Lifeless

Chapter 3 - Prope Mortem

Trigger warning! This chapter contains slight mentions of bullying, mentions of the symptoms of abuse, and heavy themes of drowning/ suffocation. Please take care of yourselves and stop when needed, you can always comment here for a recap of the chapter if need be, I'll be happy to help :) Also, let me know if I miss anything and I'll add to the trigger warning above. I hope you guys enjoy!

Prope Mortem - (Latin) near death

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Midoriya managed through the rest of the day fairly well, he only received a few glares, but nothing more. When the day ended, Midoriya ignored the taunts from his peers and ran out the door, knowing that a few of them would be short on his tail. Midoriya was proven correct when he heard the thumping of footsteps behind him. He weaved throughout the streets, taking a new shortcut that he had mapped out yesterday in hopes to avoid his classmates for at least one day.

In hindsight, Midoriya should have seen how bad his day had been, and taken it as a warning, a warning to tread carefully. Though, Midoriya being who he is, could never sit still like that.

He jogged lightly towards his new route, hoping that he would lose his pursuers. He passed under a bridge, deciding to pause there for a break. He couldn't hear any steps behind him. That might have been because his breathing was so loud, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Midoriya focused solely on regulating his breathing, hoping that he would be able to hear any danger from his peers quicker. As usual though, it took longer than he liked. Midoriya's breathing took a few more minutes to control, he was out of shape, and all of the bruising on - and to - his ribs didn't help it.

Midoriya was so caught up in trying to see any danger behind him from the way he came, that he didn't notice the scraping of a sewer grate from the opposite direction. He didn't notice the slight sloshing sound that came from the opposite direction. He hardly even noticed when what felt like water started to gather around his ankles, too caught up in the fear of being beat once again. Midoriya almost didn't even look down, too used to disgusting conditions that the wet socks didn't bother him, that the slimy water felt normal.

But he still looked down, wondering in the back of his mind why it felt strange, and he was glad he did. The green liquid swirled up towards him tauntingly, obviously not the normal viscosity of the water he had thought. It moved as if under control, swaying, waiting for him to notice it.

Midoriya completely forgot his earlier panic in favor of trying to squirm out of the hold of the slimy sewage. Midoriya's feet were sticking to the ground, like walking through a mix of glue and mud a few feet deep, he only managed to get one up before losing balance and falling over face first into the green liquid.

A laugh sounded above his head, gurgling around him. In the part of his mind that wasn't consumed with panic, Midoriya realized that it was a quirk, someone was controlling this liquid and found it funny.

He tried to push himself up, managing to rise onto his knees before a wave completely consumed him. Midoriya couldn't breathe, couldn't blink, couldn't think.

The slime entered his mouth and nose, it severed any air way he might have had. He tried to struggle, but it was like moving through wet concrete. His limbs didn't have strength, his fingers could hardly even twitch.

Midoriya couldn't tell which way he was floating, his feet couldn't touch the floor, but maybe they were in the air. Midoriya felt his lung be filled, but emptied at the same time. They were constricting, trying to find something other than the slimy, disgusting sewage.

Midoriya felt as if he were there too long, that he should've passed out by now, he shouldn't even be alive at this point.

Finally, black started to overtake Izuku's vision. It crept around the edges, moving too slowly his liking. He didn't want to be here anymore, if this was how he was going to die, why couldn't the process hurry up?

Midoriya didn't want to suffer anymore, he didn't want to only feel the slime slowly fill his lungs, why was the process so drawn out?

The black dots finally reached the middle of his vision, signaling that maybe, he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. That maybe, he wouldn't wake up again.

What felt like hours later, Midoriya felt his consciousness start to slip. The black dots fully took over his vision until the only thing he could sense was the sloshing of slime in his ears and taste of sewage on his tongue.

Once again, his senses dulled until he couldn't feel anymore, and Midoriya fell unconscious.

When Midoriya woke, it was to a rough slapping on his cheek. Almost immediately he felt liquid rise in his throat. It rose enough to be expelled, and expelled it was. Midoriya wiped his mouth afterward, hating the taste. The slime was probably made of sewage, it had sounded as if it came from the sewage drain behind him, and the slime also tasted and smelled like it was sewage.

A tall woman stood over Midoriya, she had dark purple eyes and darker black hair. She appeared to be talking, but Midoriya couldn't actually hear her, only able to see her mouth move in words.

He could see her eyebrows scrunch in confusion, probably directed at Midoriya's far away look. She waved her hand in front of his face, trying to snap him out of his un-hearing haze. It, strangely, proved effective, as his hearing snapped back into focus, enabling him to hear her words of worry.

"Are you ok?" Midoriya noticed the twinge of an american accent in the woman's voice, but chose to ignore it in favor of focussing on her words. The woman squatted down to try and appear less dangerous to Midoriya, though she was unable to completely shrink to his height, as he was laying on the ground.

Midoriya propped himself up onto his elbows, nodding absent mindedly at the woman's words. Stuck back into his mind, he realized he had missed some of the words the woman spoke. He flinched at the thought, though he realized that she didn't know he was quirkless yet, so she wouldn't treat him like the others did.

Midoriya sent her a questioning glance, hoping that she realized Midoriya hadn't heard her words. The woman did realize, and reiterated her words happily, "What happened? And do I need to call the police?" Midoriya shook his head lightly, addressing the second question first.

He decided that he needed to speak up to avoid her anger, the woman was being extremely nice to him, and he didn't want to make her think less of him through not responding.

"A-a villain attack... I think." His words trailed off at the end, not feeling entirely comfortable holding a conversation.

The woman nodded understandingly, used to seeing innocent civilians as the victims of villains attacks. She stood up before holding her hand out towards Midoriya.

"I'm Jackie Heart." Midoriya took her hand, using it to boost himself off the floor.

"Midoriya Izuku." he introduced himself, bowing at the end.

Midoriya's eyes widened with realization. "u-um, I'm r-really sorry, have to go." He bowed his head again, trying his very best to not anger the nice woman.

She gave him a soft "ok", slightly suspicious of his timid behavior. She had seen it in abuse survivors quite a few times, but it was too late for her to ask him more questions. She didn't know the type of dangers that he might be in, but he had seemed incredibly panicked.

She decided that she should follow the boy back to wherever he might be going. Solidifying her decision even more when she saw the obvious limp the boy walked with.