Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a simple run.
In and out, just as they had done dozens of times before, though always with varying levels of success. There had been many occasions where they had come back from a supply run with absolutely nothing to show for it. Except, perhaps, a tube of toothpaste handed to their brave leader as he blushed and cupped his hand in front of his mouth. There were days, however, when they would find enough supplies to last them the next one or two weeks, though as the months went by, those days came less and less.
Still, no matter whether the run was successful or not, they always managed to return unharmed and, most importantly of all… alive.
No Unnecessary Risks. It was a mantra they repeated before every run, and they had done well by it up until now. If there were too many of those soulless bags of rotting jowls and bowels – living dead nightmares that now owned the city – then they would move on. It didn’t matter what kind of valuable treasures lay in wait inside the building, or if they passed over every store that week; so be it. Better alive and hungry, they figured, than dead and feeding something else.
If the weather was unfavourable and offered their trusted scout, Todoroki Shouto, poor visuals, then they would wait for a clearer day. If there was a heatwave, then they would consider whether the exertion was worth the cost to their water supplies. It made for slow going, and in the eighteen months since things had Turned to Shit, they had only made it so far as Shinagawa. It was a far cry from their eventual goal, deep in the prefecture of Shizuoka, and there had certainly been plenty of near misses over the months, but they had yet to suffer a single casualty. That, in itself, was something to be proud of, especially with so many things stalking the streets hoping to make an easy meal out of weary travellers. Still, a good track record was only impressive for as long as it lasted, and there was no guarantee that they could keep fate at bay indefinitely. One day their luck would run dry, much like everything else in their new godforsaken world.
Midoriya Izuku. Perhaps not the leader of their small band of survivors, but the problem solver and the glue keeping them together. He had a certain, sunny optimism that kept all of them going even through the darkest of days; a comforting and confident smile on his sun-kissed, freckled face, and gentleness lacing his fingertips as he wiped away tears and squeezed shaking shoulders. He was just as often the humour as the heart of the family, in a world that was growing devoid of both.
Despite his small size, Izuku was also their fastest runner, his feet every bit as quick as his wit, so when it came to supply runs, it was usually he and his closest friend, Uraraka Ochako, who the group put their faith in. They were fast and efficient, with a good understanding of the value of the resources they sought. They knew what to grab, what was worth digging for, and what to leave behind. They knew what food would still be good and what was likely to be spoilt, pretty essential knowledge when a single turned tin of beans could put the whole group on its arse for days. That was a lesson hard-learnt more than once.
Their current run was going about as well as they could have hoped; they realised early on just how difficult and dangerous the malls of Shinagawa were, and spotting hostiles from the ground became impossible after a point. They needed Shouto on the rooftops, binoculars in hand, with the other group members, Tsuyu Asai and Tenya Iida on the exits. It was a solid, practised formation, one they had done well by over the months, but that didn’t mean that it was foolproof. And there wasn’t anywhere that put their skills to the test more than the tight, claustrophobic streets and malls of Shinagawa.
Though there’d been many theories about the mindless, flesh-lusting monsters that now owned the streets, no one had any real answers for what these creatures were thinking, if thought was something they were even capable of. Months of experience with what by all accounts appeared to be the walking corpses that took over Japan had taught Izuku and his friends that they were still, unbelievably, creatures of habit. The undead had been seen milling around areas that had once been just as populated by the living, wandering around shopping districts, bus stations, and even outside of fast food outlets. Although it wasn’t sushi and fried chicken that attracted them these days, perhaps hoping for an all-you-can-eat buffet of human brains and intestines instead. They were drawn to the malls and shopping centres like moths to a flame, and that made these places dangerous, particularly when spotting the undead was far harder than it seemed it ought to be.
Izuku had watched more than his fair share of zombie horrors in his lifetime. He’d played all of the video games, read the comics and manga… if his friends were to name a piece of media, it was likely that Izuku had devoured it like the typical teen he’d once been. He was, perhaps ironically, a big fan of the genre; it was ludicrous, after all. Grizzly, violent, and the addiction lay in the question… what if it were me? He would have eagerly explained his plan for the apocalypse were anyone to ask, believing that he was prepared. The truth was, when the news about cannibal corpses broke Izuku had been sat on the toilet, flicking through a manga and mindlessly whistling a tune. He had been entirely unprepared for Ockako to start yelling at him through the door. The zombie apocalypse had arrived, and it had, in perhaps all ways, scared the shit out of him.
Still, his zombie knowledge was vast. Mentally he knew the stats of the types he’d encountered in his years of consuming media, be they shamblers or groaners. Floaters or growlers. He knew the lot. What he hadn’t been prepared for was the fact that these sly bags of guts hardly made a single, damn sound. They had no breath with which to groan and growl, and their slowly rotting bodies dampened the sound of their footfalls as they dragged themselves toward you. More often than not, the first warning you had of a zombie approaching you was the smell, and fuck, was it a smell. There was nothing that could prepare a person for the stench of exposed, rotting human flesh, and that was often the only warning they would get before the gnashing, filthy maw descended onto them.
This was why they relied so heavily on Shouto and Tsu. It was often entirely on them to keep an eye on the area around them, warning Izuku and Ochako of any hordes approaching and guiding them to the safest route out. But, when inside of the mall, they were mostly all on their own, knowing that each step could be their last.
On this particular run, they decided not to wander deep into the mall. It had taken them days to find somewhere that seemed zombie-free, but by the time they came across this place, it was already starting to get dark, making the rotting creatures all the harder to spot. They only needed a few basics. Underwear was the kind of commodity no one put a whole lot of consideration to until they’d been forced to wear the same pair for an entire week, and Ochako was quick to shove several packs of boxers and briefs into her backpack when she came across them. She flashed Izuku a wink as she grabbed one pair with the much-loved superhero, All Might, printed across both sides.
“Does Iida know you go in for that sort of thing?” Izuku asked, lips twisting into a teasing smirk, and Ochako’s already pink cheeks flushed.
“You bumhole, I was getting them for you!”
“Children, please. Iida won’t stand for that sort of language,” came Shouto’s voice through the walkie-talkie on Izuku’s hip. Ochako rolled her eyes.
“Do I know you go in for what sort of thing?” asked Iida. At that, Izuku laughed, pressing him hand to his mouth to muffle the sound as Ochako blushed harder.
“Nothing, sweetie,” she said quickly before pushing past Izuku, and the two of them made their way to the next corridor.
In Izuku’s opinion, there wasn’t a place in the world that made the absence of civilisation so evident as a mall. The overhead speakers still played the same easy listening it had been playing the day the malls were abandoned, except now it was tinny and crackling. A bucket and mop lay abandoned in the middle of the aisle with a wet floor sign collapsed not too far from it. A rock-hard but remarkably robust cheeseburger sat on one of the benches, a bite mark revealing what could honestly have been either blood or ketchup, darkened and congealed inside. The mall was a place that had once been so full of life, and now it stood empty; the only sound the tinny speakers and their footsteps across the dusty, waxy floor.
“These places freak me out,” Ochako sighed, her voice low and quiet as she glanced back at Izuku. He nodded in solidarity. She wasn’t wrong; it was pretty creepy here, though honestly a small part of Izuku kind of liked it. The silence, the boundless opportunity for adventure. He might have even enjoyed it if it hadn’t come at the cost of most of the human race.
“Hmm, at least the music is good,” he said, bobbing his head, green hair waving in time with the mall-time special. “Oh wait, here’s my favourite bit! You make me feel awooodeeeedooweeedooo-”
“Will you quit messing around? No Unnecessary Risks!” Iida demanded over the walkie-talkie.
“Sorry, Iida,” Izuku said as he hurried after Ochako, a grin on his face. Hey, the world had ended but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a little fun, right? Ochako threw him a sly grin, rolling her eyes as they turned the next corner, slowing down so that they could peer down the aisle.
It was quiet and empty, and ahead of them lay arguably one of the most beautiful sights either of them had seen in some time… The store was painted bubblegum pink, with yellow dripping like icing down the upper half of the window, through which rows upon rows of equally brightly coloured parcels and packets could be seen. Ochako squealed for joy at the sight, her brown eyes widening.
“Ok, so it’s not groceries,” she said, holding her walkie to her mouth. “But we’ve found the next best thing.”
“Is it toilet paper?” Tsu asked.
“Ok, so not quite as good as toilet paper either, sorry,” Ochako admitted. “But trust me, you guys are going to love it.”
The two of them hurried to the store, Izuku keeping an eye out behind them as Ochako checked the inside before they finally looked around. Their eyes widened, mouths practically drooling at the wide array of sweets and candies lining the shelves. The very best thing about sugar, Izuku had come to realise, was its ridiculously long shelf life. And where once upon a time Izuku would have questioned that, now he couldn’t wait to make himself sick on as many bonbons as he could get his greedy mitts on.
Between them they began to load their backpacks with as many treats as they could carry, Izuku launching himself at the bumper packs of marshmallows and Oreos, holding them to his chest in nostalgic happiness.
“Now all we need is some orange soda, and we’ve got a three-course meal,” he said.
“Hey, have you ever tried taking the top off the Oreos and putting-”
“The marshmallow in? Ochako, back in my hometown we called that the Midoriya Mallow Special.”
“You’re making that up.”
“I’m not! And not like there’s anyone who can prove me wrong,” Izuku said with a shrug, thrusting the bags of goodies into his pack.
“Ooh, that’s cold.”
“Hey, how are things looking out there, Shouto?” Izuku asked with another smirk.
“Front is still clear,” Shouto replied. “Nothing obstructing your way. I did see some movement a couple blocks east, but even if it is zombies you have a good ten-minute head start on them.”
“That’s good! Tsu?”
“Back entrance clear. I can see the side door, looks like access to the west if you guys get stuck.”
“What do you think, Izuku? Call it quits here?”
Izuku looked over at Ochako to confirm, and she nodded.
“Yeh, I think we’ve pushed it enough. We’re gonna head to the front entrance.”
“I can’t wait for a Midoriya Mallow Special,” Shouto said, entirely deadpan. Ochako snorted.
“Enough flirting,” came Tsu, and Izuku buried his blush with a laugh of his own, securing his pack before they started to walk back to the entrance of the mall. He threw Ochako a good-natured grin at the success of their trip. Sure, they hadn’t found any of the essentials, but what was life if you couldn’t enjoy some novelty candy necklaces every once in a while?
Izuku knew something was wrong the second the smell hit him. They were somewhat used to it; an entire city full of corpses meant there wasn’t anywhere left that didn’t carry the sweet, pungent scent of decay. But they did grow accustomed to the passive stink and more aware of the rising aroma that suggested that something was coming their way. He froze, reaching out to grab Ochako’s wrist and pulling her against the wall. Her wide eyes told him that she smelt it too.
“Radio silence,” Izuku hissed, as quietly as he could through the walkie. It was a routine they had practised, and as desperately as Shouto, Iida and Tsu might want to know what was going on and if they were ok, they knew better than to say a single word until either Izuku or Ochako gave the all-clear. Walkie-talkie-related deaths were at an all-time high.
He carefully inched forward toward the corner of the aisle, back pressed flush against the wall of the store as he poked his head out. A group of zombies, probably about a dozen or so, were grouped outside of a media store; their faces blank and eye sockets empty, mouths opening and shutting silently as their rotting hands mindlessly slapped against the window. He pulled his head back, looking at Ochako.
“Twelve, maybe thirteen,” he whispered. “They seem distracted; we should go another way.”
Ochako nodded, and together they began to inch their way back to the sweet store before Ochako’s sharp intake of breath grabbed his attention. He froze, looking up wildly in the direction she was facing, and his heart stopped. A single zombie had managed to creep its way behind them and now stood on the opposite side of the aisle.
There were so many things wrong with these bastards it was hard to know where to start. But, perhaps the most disturbing thing about them was a moment, just before each attack, where they seemed to stop and consider. The zombies, upon sensing prey, would usually freeze, bodies entirely still, hunkering down low like a cat as their sightless heads rotated in the direction of their target. This was how they found this zombie: shoulders hunched, legs almost buckling and with its face looking straight at them. There was no doubt they had been spotted; the only movement from the thing was the minute tilt of its head, right then left. Izuku had long suspected that they hunted by sense of smell and taste from the way they waved their heads around like they were trying to find the scent in the air, and this zombie sure as shit could smell them.
“Back, back,” Izuku hissed, keeping his hand wrapped tightly around Ochako’s wrist, body in front of hers as they started to back away, hoping to put more distance between them and the zombie before it decided to attack. They weren’t able to get far before the zombie chose to strike, its broken, rotting body stumbling forward with a speed that would always scare the shit out of Izuku. It threw itself over the benches between them with the kind of grace that seemed only possible in a creature that couldn’t care less whether or not it broke its neck in the process.
“Shit!” Izuku hissed before he grabbed the wakizashi hanging from his hip.
One of the ways they had survived so long was by avoiding the zombies as much as possible, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t needed to fight them. The group had built up a pretty impressive death count over the last eighteen months, and though Izuku wasn’t as strong as Iida or Shouto, what he lacked in strength he made up for with speed. He was able to slip out of situations that others might have had trouble in, and he quickly darted to the right, throwing Ochako behind him again as the zombie launched. He thrust outwards, his sword connecting sharply with the zombie's jaw. It wasn’t enough to keep it down permanently, but it threw it to the ground with a thud, and he reached out to shove the point of his blade deep into its ear canal, teeth gritted and grimacing against the crunch and crack of brittle bones. With his foot pressed on the thing's neck, he pulled his weapon free and turned to look for Ochako. It was a good kill, a quiet kill. Unfortunately, there was no way to kill these fuckers silently. There was no way to prevent the scent of freshly spilt brains and innards from attracting the attention of the zombies looming by the media store. Sure enough, he could already see the group rounding the corner, a dozen frighteningly intent yet sightless faces staring directly at them.
“Time to go!” Izuku yelled, and Ochako didn’t need telling twice, grabbing his hand as they broke into a sprint.
“How are those exits looking, Tsu?” Ochako panted into her walkie as they skidded down the aisles.
“Still clear!” Tsu said, clearly trying to contain her panic. “What’s happening in there?”
“Zombies must have already been in the mall,” Izuku replied. “Twelve on our tail!”
They spotted the signs directing them to the exit, and Ochako let out a cry of relief. Izuku spared a glance behind him; the zombies were still on their tails. Whilst they couldn’t usually run as fast as Izuku could, it was still a gut-wrenching and horrifying sight watching these things come after them, using their hands and legs to go as fast as they could, intent on catching their prey. It was going to be tight, but hopefully, they could lose them out on the streets with both Shouto and Tsu guiding them. They had done it before; they could handle it again. But luck wasn’t to be on their side this time, and Izuku let out a cry as yet another group stumbled out of a clothing store, attracted by the commotion and cutting off their escape.
“Shit!” Ochako swore, dragging Izuku to a halt.
Izuku’s eyes darted about, assessing the situation they had found themselves in. The zombies following would be on them in a matter of moments, and those in front had spotted them, hunkering and stumbling forward. They could risk it and run forward, hoping that they could get past without any of the zombies snatching them. But he knew how unlikely that was… not without a distraction.
“Ochako, go for the back exit,” he said, and she swung around.
“What the fuck, Izuku!”
“Go! I’ll distract them-”
“Absolutely not, you lunatic!” she screeched. But Izuku shook his head, taking off his backpack and thrusting it into her arms.
“No time to argue! I’m faster; I’ll go for the front. Go!”
He didn’t wait for an answer before jumping forward, climbing onto the benches in the middle of the aisle and waving his hands in the air.
“Hey! Hey, shit for brains! Over here!”
It was enough. The zombies coming out of the store immediately shifted their focus onto him and began to rush forward. Izuku saw Ochako slip past, racing towards the back of the mall with a backwards glance, and breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe, for the moment at least. Izuku’s situation was a whole other thing entirely, however, and his mind began racing as he tried to work out his next move now that he had the attention of at least twenty bloodthirsty zombies.
Glancing down at his feet, he realised his best hope was to slow the zombies down, and after taking a deep breath, he lifted his arms and began to yell, encouraging the zombies to come at him as they clumsily changed course. There was no room for error as they came at him with every violent intent, and he readied himself to jump.
“One, two… three!”
He jumped backwards, hands reaching out as he vaulted over the bench, feeling a grabbing hand brush against the leg of his jeans. His feet skid on the waxed floor as he ran, leaping over the snapping jaws of one zombie as it found itself crushed beneath the weight of those behind it.
“Ochako!” he yelled into his walkie.
“I’m out!”
“Ochako the way is still clear; get out of there!” Izuku heard Tsu yell.
“Izuku, are you out? Where are you?” Ochako all but sobbed, her voice desperate.
“I’m past them!” he panted, heels skidding. “They’re still after me, about twenty, but I can outrun them!”
“Izuku, there’s been a change in the situation,” Shouto said suddenly, his voice calm, yet Izuku knew him well enough to catch the hint of panic.
“It better be an ice cream truck or something because this situation is already bad enough!”
“There’s a group headed your way. They’ve passed the west crossing. You should be able to outrun them, but you are going to need to go east.”
Izuku’s stomach dropped. East was uncharted territory… the tightly packed alleyways leading to a residential area that they had been avoiding at all costs.
“East?” said Iida. “But… we don’t know what’s over there!”
Izuku panted hard, checking over his shoulder. Some of the zombies were faster than the others, and he knew that if he slowed his pace even a little, they would catch up with him. He couldn’t go back, but he couldn’t head west towards safety. Up north was a horde, and a goddamn fucking massive one at that, and south was blocked by debris and a car pile-up that would be almost impossible to negotiate with zombies on his tail.
“Shouto,” he said. “How much can you see? Can you guide me back around?”
Shouto was quiet for a moment, and Izuku braced himself.
“I will do my best,” he replied.
“That’s all I ask for, baby!” Izuku replied with a horse laugh, and he heard Ochako whine down the walkie.
“Seriously? Quit joking around, Izuku, this is serious!”
“Best time for jokes,” Izuku panted as the entrance came into view, the street now visible. He could do this; he would make it.
He leapt free, slamming the doors open and skidding onto the street, putting faith in Shouto’s skills and not wasting a second to appraise the area before he veered left, thundering down the road.
“I see you,” Shouto said, and Izuku had never been more grateful for how calm his friend was in these sorts of situations. “Keep running straight. There’s a T-junction ahead. Turn left.”
“Got it!”
Izuku ran, his red sneakers pounding on the pavement, his breath coming out in harsh pants and sweat dripping down his temples and neck. He slowed his pace just a little as he saw the junction ahead of him, readying to turn left.
“Shit! Wait!”
Izuku stumbled to a halt, mouth wide as he panted hard, looking back over his shoulder. He knew Shouto wouldn’t have stopped him if he thought the horde could catch up quickly, and from the looks of things he might have a good thirty second on them now.
“What is it?”
“There’s another group of zombies,” Shouto hissed. “Dammit! They must have been drawn to the rest of them. They’ve just come from an alley due east; you can’t go left without running into them.”
“Ok, then I go right.”
“It looks clear, but, Izuku, the street narrows about twenty metres in. I’m- I’m not going to be able to see you.”
Izuku swallowed, watching the mall zombies behind him. He could see the other group now, too, crawling out of the alleyway and heading in his direction. He groaned.
“Well, looks like I’ll have to risk it.”
“Izuku-”
“Yeh, yeh I know. No Unnecessary Risks, right? Not sure I can avoid it this time.”
“Izuku, keep talking to us!” Ochako pleaded. “Find somewhere safe, ok? We’ll come and get you when it’s clear!”
“Sounds good,” Izuku breathed.
“I don’t wanna make things worse, guys,” came Tsu, “but if we wait here any longer, then Iida and Ochako are going to get caught by that horde coming from the west.”
“Damn! Tsu, how close are they to us?” asked Iida.
“You’ve still got about five minutes… uh, well, maybe more like four. You should be able to slip past and get back to the safe house.”
“It’s ok,” Izuku said. “I’ll keep on the road and find somewhere I can hold up. I’ll be fine, ok? We’ll work this out once these groups have moved on.”
“Izuku, I don’t like this,” Ochako breathed.
“Me neither,” Izuku replied with a nervous laugh. “Ok, I’m heading right now. Still clear as far as you can see, Shouto?”
“As far as I can see.”
Izuku could hear how tense Shouto was, but there were no options left. The group behind were hot on his heels, the zombies to the left churning forward, and he had to go now or get caught by both of them. He took a deep breath before racing off, watching with dread as the narrowed street grew closer and closer, splitting off into a fork. He took the right and hoped that it would eventually lead him back to their safe house and his friends, his breath coming out in painful gasps.
“Izuku, I can’t see you anymore.”
“Noted,” Izuku replied. “Keep talking; tell me what’s happening back there.”
“B-both groups have combined; they’re still following you.” The smallest stammer in Shouto’s voice betrayed how afraid his friend was, and Izuku felt his stomach twist and churn. Making his friends worry about him felt almost as bad as realising he was now running blind.
“It seems clear ahead,” Izuku said, slowing his gait just a fraction so that he could keep a keen eye on what was going on around him. The smaller residential streets were still wide enough for him to hopefully dodge past any zombies he might come across. It was possible that, should he get stuck, he could still duck into one of the houses and find some safety there, but he still felt far from confident of that.
“Izuku?” It was Ochako now, sounding terrified.
“I’m good,” he replied. “What about you guys? You and Iida back with Tsu yet?”
“She’s almost here,” Iida replied.
“Izuku,” Ochako repeated, her voice breaking. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have left you! I shouldn’t-”
“Hey, don’t do that,” Izuku replied, lowering his voice as he watched the streets, now lined with young trees. “The only reason we both got away was that we split up. It was the right call, Ochako.”
“B-but I’m s-safe and you’re-”
“I’m going to be fine,” he responded, firmly. “I’m going to try and get into one of these houses until the groups go by, ok?”
“O-Ok…”
“I can’t see the group anymore,” said Shouto. “But I’m pretty sure they’re still following you.”
“Ugh, don’t they have anything better to be doing?”
Izuku slowed to a jog, looking back over his shoulder. He couldn’t see the zombies anymore, and that was a good sign.
“Fuck!”
He cried out as something collided heavily with his left side and threw him onto the pavement. The weight and the stink of the mass landing on top of him made him gag. He hadn’t even seen it… the zombie must have been behind one of the cars or fucking something because it had sure spotted him.
“Izuku!”
He grunted, unable to reach the wakizashi at his hips and forced to push the body back as his vision was filled with rotting flesh and empty eye sockets, teeth like tombstones gnashing and snapping an inch from his nose.
“Izuku!”
He heaved, crying out as he pushed until he was finally able to throw the zombie off him, rolling quickly to his side and grabbing his weapon. He swung the moment he grabbed the handle, the blade colliding with the zombie's temple just as it threw itself at him again. With a grunt he landed hard, the stinking body falling back on top of him, his walkie falling from his belt and being kicked across the pavement in the chaos. He gasped, breathing heavily, pushing the body off of him.
“Izuku! Dammit, answer us!”
He reached out blindly, grasping for the walkie-talkie with one hand, and wiping the blood and brains away from his mouth before his fingers froze. He had wasted too much time, and the large group from before were mere seconds from crushing him, mouths wide and snarling silently. There was no time to reach the walkie-talkie, and he scrambled to his feet trying real fucking hard not to panic. There were at least twenty sets of gnashing jaws and swiping claws at his heels, all desperate to pull his body apart and devour it. He almost slipped, trying to keep his grip on his blood-coated weapon. One zombie launched, and he dodged to the right before pain exploded in his side and he screamed, swiping out blindly in response and slicing the jaw of the zombie closest to him. In the brief reprieve, he looked down to see the branch of a tree pierced just below his ribcage, blood pooling from the wound and sending the zombies into a frenzy. He knew in any other situation, pulling the branch free was the last thing he should do. But, between taking his chances with the zombies or bleeding to death, he’d rather the latter. He screamed again as he pulled his body free.
“Izuku!”
He heard Ochako's desperate cries from the walkie, now beneath the feet of the horde, before he turned tail and began to run, one hand pressed to his right side, hot blood making his finger tacky. His breath came out in sharp, painful gasps, adrenaline the only thing keeping him on his feet at this stage as he ran until, to his complete horrified dismay, yet another pair of zombies stepped out in front of him.
“Are you kidding me?” he cried. There was an alleyway to his left, and making a split-second decision, he took it, panting as he ran down the narrow pathway. His body hit the walls, and he ran, smearing blood against them, but it wasn’t enough. Fate had caught up with him, and his luck had finally run dry.
The alley came to a dead end ahead of him, a high wall at the very end of it. There were bins knocked over beside it, but Izuku knew there’d be no time for him to stack them and use them to climb up onto the wall. This was it.
“Shit!”
He swung around, the zombies filling the alley as they followed him, mouths stretched wide in anticipation. If this was how he was going to go out, he sure as shit was going to do it standing. He held his wakizashi in front of him, taking a shaky hand from the wound at his side and gripping his wrist to keep his arm steady. His lips tore back into a very un-Izuku-like snarl.
“Do your fucking worst!”
But then, two things happened. In such quick succession that Izuku was almost left with whiplash. He tracked movement in the corner of his vision, something bright soaring high over his head, flickering and flashing. He hadn’t a chance to make sense of what it was before it landed amongst the zombies and exploded in front of him, throwing him backwards.
“What the-”
He gasped as he saw the horde go up in flames, their bodies thrashing and twisting, some of them even trying to get back down the alley as if to escape the flames, a moment that quietly lodged its way in Izuku’s brain.
“Eat my fucking flames, cocksuckers!”
“What the f-”
Izuku twisted on the spot, wincing in pain as he looked behind him to where the loud, harsh voice had come from, eyes settling on a sight that, were it not for the heat from the flames, could have been a hallucination brought about by blood loss.
Behind him, standing on top of the wall, was a man dressed in a black tank top, bottles crisscrossed across his hips and onto the thighs of his bright orange combats. His hair was a shock of spiked-up blond, his eyes a deep fiery red that glowed in the low evening light, alive with a certain madness that Izuku had only seen in damn comic books and never in real life. And his smile… lips drawn back in a wide manic snarl of a grin that matched the flames ahead of him in their burning ferocity.
"What the fuck?" Izuku choked.