"That thing's going to kill you", said Enji disapprovingly

"Good"

Shoto exhaled a puff of smoke. Grey ribbons rose from the tip of his cigarette, twirling around his face like ethereal hands brushing his skin.

A sealed letter rested on his thigh, ink staining his fingertips and blood his clothes.

Whoever would clean his clothes would need to scrub them until their hands were raw. Or maybe he'd burn them.

There was nobody left in the estate to do his bidding, anyway. Only him and his traitorous mind.

"You know", he said to the tombstone. "I think I'm growing impartial to fire-based attacks"

He paused a beat, as if waiting for an answer, then scoffed and smiled, looking away.

"The smell's awful, though. Don't know how you managed"

Enji looked grave as his fingers brushed his carved name on the stone.

"Burnt the nerves in this area. Couldn't smell a goddamn thing"

That's the kind of thing Shoto would do. Or maybe Enji would've, too. He'd always had the most awful nose.

"Seems rather unpractical. I need my nose for a bunch of stuff"

For a moment Enji was shimmering, the dull light shining through his body as if he were mist.

"You're a murderer. You killed too many people. You know he would disapprove"

Shoto's cigarette paused inches from his lips. He pinned Enji with a scathing look.

"Shut the hell up"

Enji's face contorted, his furrowed brow smoothing, a myriad of emotions flashing through his eyes, flickering like a flashlight before he stabilized.

"Half of the best thing in food is the smell", Enji offered dully, falsely cheerful in a way that sounded so wrong coming from his father's mouth.

Shoto didn't get why he could always get everybody damn right but not him, never him.

Enji coughed and maggots fell from his mouth, crawling up his crossed legs.

He smiled : blood was smearing his teeth. The flesh on his jaw was hanging by a thread, fluttering lightly because of a nonexistent breeze.

Shoto looked down, dreading what he'd see despite knowing goddamn well what he was going to see. His heart pounded as he stared at the gaping wound in his chest from which warm, dark blood flowed.

It wasn't accurate, Shoto knew it, there'd barely been enough blood left in his body when he'd arrived, way not enough blood to gush out that way, yet his hands still shook.

"Thank you for murdering all of these people, son", said Enji, sickeningly sweet. "I've never felt happier"

It sounded so wrong coming from him.

"You know I did it mostly for myself", Shoto murmured.

"What did our teacher tell us long ago ? Ah right, hurt people hurt people. Guess you're back to square one. Couldn't fight off indefinitely your true nature"

Shoto shot Enji a warning look.

Enji smooth brow turned scrunched up, wrinkles folding the corner of his eyes and mouth, his flesh mending itself and the cockroach nibbling his cheek evaporating like mist.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

He looked so real, so tangible, his blue eyes as luminous as they'd been when he was alive, a faint warmness oozing off him in waves.

"You can't go on, Shoto"

There, the admonishment he'd been waiting for.

"You've gone too far already"

"I always wonder", said Shoto. "What did you do when you dropped me at grandma's when I was ten ?"

Enji frowned disapprovingly, arms crossed, and it shut him up.

"The Heroic Commission ? Fine, if overdone. Tartarus, though ? There were a hundred thousand ways that wouldn't have implied you killing everyone here"

"It was the island", Shoto justified himself. "This thing… You saw it as well as I did. I couldn't let it live"

"What about the people ?"

"Unfortunate consequences"

"What about Katsuki ?"

"I-"

Enji's judgmental eyes were boring holes in the side of his head.

"It wasn't on purpose. I didn't mean it"

"Intentions don't matter if you still do something that you know you shouldn't. Lying to yourself isn't healthy"

Shoto busied himself with reading the tombstone again and again to forget the debilitating guilt.

Enji Todoroki, great Hero, loving father, Enji Todoroki, great Hero, loving father, Enji Todoroki, great Hero, loving father.

"It's not healthy to use genjutsu on yourself either"

Pathetic, Shoto translated.

He clicked his tongue.

"Fuck off", he muttered.

But Enji didn't leave because Shoto didn't mean it.

Somebody was better than nobody, even though it was just something and not truly anyone.

*

"Have you seen what he's done ?", half screamed Inaza.

Nobody dared to look him in the eye.

He wiped a drop of spit that'd fallen on his lower lip.

They'd changed a lot during the past year : they'd shed baby fat, had grown more jaded, their eyes losing the spark that had fueled them in the beginning. How foolish they'd been, dreaming of becoming Heroes.

"Bakugo is-"

"We know", snapped Jiro. "We were with you in his room"

Inaza clenched his fist.

"We can't let him keep on doing whatever he wants. We need to stop him"

"Why should it be us ?", asked Monoma

"Because somebody has to. If we don't, then who ?"

The doctor got out of the hospital room at this exact moment.

They all stood up except Monoma whose dull eyes showed resignation.

"I regret to inform you that despite the surgery, Katsuki Bakugo..."

The doctor inhaled deeply.

They were all so young yet they looked so tired.

"Katsuki Bakugo is paralyzed. He won't ever be able to walk again or hold a fork, let alone be a Hero"

Sero deflated like a balloon and fell on his chair as though the strings holding him had been cut. Aizawa's gaze hardened.

"I'll inform his parents now", said the doctor before walking away briskly towards another room

Katsuki's mom had fainted when she'd seen the state he was in barely half an hour earlier. They'd put her in another room nearby.

Inaza waited until the doctor was out of earshot to keep on speaking, but Monoma stood up.

"I'm out"

Inaza frowned.

"Now is not the time to cower"

"Is it not ?"

Monoma looked them in the eye one by one, scowling.

There'd been an incident with his sister recently that the headmaster had helped with, though none of them had been privy to what had exactly happened.

Monoma had never been the most popular but the ease with which he used to speak was long gone, as though he'd matured prematurely.

"You can't even fathom the extent of his abilities and yet you still want to fight him for kicks and giggles ?"

Inaza took a step forward, hoping to grab Monoma's shoulder, yet he misinterpreted his gesture and met him head-on, snarling :

"We have Aizawa sensei with us. If we plan well enough-"

"You and I are cockroaches under his shoe", he said. "If Katsuki ended up like a fucking infirm even though they were supposed to be friends, can you even imagine what he'll do to us ?"

Monoma shook his head and stepped back.

"I've got people that need me. I can't afford to die in a stupid war that we have no chance of winning"

He left without looking back.

Inaza shot a hopeful glance at Aizawa, wishing he'd say something, but the man stayed quiet, refusing to partake in their strife.

"I know our chances of winning are slim to none", said Inaza. "But we can't go down without trying. What would we even say to Kirishima if he saw us ?"

Jiro wiped her eyes. Sero sunk in his chair and hid his face behind his hand.

"He needs to be brought to justice", Inaza said. "Or at the very least we need to stop him, no matter what it costs us"

"Are you implying we should end him ?", asked Tokoyami

The air was heavy.

Inaza heard them though they didn't speak : 'wouldn't that make us the same as him ?'.

He looked them in the eye one by one.

"Tsuyu Asui, Tenya Ida, Ochaco Uraraka, Denki Kaminari, Eijiro Kirishima, Toru Hagakure, Momo Yaoyorozu, Katsuki Bakugo"

There was no need for a grand speech.

They all knew what Inaza meant by saying their names.

In their memory.

"Who's with me ?", asked Inaza

A second passed by.

And, to the general surprise, it was feeble Midoriya who stood up.

"I am"

Sero stood, eyes red-rimmed.

"Me too"

One by one Jiro, Sato, Shoji and Tokoyami stood up.

They'd started high school with twenty people yet one year later only six were left from the original roster.

"I didn't know half of the people you mentioned", said Shindo. "But I'm in"

Sero and him fist bumped.

"I fear I won't be of much help"

All of their heads turned to the newcomer. Aizawa had to take a double-take.

He stopped in front of them.

"But I know somebody who can", said All Might.