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“Mom, are you here yet...?” A hushed whisper comes from a broken soul.
“You said you’d come and save me… Where are you..?”
Bruised cheeks littered with freckles wince as he speaks aloud. A tear strolls down his face, the effort to cry slowly fading out of him.
His aching arms attempt to drag him closer to civilization, but the dead weight of his body holds him in place. Lateral muscles are exhausted from dragging.
The cracked and dried mud beneath the tips of his fingernails squeezes further up to make room for more. Bruised and broken fingers without feeling scraped at the ground.
“Mom…”
He continues to drag his finger through the dirt, coarse enough to hold its shape, but not ruin his fingers more from trying to indent it.
The backs of his thighs tingle, slashes made all across. The backs of his knees were also carved open with a knife.
Hysterical laughing plays in his mind. Whoever did this to him got their joy from his pain. The struggle to walk was given up, moving to crawl instead. But the muscle he spent so long building was rapidly fading.
They knew his legs were his strongest part. After all the times his arms have been cast who wouldn’t know?
“Mommy… I’ve tried so hard.” A gasp escaped his lips.
The blood from his skull slowly seeps down into his mouth. The metallic taste not unfamiliar.
His legs soon run cold, blood still oozing from the seams. Bubbling up over the previously dried blood.
Solus' body waiting in the dark to be saved. Clinging onto the energy that is hurriedly leaving him.
‘Kacchan will be there for you Mommy.’ Katsuki will be there to hold her tight, as she weeps. Mitsuki on the other side holding her head against her body as she cries out for her baby.
She’ll be okay, one day…
She has to be.
“I love you… Mommy ”
The light was glaring into the windows, the faces within the common squinting whenever they looked to the left. The sun was rising, but yet, their embodiment of the sun was nowhere in sight.
Friends toppled over one another on the couches. Sitting between the legs of others while their hair is braided.
Music playing from the TV, the movie they have put on becoming background noise for most.
The door carefully swings open, and steps are heard from the seating area. Quickly revealing Aizawa-Sensei. The remote is immediately grabbed, and a few go-tos snatch their phones to text the few isolating themselves in their rooms to come down.
A sigh escapes his lips, eyes downcast to the floor. Scanning the room once more, Bakugou, Tokoyami, and Todoroki have emerged from their rooms. After they satiated themselves, he began.
“Midoriya...has been found deceased.” The shouting began immediately, and the tears that drowned their faces soon followed.
Sobs wrack their bodies, some standstill. Eyes directed toward still-moving surfaces.
As they cool down their throats dry out, allowing Aizawa to add to the situation.
“Midoriya Inko has permitted us to let you all know some of the information currently gathered. He was found late last night in the woods of southern Gifu.” The unsteadiness that shakes his tone revels in the teens.
“We are still looking for who has caused this, but we have many suspects lined up at the moment.”
Silence sits in the air until Bakugou asks a question, “What about Auntie Inko? Where is she?” His murmured tone was uncommon.
Aizawa clicking his throat responded, “I’d assume to be at home.”
“I would like to leave campus. Immediately.”
“You know we can’t expedite your leave Bakugou. Especially not after a tragedy like this has happened.” Aizawa’s stern tone sets off a spark within him. He doesn’t know Auntie Inko. She needs company, and sure as hell his parents don’t know at the moment.
“No! No, you are not dictating what I am doing now! Not after this.” His snarling voice shouts, the heat radiating off him felt by those farthest.
“Bakugou…” Aizawa's eyes sharpen, the tips of his hair floating.
“Bro, Bakugou, get a hold of yourself.” Kirishima says, hand insight of Bakugou's eyes to not suddenly touch him without warning. Their hand lying to rest on his shoulder, hardened slightly to avoid the steam rolling off him.
Steam releases from his nose, stiffened shoulders loosening. Drawing back, proud and prideful.
“I will be going to see Auntie whether you like it or not.” He pointed a finger at Aizawa, then stormed off to his room.
...
A breath was released from Aizawa, “parents are allowed to stay here for a week in the dorms. Extra rooms will be provided in a separate building near here.” Turning to leave, behind his back bodies move to hold each other. Stuffy noses sniffling in sorrow.
He can’t bear to look at his students' faces once more. Not again today, he does not need to see the red beneath their eyes. Not after failing to prevent this outcome.
He leaves them in their solitude.
A book lays open on a mahogany table. The smiling faces within it with freckled cheeks.
On the walls those freckled cheeks.
Pages silently flip in the book, watching her child's face age.
They want to be a hero eminent within their features. Her hero.
But she was also his hero. She was supposed to be.
Then it all changed once he got a quirk. Dead set on saving everyone. When he couldn’t even save himself.
Always breaking his damn bones. She should’ve pulled him out. After their cruelty of not helping train his newfound quirk properly. She should’ve found a new school.
No… She couldn’t ruin her baby’s dreams like that.
Sobbing wracks her body. Her baby is gone.
Inko recounts memories of hide and seek, how he would squeeze his small body into the tiniest spaces. He kept his body nimble as he grew, she wasn't stupid. She could see how his smile was fading through the pictures. And how the bruises peeked through his clothes before he had his gakuran.
Her boy is was smart. He made it out all on his own. With no help from the heroes. The ones who were supposed to save him when she couldn't.
"Oh, my baby... Izuku..." She was able to help get him unstuck when he trapped himself, too high up on the playground or in a crevice. Or if he got lost when walking home, she could find him.
Her hands run over a picture of when he was two and a half—giggling as he's held in the air by Hisashi. Their gorgeous smiles on the page now can't be seen again. Hisashi was supposed to come home... Just like how Izuku was.
His bruised and battered body escaped, he fought so hard. But ended up all alone in the woods. The fluttering leaves that blew above, insects trilling and buzzing being all he had.
They showed her an image from the...scene. Her baby's body was already gone. But in the dirt, a message was engraved.
'Im sorry mama.'