The Forest Thing

Chapter 23: It's over

Izuku doesn't move, he stands, looking at All for one's dead body, blood drips from his claws, and for a moment, everything is quiet.

Soon he hears distant voices and he barely registers them calling his name. The quiet didn't last very long.

The forest thing ignored the voices, he could barely hear them anyway. Instead, he shrunk down to his humanoid form, and took a breath to calm his nerves, before looking around with a new determination in his eyes. Izuku needed to find Hitoshi.

He started moving without a second thought, walking past the Pro heroes who had been calling his name, not even sparing them a glance as he passed.

They called to him again. Izuku recognized one of the voices as Present Mic but paid the man no mind.

Izuku walked off the battlefield, onto streets that, while still covered with rubble, were considerably more clear than where the actual battle had taken place.

He passed an ambulance where All Might was being cared for, only looking for a moment to make sure the hero wasn't too hurt.

Izuku kept walking, slowly picking up speed until he was running through the city streets as fast as he could without the boost of being in a forest.

Soon he arrived outside the bar where the league had been hiding and a familiar head of purple hair came into view.

The forest thing ran over to the teen like a dog excited to see its owner after they returned home, which, ironically, was a situation Izuku was quite familiar with.

His arms wrapped around Hitoshi as soon as he was close enough, the teen would have fallen over from the force of Izuku running into him had the forest thing not been holding him.

Hitoshi stumbled slightly and tensed up at the contact.

"Hitoshi, I was so worried about you!" Izuku Looked up at the taller, green eyes meeting purple.

Faint recognition flashed through Hitoshi's eyes as he looked at the forest thing.

"Izuku...?" he mumbled.

The forest thing perked up at his name, nodding quickly. "Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? If they did, I'll track them down. I promise. Nobody hurts my kids!" Izuku rambled.

The tension in Hitoshi's shoulders fell. His arms wrapped around Izuku and his head lowered to rest on his shoulder, purple hair tickling Izuku's nose.

The forest thing cut off his rambling and hugged Hitoshi closer.

"You're okay now. I'll keep you safe, I promise."

_______________________

It had been a day since the fight. Hitoshi didn't need much medical attention so he left the hospital this morning.

Thankfully, before everything went to shit, Nedzu was able to get Hitoshi out of his bad foster home, along with any other foster kids that were being mistreated, and put into emergency foster care with a good home.

Izuku was quite happy when he found out Hitoshi would be going with Aizawa, he deserved someone who would take care of him and Izuku knew Aizawa would do his best, even if it was temporary.

With All for one taken care of, though some weren't happy with Izuku's methods of taking care of him, everything was slowly going back to normal, or as normal as their lives could be. Most of the students and the heroes were out of the hospital, repairs were being made to damaged areas of the city, and classes at UA would be starting again soon. Nedzu was even having dorms made for the students.