHY DIDN’T I!?’ The regret and guilt was eating away at him even though people called him the next number 1 he felt like a failure for not being able to save one little girl he felt angry and wanted to scream and his head off. Before he got the chance to express his anger there was a knock at the door that caught his attention. "Izu you okay?" Izuku had opened his door and stood at his door was Ochako and Nejire as they looked at his eyes and it looked like they lost their shine. The two quickly embraced him since the last time they saw that kind of look in his eyes was the day they met him after finding him the moment he landed in front of them.

“Yeah, I’m just a little tired. It’s nothing to worry about.” They were worried about overstepping their boundaries, but couldn’t help after seeing what Izuku looks like at the moment. “Something happened, didn’t it?” Nejire bluntly states this with Izuku motioning for both to come in. He shuts the door behind them before sitting on his chair for Ochako and Nejire to sit on his bed. “I saw Mirio really sad today coming back from his internship. Tamaki is talking to him, but I wanted to make sure you were ok. If it brought him down, it had to be something really bad.” Izuku was afraid to say anything until Ochako pointed out something. “We’ve seen you literally when you were at your worst Izuku, this is hurting you and we wanna help. So please let us.”

Izuku took a deep breath before starting. “Today on patrol, me and Mirio ran into a little girl. By first glance, she seemed odd with bandages around her arms and legs, didn’t look like she was taken care of properly, and seemed to be terrified of something. My theory that she was abused and neglected was almost certain when she was afraid the second I reached for her. Unfortunately, something happened where…” “Where?” Izuku gripped his chair in anger before answering. “Where she went back to whatever was happening to her. Because she was with a person involved in an investigation, we couldn’t pursue.” “But that isn’t what has you so ticked, is it?” Nejire asked this before Izuku stared at his own hands.

“I had her. I had her in my hands and couldn’t stop her from leaving. I had the power to stop this and I….I couldn’t even save a little girl.” Izuku started to cry in absolute anger at himself. “I’m a failure as a hero! What hero can’t save someone that is literally in their hands begging for you to help them!?” Izuku was distraught with his failure for Ochako to try and hug him. Meanwhile, Nejire went to kneel down to his eye level. “It’s a painful reality we have to all face one day, but we eventually learn it in some way. Heroes aren’t all powerful. We’re still human, which means we can make mistakes, we can get hurt, we can even die. But that shouldn’t make what we do any less important. We chose to dawn our costumes in the name of keeping the peace and helping those in need. Knowing what you’re like, I don’t believe she’s completely gone yet. You gave her hope, and that’s something that will push both of you to keep fighting. She may have slipped out of your hands, but that doesn’t mean she’s completely gone. When you meet her next, that’s when it matters and you can make up for this. Take this and learn from it. Don’t let it drag you down, because that’s when you completely lose.”

Izuku understood this to slap his face a little before showing a determined face. “Thank you both.” He then turned to his desk to bring out a notebook with a sketch design for a support item he had in mind a little while back. Both girls saw it to question. “What’s that?” “When I was learning under Edgeshot, Miruko, and Gang Orca, I had this idea but didn’t put it in since it had a few kinks I needed to work out before sending it in to get approval. If I wanna save Eri, I need to not hold anything back and this could help.” “If you need anything, we’re here for you.” “Ochako’s right. We wouldn’t want to be here if we didn’t care about you.” Izuku smiled at both before commenting. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t for the both of you.” He went back to his idea for his support item with going over the guidelines with both. After a few modifications, Izuku held it on his desk with the three heading to bed. The next morning, Izuku gave the idea to Power Loader with him saying it would be about a week before it came in even with a rush order. This worked with Izuku since he needed to learn some forms of combat from one of his teachers. He was determined to save Eri the next time he’d see her, and this time when he had her to not let go.