Version A, Too | Boku No Hero Academia Reader Insert

IX: Safe

It felt like eons had passed as I sat in the cold, dark little space, desperately waiting for someone to come and discover me. Thankfully my blood had clotted and the bleeding stopped, but my wounds left me lightheaded with blurred vision and a numbed backside. I attempted to shift into a more comfortable position at one point, but was met with a jarring pain that made me gasp, groan, then sink back into my original position. It was safer not to move, less I wanted to go through the same motions again.

The situation was so despondent that I couldn't even bring myself to cry. My mind was a mess and I'd felt as if any more time spent in this hellhole would chip away at my sanity, turning me senile and therefore useless. Jaded at the thought, I forced myself to keep my eyes open and my consciousness running at a bare minimum -- at least this would be enough to know if there would be hope of rescue or not.

And through the hours of gasping and groaning, there were large explosions that shook the building, causing tremors to rumble through the winding hallways and hit my room with such force that it nearly knocked me over. My intuition desperately pleaded that they were signs of heroes finally beginning to break through the fortress, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. 

After all, the crash would be so much worse if I was wrong.

So I sat, suffering inside an insufferable prison, waiting for someone to help as if I weren't already a hero myself. I cursed at myself for my own incapability to do everything. A hero wasn't supposed to be knocked down like this -- they were to persevere and emerge victorious even from the most dire circumstances. And it was so reckless to let myself get captured, to be lured into such a vulnerable position by the League.

Should I have known? Should I have been suspicious? Perhaps Shigaraki was simply trying to get inside of my head and under my skin.

Perhaps that was it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

At least I think that's what I wanted to believe.

I don't think I'd ever be willing enough to admit that I had this little foresight about the predicament at hand. I had no insight into the plan that the League was brewing and it sickened me. I had no idea of what happenings were to come, what horrific events that were about to carve my fate, and what the future held for such a person like me.

These notions stopped, however, when my ears no longer detected any noise coming from the surrounding chambers.

The commotion outside had suddenly settled, which proved to be enough of a distraction to break me away from my thoughts, fortunately. Following the brief period of silence, there was the sound of heavy footsteps -- and they were nearing me. Relief flooded my senses when I heard the clamoring of familiar voices outside my cell door. There was a pounding sound on the other side of the barrier as people attempted to ram it down in order to reach me. 

The world ascended into slow motion as the door finally came down with a crash after a few more strikes.

The first face that I was met with was Midoriya's. His worrisome green eyes bore into mine, expression overflowing with such anxiety. Had he become this way because of me? Or was it fueled by his urgency to escape this place and reach society once more? 

Regardless of his motives, all I knew was that people had come. 

People had come for me. 

I simply could not get over the sheer enormity of the sound this silent idea produced drowned out any other affirmation or brief doubt my mentality could conjure. The thought rang through my mind as heroes assisted me in getting out of the handcuffs and bonds I was in, helping me to stabilize my body upon realizing that my back had been completely mutilated. It continued to plague my rationale, pushing me down, deep into the depths of my mind where I could not find any light other than that thought. 

Like a moth, I was pulled by its irresistible gleam, latching onto it for what seemed like eternity.

Only when I felt a gentle hand press against my shoulder was I able to come back into the present and out of my subconscious, pulled away from the lamppost of my preoccupation.

As Deku softly asked if I was alright, I paused, seemingly bewildered enough that he had to repeat the phrase again. So as I listened to him for the second time, his sentiments had finally registered in my mind and struck the deepest parts of my soul. 

I could not hold back the urge to cry when met with such kindness in the darkest times. My lower lip quivered and my vision began to blur as I started to hiccup and gulp down hefty breaths. The reddened cheeks below my eyes became wet, doused with the physicalities of relief and joy. Graciously, Midoriya had also released me from my disoriented stupor. 

"I'm so glad you're here," I sobbed whilst laughing breathlessly, hot and heavy tears streaking down my face, "Izuku." I cast one more weakened, yet grateful beam his way before finally succumbing to the severity of my emotions. 

Turning my head and letting harsh sobs wrack through my being, it seemed as if a depressant on my chest had just been wholeheartedly relieved. This was freedom, this was relief, this was everything that I had craved when acting so hard on the outside. 

For my heart could take no more abuse.

At long last, I was able to let it all out. 

And this complete and utter transparency I had with my friends and those around me was something so unfamiliar, so hard to recognize and take in on my own.

But it was nice. 

A pair of arms wrapped around my body, careful to avoid the splinters and gashes along my back. As I buried my face in their shoulder, the muffled echoes of my cries were the only sound that filled the room. They bounced around the walls as the cries of newborn babe did. They were the cries of someone so uncertain, of someone so confused and conflicted -- of someone who only knew how to be alone, and nothing else. 

The cries held sorrow, an amalgamation of it. The cries were from the desperate, the sinner, the marionette, the woeful.

And they were captured into the arms of those who were capable of love and empathy -- the arms and bodice of those who cared.

God, it was nice.

__

i'll be back with a longer chapter sometime this week, preferably! <3

stay tuned xoxo