Chapter Text
Izuku. . . Izuku was in pain. He knew pain intimately, but even that year of breaking his limbs constantly and the year beforehand preparing his body for One For All didn’t compare to this. His entire body was on fire, and there was a certain amount of searing pain, a constant stinging, spread across his stomach.
He squeezed his eyes, despite the fact that they were already shut.
He tried to remember what happened— tried to remember anything.
There was an earthquake. He had no idea if it was quirk related or natural, but the building shook and there was a lot of concrete chunks falling. Black Whip helped him get the rest of the heroes out— they ensured the girls got out. That was their job. This was his job.
Everything was going to plan, but then, but then he heard a voice.
It sounded below, floors down and he remembered how his breath caught.
What were the chances Black Whip could help him navigate even further down and actually get him out? The chances were slim with the way the building was collapsing in on itself.
But he heard the yell, the plea again.
Someone was still down there.
He remembered yelling, trying to get the person to answer. But there was no answer, just that same plea. Poor person couldn’t hear him.
He remembered whispering an apology to Ochako and to Katsuki. To Ochako, for deliberately promising to not do anything stupid and get killed. To Katsuki, for being too weak to keep death at arms length.
Izuku had practically invited death to sink into claws in him.
He remembered barely scraping by fallen concrete and slipping through the few open spaces so he could to get to that voice.
That’s when it hit him. That’s when that chunk of concrete broke loose and fell down, taking him with it.
Izuku remembered now. He remembered how the concrete had lodged itself in a way that if he used Black Whip, he was inviting another round of concrete chunks onto him. And there was the issue of his entire lower half being crushed beneath a rock. He felt the blood quickly spreading across the rocks and felt a certain coldness in his fingertips as the realization hit him.
He was going to die.
His brain tried to think of any way he could escape. But the thing was, he hadn’t felt any pain in those moments.
Even if he got out from this, there was no way his body would survive a trip to the surface. Blackwhip weakly wound itself around his waist and gave him something to lean on in order to prop himself up lightly.
Kacchan. He had to call Kacchan.
They had a conversation once. One that was bleak that he didn’t want to dwell on. But they had it after the first war and they continued to stand by it, even when they started dating.
”Hear me out, nerd.”
“Kacchan, I don’t know if I want to. . .”
“Well, you’re going to listen. Because one day, it will happen.”
“Not if I can stop it.”
“Can’t win everything.”
Izuku snorted. “That’s a first from you.”
“Got a firsthand taste of that,” Katsuki shrugged. “And you can’t save everyone. Even me.”
“But I did.”
“But one day, you might not be able to. I might not be able to.”
Izuku hated this conversation. They were both in hospital beds and completely exhausted. So much had happened in the war and now Kacchan wanted to talk about something Izuku made sure didn’t happen.
“What do you want to discuss?” Izuku asked in a low voice.
”Say I kick it on the field,” Kacchan said. “Actually kick it.”
Izuku grimaced. He had the memories of the war, the first one was a bit spotty in his mind but the second still vivid. He saw it all replay in his head again, this time with a different ending. Where they didn’t have that last option, that emergency save. Where Kacchan actually stayed. . . dead.
“Not if I’m there,” Izuku denied but Kacchan laughed.
“Nerd, I’m actually being serious.”
Izuku leveled his stare with Kacchan’s. “So am I.”
“We’re heroes, Izuku,” Kacchan reminded him. “We give up a lot of personal shit for the sake of others.”
“Not each other,” Izuku denied immediately.
“That dusty scumbag knew our weaknesses,” Kacchan continued. Kacchan was calm. He was serious.
Izuku swallowed. “I don’t know if I can promise anything if it’s on a battlefield and I’m there.”
“Fine.”
The response was clipped, rough enough that Izuku couldn’t help but flinch. He thought the conversation was over before Kacchan continued.
“Say I call you,” Kacchan said. “When I’m not supposed to.”
“Like being on separate missions and being on need to know basis,” Izuku nodded. He envisioned Chisaki Kai and that entire mission. He wasn’t able to tell anyone.
“But I call you and you know something’s wrong,” Kacchan continued. “What’s that nerd brain thinking of first?”
“That you should be getting help,” Izuku said automatically. He looked over and saw Kacchan’s frown, so he amended his answer. “You wouldn’t be calling if you didn’t think the worst. Yeah, I understand.”
“And what I think usually ends up being right,” Kacchan said. “What do you do?”
“If Kacchan was giving up?” Izuku answered in a small voice, going on when Kacchan’s aggravated snarl sounded. “Not giving up. Taken stock of his surroundings and current condition and knew what would happen.”
“Nothing else to analyze but how quick it’ll happen,” Kacchan agreed. “Tell me, nerd, what’s that brain of yours thinking.”
“If you were. . . And it was for sure,” Izuku started, pausing again to collect his thoughts. He didn’t like thinking about this, especially after what happened with Shigaraki. “I would want to talk to you. For however long I can.”
“With that mumbling of yours, I’m sure you’d get out a lot of words,” Kacchan said with a snort, and then a hiss of pain.
”I just, I just wouldn’t want to waste the time I have left to talk to you by getting in touch with others,” Izuku admitted. “Using your com means the ground team has access to your current location. If I’m not there, there’s no way for me to teleport to you. I have to leave that to the ones there. We’re heroes. They know what to do.”
“Same,” Kacchan said.
“Can I ask you something?” Izuku said in a quiet voice. Katsuki’s answering grunt was good enough for him. “Would I be the one you actually called if you had the chance to talk to someone? Before you, before you. . .”
“Yeah,” Kacchan admitted without hesitation. Izuku’s eyes grew wide. “Not telling you why though. Fuck off and figure it out on your own.”
“Kacchan,” Izuku whined.
Kacchan shrugged. “I’ll tell you one day if you take too long to catch up, nerd.”
Izuku… admittedly took a while to catch up to Katsuki. About that in particular. But he got there, let that be known. And it led to the best time of his life. Working with Kacchan, going on dates with Kacchan, eventually moving in with Kacchan…
Kacchan. He was what made it the best time of his life.
And if he was going to die, it’d be with Kacchan’s voice in his ear.
Izuku remembered calling Kacchan, that much was still clear to him. But as the conversation continued, he didn’t remember how it ended. Did they say goodbye? Did Izuku tell him that he loved him more than anything else in the world? More than he even thought he was capable of loving someone?
Was this an afterlife? Did those actually exist? He didn’t necessarily believe in an afterlife, but he believed in fate. So perhaps his fate wasn’t over?
Because the pain searing through his abdomen was a clear indicator that he was alive. And there was a certain amount of pressure surrounding him that he didn’t dare open his eyes. Something in him told him not to.
Don’t open your eyes.
Don’t try to breathe in more than you have been.
Don’t try to move your limbs.
Don’t try to use our power.
Our power.
Izuku startled enough that fell he forward, face planting on the hard floor. He heard a disapproving tsk above him, before a hand patted his shoulder.
“You’ve been through much,” A soft voice said to him, their hand moving to support his underarm. “It’s a miracle and a great concern that you’re still alive.”
“What?” Izuku gasped squeezing his eyes before he opened them. He looked around at his surroundings, the vestige world familiar enough to him that he understood immediately.
“I’m,” Izuku paused. “I’m not dead?”
“Not yet,” A rougher voice said, their hands moving to grip Izuku’s other side.
The two pulled him up and onto his feet, greeting him with equal looks of concern and worry. The first and second users were not sights Izuku loved, for the simple reason that they only showed themselves when something terrible was happening.
“Yoichi, Second,” Izuku said, looking around. There was a distinct lack of vestiges. “Where are the others?”
“Best not to bombard you with everyone,” Yoichi answered. “It’s been difficult to find information useful to you, since you’re more often than not unconscious.”
“But we aren’t here with nothing,” Second continued. “How much do you remember?”
“Getting caught in the rubble,” Izuku thought back, grimacing as he remembered Kacchan’s voice. “And I was talking to Kacchan. I had to be close to dying, otherwise I’d never break the gag order.”
“You nearly did die,” Second said bluntly. “Everyone was fading in here, our consciousness was nearly cut from our vestiges.”
“Then,” Izuku started with a frown. “Then how am I here?”
The two vestiges looked at each other, a silent conversation passing between them. Izuku envisioned the same picture, but with himself and Kacchan side by side, knowing what the other thought by simply locking eyes.
He missed Kacchan terribly.
“It appears there’s an old foe in play,” Second said, finally looking at him. “One that couldn’t bear to see One for All die.”
Izuku’s brows furrowed, thinking of the enemies One for All had. Not many of them were alive anymore and the rest were imprisoned after the second war. Only recently had Himiko Toga been placed in a rehabilitation center, according to Ochako, but she was still under constant surveillance that even she couldn’t escape from. And Toga wasn’t exactly an enemy of One for All specifically.
“Do you remember the Doctor?” Yoichi asked, continuing when Izuku nodded slowly. “We’ve only seen glimpses, but it appears he’s involved.”
“What do you mean?” Izuku questioned. The Doctor was imprisoned years ago, and he wasn’t capable of planning a prison break all on his own. The ancient man was a shell of the disgusting doctor he had been.
“It’s hard to explain,” Yoichi answered with a small frown. “We don’t have much information because of how little you’ve been awake the past month or so.”
Second sucked in a sharp breath, whispering Yoichi’s name in a quiet reprimand, but Izuku couldn’t focus on whatever exchange they were having.
A month. A month had gone by. If he had that phone call with Kacchan a month ago, then everyone must have thought he was dead. Kacchan, his mother, his friends. . . All Might. . . All Might died during the second war. That was right.
Izuku remembered then. All Might’s vestige form was not with him. That was part of the emergency save, the pact Izuku and Katsuki made before they went off to the second war. All Might’s vestige had been with Katsuki.
So no one knew he was alive. Everyone thought he was dead.
“Oi,” Second snapped his fingers in front of Izuku’s face. “Enough of the existential crisis. We have to get you out of here before anything else happens. As far as we can tell, the Doctor hasn’t made much progress in copying OFA. We’ve kept him back as much as we can, clinging to the condition that it must be passed of free will to another, but we’re not as strong when the current holder is barely hanging onto his life.”
“I’m sorry,” Izuku said immediately, cringing when he saw Second roll his eyes.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Yoichi reassured him. “This is not a situation you could have helped. But you being conscious enough to to have this conversation is a good sign. It means, despite the situation you’re in, you’ve been healing this whole time.”
“And while the Doctor is a a vile creature,” Second continued. “He knows how to keep people alive, even if its just for his own personal gain.”
Izuku frowned, looking down at his own body. He was in a black outfit, the material clinging to his skin. He didn’t feel the pain from earlier, hadn’t since he woke up in the vestige world. He wondered how his actual body looked, how it felt. No doubt there would be new scars to show for the ordeal he went through.
“Will I be okay enough to escape?” Izuku asked, looking back up. “If I was that close to death, there’s no way of knowing how much of a toll it had on my body. I might die trying to escape. I could overexert myself, collapse, and end up exactly where I am now, just with more restraints.”
“Kid, we have a lot of quirks, but none of them are for telling the future,” Second said bluntly. “There’s no telling what will happen, or if you’ll even be able to break the container you’re in. The Doctor is a cautious man. He took enough precautions to have Nomu stored away, to have them answer his thoughts and to take you in the first place. He’ll anticipate an attempt to escape.”
“But is he there all the time?” Izuku asked, already thinking through a number of plans. Most of them were crap. Others had potential if things went his way.
But that was a gamble he couldn’t risk losing. He had the chance to survive all this. He needed to make sure he got out alive.
He didn’t mind dying. He knew for a long time that OFA would most likely die with him, but it didn’t help the immeasurable amount of guilt plaguing his mind. But he wasn’t dead. He caused so much grief to those he loved dearly.
“I might have a plan,” Izuku started slowly, the obstacles already running through simulations in his head. “But I might need your help.”
Yoichi and Second looked at each other, before nodding. It was only then that the other vestiges showed up, and he told them what he was thinking. They all agreed; the second he had a feasible chance at escaping, he would take it.
If Izuku was being honest, he didn’t remember much of his escape. It was all a blur, a mixture of exhaustion and sheer determination jumbling his thoughts. He remembered a bit. He knew that eventually the Doctor took him out of the tank, that there were squat Nomus doing a lot of the leg work, and that it was absolute hell getting out of wherever he was being held.
He remembered how excruciating it had been once he was was outside. His senses were in overdrive. He used Float and Black Whip to move and Danger Sense to evade the Nomus chasing him. He was pretty sure he passed out a few times, the vestiges rousing his consciousness before he could go completely limp. Sheer determination kept him moving, kept his body awake enough to rely on pure instinct until he finally arrived at what he hoped was a hospital.
He saw an ambulance unloading a patient, and felt like passing out in their line of sight was good enough.
It worked, though. He knew he was in a hospital this time when he woke up. The sterilized air, the consistent beeping, the coolness of an IV tube resting against his forearm. There were voices too, a pitch growing louder and a pressure around his hand tightening.
Izuku couldn’t find it within himself to open his eyes, so he focused on that sensation. His senses were far too overwhelmed to hear any of the words being said, but he could focus on what he knew now to be a hand around his.
The grip was firm, the skin soft, and it wasn’t until he felt the beginnings of a scar when the hand shifted and their wrist rubbed against his that Izuku knew exactly who it was. Kacchan.
He must have said it aloud, because the grip tightened to a near painful point, and he heard the next few syllables clearly.
“Izuku?”
He knew that voice intimately. He heard the questioning lilt attached to his name, the tremor behind his tone, and the overwhelming amount of emotion backing it. It was him.
“Ka-Kacchan,” Izuku attempted to breathe out, the actual sound pitiful in his own ears.
There was a sudden piercing pain in his chest and he must have made a pained noise or something, because the beeping spiked and Katsuki’s tone took on more panic as he asked what was going on. Izuku heard a rush of movement then, too much for his mind to decipher. There were shouts, the hand holding his suddenly snatched away as his eyes were forcibly opened. He groaned in pain, trying to move his head before he was chastised and forced again to keep them open. There was a cool pressure on his chest, moving every few moments, and a doctor ordering some review of his medications.
He was in and out of it after that, but something in him relaxed. After all, Kacchan was there. If he was there, then everything would be okay.