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He should have been here, right?
Where was he?
He wasn’t here, it was a truth that he would have to quickly accept, if not for his sake, then for the sake of humanity. His classmates, his parents, his teachers, and most importantly: Izuku.
He made a promise that he would always win, even if he had to break himself one-thousand times over. Even if he had to exchange his life for victory. No, he would not lose. He would give up his life before he gave up this fight.
His entire body hurt. It was an indescribable pain, one that he had never felt before. His arms and palms were beginning to burn from exertion, he’d reached his limit long ago, but something inside of him from deep within was giving him more will than that of a million men.
It took a moment, but he soon realized that Shigaraki was not just attempting to defeat him. He wanted him gone. Not incapacitated or put down. He wanted him completely removed from the equation. Shigaraki did not want to see the way that Katsuki was improving, in his abilities and character. It wasn’t of use to him, he didn’t see the boy as someone that he could obtain something from, whether it was his mind or his power.
White. A flash of white as he was knocked aside. The entire right side of his face felt numb at first until it wasn’t anymore and all at once it burned. It actually fucking burned . If he thought the pain from the overuse of his quirk was bad, this was worse , far worse. He tried to open his right eye, but he couldn’t, it felt as if it was ripped from his skull. It was a terrible, terrible pain. He was surely dying, but not yet, not until Izuku was here, and Shigaraki was fucking dead. Not until he knew everyone was safe.
He was now on the ground, it was hard to stand, but Shigaraki was coming closer as the smoke cleared. He was smiling. He was actually smiling. A horrible crooked smile and that was when he said it:
“The only thing about you that catches my interest…is how…. You’re closer to Izuku Midoriya than anyone else.”
No. He wouldn’t be used as some sort of encyclopedia for Izuku. Katsuki knew he probably had all of the answers Shigaraki was looking for. He could read Izuku like an open book, he had not remembered a moment of his life where Izuku wasn’t right there. No matter where Katsuki went, no matter what he did, what he said to push him away. He always fucking came back, he was persistent and he had no choice but to spend the last 13 years of his life analyzing everything about Midoriya Izuku. All that he was and will be. He needed to protect his mind from Shigaraki, he wouldn’t let him use him just to get to Izuku.
He could hardly stand, but he had to act somehow, he had to get back up. There were only three pros near him on the field right now. Jeanist, Edgeshot, and Mirko. What was he going to do? Everyone was relying on ‘Deku’ to come, where the fuck was he!? Deku, the one that does his best! What a fucking joke, when this was all over he was going to give the nerd the beating of his life.
Why wasn’t he here?
Shigaraki was counting the minutes until Izuku would show up, he knew that everyone was waiting for him, that he was their last hope. He still couldn’t stand as Shigaraki came closer and his explosions were coming out weak and slow. He wasn’t done though, this wasn't going to be his fucking end. Not like this.
“Shut up.” He tried to mutter, but Shigaraki was still fucking speaking. Spouting his demented nonsense.
All of a sudden, he couldn’t breathe and he could feel his feet leaving the ground. Shigaraki had him by the neck. He was beaten to a pulp by this point, he would be terrified of his reflection now. He was crumbling to pieces of skin and bone, he could feel it. His breaths were constricted and choked, this was it.
“Your corpse will be left intact. Remember his sheer fury when I poked you full of holes last time? Yes, he’ll have a lovely present waiting for him when he arrives.” His voice was awful and coy. This wouldn’t be the last sound he heard before he kicked the bucket. There was just no way, not like this, not like this, not like-
“No matter the heights you’ll reach, you will never be more than Izuku Midoriya’s hanger-on-a minnow in One for All’s wake.”
Oh. The young hero’s eyes went wide as he was knocked from Shigaraki’s grasp and grabbed by what felt like a rope. It was Best Jeanist, it had to have been. He was down and his body was wrecked beyond anything he’s ever known, but he was alive. This is all he needed, just try, try to stay alive until Izuku gets here, until Shigaraki is gone.
His right arm was finished. Absolutely annihilated, he couldn’t even look down . He didn’t want to know what it looked like. It was horrible and caused him the most pain.
Katsuki Bakugou
Quirk: Explosion
Nothing but a boy, fallen to his knees watching from the side as his classmates attempted to hold off Shigaraki until Izuku arrived. He wanted so badly to continue helping them, but he physically could not. He didn’t know what hurt worse:
The right side of his body or the fact that all he could do was watch as everyone risked their life. He wasn’t fucking done! He needed to do more, he made a goddamn promise! To himself, to All Might, to Izuku...
He didn’t know what came over him at that moment, but he stood. Completely overlooking the immense pain shooting through his body.
“Look after the others.” He managed to mutter as he stood and walked towards where Mirio, Tamaki, and Hado were fighting Shigaraki. He heard Best Jeanist call for him, but he couldn’t lose this battle yet. He still had to win.
“Gotta win… right, Izuku?” He asked himself, in a moment of unsureness, questioning his will. There would be no answer and he knew that, but he still had to confirm the promise he made once again.
He’d observed earlier that Shigaraki’s right side, like his, was now significantly weaker. He predicted where his opponent would strike and dodged it. He didn’t even fully comprehend how he did it himself, but he did.
And finally, as a mother gains unknown strength when her child is in danger due to spontaneous spikes of adrenaline, Katsuki Bakugou pulled off something that he didn’t even know that he could do, a final card of sorts.
The sweat that he’d stored in his palms became too much, so he kept storing the beads in his glands. When the pressure finally built up, it began to seep from the other pores throughout his body. Giving the young hero utmost speed while ripping his entire body to shreds, it was far too much, but still he did it, he had to. It was what Izuku had to do their whole life? Wasn’t it? Break himself over and over again, just so he could catch up to everyone else, catch up to Katsuki.
His entire body was racked with pain, he knew he was done for, but at least Izuku might come out victorious against a weakened version of Shigaraki, right? Izuku had to win, all of this would be for nothing. All of these lives that were lost, all of these people who were wounded from pain and grief. Izuku would never let that happen, he would never fucking let all of this be for nothing. Not the Izuku that Katsuki knew. Knew better than anyone, according to Shigaraki Tomura.
At that moment, there were many things going through his mind. He was panicking as he was propelled backward by his own blast toward Shigaraki. For a moment somewhere in the haze of his mind, he saw a man, who kind of looked like him? He had short spiky hair, it was almost red. Along with a large scar crossing his face. He thought All Might had described him once before as one of the vestiges, but he couldn’t be sure.
In an instant, he was inside of a void. Faced with a younger version of All Might? At the same time, he didn’t have a body, like a foggy apparition of the retired pro. He realized what this was. It was his final chance to speak to All Might, whether it was an image he’d created in his dying mind, or through One for All. He was going to use this opportunity to ask for something he’d wanted a long time, but was too prideful and hungry for victory to remember.
“Oh…Right.”
“So, uh. Going back to when we actually met… and now it looks like I’ve missed my chance to ask… I was pretty much a punk going through some stuff.”
“Man…I wanted an autograph so bad.” The boy said as he held the card that he and Izuku had opened together so many years ago. The card that he’d kept with him ever since that day. He didn’t fully understand why he had kept it, but he always had this feeling opposed the fact that it was limited edition: It reminded him of a time before he continuously bullied Izuku and pushed him away, before he was the one trying so damned hard to be better than the other hero. Now he knew he’d never be, and he accepted it in this moment of finality.
So, Izuku…
Can I…
…Still catch up to you?
In this moment, he was blissful. He had come to terms with his fate, but in the real world where war had fallen upon the earth, his body was thrown through the air, hitting the ground as the heroes realized his heart was missing from his chest. They were screaming, with a horrified image of grief and shock on their faces. Even UA’s asshole hero, Monoma. His eyes were wide and petrified, maybe it was because Katsuki Bakugou was on the ground, heartless, and the first student to be killed.
Maybe it was because in that instant Monoma recalled the first time he watched Bakugou fight, how the angry boy declared that he would settle for nothing less than always coming out of a battle victorious, but no. There he was lying motionless, eyes blank and wide, on the ground.
“NO WAY! It wasn’t meant to go like this!” He screamed from afar, alongside Aizawa and Manual.
“No pulse…his heart is ravaged.” Best Jeanist mutters above his unmoving body.
Katsuki knew everyone would continue fighting after he was gone, after he could not aid them in the path to defeat, or victory. What he did not know that Izuku Midoriya would arrive shortly after.
He did not know that Izuku Midoriya’s sentence would be cut short as he attempts to ask the other heroes if everyone is okay.
He didn’t know that Izuku Midoriya would go deadly still and silent in his tracks as he looked out onto the field where the battle was unfolding moments ago.
He did not know Izuku Midoriya’s eyes would go wide and blank at the sight of his closest friend, and biggest rival, laying dead and defeated on the ground.
And he most definitely did not know Izuku Midoriya’s eyes would go even wider as an unparalleled look of horror washed over his face as he spotted that limited edition All Might card from so many years ago. Completely confirming the identity of the person who knew him best, the only person besides his mother who had consistently been a part of his life since he could hardly form words. He was dead.
Dead.
Gone.
Forever.
The first stage of grief was completely skipped over as Deku felt an indescribable anger overcome his every sense.
Everything around them was destroyed as uncontrollable tendrils of Black Whip shot from the boy’s body in his fit of rage. One for All overtook the boy’s body all at once as he prepared to avenge his fallen classmates. Or at least that’s what he should’ve felt, but it was a feeling that could only be described as revenge.
That was what he wanted.
Nasty, horrible, disgustingly hateful revenge.
He would have it no matter what he had to do to get it.
No. Matter. What.