#i... i almost forgot that izuku has automail now sjDHKSJ

[starlistic]

laughs nervously hey all you be thou for the people folks

well the most recent episode means that I actually Cannot restrain myself, so! spoilers for my fic under this cut. it may not be the exact thing but it is still the thing. also... some mustang-esque use of alchemy. and broken automail.

you have been warned.

Kouta is terrified.

He sees smoke and steam and something that’s neither rising from the treetops, and he knows that something is wrong.

The wind carries to him the acrid tang of burning and ash. Around the corner, a cloaked figure approaches.

By the time Mandalay’s voice comes echoing into his thoughts through her quirk, begging him to run, it’s already too late; he begins stumbling towards the little path back to the camp but stops, fear clutching at his heart with ice-cold fingers, because there is a shadow over him and footsteps behind him and he turns—

“Look what we have here,” the cloaked villain drawls, and Kouta slowly backs away another step, limbs shaking. “I just wanted a decent vantage point, and here I’ve found you. A face that wasn’t on the list.”

Kouta thinks that under that hood and under that mask, the villain must be grinning. He cannot see it, but he can hear it.

Tears well up in his eyes, hot and frustrated and fearful.

“Hey, your hat’s pretty cool, kid!” the villain continues, apparently completely ignoring Kota’s discomfort. He points at his mask. “Wanna trade? I’m new, so they gave me this lame-ass mask because they didn’t know if they’d be able to ship it in on time.”

Move, Kouta thinks to himself, move! And this time he wrenches himself free of fear’s paralytic hold and runs, feet pounding the ground. His legs are shorter but he’s smaller, more agile, so he should be able to duck and dodge. ( He is the son of two heroes and the cousin of another and he knows how to get away from someone dangerous. )

Except the villain is faster.

Rock cracks and Kouta skids to a messy stop as the villain rebounds off the wall to land in front of him.

The mask clatters the the ground behind him.

He sees the punch winding up, the arm drawn back to pummel him into the ground. He realizes he can’t avoid it. The villain is too fast to dodge, for a little boy, but then he sees the hood flutter and reveal a prosthetic eye and suddenly he remembers the news on That Day, the fact that the villain who killed his parents is still free, the fact that the villain who killed his parents has a strength-augmenting quirk, the fact that the villain who killed his parents suffered damage on the left side of his face because of his parents, the fact that this is that villain and Kouta chokes when he inhales for a scream.

Papa! Mama!

He does not duck his head but watches the punch come for him like death rushing headlong, tears streaming down his cheeks, thinking of his parents.

But then lightning flashes over the ground and the earth groans and splits apart and Kouta falls to his knees as the earth bucks and hurls him backward, just barely out of range. A line of spikes jut upward, cutting the villain (murderer) off from Kouta.

For a second he wonders if Pixie-bob has somehow managed to find him, but it’s a blur of green that hauls itself over the cliff edge, not the familiar pro hero.

“Kouta-kun!” Midoriya Izuku shouts, lighting still crackling around his mechanical fingers, his prosthetic palms glowing with etched-in circles. “Kouta-kun, come here!”

Kouta runs but the villain jumps, and Izuku swears before lurching forward, wrapping his arms around Kouta and rolling out of the way when the villain crashes into the lip of the cliff and cracks it.

The abrupt movement startles a half-sob out of Kouta, and Midoriya glances at him before pulling his expression into a tight smile, teeth bared in defiance. “It’s okay,” he says. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.” Midoriya seems to deliberate whether or not to set Kouta down, glancing at the villain and then at the forest, and then he grimaces.

(The forest is beyond the villain, now, and Izuku does not think he is fast enough to get around him. Which is unfortunate, and possibly damning. But he does not tell Kouta.)

“Ah,” the villain says, grinning. “You must be Midoriya Izuku. Perfect, that saves me the trouble of finding you.”

Being so close, Kouta feels more than sees Midoriya stiffen. And then he feels himself being set down slowly, and quickly regains his footing to back away. Midoriya discretely positions himself between Koutan and the villain. “What are you talking about?” Midoriya begins, but then stops. His expression hardens, and he claps his hands together — as though he’s just decided that he doesn’t care enough about the answer to hear it.

Something rings into the air like a bell, but the villain is already moving, red fibrous material swarming his arm. Kouta blinks and the wind pressure hurls him backward, sending tumbling him head over heels, and precious seconds pass before he can scramble back to his feet.

Midoriya is gone.

—No, Midoriya is in a new crater in the rock wall, and one of his arms is falling apart, wires hanging out and joints snapped. The hand is gone, blown clean off, but the rest at least seems to be capable of moving.

Not capable of surviving another blow, however.

Kouta grits his teeth against a whimper and hears the villain ask about some Bakugou (which sounds familiar... one of the heroes-in-training, maybe?). But he can’t do anything. 

He tastes salt on his lips and doesn’t know if it’s his tears or Midoriya’s blood or both their sweat.

Midoriya calls up a wall of rock to soften the villain’s following blow, energy buzzing through the air, and Kouta covers his head as the wall is immediately blown apart and the debris scatters everywhere. He misses the moment the villain kicks Midoriya down, but when he looks up, he sees the result with horrible clarity.

Midoriya is on the ground, grimacing and struggling to push himself up with his broken prosthetics. It looks like his other arm’s palm has been scraped off.

The transmutation circles have been destroyed.

“That’s right,” the villain says casually, looming over Midoriya. “You’re the quirkless one. No wonder you’re so weak; my muscle enhancement quirk means I can break anything you think you can create.”

Midoriya spits blood and glares. “I,” he grinds out, rasping, “am an alchemist.”

“And I am bragging,” the villain says. “Everyone knows about how useless alchemy is. What did you claim, just moments ago? That it’s okay? I’d say don’t make me laugh, but I’m already laughing!”

Kouta crouches, and his fingers close around one of the pieces of debris. A small stone, jagged-edged. He imagines that he can still feel Midoriya’s alchemic sparks writhing around the rock, and imagines it as courage.

“Don’t say things like that if you can’t back it up,” the villain says, and his quirk surges to life, encasing him in muscle.

Midoriya is still on the ground, so Kouta sets his feet in and throws.

The pebble knocks on the back of the villain’s neck like a gentle tap, and he turns his head.

Kouta’s shaking from head to toe, but he manages to pull the words out of his thoughts and force them out of his mouth. “The Water Horses,” he says, trembling. “Mama and papa — did you torment them like that before you killed them, too?”

Silence.

And then the villain turns and grins, advancing on Kouta, and Kouta stumbles back fearfully, eyes wide and vision wavering with tears—

The air rings in an odd echo of a clap, and Muscular pauses for a split instant in confusion before everything explodes into fire and Kouta screams as he’s tossed backward again by the force of the blow, rolling across the ground until he feels the edge of the cliff stop beneath him and terror claws its way into his throat as he begins to fall—

Another ringing clap, and suddenly the cliff’s steep face comes alive and curls through the air to catch him safely and bring him back to the top again, where Midoriya has his broken prosthetics pressed to the ground. Relief floods his expression when Kouta comes into view.

“Sorry,” Midoriya says. “You weren’t burned, were you?”

“N-no.”

“Good. I... Can you get on my back? We need to get out of here—”

The scorched debris is shoved aside and Midoriya staggers back when the villain hauls himself up with a dangerous scowl.

Midoriya claps again and — to Kouta’s confusion — clips one hand against the other like striking flint. A spark flares to life and the villain seems to realize what happens just an instant before it strikes, but even that is too late.

The spark zips to him and ignites in a howl, and the villain roars in pain as he burns.

“It’ll only scorch him a little,” Midoriya says, breathless and pained, and tips his head for Kouta to grab on. Kouta does as instructed, clinging to Midoriya’s torn shirt as tightly as he can.

The fire dies out quickly and the villain fixates Midoriya with a terrifying glare that could kill heroes all on its own. “Fuck orders,” he snarls, “I’m going to smear you into the ground for that—”

A clap, and the villain lunges at him, apparently trying to close the distance and avoid the incoming fire at the same time.

“Bye,” Midoriya tells him, and touches the ground.

Kouta gasps as the earth drops out from beneath them, plummeting them below the villain’s punch.