hero's shadow // mha

72) cleared

"We apologize for the interruption of our regularly scheduled broadcast. We are watching this footage as it's currently being released. Fuhito will take it from here."

Izuku's phone is vibrating so fast in his pocket now that it feels like a miniature nuclear reactor. He doesn't make a move to silence it, though. He's standing in the middle of the hallway, limbs frozen, lips parted.

"You're seeing this too, right?" A student asks, breathless. Her voice is high-pitched.

"No way..." Her friend responds, eyes glued on the phone being shared between them.

The hallway becomes louder and louder as students come out of their classrooms to talk. To Izuku's right, a group of second years are clustering around a business course student who's watching the broadcast on his phone.

The screen is displayed onto the wall as a hologram with a touch of a button, and Izuku finds himself turning to face it as more students push past him to see it.

There's a round of shushing and demands to be quiet, and then the sound of the news reporter is amplified throughout the near silent hall.

A man with half of a ram's horn on his head appears on screen, clutching a stack of papers tightly in hand. "Viewer discretion is advised, as what may come next could be disturbing for some audiences..."

There's a ringing in Izuku's ears now. It blocks out all of the other noises around him, narrowing his vision so it's all just one tunnel. Izuku can only look forward, up at that screen, and hear what's being shown. Danger, something screams inside of him, something innate and deep and wild. Danger, danger. Move.

The screen changes, and a staticky video starts to play. At first, it's all smoky and blurry, but after a second there's a flash of red and orange—an explosion, and everything comes into focus.

The camera seems to be positioned on the side of a building, and the view is crooked. It looks down on an alleyway and a junction to a cracked road. In the distance, fighting and screaming can be heard, and the crackling of flames grows closer to the source of the video.

Audio. There's audio.

Panic, so hot and fresh and blinding, runs through him like an electric shock, nearly making him fall. No. No, this can't be possible. He thought he was good. He thought he checked for cameras all around the perimeter during the fight with Stain! He thought he covered himself! Granted, he was sort of in a bad state and was high off of fear and adrenaline and desperation, but still!

Izuku doesn't believe it. He can't believe it.

In fact, he's fully convinced that this is some sort of edited or fake 'leak' until he sees sparks of red lightning zipping from the left side of the video to the middle like a shooting star.

His lightning.

A lump crawls up Izuku's throat, choking him. Rabbit has arrived.

The audio on the video is turned up, and the shouting of insults is heard more clearly now.

He stares at the hologram, and he can't feel, he can't think, he can't function.

Oh, God.

The streetlamp off to the side flickers and burns even brighter, casting orange light over the area and revealing the fight that's just started.

Rabbit is facing Stain directly now, trying to redirect one of his blows. Native and Iida are off to the side on opposite ends, unmoving. The vigilante is the only one up, the only one fighting against the hero killer. He's being pushed back slowly from the sheer force of Stain's blades against his steaming pipe. Izuku remembers how hot it was to the touch. He remembers the way the skin on his palm broke and then bled with how tightly he was holding onto the burning metal.