The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings

Bleeding Out

Izuku was dizzy and choking on air. His eyesight was blurred, and it took him a minute for him to realize that he was crying.

What was happening to him? Why was he so... Terrified?

Izuku sees Nighteye's body barely holding together, skin as pale as snow. Mirio's bloody, haggard, body. He feels the nightmares that kept him up weeks on end and Eri's fear that faded, but always lingered.

This is happening. Again. Only differently. Izuku slaps his cheeks hard enough to sting for a few moments afterwards and gets up from the ground. He puts on his purple sweatshirt and black cargo pants that he snuck in with his backpack. He slips the throwing knives into the little slips on his pants and straps his bo staff to his back. Finally he puts on his black kitsune mask, feeling the shield of strength that comes along with it.

He grabs the rest of his belongings and with one last breath, opens the door.

_______

The heroes are gathered a mile down the residence forty-five minutes after Hato's call. Right after Hato hung up, Aizawa scrambled into action. Texting the hero group chat for this mission and telling his husband what's about to go down.

They're out the door in less than five minutes.

"How do we know he's ready for us?" Mirko asks. They're all in a hero residency building preparing to rush toward the scene as soon as queued.

"He'll press the button we gave him, and will help sneak us as vigilant as possible," Aizawa replies. He jumps at every little sound, every little itch. His body is screaming at him to run over to Hato right now and get him away from the danger.

But that won't do anything good.

"Great, so we have to trust that he won't get killed in the meantime," Endeavor grunts, irritable at any time of the day.

Shota ignores him.

_______

Hato takes his first step out of his room and snaps the nearest camera close to him, It dangles from the wire uselessly. This is when time heightens in importance: it won't take long for them to notice the cameras going out.

Every step he takes is another camera broken. He sees a night shift guard and with a tilt of his head, the guard is slammed against the wall, knocked out.

Hato starts to pound his feet against the floor faster. He's close to Eri when he runs into Irinaka.

"Keisuke, hey! Did you get lost or something? Your area is over there," the short man says as he points in the opposite direction.

Hato just takes another step, and Irinaka finally sees what he's wearing, and tenses.

"I've heard about you... You're that Hato vigilante, right? What the hell were you thinking sneaking into this base, huh? I'm going to kill you!" It is then that Irinaka transforms into his true form and is no longer in his black bodysuit. He gets taller and muscular, his hair showing in great blond spikes.

Hato doesn't even flinch. He stares as Irinaka takes control of the floor and, like a shockwave, it comes waving at him. Hato starts running towards it. He grabs his bo staff and uses it to catapult himself up and over the shock wave. Once he lands, he pivots to face Irinaka while grabbing a throwing knife and throws it at the villain. It hits him right in the thigh, making him scream out in pain.

"You son of a-" He wasn't able to finish his sentence because within seconds Hato was in front of him with the staff swinging forward. It hits Irinaka right on the temple, knocking him out for a good while. Hato yanks out the knife, wiping the blood off on Irinaka's shirt before putting it back into its secure place.