Floating in the void, Midoriya Izuku takes a few seconds to rage at himself.
'For fuck's sake! That was a fucking rooky mistake! I couldn't have made myself an easier god damn target if I'd laid down in front of him and begged to be squished!'
All around him is an abyss he is intimately familiar with, dark and vast and so completely empty. The void stretches to encompass everything, reminding those who dare tread its depths that infinity is very real, and very, very, incomprehensibly big.
The cloak of infinity stretches onwards, leaving all within it in the blackest of shadow and, right at the centre of infinity, a teen with long green hair, glowing green eyes, and a black respiratory mask floats in the void. This oddity filled with colour in the expanse of nothingness writhes like a particularly irate maggot, shouting his frustration, cursing his mistakes, and swearing various things to himself. The void this thing floats in, had it a mind capable of observing this intruder, would probably be confused by this oddity disturbing the peace of the nothingness left behind by the death of light. Fortunately for the little green thing, no such consciousness exists in this space darker than the void between stars.
For, in contrast to the warper's portal –a space distinctly similar to the one the wriggling creature finds itself in, yet completely different all the same– this void is not cold, nor is it as lifeless as it likes to pretend. There is an omnipresent heat to the emptiness, a thrum of thermal energy criss-crossing the void like a cosmic spiderweb, expanding and receding to the beat of imagined drums.
Izuku stops squirming and sighs, letting the anger and rage that coursed through him drain out of him with the contents of his lungs, leaving behind only the sparks of frustration. The green-eyed boy looks around at the space, and scoffs to himself. 'Great. This shit again. Guess I can thank all that reflex training after all, huh… dammit, old man was right again.'
The imaginary drums' steady beat picks up the pace.
Izuku cocks his head to one side, then the other, causing pops and cracking noises to spring forth and vanish just as quickly. Repeating the exercise with each joint of his hand, the green haired teen begins an elaborate stretch, coursing from the ends of his limbs, to his shoulders and chest muscles. The bizarre ritual ends with him placing his hands on his lower back, pointing his elbows backwards, and pushing forward, creating a satisfying series of cracks that brings a hum of satisfaction from Izuku.
Ethereal drums beat the tune to an ancient song. One as old as mankind.
Shaking himself out, Izuku takes a quick, pointless look around the space, before focussing on his relative forward direction. His eyes crinkle to indicate a grin, but there is no innocent joy to be found in the eyes that burn like twin green suns in his sockets, lighting up a portion of infinity with the simple suggestion of his power.
'Well then, since they were so kind to bring their own monster to my school, crush my teacher and try to kill my classmate…'
The tune of the drums is the song of War.
Two green eyes burn with practiced malevolence, and the righteous fury born by those wronged and seeking their just recompense. The flames that seep from the sockets of the teen to whom fire is both his best friend and worst enemy are but a mere suggestion of things to come, a promise of complete, unrelenting violence through which the conditions of its victory will be achieved.
'… let's return the favour, and show them a realmonster.'
Midoriya Izuku raises his arms, and pulls at beast cages in his chest. The monster who calls Izuku's soul home and rages against its imprisonment all the same, constantly begging the be set free and rampage. Izuku calls on his quirk, and the fire ignores its desires answers the call like a well-trained pet.
On the inside, the insignificant little green thing sets infinity ablaze.
On the outside, dismembered legs wearing black cargo pants and specially made combat boots twitch, and the surrounding area's temperature starts to rise. No time has passed at all since Midoriya was destroyed in front of his classmates and those around have moved on from the remains to focus on those still moving despite the lack of gore or blood that seeks from where the lower half of the body was once attached to the top. Smoke comes from the stump first, ignored by all. From that smoke come sparks, and from those sparks is born an inferno.
Villains and students alike take notice as the corpse erupts into a fiery explosion, consuming everything surrounding it in a five-meter radius. The Nomu steps in front of Shigaraki just as it registers the threat, curling around the hand villain to shield its master from the blast wave and the superheated debris that rain down in the aftermath.
Shouji instinctively mimics the Nomu, using his own larger size to pick up Mineta and Ojiro and jump, riding the blast wave instead of trying to tank it, the adrenaline in his veins shielding him from the burning sensation coming from the membranes between his arms as superheated air comes in contact with sensitive skin. He pulls his two shorter classmates into his chest, rolling forward in the air and landing on his back to cushion the landing. He feels the air being forced out of his lungs as one of his heavier classmates –the tail has a lot of muscle and adds a lot of weight to an already well built Ojiro– and Mineta both land simultaneously on his stomach and, as much as he tries to cushion the landing, Asui's compact and limp form digs into his chest.
As he fights to get his breath back, the scorching hot air suddenly becomes a few degrees cooler, and the six-armed teen looks towards the source of the cold. He spots the distinctive red and white hair of his classmate; the false ice Todoroki usually wears on left side of his body nowhere to be found. The lack of covering allows Shouji a good look at his dual-coloured classmate's face as he stands there, and all that Mezou can see is narrowed eyes and a mouth set in a grim straight line.
Pushing himself to his feet is an achievement he would consider heroic, and the cool air surrounding Todoroki is doing a wonderful job at soothing the small injuries Shouji had gained from the previous fights, and the more recent burns and scrapes he'd gained trying to surf an explosion, and Shouji, Mineta, and Ojiro join their newly arrived classmate in gazing at the scene, trying their best to comprehend what just happened.
Where there had once been half a corpse, was now a mass of fire, flickering in an invisible breeze. The flames twisted in on themselves before spreading out and licking the surrounding area, leaving behind ashen streaks where the tongues had merely licked the ground, or molten pools of concrete and sand where the flames had lingered for a bit longer. The whole blaze back and forth, contracting and expanding like the breath of a crouched beast. Villain and hero-hopeful alike stared in wonder as the flames grew, blue-white embers dancing like spirits at the centre of the conflagration, free and ignorant of the world as they were birthed by the flames, lived by the flames, and died by the flames, all in a matter of seconds. A mesmerizing waltz of creation and destruction, bathing its observers in its warmth while reminding them that their ancestors first used fire to cook meat, then to fight off things much stronger than them.
As the twisting inferno reached its peak, and the flames withing began to spin around some unseen focal point, Shouji came to three important realisations.
The villains were distracted.
It was a pretty straight shot to the stairs.
Todoroki, one of the strongest students in their class, had arrived as reinforcement.
Shouji blinked and a plan began to form in his head, as he slowly backed away from the infernal twister. All that heat couldn't be doing poor Asui any favours, if her frog quirk was as straightforward as its name and the girl's character implied. The six-armed teen kept retreating, using his quirk to place hands on each of the other boy's shoulders and jolting them back into reality, and then pulling them back. Shouji felt an annoying amount of resistance from Todoroki, who seemed intent on jumping into the fight, but Shouji Mezou was having none of his shit. He was having a stressful day. He had fought villains, rescued his teacher from being burned alive, and was trying not to think about the classmate he was cradling delicately in his arms who was slowly but surely bleeding out.
The six-armed teen decided to act. He tapped Mineta on the shoulder, gave Todoroki a final forceful tug, and looked Ojiro in the eyes as he formed a mouth at the end of an arm. He wanted to tell them that now was the chance to make a stealthy withdrawal, to continue the plan to retreat to the entrance and hopefully link up with more of the group before the other teachers and preferably All Might arrived to save the day. He wanted to relay the plan he had concocted to his classmates in all its simple brilliance.
"RUN!"
Unfortunately, it seemed his brain didn't agree, and the filter between his brain and the mouth wasn't doing its job either either. Though he supposed that would work.
Hearing such a sudden shout from their usually stoic and quiet classmate seemed to startle them into action. Ojiro's eyes widened as he turned to follow his command, and Shouji, with one hand still on Todoroki's shoulder –the dual-haired boy was making not move to start running which was, in Shouji's book, not going to fucking fly, buster– spun around and started booking it towards the entrance, keeping close to the wall surrounding the landslide zone and dragging a startled Todoroki behind him like a particularly frosty ragdoll.
Unfortunately, their attempt at a stealthy escape didn't go as planned. The sudden movement must have caught the eye of one of the villains, because when the three of them started sprinting away from the scene, the hand villain's head snapped towards them.
Shigaraki opened his mouth and started to raise his hand to point towards the fleeing students and order the Nomu to finally kill them, when the situation… evolved.
The fire, that had been pulsing and swirling in its own slice of molten hell, suddenly split, and from the fiery egg came a new brand of creature.
Walking upright on two legs, the thing had a distinctly humanoid appearance. It wore no clothes, though it would be unreasonable to ask the average clothing manufacturer to accommodate for such a mutation from even the Quirk era baseline human form. Flickering like a candle or the flames that had birthed it, a burning being stood in front of the dying hearth from which it had come. Its flesh did not burn, for it was fire itself, pulled from the surface of a star to walk the earth in an approximation of human form. Liquid fire dripped from fingers that flickered with no physical form, and tongues of flames lapped the air where they broke free from whatever force was holding it together. The creature had no discernible facial features, save for two spots in place of eyes that so brightly, it's very gaze dried the air wherever it deigned to look. On top its head fire burned more peacefully, a bonfire to the rest of the body's inferno. The thing had an ethereal beauty reserved for only non-physical entities, and yet the danger was readily presented as it stepped forward, scorching the earth beneath it as it marched towards the villains and leaving molten footsteps in its wake.
Breing dragged by someone physically taller and larger than himself wasn't new to Todoroki, much to his displeasure. What was new, was that he was being dragged away from the fight, rather than towards it. He supposed he could understand his classmates' reactions, somewhat. They hadn't had the training he had. They hadn't been prepared. He might be somewhat emotionally detached, but Shoto had learned to read someone based on what they showed the world, consciously or not. He could see the submerged panic swimming around in Ojiro's eyes, like a shark waiting for just a hint of blood, and Mineta was making to effort to hide his fear. Shouji was doing an admirable job of it, though Shoto believes the taller teen has an unfair advantage. The mask he wears hides nearly everything on his head bar his eyes and hair, and the Shouji's eyes are hardened with something Shoto can't name, but can recognise. It is something that drives someone towards a goal relentlessly, and Shouji's goal, to Shoto's displeasure, seems to be to get as far away from the villains and whatever that burning pit is.
But Shoto can't run away. He was trained by Endeavour, and his classmates weren't. He is more ready to face villains in life-or-death situations than they could ever be at this point, so they can run away all they like, but Shoto is stronger than them. His quirk and training leave him leagues above his supposed peers, and it is his duty to face villains and come out victorious without resorting to his curse half. The heat from the flames will both help and hinder him. He'll be able to unleash more ice without freezing himself, though the fire will weaken the ice structures he creates, though he should be able to counter such a minor side effect if he plays it smart.
He can do it. He will do it. He will prove to his father, to the world, that he doesn't–
Todoroki's inner monologue is interrupted right before he can forcefully shrug off Shouji's grip and return to the fight, when the thing with fire for flesh steps out of the conflagration and begins to stalk towards the villains, leaving the dying embers behind it, but keeping the surrounding temperature constant as its very being replaced the lost source of heat.
As Todoroki stared, wide-eyed and slacked jawed, at the thing that had been born of the flames, his own heterochromatic eyes caught onto the burning white patches of flame on the creature's face that seemed to act as eyes, and Todoroki squinted as the brightness hurt his eyes. It felt like he was looking straight at the sun.
But within those swirly white patches on a body of red, orange, and the occasional blue, Todoroki Shoto swore he could see light traces of green. Mere hints at a colour that could be there the same way it very well could not.
Something clicked, and Shoto's squinted eyes widened once again, an action he immediately regretted as he blinked rapidly to try and combat the pain of his eyeballs drying out. He had heard Mineta blubber about Midoriya being killed by the villains, and had caught a glimpse of a discarded pair of legs still wearing their black cargo pants and red shoes, before said remains had suddenly erupted into flames.
"Midoriya…" he whispered, catching Shouji's attention. The tall teen took a quick look back, decided his reborn classmate looked more than happy to take on the villains for a round two, and accelerated.
Todoroki gritted his teeth as he watched the scene unfold. He couldn't use his larger attacks with allies nearby, and the smaller attacks he could use would be negated by Midoriya's quirk. Plus, there was something he was curious about. Something that had been spinning and had nearly been discarded as he added another bit of data to the machine in his head made of red threads and corkboard. 'Why were you hiding this power, Midoriya?'
It always felt… different, walking around in this form. Different in a way that was impossible to accurately describe. He felt lighter, which was a given, but he also felt like there was… less of himself. Like he had left something behind when he became like this.
Midoriya stopped in his tracks and allowed himself a second to really feel the differences. He felt the paradoxical brush of intangible flames against each other as his new limbs moved much like his old ones, and yet so differently. Where before he would have done like any other human and ignored the pulling and relaxing of tendons and muscle fibres as he pushed his body forward, the biological machine going through the motions of its usual locomotion and gets him where he wanted to be. The human mind is capable of ignoring the shifting of internal organs with normal movement, the subtle grinding of cartilage and bone as the skeleton holding up the entire system is pulled by the same organs it supports and gives shape to. Ignoring the rubbing of eyeball against socket, of hair or nail or tooth catching on each other or the environment during the body's normal everyday motion.
The human mind elects to prevent the conscious from experiencing the subtle discomforts of the usual body to preserve its sanity, and allow it the mental space to react to more important things without distractions from the mundane.
When he transformed, when he allowed his quirk to consume and replace his physical body, replacing the muscle and sinew and cartilage and bone with the perfect smoothness of the flames he both adored and despised, Izuku noticed how his mind seemed to jolt at the change. The complete and sudden removal of all the usually ignored stimuli had left him reeling when he'd first used his quirk like this, but he had adapted, and had grown stronger.
Suddenly transforming into a being made of fire also always made him conscious of how heavy his physicical form was, how much weight water and bone had. This transformation always left him feeling lighter, both literally and physically, as he became something more than he was. His worries and woes turning to ash like his flesh in the face of the power which would protect him from harm, and allow him to decimate those who would threaten him. The power that was his to command.
And yes, he may or may not always get a pleasant jolt of dopamine whenever he got to use his quirk like this, which was, unfortunately, not often enough.
"So, the mage gets a spirit form, huh? Have you levelled up, or were you just holding back?" A familiar raspy voice interrupted his musings, and Midoriya's near featureless face turned to stare at Shigaraki as the villain stared back, seemingly unbothered by the heat.
Shigaraki scratched his neck as he contemplated the situation, before scoffing. "You should have used that power up sooner, brat. Maybe you would have been able to put up an actual fight against the Nomu instead of just jumping around." A sinister smile crept its way across the villain's face, hidden by the hand. "Maybe you would have been able to save your friends, too." At that, he snaps his fingers, and the Nomu that protected him charges.
The purple blur barrels towards the retreating students, and though only Todoroki is turned around to see it, they all feel very small and insignificant for a second, like ants meeting the falling boot. All of them feel it, but only Todoroki sees why the temperature suddenly rises and another blur appears on the charging one's left, this one bright and hot and constantly moving where the other is dark and evil and only moves after periods of total stillness. Contrasting as they are, the two blurs meet in an explosion of heat and fire that puts all the other ones Midoriya's used up until now to shame.
The students don't stop running, but Shouji spares an eye to see what has captured Todoroki's attention so completely as they make it to the stairs. The tall teen nearly trips, but catches himself and steadies his wounded classmate before he can fall. He keeps a stoic face as he drags his classmates up the stairs, seeing the others who had made it to the exit or had avoided the portals yelling down towards them, encouraging them to run faster, asking them if they're alright. Some of them pale when they see the bloody form of Asui in Shouji's arms, or the broken form of Aizawa being carried by Ojiro. Yaoyorozu is the first to recover and starts ordering the others around while simultaneously creating proper medical equipment to replace Shouji's ramshackle respirator. If Shouji could, he would be paying attention to his classmates, asking after their wellbeing, and counting them off to check who was still missing. He can't though. He is still processing what he's seen.
When the two blurs had collided, and Midoriya had unleashed that explosion. The flash had blinded his observing eye, and the following heatwave had certainly not helped. When his watering eye had recovered, and the smoke and dust had thinned, what he'd seen had shocked him. He had born witness to Midoriya and the Nomu's initial battle in the plaza, or at least, some of it. They had both fought viciously, with Midoriya repeatedly burning the skin and flesh off parts of its frame, only for it to regenerate and charge back into the fray. It had been a fight to the death, with the Midoriya's reaction time keeping him out of harm's way, and the Nomu's regeneration quirk protecting it from anything Midoriya threw at it. It had been a test of speed versus reaction, but it they had been at a stalemate.
Now, when Midoriya unleashed his blast, the Nomu had staggered.
Shouji was trying not to get his hopes up, but he couldn't help that, after Yaoyorozu had gotten Asui as stable as she could considering the situation, Shoji had immediately turned around as set all his eyes to watch the fight in the plaza. All sixteen of them.
He had a feeling that it would be worth watching.
Midoriya watched as the Nomu struggled to recover from his latest attack. The fire blast had been much more intense, and had had a wider blast-cone. Unlike the previous ones that washed off the monster's hide, only burning and cutting deeper if Midoriya poured extra concentration into focusing the blast, or got it in the eyes, this new one enveloped the monster entirely, and burned at such a temperature that most of the monster's muscles had been burned to a crisp, freezing it in place as the fibres that gave the beast its strength and speed struggled to pull its frame forward while being so thoroughly cooked. The regeneration kicked in and healed the Nomu eventually, but the healing looked slower than it had before.
Izuku's white hot eyes narrowed in thought. Or maybe he was imagining it, but he decided that he was in a good mood, and he would allow himself this bit of optimism. After all, these villains were giving him the opportunity to let off some steam against a punching bag that could heal itself. No way was it going to waste this opportunity.
'Although…' Midoriya thought back to the state of Aizawa, and the frighteningly still form of Asui. He couldn't claim to be friends with any of them, or to care more for them than he did the average passer-by on the street, but most some of them seemed like decent people, and would probably become decent heroes, too.
He scowled as the thought of the exceptions passed through his head, before he shook himself and burned it for its irrelevance at the moment.
'I should probably end this as soon as possible. Then the villains will either surrender – which, seeing how Shigaraki behaves, I doubt – or they would run using Kurogiri, which seems more likely. The Nomu isn't really alive, all its done is followed Shigaraki's orders, and its quirk means that I won't be able to knock it out.' Izuku moved into a familiar stance, low to ground with his arms aiming behind him. The flames from which he was composed flaring as his burning eyes locked on the Nomu, dismissing the other two as threats, but not ignoring them. He had to make sure Shigaraki and Kurogiri didn't go after his classmates while he dealt with the Nomu, which had turned to look at him, awaiting orders. 'Sorry Nomu, but I'm the only monster allowed in here.' The flames of his arms shifted, burning brighter as Izuku used his pyrokinesis to shape his now more malleable arms. The roaring of flames became the screaming of twin jet engines as the heat surrounding the boy started to slag the ground. 'And only one of us will leave.'
Shigaraki smiled his signature dry, manic smile. He would show this self-important mob what happened when it dared to challenged his raid party armed with his perfect cheat. Even if he had to acknowledge that this fire-brat was starting to become worthy of the title of mini-boss, it wouldn't matter. Nomu would snuff out this conceited little bonfire. Power-up or no power-up.
"Nomu. Destroy this brat."
The screaming of the jet engines reached a fever pitch as the Nomu roared its monstrous battle-cry, and the two monsters charged each other.
Massive black fists swung forward at blistering speeds, but this time, Izuku didn't bother to dodge. The Nomu's fists tore through his burning body as he cut off the jets, punching massive holes in the comparatively small torso in a machine gun like series of blows. Again, and again and again the Nomu's arms blurred and holes were created straight through Izuku's burning body, and again and again and again, the holes would immediately be filled by fire and the damage would vanish like it had never existed. Of course, for a body like Izuku's, it might as well not have. All the Nomu was doing to Izuku was displacing the flames, allowing the sheer heat alone to burn the Nomu's arms as it continued attacking.
Eventually, the creature stopped, its empty eyes managing to convey its confusion as it stared at its unharmed target. Across the blank and near featureless expanse of Izuku's face, a wide, jagged smile grew on the teen's empty face, conveyed through the same blinding white flames that made up his eyes.
Blinding though that smile may be, it was not one like All Might's.
'My turn.'
The screaming of a high powered, directed flame rang through the USJ as the teen made of fire burst forward with unprecedented speed. More fire emerged from his form, hiding his shape until he became a comet streaking straight towards the Nomu, who didn't have the intelligence to react beyond raising an arm to defend itself as nearly white-hot flames bathed its form. The Nomu screeched, and the teen's fiery form darted around, continuing to attack with continuous streams of fire instead of the blasts he used previously.
The continual attacks were burning more and more of the Nomu's flesh, but its regeneration was managing to keep it going, even if the continuous stream of flesh charring fire was doing a decent job of slowing it down.
As Midoriya let loose his quirk once again, swirling around the Nomu as it flailed and tried in vain to catch him, he thought. 'This is still taking too long. I could wear down its regeneration, but that would still give Shigaraki and Kurogiri a chance to try something, and I can't go further without accidentally killing someone.' His form flowed through the Nomu's grasping hand, charring the appendage down to the bone as he passed by, before he suddenly changed direction and went under the Nomu. He unleashed twin beams of concentrated fire from his arms, charring muscle and incinerating bone as he cut through the Nomu's legs and the giant beast toppled over, screaming and flailing all the while.
As Izuku reoriented himself in mid-air, he watched the Nomu scramble to try and attack him, its legs still being cauterized stumps, though its constant movements were freshening the wound enough for the regeneration quirk to work its magic. Izuku was getting annoyed, before inspiration came, and the jagged, fiery grin that had disappeared from his face reappeared. God it felt good to do that.
Izuku's legs, that had been acting like propulsors to aid with his mobility, cut out for a split second, leaving the teen in free fall, before his legs merged and, burning like a rocket, the boy made of fire sped off towards the flood zone. As he reached the centre of the artificial lake, Izuku executed a turn with so many Gs only someone without blood would survive it, and turned his propulsor downwards, shooting the teen upwards like a flare.
Predictably, the Nomu screamed its mindless rage, and chased after its fleeing enemy. It bounded across solid land, building up speed with each push of its insanely powerful leg muscles, before it stopped dead before the lake, used all the gained momentum that it hadn't lost to coil itself up like a spring, and launched itself upwards after the student.
If the Nomu had been a blur before, now it became a streak as it used all of its unnatural physical to jump into the air, cratering the ground beneath its feet and sending cracks spiderwebbing across what remained of the plaza that wasn't slagged by the student of turned to rubble by the Nomu.
As Izuku neared the top of the dome, his rocket cut out, and he hung there, unaffected by gravity as he stared forward, his face as placid as a churning plane of fire with twin suns for eyes can be. He watched as his gaze swept over the top of the ceiling, then started to turn downwards as his body carried through the slow backflip.
The rest of the USJ came into view, and for two peaceful seconds, he truly appreciated how stupidly massive this building was. 'There's a whole mountainin here for God's sake.'
That peaceful observation was ruined when Izuku heard a shriek, followed by what sounded like the earth shattering beneath a meteorite as something big, purple, and angry came flying up towards him, leaving massive waves in the flood zone and a wake that swept up dust.
The burning grin returned to Izuku's fiery face as he began to fall towards it. 'Almost there,' he thought, as he watched the Nomu gain altitude. He watched, following the Nomu's trajectory until he was satisfied the creature had passed the threshold Izuku had designated.
Izuku's grin turned downright predatory as he reignited his boosting flames and rocketed down to meet the beast. The wildly burning flames that made him up burned brighter and brighter as he descended faster and faster, until all that could be seen from the teen was a burning white light falling to meet a rising black streak.
The scene seemed to almost slow down, dragging out the time before impact between the two forces of nature as they slowly but surely approached one another. The moment of collision seemed to get further and further away as the light and the dark got closer, and it felt like the world itself held its breath, watching and waiting.
Izuku felt a laugh bubbling up as he collided with the Nomu mid-air, his body washing over and enveloping the Nomu like a warm blanket woven from the stars themselves. Except, instead of the gentle reassurance of a thick comforter on a cold winter morning, or the playful but distinguished beauty of the small lights in the night's sky, this blanket's warmth was the indiscriminate heat unleashed by those balls of burning gas to strip planets of their atmospheres and scour their surfaces, and its beauty came in its pure destructive potential as the sudden increase in heat caused by the ball of flames now surrounding the Nomu superheated the surrounding air, making it expand and causing a blast wave to sweep across the surrounding area, though, due to its starting location being near the roof of the USJ, those at surface level were spared the full extent of its power.
Izuku's laugh sounded like the crackling of a bonfire mixed with the screaming of fighter jets as they cut through the sky, interspersed and cut off at odd points like a radio with bad reception. He couldn't help it though. It had been so long since he had been able to go this far, and he was committed now. He was going to see how much this monster engineered to fight the number one her could take. Izuku's unnatural sounding laugh and the sounds of the Nomu's impotent rage was lost as he unleashed even more of his flames, and the ball of heat and light handing from the highest point in the USJ kept growing in size.
Mezou eventually pulled his now eighteen extra eyes away as the brightness became too much. He had been following as best he could, watching as Midoriya unleashed this new technique. He could only watch in awe as the previously even brawl became a one-sided battle between a pure brawler and someone who could seemingly reshape their body at will. For the first time since he had been dropped into a burning city, Shouji felt something warm build up from inside of him, and he felt a smile tug at his face beneath his mask even as he averted his eyes from the burning ball floating in the air. He refused to count his chickens before they hatched, but Shouji would admit that he had a pretty good feeling about this.
Shoto watched the ball of heat keep growing in the airspace of the USJ, and felt something grow with it in his gut. He didn't know what it was, but as he watched white hot flames obscure his view of the combatants, forcing him to look away, and as his hearing was consumed by the roaring of an inferno above their heads, Todoroki was of the opinion that he didn't much like feeling whatever it was he was feeling. The heat washed over him, and he felt smothered despite the coolness of the ice keeping the worst at bay as he worked to shield his classmates from the worst of it. No, he decided with certainty, he definitely didn't like it at all.
Ochako would freely admit that she had let panic consume her when her classmates had vanished into the mist villain's attack, and it had only gotten worse when the villain had used a portal to turn Thirteen's quirk back on her, tearing apart the back of her costume and shredding the skin on the heroine's back. Uraraka had fully blanked out when she had seen the hero fall, certain that, now that the Pro Hero was out of the way, the villain would attack and kill them.
What could students do to him when a full pro had been taken out so easily. Then she had heard Thirteen's weak voice speak, ordering Iida to get to the school and report what had happened. Those words, mumbled and choked as they had been, had brought Ochako back, reinvigorating her and lighting a fire in her heart. She needed the become a hero, she couldn't let the first villain she encountered stop her!
The next few moments had been a blur. She remembered yelling a lot and slapping something metal, before the villain was flying through the air, a piece of Sero's tape still attached to his neck guard, and Iida was zooming out of the pried open metal doors, shouting about bringing back reinforcements as quickly as possible. Uraraka had tried not to think about the possibility of villains invading the whole school, and tended to Thirteen. She had been doing her best, when Yaoyorozu, and Jirou arrived, battered and bloody, and dragging two other unconscious students behind them. Something had stuttered in Uraraka's chest when she'd seen the burns on Kaminari, and fear had lodged itself in her throat when she saw Ashido's usually joyful face so empty as she lay unconscious with her leg in a splint. The hastily applied bandages on both of them were already slowly turning red. Uraraka had wanted to ask what had happened, but Yaomomo's gaunt face convinced her that now was not the time, so she settled for asking for help with dressing Thirteen's wounds. Help that the class president readily supplied, her previously empty eyes returning to life as she focused on the task.
Now, Ochako could only watch in awe from her spot crouched beside the bandaged body of Thirteen as a star came into existence at the highest point of the USJ. She felt the heat wash over her and the light begin to burn her eyes as an impossible scene unfolded before her, before it was blocked off by Todoroki's ice wall. A part of her wanted to protest, the part that adored learning about the stars and space and galaxies and all the wonders in between railed against watching what could only be a second Sun be born on the surface of the Earth. Another part, much larger than the first and much more concerned with the reality of their situation sent a mental thank you to the dual haired boy. It probably wouldn't help the wounded to overheat, –her hearthad nearly broken as she moved to help bandage Tsu, one of her newer friends but someone she felt she could rely on, and Ochako felt a mix of rage and despair boil in her stomach, leaving her feeling like she had overused her quirk– and Ochako remembered the last time she had felt something like this. This scorching heat and the dryness it left behind as it passed over. Sometimes she could still feel rubble trapping her leg, or see the massive form of the Zero Pointer melt into nothing when she closed her eyes. So, for a second, before she returned to helping the wounded, Ochako would feel a sadistic joy, and revel that the ones who had turned today class into a nightmare would receive their just comeuppance.
Katsuki kept his expression neutral as he witnessed the ball of white light and the purple streak collide, and stayed that way despite Kirishima's gasps and exclamations as they watched the ball of heat and light grow. They watched until the oppressive heat and the blinding light forced them to seek refuge under one of the caves so common in the Mountain Zone. Even as Kirishima turned away, Bakugou forced himself to watch through eyes shielded by both hands and squinted so hard they were practically closed. He needed to watch. He needed to see how much had changed. He needed to know what had happened to DekuIzuku Midoriya since he had last seen the boy on that horrible day. He had so many questions and yet, despite all of his strength, all of his confidence, he couldn't bring himself to ask them, because he knew he didn't deserve answers. So Katsuki would watch and try to spot the boy he once knew in the teen that was creating a second sun in the dome of the USJ, because, for now, that was all he could do.
Izuku felt delighted. 'Finally,' he thought as he poured more flames out of his body, 'it feels so good to not hold back.' The pyrokinetic teen was no longer concerned with shaping his output, and focusing instead on containing the overwhelming amount of fire in a ball shape to prevent the fire from dropping down onto the ground below, and rendering his flight up here pointless.
Within this ball, what was and wasn't Izuku became blurry. His body made of flames kept emitting more and more fire, and the limited volume the flames had to move in meant it had become full quite quickly, before the intensity started to rise. Izuku knew that those on the surface were probably feeling the heat, but he also knew that that was nothing compared to up here.
The Nomu continued to thrash and writhe, muscle burning off and bone disintegrating just as it was regenerated. The monster could no longer screech its rage at Izuku, since every time it inhaled to do so, fire would flow down its throat and drown it, burning its lungs and cooking its flesh from the inside out. So, the only way the beast could show its pain, show the agony it was experiencing as it burned alive was to thrash, to swing its once meaty fists, now nothing but charred flesh with gleaming white bone visible due to chunks of missing flesh. Newly regenerated muscle tendrils writhed and withered like insects under a magnifying glass as Izuku's fire quirk fought the Nomu's regeneration quirk.
'It's over,' Izuku thought, as he focused enough of his energy on forming his empty, fiery face in the flames to gaze into the Nomu's eyes, vitreous gel leaking from the dried, cracked things as they continued to spin wildly in their sockets before locking onto him. 'There was a surprising amount of emotion in such a vacant gaze,' thought Izuku as he stared at the monster, who stared back at the only discernible chunk of the fire-ball that contained the one burning it.
For a split second, the teen thought he saw something else pass through the monster's gaze, something he was almost ready to call relief, before the rage and madness washed it away.
Izuku washed another portion of the beast's flesh burn dispassionately, watched the regeneration fight to keep up with the mounting injuries, and watched the madness grow in the Nomu's movements as it became more desperate to accomplish its orders, and kill him. Midoriya allowed himself a second to feel pity for the Nomu, for its cursed existence, for the pain it must be in, before he squashed it down and discarded the thought.
The already intense sphere of flames surrounding the Nomu and Midoriya started to burn even hotter, the surrounding temperature continuing to skyrocket as the white-hot flames glowed brighter and brighter. Izuku took one last look at the Nomu, before the head he had formed dissipated and he became one with the flames.
The living star born from the power of one teenager turned the entirety of its attention on the monster trapped within it, a perpetrator of the events of the day, the cause of his teacher's injuries, the muscle that allowed Shigaraki to nearly kill his classmate, and possibly the villain's greatest victim on this day. The ball of bright white flames decided that its mercy was the only thing that could end today's tragedy, and so, under the command of its progenitor, it pushed its power further and further, all the while ensuring its attention did not stray from containing its destructive might.
The heat reached a fever pitch and the Nomu screamed its last, all of its mindless rage, its hatred, its sorrow, its relief, and Midoriya answered in kind.
'BURN!!!' The incandescent ball of contained desolation commanded to the creature burning at its core.
And the Nomu obeyed.
Flesh and bone burned and turned to ash faster than the Super-Regeneration quirk could keep up with as the inferno consumed the beast like a starving force of nature. Sinew caught fire and snapped before disintegrating. Organs boiled and popped before being forced back together and repeating the process, before enough muscle and bone was peeled away to allow the devouring flames direct access to the unnatural organs. The lungs finally exploded, the monsters screaming death rattle having pulled in some of the fire and it expanded, eating through the thin outer layer of the lungs and destroying the monster's multiple hearts, before the new conflagration joined the other flames that had burrowed their way into the beast and turned the rest of the internals to ash.
The Nomu's toxic black blood itself was destroyed, bubbling and boiling away in instants so fast the event was never noticed, and fire swept through the veins and arteries themselves. The water in every cell boiled and evaporated in an instant, tearing through cell walls and destroying the structure of the Nomu's body piece by bloody piece.
Fifteen seconds.
It took Izuku fifteen seconds of concentrated, high power burning to finally beat the Nomu's regenerative quirk. Izuku watched as the last of the flesh was burned away, leaving a blackened skeleton. Eventually, those soot covered, experimentally enhanced bones fractured, the heat too intense and boiling the remaining fluid inside, and the bones broke apart, the heat breaking them into smaller and smaller pieces until they became nothing but dust, scattering to the wind kicked up by the disturbance caused by the ball of flames.
A ball that began to shrink, its prey now consumed. Flames slowly escaped and dissipated, reducing the intensity of the heat as the small star started to finally fall to earth. It was a slow, graceful fall, like an ember dancing on the wind.
The last of the mass dispersed, leaving the flaming body of Izuku's transformation behind. The fiery avatar slowly landed on the ground, and stood in the silence that followed its victory. Izuku grinned in his mind, but kept his external face stoic, white burning eyes staring straight at the two remaining villains.
Kurogiri was still, his body's misty form no longer swaying in an invisible breeze as yellow streaks stared at Izuku in what he could only assume was bewilderment and maybe fear. Shigaraki was taking the loss a lot worse, and was furiously scratching his neck, raking away dry skin and old scabs. Blood started to flow through his fingers as the scratching intensified and the villain mumbled to himself, the red-eyed glare he was shooting Izuku full of anger and deranged malice.
Izuku felt a hint of amusement as he stared the two down. 'Guess the pet does resemble the owner,' he thought to himself, being reminded of the mindless rage in the Nomu's eyes before it had been incinerated. Izuku banished the thought and focused back on the now.
'As I thought before, now they have two choices: surrender peacefully, or run. Shigaraki doesn't look like the kind to give up, and Kurogiri looks two sudden moves away from warping them both out of here.' Izuku watched as Shigaraki's mumbles became growls and muttered curses, before the anger in his eyes exploded and he screamed his frustrations.
"Cheat… CHEAT! YOU CHEATER! No WAY a fucking brat is a high enough level to beat Nomu! You can't have high DEX, an invincibility buff, AND high damage all in one without special codes or something! This is BULLSHIT!" The scratching got more deranged as Shigaraki screamed and Kurogiri looked closer to just running. "Who are you?! What are you?! Some kind of weapon? Smuggled into the hero school to get permission from the state to turn everyone they don't like to ash?! To run around in bright colours in front of the public, all the while killing anyone you're told to behind their backs?! Liar… LIAR AND A CHEAT! You killed Nomu! Heroes are meant to hold back, and villains don't! That's why we win!" Shigaraki's eyes took on a wild look as he started stamping his feet. "Sensei said that Nomu was made to fight All Might. He had a Shock Absorption quirk, a regeneration quirk, and was just as strong as that trash of a symbol! And then YOU…" Shigaraki pointed at the flaming teen, who didn't react. "You come along, with your bullshit buffs and your cheat code expanded mana pool and RUIN IT! YOU RUINED SENSEI'S GIFT!"
Izuku was getting anoyed, though he didn't show it. He couldn't, really. The villain getting more and more worked up, spouting more and more nonsense about 'cheat codes' and 'gifts' as he continued down the road towards what was probably a psychotic break. Izuku wasn't really too sympathetic, the guy hadattacked him and his class.
Shigaraki stood hunched, panting as he continued to glare at the unresponsive teen, whose burning eyes continued to dig into him. It annoyed him, and Sensei said that he was allowed to kill anything that annoyed him. Sensei would love to hear that he had killed the brat that had killed the Anti-symbol of peace. Maybe Tomura could even keep what was left of the teen alive and bring him back to Sensei. He was sure his teacher would love a quirk like this.
Izuku continued to observe Shigaraki, watching as the manic gleam sharpened to a knifepoint, and got ready for anything. 'So, which will it be? Run or give up? Though I guess there is a third option: Shigaraki and Kurogiri could try to fight, but that would be suicidally stupid.'
Then, to Izuku's disbelief, Shigaraki did just that. The villain charged with his abnormal speed towards Izuku, his hands extended in what was probably a practiced for to ensure he got to use his deadly quirk on whoever he was fighting. Izuku was just bewildered, though. Surely, the man-child had watched the Nomu try to punch Izuku and had seen those blows go through him without causing harm, right? What did he think he was going to do?
Izuku shook his head as he raised one fiery appendage, and built up a weaker blast to finish the job he had started when he had first burst into this fight. The blazing grin spread across his face as fire built in his palm, and he unleashed his fire-blast when Shigaraki had gotten close enough that Izuku was sure he wouldn't be able to dodge. It was a shame when people attacked without thinking like that, but again, Izuku had little sympathy.
Then, to Izuku's surprise, a portal opened up in the path of his attack, simultaneously swallowing up Shigaraki with a surprised yelp and redirecting the attack through another portal that hit Izuku side on, temporarily covering his view with smoke and dust.
Midoriya swung an arm out to the side, using the heat wave he gave off to clear the smoke and reveal… nothing. As quickly as they had appeared, and with much less fanfare, the villains' leaders had fled.
'They took option two in the end, I see.' Izuku growled with the crackle of the flames that made up his being as he took a moment to look around at where he was standing.
Soot and dust coated most of the surrounding area, and quite a few places had been burned into slag during their fight. Cracks spiderwebbed across the plaza, spreading out from craters left by the Nomu. Izuku studiously ignored the dark red stains or suspicious chunks that were scattered around the courtyard, and ran a cautious eye over the downed villains that were still breathing.
Izuku, satisfied that those left wouldn't be able to start trouble again, started walking. He walks through the field of molten rock, left over flames burning freely, released from his control. They devour anything flammable with a ravenous appetite, leaving nothing within reach safe from their hunger. The pyrokinetic teen walks through the courtyard and leaves only scorched earth in his wake.
Midoriya stares ahead. He could see the exit now. He could see shapes moving in front of the doorway, shadows blocking the light. He ignored the heaviness that set into bones made of plasma. It wasn't real. It was impossible. Fire was the weightlessness of air and the power of stars. It had no weight to be held down.
B̷̡̛̛̮̣̖̘̹̟͖̮̆͛̈́͆ů̸͙͖̜͍͈ṯ̵̥̖̖̳̝̲̫̹͐͂̆̔̆̾́̔̒͝ ̵̡͎͓̝̬̪̺̭̍͌͗̕͘͝w̴̛͉̘͕͕̖͓̻͉̳̾̋̊ä̶̺͇̤̹͖̦̬̪̝̂͂͐̌͛͐̽̌͠s̷̱̜̹͖͎͓͉͕̤͋̓͊̿̊̆̚ ̶͇̪̜͙̝͇̥̥̠̰̌̌̅̍͆̏͒̊͒͆͛͘͜͜ͅh̴̟̼̞̍̂͐e̸͔̣̞̝̯̮̅̋̈͘ ̶̨̛̩͚̪͎̲̲̻͉̮̥́̆̈́̈́̈́͒͛̽̚ͅr̶͈̹̞̟͙̩͍̘̺͇͈͇̒͛͋̓͛͆̒͂͂͊̅͂́e̸̞̮̬̱̭̋̐̊̍̈́̃́̉̾̚͜͝͝ą̸̲̫̞̖͓̩̆͜ͅl̴̘͈͙͔̮̬͉̯̪̘̒l̸̞̗̤̟̎̈́͒̑̃̚͘͘͝ỷ̷͇͈͒̊ ̸̧̨̛̲̲͙̬̘̦̩̯̥̌̆͛̓̏̀̔̓̽̏̏̐͛͜t̵̻̫͎̥͉̥̻̩͎̂̎̅̀̐̌̾̋̊͒̇̓̋͘ͅh̶̗̹̦͚̰͓̦̣̫̳͎͎͆͝ę̸̢̜̜̬̮̰̠̠̼̱͔͕̘͊͜ ̷̱̟͎͓̩͎͖̫͒̄͆̊̊̿̂͆͘͝f̷̢̝͉̘͈͙͖͉̲̻͌̈́̚̕ļ̵̟͇͇̟̣̯̺̣̬̮͋̊̀̊̿̃̆̀͗̕͠ą̵̘̠͖̫͎͚̠͈̰̟̋́̍̆͂̎̔̔̇̏͠m̵̩̊̓̆̉̒́͆͘͝͠͝e̸͎̬̩͙̣̒̇̄̿͂͗̉͒͛̋̾̕͝͠s̷̢͕̰̮̖̅̉̒͊̽̾̋̈̀̂̓̋͝?̷̧̨̛̣͕͔̫̙̫̹̪̉̒̓͑͋̚͠ͅ
Izuku continues to walk, burning like a torch in the dark as he traverses the courtyard. He stops as he reaches the first piles of villains his teacher defeated. They were lucky, and had fallen far enough away from the epicentre of the clash between himself and the Nomu that they are relatively unharmed. Bruises and concussions at best, deep gouges from friendly fire and broken bones at worst.
But… will that do? Will they learn? They came here today, tempted by promises of power or wealth, or even the imaginary glory of being there when their supposed Anti-symbol killed All Might. These thugs came to the USJ with the intention to fight, to hurt, to kill Izuku and his classmates, and what will happen to them?
'The police will come; those able to walk will leave in chains, those who cannot in stretchers. All of them will be wearing quirk suppressant cuffs, cut off from their abilities because that's all they worry about nowadays, isn't it? They will be herded to the nearest available jail. They will be held until trial. Some might get off. Technicalities and favours, minor rules broken by panicked, inexperienced students invalidating their arrest or a pro using a little too much force. All that minor bullshit could be argued.'
Izuku stood, a pillar of disdain amongst the bodies of the would-be League of Villains. His scowl is unseen as white, burning eyes rove over the villains who tried to invade his school. Some of them groan, starting to rouse from unconsciousness.
'Most will be convicted. There's not much they can do against charges of attempted murder of a group of minors, breaking and entering, being party to an act of villainy, partaking in an act of villainy, just to name a few. I doubt any significant number will escape jail time.'
Izuku doesn't see the shadows that creep at the edge of his vision. He won't see them. He is light and flame and heat. There are no shadows where he casts his gaze. So there are no shadows crawling around the edges, no indelible smudges in the corner of his eye. He has no eye. He is fire, he has no need for eyes.
Ŗ̶̨̤̣͎̀i̵̮̖̩͙̱͇̗̼̮̣̎͗́͝ͅg̷̮͍͕͇̜̖̝̉̌̇̒͒̍̌̕h̷͈͇̤͉̗͕̥̻͍̰͎̔̆͜͝ṭ̸̢̧̹̟̄̽͗̈́́̋̃͘?̷̡̹̪̩̞̠̙̽͒̉͌̂̂͋̃̑̕͜
But what will happen then?
'Shortened sentences for "good behaviour", The prison system is already overcrowded and overworked. Small time like these guys won't be worth keeping in for long. Too soon they will leave jail, free to wander with their fake innocence, free to live like they didn't break into a school and try to murder teenagers!'
Izuku thinks of Asui. He thinks of the scream that ran his blood cold with ice despite the flames that flowed through his veins. The synapses made of embers flash and play the glimpse Izuku managed to catch of her before he was forced to engage the villains. Of the halo of blood that surrounded her small form as she floated in the water, like a distorted parody of a murdered martyr.
Izuku snorted internally at the thought. Martyrs were for righteous causes and lasting symbolism. There was no righteousness here. No cause beyond inflicting suffering, death, and fear. Attempted iconoclasm by someone who's twisted mind portrayed them as the victim of an unfair system, and decided to take their revenge by targeting the new generation to spite and hurt the old guard.
The ground melting beneath the teen's feet as he took a last look at the piles of human waste, at those groaning in pain and those starting to wake.
'They will go on, living their lives happy as can be, while my classmates live with the trauma. Bullies and monsters in human skin revelling in the power they hold, on the effect they had.'
His body burns brighter.
'This will not stand. This time… this time there will be consequences!'
Izuku walks through the piles of bodies. His flames flicker, surging with every step, before retreating back into him again. Tongues of flame lick the skin of the villains he passes. They singe hair and burn skin, leaving behind patches of red discoloured flesh. Izuku can't kill them. He won't kill them. He's going to be a hero, and heroes stop villains-
What about Nomu?
-and in the stories his father used to read to him from his old books, heroes slay monsters too. They protect the innocent, save the day, condemn the guilty, destroy the evil…
Izuku shakes his head, and continues through the maze of bodies as his flames nick and singe those he approaches. He will not kill them, he won't even scar them, but he will burn them. Singed hair and reddened flesh to remind them how close they came to annihilation, what happens to small fish swimming in a big pond, deluding themselves into thinking they're the sharks.
The burns will heal, the hair will grow back, but the memory will stick with them. When the police come to drag them away, they will witness the carnage left behind from his battle. They will see the slag of melted stone, the shadows of trees turned to ash, the blanket of soot left behind by a powerful fire quirk. They will see the cracked earth and shattered fountain, the gouges in the landscape and the holes in the roof. They will bear witness to the aftermath of the clash between their ultimate weapon, a monster with multiple quirks created to kill All Might, and a first-year hero student. They will gaze upon the destruction their battle left behind, and see that of the two, only the student still stands.
They will hear that their monster is ash on the wind from the ones who witnessed the fight's climax, and that the ones who lead them into battle, the ones who promised them everything and provided their ultimate weapon, fled at the first sign of personal danger and left the fodder behind. They will know that they were abandoned by their leaders, left to rot as inconsequential casualties in a war as old as the age of quirks. They will see what used to be their comrades reduces to stains and chunks of person by the weapon they put their faith in, and they will know that those losses will be classified as "collateral damage caused by the villains" and those meaty chunks will be incinerated in the furnace of a morgue, the ashes left unlabelled and forgotten. The remains will be left in boxes in evidence rooms, nameless and unrecognisable to all who may have cared.
Izuku may not be burning these low-level thugs badly, may not be scarring them physically, but he is leaving a reminder of their insignificance on this day. As he steps over one last body –someone with a rock-skin quirk that takes a little longer to mark– Midoriya leaves behind a field of first-degree burns, and the message that, had they been a little bit unluckier, they could have lost everything today, and would have disappeared from the world without ever having left a mark of their own.
Izuku hopes this lesson sticks. Inducing an existential crisis is the most… available form of punishment he can dole out. He can't burn them if they aren't able to fight back, can't leave a more permanent reminder to the ones smart enough to realise what it would mean.
For the dumb ones?
Izuku shrugs mentally as he reaches the stairs. 'The dumb ones are the reason why we have so many heroes… And burning them did make me feel a little better, even if it's a pretty weak revenge.'
The student burns like a living torch as he makes his way up the stairs, his every footstep leaving melted gouges in the concrete as he climbs higher and higher.
The darkness is closing in now. The number of shadows blocking the light has grown, and they form a wall he can't see past. Do they think they can stop him? Ridiculous! He is fire! He is the warmth of a campfire on a cold winter's night, and the devastating power of a forest fire burning out of control. Mere shadows cannot hope to stand up to him. The brightness of his flames will banish them anyways.
He must move past them. He must reach the light.
Izuku crests the top of the stairs, the flames of his quirk coiling and burning just as much as before. He arrives like the morning sun rising over the horizon, the first ray of light banishing a dreadfully night full of terror and nightmares made real.
Midoriya's presence and the sheer heat he gave off as he advanced made short work of the already weakened ice-wall erected by Todoroki, steam exploding outwards and spreading across the other students as Midoriya melts a hole straight through the ice and emerges seemingly unaffected. In the background, the left-over ice quickly melting in the background as he continues his advance.
His classmates make the mistake of taking the time to watch Izuku as he made his way towards them, whether they meant to or not. They hadn't been talking before, all too focused on the tasks they'd taken on, but a different kind of silence fell over them as Midoriya made his way forwards. While the previous silence had been a crushing one full of nerves, though tending to the wounded had alleviated it somewhat (if not pushed it out of everyone's minds), this new one had a different type of tension. The kind one had when watching a friend holding a live grenade without a pin. Logically, you know that that person won't use it on you, but there is a part of the mind that recognises the danger, that remembers the videos watched chocked full of gruesome images of injuries sustained by that very tool now in the hands of another person. Logic doesn't always prevail when faced with a threat such as that.
That is to say, that as Midoriya made his way towards his classmates, and the wall of scorching heat that accompanied him washed over his fellow students, they flinched. They flinched and did their best to move out of the way of the walking inferno, shuffling the wounded or shielding them as best they could with help from others as that indominable heat saturated the air.
Izuku didn't notice the flinches, or the shuffled movement. All that his clouded mind realised was that the shadows were moving out of his way, and that he had a free path to the light. He didn't notice the looks of his classmates as he passed them by, though a tiny part of him at the back of his mind recognised his surroundings, recognised who was near him, and forced him to make a deliberate effort to lower or contain the heat he was giving off, which made no sense. Why should fire not give warmth?
The darkness he refused to acknowledge was creeping further and further into his vision, and was getting more and more annoying, but Izuku pressed onwards. He could see the light clearly now, the exit, and he knew he had almost made it. A few more steps and he would be able to taste it. 'Come on,' he thought, as his vision continued to tunnel, 'almost there…'
Ẁ̷̛̜̺͈̃̋̈͛̐͂̇̈̾͘ḩ̶̢̛̘͓͈͙͈̰͙̟̥̤̈́̈́͌̃̒̀̎̕͝ÿ̶̥̲͖̰̃̋̆̍̔̽͂̾̂̋̽͘͠ ̴̧̛͕͍̮̬͚̪̠̟͎̳̪͑̔̋̄̏̊̆̽͠w̶͚͇̏͂͂͒̄̆̎̅͘̚ą̸̡͖̞͎͈̙̙͇͔̺̈́͌͑̊̏̂̆̑́͂̕̕͝͠s̴̢̝̹̣̪̪̝͎̤̼̗̣͙͇͕̈̑̿̇́̒͂̍̂͘͝ ̸̝̥̯̫̙̾̔̃̊̍͆̀̃̄͂͌́̚͘h̶̡̪̣̲͕̺̖̋̿̈́̀̊͝ͅe̵͙̭̱͇̹͍̝͖̘̦̝̣̠̓͆̉̀̈́̒͌͌̈́͝͝ͅ ̶̨̱̘̼͌̋͌͗͑̓̿g̴̡̮̺̬̙̬̩̝͉͈̩͇̬̓͊̉̇͆͊̚͜͠͝͠ơ̶̧͍̯̣̅̌̐̓͑̌̾̈́͛͘͝ï̷̢͕̭̘̹̻͚̟̯͎̣̤͗̀̍n̸̡̗͙̤̥̭̘̪̖̼̿̽͐͑͐͘g̴̝̙̗̱̘̮̃̂̈́̌̈́̍̅͘͝ͅ ̸̧͈̹͙̺̦͍̠̝̝͖͇̂̓̓͋̐͒̒̀̓̽̆ţ̶̦̦͉̟̑h̵̬̠̥̣͂͑̉̓̈́͋̓̎͑̌͋e̴̢̢̡͍̜̤̭͚͉̪̫̖̱͔͋̏͂͋̈͑̐̂̀̐̕͘͝r̸̠̦̯͍̰̹̖̦͙̐ͅȩ̶̡̧̦̰̭̭̮̺̂̆͜͝ͅ,̵̧̡̨̡̠̖̟̯͕̙̖̳̽̽̏͌̓̎͜͜ ̷̠̮͇͍͈͎̮͚͌̾̄̔̽̈́́̽͘͘ą̶̳̖͙̺͓̲͙̺̦͚͖̾̈̎̕͘͠g̵̡̛͙̹͔̳̜̭̠̫̠̝̯̦̐̈̓̃̎̂̚͜͜͝͠a̸̭͚̱̤͚̅̃̌̎͆̐̉̃͒̊͝i̶̡̛̻͕̼͍̜̼̭̟̋͑̔͑̒͜ň̵̨̯̝͙͉͉̥̟̬͎͈̫̹̽̔͒͛̊̕ͅ?̵̱̫̦̼̳́̌́̎̒̋̏