If All for One had eyes, he would be making direct eye contact with Midoriya Izuku right now. Midoriya could feel those eyes on him as they launched across Todoroki's ice, cold and burning into his soul. He almost faltered, afraid that he would somehow interfere with Bakugou's rescue, but made no move to stop them even when Bakugou launched himself into the air.

They had flown over the battlefield in a high flying arc that would make Sero jealous, Midoriya keeping his face hidden until Bakugou was safe in his grip, using full cowl to kick the air in an attempt to get more speed. But in that instance, time slowed down.

All for One was looking at him. Not at All Might, who he was holding a punch from like it were nothing, like a child trying to take a toy from him, but at him. And he raised a fist back, crystal growths forming, and aimed it at them, the escaping children.

Midoriya knew what was going to happen. He twisted them in midair, so he would be the closest one to All for One, with Bakugou safe in between him, and kicked the air one last time-

It felt like a punch at first. Like he had been hit in the ribs with a stray arm or leg. His first thought was that Kirishima must have elbowed him harshly with a hardened arm. Then he noticed how much sharper it felt, how much warmer. His hip felt loose, and something sticky and warm oozed into his shirt.

In his arms, Bakugou screamed. It wasn't a scream of fury or of challenge. It sounded so unfamiliar to Midoriya's ears that he barely even recognized it was Bakugou.

It was a scream of pure horror.

Iida was able to propel them just behind a collapsed building just as the pain hit him. A roughened burning sensation finally hit Midoriya in one wave, and he stumbled to the ground. He was caught by the shoulders by Bakugou. His hands were trembling with the use of his quirk and he smelled faintly of burnt sugar.

Midoriya lifted his head and tried to speak, to thank Bakugou for catching him and thank god he was alright-

But before he could his lungs tightened, and he spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground. Bakugou's face was already filled with horror, but now it was hardened with a face meant to reassure Midoriya. He stumbled to the ground, before being swept up by Iida and carried through the rubble, eyes hard with determination.

Midoriya felt like screaming every time he breathed , and every step Iida took felt like a nightmare in hell. Each step jostled the loose crystals in his body. Midoriya distantly realized that the crystals must have had some sort of rough texture to them as well to cause extra damage and irritation.

He wasn't going to survive this.

"Iida, stop," It was all but a whisper, the only proof that he had spoken was blood soaking into a new stain on Iida's white shirt.

"Iida, please stop and take me back to the group."

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a familiar red and white head of hair. Todoroki and Momo, their speed quickened by Todoroki's ice slide.

"Iida stop, please." Barely a whisper now.

The air was thick with the dust of crushed cement and made it hard to inhale. His mouth was so full of blood that it made it hard to speak without blood rolling down his chin. His friend froze at last, the engines rumbling so loud that Midoriya could feel every vibration in his open stomach. He managed stuffing down a wet cough, head tilted upwards at an almost painful angle for his neck.

He felt calm. Calmer than he has ever been in his life.

He was going to die.

There was one more thing he had to do.

"Please, take me to Kirishima. Fast."
Iida's mouth opened to protest, and then snapped shut when his eyes shifted to Midoriya's injury. He let out a shaky breath.

"Okay."
He didn't run this time, at least not as fast as before. As he moved, Midoriya pierced together his plan the best he could. His brain felt slow, and it dawned upon him that the blood loss was impairing his ability to think.

Iida stopped. Midoriya could hear a gasp from Todoroki and a stuttered cry from Momo.

"Where's Kirishima? He doesn't have much time, and he wanted to-"

"Here."

And suddenly Kirishima was in view. He lost his fake horns in the escape, and his hair was windblown behind his ears and he looked somewhat breathless. His eyes widened in horror when he saw the full damage on Midoriya's body. Midoriya tried to smile, but doing so made blood gurgle up his throat, causing him to choke.

"I need you to listen really carefully Kirishima."

His eyes slipped closed, and he fought to open them again. He was losing consciousness , so he needed to do this now before he lost this fight with his own body. He felt a hand rough with callous slip into his own. His eyes opened, a moment of clarity he was not going to waste. Around his neck, he felt Iida loosen the faux gold necklace and then his shirt collar.

"I don't know how to explain all this," Midoriya admits. "I don't think I'm ready to explain this. I thought I was, but there's... there's a lot of history behind this, and All Might was a lot better a-at saying everything than I am." Another jolt of pain shuddered up his spine when Iida adjusted his hand to hold him steady against Momo's aid, and he let out a hiss through his teeth as she accidentally shifted one of the bigger shards in his stomach.

He had less time than he thought. Be rational and logical, and get to the point now.

"Pull a h-hair out of my head and eat it." It was the simplest, most effective way. Explanations can come later from someone other than him.

"What?" Kirishima cried in disbelief. He looked like someone was pulling a very bad prank on him. If Midoriya had the time to laugh about it, he would. It was a rather odd situation, him bleeding out and insistant that Kirishima eat one of his hairs.

"It's part of my quirk. Just do it, please." He tried to put as much sincerity as he could behind his voice. Behind Kirishima, he could see Momo's signature ponytail bob up and down and the tell tale glow of her quirk. "Unless you want to drink my blood, which is, to be frank, disgusting."

Kirishima gently pulled on Midoriya's bangs and shot him a look that read "are you sure?"

"It has to be DNA."

Midoriya couldn't move his head, but something in his eyes must have convinced Kirishima to pull a hair from his head. The tiny pinprick of pain could barely be felt over the rough crystals in his stomach that seemed to be burning more and more the longer they were in his abdomen.

On his burning chest, he could feel the pressure from Momo's hands as she pressed the bandages harder against his wounds and he winced as the embedded crystals dug into his flesh, leaving razor hot cuts that flared up with an grossley gritty pain.

"Please. You just need to digest something with my DNA. I'm not sure exactly what the specifics are but-"

Kirishima placed the hairs in his mouth, nose scrunching up. Midoriya realized then that he had been in the hospital for days and he hadn't even shampooed his hair in the hospital bathroom before leaving, and now they had just crashed through several walls and his hair was gross with rubble and dried blood.

He didn't close his eyes until he saw Kirishima swallow, adam's apple bobbing up and down and his face scrunching up. In the back of his mind, he wished he could have offered a bottle of water like All Might did, that fateful day on the beach that seemed so long ago now.

Was he really only given this power a few months ago? It felt like lifetimes since the last time he and All Might had gotten ice cream after training on the beach, laughing at each other's brain freezes and their faces twisting up in disgust when the ocean breeze swept sand into their mouths. Midoriya never knew his father, but he always imagined those moments with All Might were what a father and son relationship should have been. Ice cream on the beach. Shouted encouragements as Midoriya worked every muscle in his body. Smiles that were unlike his mother's permanently anxious one but just as kind.

Everything seemed so far away now. He felt hands around his open wound and tried to shove them away from him.

"Tell," He coughed, the taste of blood coppery in his mouth. "Tell All Might what I did. He can explain it better than me. I think he would approve of my choice."

"All Might?" Kirishima asked.

"All Might. Promise me." His eyes opened once more. Bakugou and Todoroki were now in his line of sight. Bakugou's lips were moving, but Midoriya couldn't hear them.

"And tell him I'm sorry. Promise me you'll tell him."

Kirishima had tears rolling down his face as he nodded. Midoriya tried to move his hand to wipe them away. He never wanted to make his friends- and his now successor- cry. His hand barely twitched. He tried to put on his best smile for them all, to reassure them that everything would be okay. His power will not die. The symbol of peace will live on. He squeezed Kirishima's hand.

"I'm glad I could have picked you, Kirishima."

-

Iida's cry was unexpectedly loud. Iida in general was a loud person, loud in class and with a voice that could be projected across the training grounds with hardly a second thought. He grabbed Midoriya's- Midoriya's body by the middle of his bloodstained and ripped shirt while his other hand buried itself in Midoriya's hair, and he pressed their foreheads together, wailing. It was heart wrenching to witness. Iida was always strong, in control of his emotions and perhaps one of the toughest people in their class. And yet here he was, his tears landing on their dead friend's face and washing away the dust and rubble on Midoriya's face in clean, narrow streaks.

Kirishima realized he was crying too. He let go of Midoriya's slack hand and brought it up to his face in horror, before jerking away when something wet and warm hit his nose. Blood. Midoriya's blood. Probably parts of his intestines as well. Kirishima squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back the bile that was rising in his throat. He crammed his face against his sleeve and wiped the blood off, leaving a sickening dark brown streak against the cheap black coat.

A hand came to rest on his shoulder, before it's owner collapsed next to him. His eyes cracking open, he realized it was Todoroki. He must have been trying to steady himself on Kirishima. His face was cleaner than the rest of them, having avoided most of the rubble with Momo, but his hands were covered in Midoriya's blood. Kirishima was unsure how it had gotten there.

"It can't be." There were no tears on Todoroki's face, but his expression was wrenched into a horrible slack snarl, eyes wide. "It can't. It just can't. Midoriya..."

His voice trailed off. His breath shuddered like he was about to let out a sob, but no tears came. Kirishima didn't judge him for it.

Momo stopped pressing the bandages and rags she made into Midoriya's open belly. Her hands were shaking so much, they were shooting off little droplets of blood that landed on Kirishima's face. Momo bit her lip, her eyes watery, before standing. Her blood covered hands clenched into fists.

"We have to get out of here. If we can make it to the heroes they can-" Her voice cut off. "Th-they can-"

She took a deep, shuddering breath. Then another. Then the next one shook with the force of tears, before she collapsed in the same way Iida had, letting out a choked back scream before emptying the contents of her stomach.

Bakugou knelt next to her, a hand on her back as he stared at the slack and bloodied face of his childhood friend. Kirishima could only stare at the four of them, with the same detachment of watching a tv show. Far away. Midoriya can't really be dead. He was larger than life and had so much light around him he just couldn't be dead-

The ground shook under their knees, and they knew they had not fully escaped danger or detection yet, but none of them could bring themselves to move.

Bakugou dry heaved into the rocks next to Momo but nothing came up but bile. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized Bakugou must not have been fed during his capture. He let out a half strangled scream before repeating, this time less bile then before. Kirishima couldn't bring himself to offer any comfort, or even move from Midoriya's side.

Finally it was Iida who lifted his head to meet eyes with Todoroki. Something unsaid was passed between them in a series of widened eyes and shuddering breaths, and Iida stood, Midoriya's limp body still in his arms. His entire lower half of his clothing was soaked with blood. Kirishima felt something foul rise in his mouth as he noticed something squishy looking embedded with those odd crystals fell to the ground and he realized it was a section of Midoriya's guts, pierced beyond repair.

"Let's go." He said softly. He could barely be heard over the tremor's of All Might's fight with that thing. Distantly, Kirishima wondered if All Might had noticed his student's injury and if he was fighting for his injured student. He won't know that Midoriya was- was dead until this fight was over.

Iida turned and walked towards the undamnaged part of Kamino. They followed, one by one though the rubble, silent. Bakugou didn't move. His fists were clenched, staring at the empied contents of his stomach and at his blood-stained shoes.

"C'mon man."

He offered Bakugou his hand. Bakugou only stared at it, watching a trail of blood drip off of Kirishima's wrist. He didn't take it, but followed Todoroki, sidestepping smaller pieces and climbing over bigger ones. Kirishima followed, not making a sound.

-

Everything moved much more quickly after that. They were found by a pro hero who's face Kirishima didn't recognize, and shuffled quickly towards an ambulance. Kirishima couldn't help but notice the onlookers, the idiots who hadn't evacuated and instead stuck around to watch the fight, were gawking at their little blood soaked group.

Midoriya's body was forced away from Iida with little fight, and although already lifeless, was placed onto a stretcher and loaded into the back of an ambulance as quickly as possible. Iida looked shocked, staring at his now empty arms. Then he too was shoved into an ambulance, without a fight.

A paramedic tried to do the same thing to Kirishima.

"I'm uninjured." he tried to say. The paramedic only looked at him like he was crazy. Perhaps he was, for he was covered in blood that wasn't his.

"It's not mine," He tried to explain, but was shoved into the same ambulance as Iida and Bakugou all the same.

-

They found out much later that All Might had won.

He raised a fist high above his head.

He pointed a single skinny and shaking finger at the camera, before shuddering out a "you're next."

He collapsed, and let out a cry of grief for his fallen student.

-

Going back home felt like waking up into a dream. His mom's actions felt rehearsed and slow. His couch and bedroom were too small. The kitchen smelled of blood.

He spent hours in the bathroom, scrubbing and scrubbing at his hands until they were rubbed raw from soap, but he could not get the sticky feeling of dried blood off of them, or the smell of blood from his skin.

His phone chirped with a headline. "All Might in critical condition." Every other news outlet was running the same headline for almost an hour now. The TV his mother left on in the living room was broadcasting from the hospital where All Might was struggling to live. When he closed his eyes he could only see Midoriya's slack face with the ghost of a distant smile. He drew up his shoulders and pressed his lips together. He scrubbed harder, the smell of his mother's basil soap almost as sickening as the smell of Midoriya's intestines leaking onto Iida's white shirt. His knuckles went white.

His phone chirped with another text, this time from Mina. He didn't read two words before letting out a cry of agitation, throwing it across the bathroom, out the open door and hitting the drywalled hallway, leaving a white dent in their drywall.

His hands buried themselves in his hair as he sunk down to the bathroom floor, huddled on the thick woven mat. He pulled at his hair, the pain only a faint sting to his scalp. His stomach lurched, and he barely scuttled over to the toilet in time before heaving into the bowl the contents of his half digested breakfast.

-

Kirishima doesn't remember really moving his stuff into the dorms. His mom was there, helping him move furniture across the large dorm room into positions that were similar in their house, and he remembers giving half hearted opinions about where his stuff should be stored, but when all was said and done he just collapsed on his newly moved bed and didn't move for hours, until Mina knocked on his door to let him know that Sato made cake for everyone.

He followed Mina without a word down the stairs, and into the new common room that still smelled like fresh wood and tact paint. The lights were turned on all the way despite the late hour, and Kirishima felt like he was being shoved in the spotlight when he opened the doors.

Conversation stopped. Everyone stared at him. He didn't look up to catch their eyes or even to send a half hearted glare their way, but remained looking at his feet until Mina grabbed him by the wrist with a huff and sat him down on one of the loveseats. The sofa was stiff and it let out a large squeak as he all but collapsed into it.

He didn't look up.

Sato, and he only knew it was Sato because his slippers had little cherries and strawberries stitched into the cloth that he knew Sato's mother had made him as a going-away present, put a plate with a heaping slice of chocolate cake into his lap. He finally casted a glance upward, at Sato's gentle smile.

"Thank you," He croaked out, tearing his eyes away from Sato's face that was full of unwanted pity for him. Kirishima couldn't bring himself to be mad at them. That wouldn't be manly at all. He didn't need their pity. He expected them to hate him, for being the reason Midoriya died. He knows Iida has not looked at him since that day in Kamino almost a week ago, despite their interviews in the hospital with the police and Midoriya's mom.

He wanted his class to hate him. It would be the most logical decision to come to.

He didn't need their pity.

He brought a bite of cake to his lips and chewed. To him, it tasted like blood and hair. He wanted to choke but soldered on, determined to show that he was strong. Unbreakable.

Slowly the conversation started up again, something about doing a room judging competition. Kirishima ate his cake and went back upstairs and didn't answer their knocks that night, unable to sleep.

-

Later that night he tossed and turned until he finally gave up any attempt to sleep and stood, turning on the lamp and opening the window to the balcony to let in a breeze before punching the Crimson Riot exclusive punching bag.

"I've got to be better," he muttered. "I've got to be stronger!" Instead of picturing some faceless villain in front of him, Kirishima imagined that he was punching himself. He was kicking out his own weakness. He was punching weak, useless Kirishima whose mistakes cost other people their lives. He was-

Punch.

Midoriya in Iida's arms, smiling as he bled out onto the rubble of broken buildings.

Punch.

Midoriya twisting them in midair and Bakugou's horrible scream as those damned crystals pierced Midoriya's stomach-

Punch.

All Might's skinny form, bleeding and bruised as he killed the man that killed his student-

Punch.

Headlines in the following weeks that Kirishima didn't cry to.

Punch.

His phone hitting the wall.

Punch.

"I'm glad I could have picked you, Kirishima." and that damned smile, the stiffness of his face and the pain in his eyes-

Punch, punch, punch.

The final throw of his fist knocked the punching bag off of its hold and flying across the room, hitting his dresser and knocking the trinkets and homework off of his desk. It took him a moment to realize that somewhere in the middle, he had dropped his quirk and was punching with raw power alone, no tape or chalk to protect his hands.

Kirishima's knuckles were bleeding.

Instead of cleaning the mess up he turned on his heel, jerking the door open and shoving a shoe between the door and the frame so it wouldn't lock him out, and marched to the bathroom. It occurred to him that he should have put on a shirt or at least something that wasn't just boxers, but by the time he reached the bathroom at the end of the hall he was uncaring, pouring soap into his hand and scrubbing viciously at his bleeding knuckles. The antibacterial soap stung, but he didn't stop. He grabbed a small brush from his cubby, getting soap and water on the handle of the locker, and scrubbed harder at the open wounds, biting his lip and grinding his teeth when he shoved his hands under the hot water. The water turned brown with his blood.

He'd been doing it for quite a while when the door to the bathroom opened with a familiar "There you are!" Kirishima jerked his head and was about to make some smart comment about girls not being allowed in the boys dorms when Mina all but crashed into him. He raised his hands in defense, ready to shove her away before he realized what she was doing.

A hug.

He got a hug from his mother when he was released from police custody, and another when she left the dorms, but that was it. This was the only time he touched another person since Midoriya died.

She squeezed him tight, uncaring of his soapy and bleeding hands or of his bare chest and overall lack of clothing. She didn't say anything, even when Kirishima awkwardly put his hands on her upper back, probably getting more blood on her white tank top, before squeezing his eyes shut and sniffling.

"It's okay to cry, Kirishima." She said. Her voice was choked up like she had swallowed something large. "It's okay to cry but please don't do this again."

This being his bleeding knuckles and his punching bag across the room. Mina must have gone into his open room when she was looking for him.

Kirishima let out a sob before clutching her closer, burying his face in her shoulder and probably getting snot all over her pajamas.

"I don't deserve your kindness." He said after a minute of Mina patting his back comfortably. "I was the one who suggested we save Bakugou, and the one that convinced Momo to give us the tracker. It's- it's my fault- "

"No it isn't." She said firmly. Somewhere in the middle of all this they had sunk to the bathroom floor. "You aren't the assholes who took Bakugou. You aren't that monster with those stolen quirks."

She didn't say anything about Midoriya but instead grabbed his face, thumbing away the tears from his eyes, their noses almost touching. Her eyes were wet too, but firm and determined. Kirishima recalled that her tears were also acidic as she blinked them back and whispered once more "It is not your fault."

Kirishima tried to say something, anything to deny his innocence, because every time he closed his eyes he saw Iida wailing over Midoriya's dead body and Todoroki's masked face and hearing Bakugou's scream and Momo desperately trying to stop the bleeding and the stench of newly cracked cement, but all he could do was blubber and let out a half strangled protest of sorrow as Mina's words settled in his mind.

-

Classes continued painfully like normal, except not.

Nobody smiled or laughed in the hallways. Nobody jostled each other in the locker rooms or in training when Aizawa instructed them into exercises that would normally be fun to participate in, probably in an attempt to lift their spirits. He didn't threaten to expel anyone but soon Mineta was gone without much fanfare after one last slip of the tongue. There was an air of something so thick and toxic Kirishima felt like he could activate his quirk and break whatever tension in the air.

Everyone noticed All Might's disappearance the most. His wake would be in a few weeks, but his absence was already felt from every corner of the country. Headlines with gorey pictures of his broken and weak form were commonplace, the man with stolen quirks under his foot, brain matter smashed with a simple stomp from the fallen hero. It was an amazing victory, but one that rang hollow without All Might's life.

But Midoriya's still felt the biggest to Kirishima.

There was an empty chair behind Bakugou in class, an untouched briefcase with his hero costume in the locker room, and most painfully of all, an empty room on the second floor that Midoriya never even touched. His mother came once a week, never crying but smiling a sad smile that never reached her eyes instead, and would cook them breakfast and spend time with the students that Midoriya loved so dearly. Kirishima tried to apologize to her the first time he saw her, and she only placed one finger over his lips before whispering that she did not want to hear it. Midoriya made his choice.

It left Kirishima feeling even more guilty than before, despite her words intending to be reassuring and forgiving. If he was Inko Midoriya, he wouldn't have the strength to forgive her son's murder.

Someone, most likely Momo or maybe Ochako, had set a small picture of Midoriya in the common room. It was obviously a candid picture taken on someone's phone, because it had Iida's hand half cropped out and Ochako's hair just behind Midoriya's smiling face. Someone had lit a candle, another had left incense. Inko left a beloved half chewed All Might figurine on her second visit. Every day without fail a small cup of green tea was placed under the picture.

All Might's picture joined Midoriya's when his heart finally gave out a few short weeks later.

It wasn't supposed to make Kirishima sad, but it did. Every reminder of Midoriya did now. He had tried not to dwell on the events of Midoriya's death as their training intensified and Kirishima all but threw himself into it, but it did.

He never got to talk to All Might. He promised Midoriya he was going to, but. Nothing he could have done about that. Midoriya said he could have explained this all better anyway.

(Kirishima wondered what exactly he was trying to explain. Nothing made sense no matter which way he looked at it.)

Midoriya's last moments were something he hadn't discussed with anybody. Not yet. He doesn't think his friends mentioned the strange moments with anybody either. He remembers Iida's strangled sob of horror and Todoroki falling to his knees. He pushes them aside.

"I mean, how do you tell a police officer Midoriya had you eat his hair?" Kirishima thought aloud into the quiet of the empty common room. Everyone else had gone to bed hours ago. "Or that it was a part of his quirk?"

It was late at night, and the incense had long since burned down to ashes so Kirishima took another stick out of the box, lit it with the dying candle, and set it in place.

-

The strange dreams were always murky at best. Usually it was voices in a darkened room, black mist swirling around his vision. Encouragements and whispers he could not understand but felt important, like he was getting information through an audiobook but the audiobook was in a different language and he was wearing the world's worst headphones.

But this one was by far the strangest.

He was sitting with Midoriya on a beach piled high with trash, eating ice cream. Midoriya looked a little younger than he did when he was alive, maybe around middle school age. Skinnier. Softer. He was licking an ice cream cone and his feet were bare, toes flexing and making little patterns in the sand. He looked small, like a child that needs protecting. Kirishima tried to say something, but all that came out was a whisper of an apology that got lost in the wind.

The beach was loud with sounds. Voices laughing and whispering carried on wind that blew Kirishima's hair away from his face. Waves crashed against the beach with the force of tidal waves. Kirishima held his breath. There was no one else on the beach but them, so where were those voices coming from? Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew it was a dream but it felt important to Kirishima, as if his very life depended on it.

Midoriya looked up from his ice cream cone. A small trail of melted chocolate was running down his knuckles. Kirishima inhaled with surprise as everything went silent.

"It's your turn."

Midoriya's lips moved but it wasn't him speaking, or just him, it was multiple voices, multiple volumes, all converged at once to form a simple sentence. Somehow Kirishima knew there were nine different voices, all saying the same thing. It was disorienting. He stumbled back, away from the not-Midoriya, raising his hands to cover his ears and Midoriya caught his wrist as he did so, ice cream cones forgotten on the sand. His eyes shined with the light of the sun and smiled at Kirishima, and suddenly he was being thrust away from the beach and-

Kirishima awoke with his heart pounding, gasping for breath. He fumbled for his phone in the dark, nearly dropping it onto the floor twice before he got a good grip and read the time.

4:43am.

His alarm was set to go off in seventeen minutes, so he canceled it, before dropping it back onto the floor and collapsing back into his pillow, chest heaving. No way would he be going back to sleep.

Finally he rose, put on his spare gym clothing, and went downstairs to jog around the track until it was time for class.