Work Text:
Thiswasn'tsupposedtohappenthiswasn'tsupposedtohappenthiswasn'tsupposedtohappen-
That was all Izuku could think as he faced the Nomu that nearly killed his teacher. He was glad that Tsu and Mineta were out of the way, but that meant that nobody could help him. Everyone else was still stuck in their zones and the man with the disintegration quirk wasn't someone he wanted his classmates to encounter. So he had to face this monster on his own, even when his quirk was quickly putting his limbs out of commission and he had to dodge being thrown around like a ragdoll-
No, Izuku. Focus. He dodged another fist headed his way, but only barely. He felt the air whizz past, and he jumped back to gain more distance. In the small window of time he had, he gathered some semblance of a plan. It seemed that the only weakness the Nomu had was its brain, so if he were able to take it down that way-
With a small nod, if only to encourage himself, he sprinted behind the Nomu before jumping on its back while it was semi-distracted. He avoided the claws grabbing at him as he swung his way to his head. He reached out one last time to get to the brain when all of the sudden the doors of the USJ blew open. He whipped around on instinct to see that standing at the entrance was All Might in all his glory. He let out a sigh of relief, which quickly turned into a yelp of horror as the Nomu managed to grab ahold of him. The last thing he saw was All Might's frowning face as his world faded out.
------
Yagi Toshinori burst through the doors to the USJ to a sight he never thought he would see. Villains were scattered everywhere, and he could spot some of his students battling against them. But in the very center, combating a huge, inhumane creature was his successor. And he could only watch in horror as the beast took advantage of his quirk's inheritor and snapped him in half. he heard the sickening crack, the yelp of surprise right before it happened.
This spurred him into action, dashing to the monster at speeds he had never reached. In seconds he was punching the thing into nothing, before one final punch that sent it through the building's roof. He could only stand there, frozen, as he saw the beaten body of his boy. The child that he helped train for a little under a year. He couldn't move, even when the other teachers arrived, and the paramedics took his boy away.
------
Shouta heard about Midoriya's death after waking up in the hospital. He heard about how the only reason he was alive right now was due to his student, one that he'd had for barely a week. And yet, he still felt absolutely shattered. After Shirakumo's death, he had promised to never let a student die before they had a chance to shine and live. But he had broken his promise and not only had a student died, but it had been for him because he wasn't strong enough to keep it from getting to that point.
And the boy had potential. He saw that on the first day. He could have grown to be an amazing hero if he got his quirk under control, if he was only given the chance to live his life. Shouta knew that boy could've grown to be a leader, and yet he hadn't even survived his first week under his care. And Shouta was at fault.
------
The funeral was a couple of days later. The Bakugou family was a mess, the usually brash youngest even shedding a tear or two. Inko Midoriya was even worse, having been sobbing ever since she received the news. She had supported her son's dream until the very end, but when it ended with her sweet boy's life being taken, she wanted nothing more than to have prepared him better. She knew it would be tough, and yet she hadn't thought to give him any experience before he unknowingly walked head-first to his death.
It was a short ceremony, a closed casket due to his body being so utterly broken. And when a couple of years later, 1A graduated as a class, they remembered their classmate who died to protect them. Who died so that they could stand there proudly. So that they could smile and laugh and protect those around them. And they would continue to remember him, his blinding smile forever reminding them of how they survived.
And if a certain green-haired child cheered them on from above, well he knew that his death may have been worth it.