Growing Comfort - An IzuJiro Story

CH-12 Grief

Bakugo's POV
I was searching the edge of the city looking for an abandoned factory when I suddenly heard a loud noise along with a large shockwave a few hundred metres away from me. I started making my way over there only to see both Ears and Deku together. Thank god he's alright, huh what's that? As I was close approaching I suddenly saw Deku turn into dust, I had no idea what was happening but for some reason a tear escaped my eye. I landed a few metres behind Ears and slowly walked over to her.
"W-What happened?" I asked quietly as to not startle her.
"H-He beat him" She answered whilst crying.
"So where is he?" I asked.
"H-He... He's gone" She whispered.
"Oh... A-Are you okay?" I asked already knowing the answer.
"What do you think?" She asked.
"Sorry..." I replied.

I had no idea what to say so just stood there in silence until some pro heroes eventually showed up. Mr Aizawa walked up to me unsure of what was happening.
"What's going on? You're not supposed to be here" He asked.
"Deku beat All for One... But he's no longer with us" I answered.
"Oh... I'm sorry... Can you take her back then? We'll get this all sorted" He requested.
"Yeah sure" I replied with no emotion before walking up to Ears and placing my hand on her shoulder causing her to flinch. "W-We should go. Let the pros do their job" I said.
"O-Okay" She replied.

I helped Ears back to the dorms and we were swarmed by the entire class trying to find out what happened but they quickly realised after taking a closer look at our faces and backed off. Deku was gone and it wasn't easy to believe, I'm at least glad that I was able to apologise for everything before hand. Suddenly I heard Deku's voice in my head.
"Don't forget your job. I'm counting on you" I then suddenly realised what he actually meant by that. Damn that Deku, he really does think five steps ahead. I walked over to Ears who was still crying her eyes out whilst seeking comfort from Racoon Eyes.
"Hey, mind if I borrow her for a bit?" I asked quietly as I walked over to them.
"Sure" Racoon Eyes replied. I then walked with Ears in silence up to Deku's room.

Once we arrived I opened the door and walked in ahead of her and went straight to his desk.
"W-What are we doing here?" Ears asked.
"This" I said as I slid a note across the table.
"What's this?" She asked.
"A letter from Deku. He asked me to give it to you after everything was over" I explained. She picked up the letter and started to read it. Tears started streaming from her face even more than before but for some reason she seemed a little more at ease now, Deku had probably written everything he needed to say to make sure that she would be fine. I decided to leave her alone in his room and made my way back downstairs.

As I got downstairs I walked over to where Racoon Eyes was and sat down next to her whilst taking off my gauntlets.
"Is she okay?" Racoon Eyes asked.
"As good as she can be. Deku left her a letter and she seemed a little more at ease as she started reading it" I explained.
"And how are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm alright" I answered but she then placed her hand on my stomach and I flinched from a sudden pain.
"You don't see alright" She said.
"I'll be fine in the morning" I replied.
"Give me a sec" She said as she got up and went to grab the dorms med-kit.
"Why do you care so much?" I asked as she returned.
"Midori asked me to look after her so I will. Besides, she's my best friend" She answered.
"I know about that, but why do you care about me?" I asked.
"Because, you're obviously hurting in more ways than one. And you are also one of my best friends. Also I think that you're pretty cute, especially when you get angry" She answered. I couldn't tell if she was kidding about the end part but that didn't really matter.
"Thanks" I said again.
"Save that till after this" She said as she started tending to my injuries on my stomach and chest causing me to flinch from the pain.

Eventually she had completely tended to my injuries and she just leant her head against my shoulder as she started to fall asleep, normally I would blow up any person who did something remotely like this yet for some reason I felt happy when she did so couldn't bring myself to get angry with her. I let myself relax on the chair with Mina and started to fall asleep as I rested my head on top of hers.

Our final exam for the year was cancelled due to all of the events which happened that night, they decided to grade us from our mock exam and everyone had passed. Usually we would all be happy hearing that news but nobody could bring themselves to smile even a little bit, not even I could. The school held a funeral for Deku paying for everything so that Auntie Inko wouldn't have to worry about it but the hardest thing was having to explain everything that happened to Deku to her. She cried just as much as Ears did and it was the hardest thing I ever had to watch, my mum and dad went out of their way to help Auntie with anything she needed as well. Deku was also given a memorial at the school and at various places around the entire country after people found out about what he did, he was praised as a hero greater than All Might for giving his life to stop All for One. There were statues of him in the middle of cities covered in flowers left by people showing their gratitude.

After about a week we all got our official licences and became full fledged pro heroes. Everyone went to the agency they were doing their work studies in and I went to Best Jeanist, the number three hero. The entire class tried to stay in touch but the only people I ever responded to were Shitty Hair, Ears and Mina. I started to develop feelings for Mina after everything that happened but I never got to tell her due to all of the events that happened, it felt wrong to do something that could make me happy after everything that happened. I also hadn't seen her since we left school which made it difficult and I didn't want to do anything over text or call. The only thing I really knew about her new life was that she was interning with Mirko and that she and Ears were sharing an apartment so that she could keep her promise to Deku, looking after Ears for him so that he could rest easy.

I knew that these feelings wouldn't go away anytime soon but I decided to let them rest deep down so that I could focus on becoming the best hero I could be, for Izuku...

The End.

Thank you for reading Growing Comfort. Please leave a comment to tell me what you think. I am working on two other books at the moment, one being MHA and the other being MLB so check them out. Thank you again for reading my story and goodbye.