Before my heart gives out (My hero academia)

road down memory lane

'Please be okay'

Like a mantra, Tsukauchi repeats that sentence in his mind as he speeds towards the USJ. He's probably broken a dozen speed limits and laws.

He doesn't care though. Not now. Not while a class full of teenagers are in danger. Not while Shadow- another kid, his mind adds- is risking his life for said class.

To think that, when Shadow called, Tsukauchi was thinking about how he was going to spend his lunch break.

He sees the USJ's dome from a distance and instantly knows that Shadow's been there.

There's a hole that goes through the middle of the dome. A fairly small, Shadow-sized hole. The glass surrounding it glimmers under the sunlight and Tsukauchi can't help but pray for everyone to be okay.

His prayers go unanswered that day.

__________________

"He's hurt." Aizawa barely manages to cough out as soon as he sees Tsukauchi approach. "It's bad." Before he can say anything else, he's being carted away by paramedics, his mangled arm is still bleeding heavily. Although, other than the disintegrated elbow, the hero doesn't have any more injuries.

Tsukauchi's eyes widen and he freezes. It can't mean anything good if Aizawa is that worried.

Before he can think twice about it, he's already sprinting down the structure, trying to find the runaway vigilante.

The students said that Shadow fled the scene as soon as the villains were all taken care of. Depending on the information he got. Shadow was hurt, disoriented and bleeding heavily.

They said he was reacting to everything on instinct. As if he wasn't really present while making his escape.

Tsukauchi's stomach churns at the thought. Images of the kid, bleeding out somewhere. Injured and alone.

The blood trail he finds leads him to an outside fence. It doesn't help his worrying.

________________________

Each step he takes is faster than the other. Something heavy settles on his shoulders. A weight crashing down on him, the bigger the blood trail gets.

Something stirs inside of him as he imagines himself finding the kid's body. A husk of the teen he once was.

He shakes his head, his jog turning into a full-on sprint as he finally reaches an alleyway.

Except, he doesn't find the body of an injured vigilante.

Instead, he finds it empty. The only evidence of any past encounter, is the small puddle of blood that's gathered near a dumpster.

He doesn't know if he should be relieved or even more worried.

In the end, he just hopes that the Shadow is okay.

____________________________

Consciousness comes to him in the form of a piercing headache.

The blackness in his eyes seems even darker, if that's possible.

He just barely registers that he's not in that alleyway anymore. Instead, on a quick inspection around him, he notices two things. One, it seems he's at the warehouse. Two, he's not alone.

He tries to get up but quickly regrets it. An agonizing jolt makes itself known in his ribs. Pain going through his whole body in waves.

It takes him a few moments to recover enough to be able to get a word out of his mouth.