hero's shadow // mha

50) live to win

(cw: decapitation, gore—starts at the bolded "differs" and ends at bolded "blood"!!)

When Izuku stumbles away, body smoking and broken hand cradled against his chest, he sees Stain fall out of the newly made crater in the wall.

Gravity causes the katanas, which are still stuck in the cracked concrete, to slice right through his shoulders. He falls like paper peeling off a sticky surface and lands with a resounding thud on the dirty ground, unconscious.

It's music to Izuku's ears.

"We did it," Todoroki says breathlessly, and he doesn't even sound like he believes it.

Iida is doubled over, hands on his knees. He nods a few times and then lets out something between a laugh and a sob. "He... he's gone."

"He's not dead," Izuku says, facing away and already heading for the nearest alleyway. He has to go before the heroes get here. He doesn't have much strength left. The adrenaline is already gone, and now he feels like he needs to sleep for about twenty years. Maybe he'll get lucky and his sickness will get him during that time. "But he will be if he doesn't receive medical attention soon."

Izuku hit him right in the face. He felt the bones creak and snap at the force of his punch, so he knows there's a possibility of brain damage or something of the sort. And from the previous blows they inflicted upon Stain, lung puncture could be possible too if he wakes up and moves.

But at that point it won't be Izuku's fault.

His own ribs on his left side are on fire now, with Stain's last words to him feeling as though they've been branded onto his skin with hot iron, and Izuku hates how it's familiar. Hates how he liked the praise, accepted it, needed it, wanted it. He hates how he can physically feel his own heart thumping inside his chest, banging against his bones to get out, to leave, to escape.

"Hey, where are you—"

Izuku can't even hear the rest of Todoroki's question. The world is a swimming pool all around him, and his ears feel like they're stuffed with cotton. The air rushes out of him all at once, his blood going with it down his abdomen, and it's too much. His body is sticky and hot all over, dark with his fluids and the grime from fighting.

He trips over a piece of asphalt and nearly crashes right through the window of a flower shop. He instead falls against a metal trash can and ends up on his side, with stars dancing in his vision once his cheek hits the wet ground. Fuck. His body isn't cooperating.

He has to leave, but he can't. Is he paralyzed? No. No, Stain is still unconscious, so there's no way he managed to get his blood. But still, he's gasping silently now, trying to drag in breaths that won't come to him. His eyes slide shut, and he forces himself to just breathe .

He didn't die during the fight against Stain, so he sure as shit won't die after it. That would just be pathetic. Dragon Lady would laugh at him. Father would be... he'd...

Why is he even thinking about him right now? Why does he matter?

Now that the adrenaline and fight is over, so is Izuku's capability to even think straight.

A rush of air hits him in the face, and his eyelids are pushed up so he can see Todoroki's panicked face peering down at him. And maybe this isn't the best time to think this, but god he's beautiful, isn't he? Even when he's all scratched up and smoking from his left side, Izuku's friend is just stunning.

"You need to stay awake," Todoroki says, a note of urgency in his voice that's only just barely hidden. Izuku gives him an A for effort, though. "Rabbit, can you hear me?"