Izuku Midoriya hated crying.

It was ironic really. His entire life was filled non-stop with tears of happiness, fear, sadness and anger. He cried at least once a week if not more, and many had just accepted it as a part of who he was.

Those weren't moments when he was really crying though. They would pass by soon enough.

Right now, he was stuck with the type of crying he absolutely loathed, tears streaming down his face and chest aching with every shallow breath. His lips quivering and his mind blank forcing him to focus on the sensation of his heart feeling like it was being ripped to shreds.

It was the cries of someone who, in that moment, was broken. Shattered, potentially beyond repair.

"I'm sorry… I'm s-sorry…" He muttered to himself in his empty room, knee's to his chest as he sat against the door. Tear drops fell and stained his black suit, conveniently missing a black tie to avoid his usual mess of a knot seeming disrespectful.

After all, Jirou didn't deserve that at her funeral.

Especially not when he was the reason she was dead…

"I'm sorry…. I'm so sorry…"

Shigaraki's cruel grin passed by his mind and he let out a small cry, cupping his head with his hands.

He was so pathetic… her funeral was being held right now, people all around gathering for her and what was he doing?

Breaking down alone in his room like a coward. 'it's your fault! it's your fault! it's YOUR FAULT!'

Earlier that week

It was total unexpected chaos all across the training city 1-A had come to, as villains poured out into the empty streets.

Just less than ten minutes ago, everything had been fine. Izuku had been stuck in with All Might, while the rest of his classmates had gone to class because of something important they had to discuss about his training regime as soon as possible.

It was a bit annoying in it's timing, as the greenette knew they supposedly had a special instructor that day who apparently had something to teach them about special kinds of quirks, like the man's own.

What he didn't know is what that quirk actually was.

It had only been a five-minute chat, quickly correcting some details and making sure the greenette knew to follow this new plan to the letter when all to suddenly, a staff member had burst in saying a villain attack had been under way.

Before All Might even had time to process that news, a green bolt of lightning had shot off from the couch and Izuku was bolting to where his classmates would be.

'No, no, no, no!'

He made it near to the gates in no time, eyes widening in horror as he saw the smoke rising from in the city and buildings crumbling. It was total carnage.

he leapt straight up to the top of the wall, utilizing the full 17% he could safely get up there and land. Among the many things that sped up with is full cowling, his eyes were one of the most useful as it let him quickly scan across the battlefield and take in all the horror from below.

It was like the USJ but somehow even worse. Thugs marched from all around as his classmates and teacher fought to protect themselves. Aizawa of course took the charge to the main villains, where Izuku saw Shigaraki and…

"Nomu?!"

Not just any Nomu. The original, and he looked much worse than before. His arms were practically bursting at the seams with his muscles and he had a solid metal plat around his body, seemingly acting as an extra barrier between him and any potential blows.

Somehow, it was back.

'Not good…'

Worse still, it seemed they had a new main member of their team that was currently fighting Aizawa, the usual League of Villain members holding back for now.

He was a simple looking man with black hair and a street clothes, completely unassuming at first. But he kept popping in and out of sigh faster than Midoriya could keep up with, in fact he was literally dissipating and reappearing elsewhere.

A teleportation quirk. They had someone to make up for their missing Kurogiri. The greenette let out a small growl, presuming that was why his classmates seemed so spread out. That was the problem with teleportation quirks, ad how rare they were.

They were hard to beat, and if someone with one had an incentive to become a villain… they rarely had any fear or respect for most heroes stopping them from doing so.

To make matters worse, it had to be Aizawa he was fighting. Perhaps one of the worst match up's his teacher could get. He'd struggle to erase the man's quirk at the best of time, and with a time limit n his erasure the villain only needed to hold out for a couple moments before he could go on the offensive.

It really was like another, even worse USJ attack.

His eyes moved across the rest of the battlefield so he could survey the situation everywhere else.

Momo, Asui and Satou were holding off thugs left and right closest to the centre. Todoroki wasn't too far behind, actually managing to somehow convince Bakugou to work with him just enough to blast a large portion of the thugs away.

Mineta, Hagakure, Uraraka, Aoyoma and Ojiro were stuck upon a roof top, doing their best to hold off thugs from getting inside and a quick look at the windows revealed some of their classmates, specifically Mina, Sero, Kaminari and Kirishima in the floors below standing off against what appeared to be Toga and Twice.

Finally the greenette's eyes shifted to near the observation room closest to him, where he saw Iida and Tokoyami rather finely dancing around one another to use their combined brute force to hold back the villains while not weakening the bird teen with the engine teen's flames at all, Satou and Koda doing their best to help with the more nimble thugs that manages to slip through and they even had a man the boy didn't recognize helping them which he presumed had to be the instructor.

The wall behind them was destroyed and rubble was spilling out and… holy crap that was a lot of blood on those rocks. His eyes widened before his blood ran cold as he realized something.

'Wait… where's Jirou?!' His eyes shifted around everyone again only to see no sign of the girl, and what was worse… he realized not a single villain or hero in his sight was bleeding enough to be responsible for the stains down below. 'No! NO NO NO NO!'

Kyoka groaned, body aching as the world darkened around her. She vaguely registered the sound of fighting and footsteps approaching but she didn't turn to look.

She couldn't. The words excruciating pain didn't come close to doing justice to how bad she hurt. Her limbs bent at awkward angles, in fact she was pretty sure at least one was missing and there was massive hole right where her stomach should be.

It was a miracle she survived this long at all. A horrible, torturous miracle.

"JIROU! NO!"

Was that Midoriya? A green flash appeared and she very barely shifted her eyes to see the greenette there, eyes wide with horror and starting to fill with tears. "Mi…dori…."

"Oh my god, I'm so so sorry." He said, dropping beside her and inspecting her wound. His eyes flashed with a rare anger for just a moment. "Who did this to you?!"

"No…Mu…."

It was true. The villain had shown up out of nowhere in the room, and before anyone knew what was happening people were disappearing left and right. She'd been one of the last left and instead of teleporting her…

"Nomu. Leave a message."

He'd left one alright, rushing the girl and tearing her apart in a single blow. The same time she had been smashed into the wall behind her, causing It to blow out and everyone left to have to run and dodge.

They didn't come back once they got outside, they probably thought she had been launched much further through the smoke but Nomu's grip had held before he was teleported away and she was left to die a slow painful death by her lonesome.

"It will be okay, it will be okay! I'll get someone, I can try to get Recovery-"

'No…. he can't leave!'

"Izu…ku…" Kyoka hacked out, feeling her grip on life beginning to fade and instantly pulling his attention with his name. With her last conscious thoughts she understood a few simple, important details.

One: If Izuku left the battlefield, they were fucked. It had taken everything a weakened All Might had to put down an easier Nomu, and the only person with an even comparable level of power was the greenette.

Two: Even if he stayed they needed a power boost for him and as good a one as they could get.

Three: If Izuku stayed to fight, she was dead. If Izuku left to save her, everyone else might be. That wasn't a hard choice for her.

And finally, four: Izuku was missing key details about the classes guest instructor, due to the fact he hadn't been around. Which meant, if she just tweaked the truth a tiny bit….

With all that in mind, she formulated a simple plan.

"Get… Yuichi…" She wheezed out, and not missing his confused look she explained what she could as fast as she could. "Instru…ctor…. Has a quirk… use it on…. Both of us…"

"Wi-will it save you?" The greenette asked worried, and she looked him in the eye with her own dying ones. Those kind emerald orbs that always shone with compassion, on a boy who even despite them not being all that acquainted had never been anything but polite and nice to her.

And she lied through her teeth.

"Yes…."

That was all the greenette needed to hear, placing a gentle comforting hand on her head for just a moment in an attempt to reassure her before bursting off at speeds even Iida would struggle to keep pace with.

He was a man on a mission.

It didn't take long at all for her to feel the world slip from her weakened grasp. The last thing she remembered seeing as her heart finally slowed and reality disappeared was Izuku running back in with the man.

"No! JIROU!" Izuku screamed, dropping beside her in an instant and grabbing her hand. "No please, come on! Stay awake, it's me! I'm here!"

"Keep holding her hand, like that!" Yuichi instructed. He was an older man dressed up in a fine black suit with blue tie and he had greying hair with sideburns. "She definitely asked for this? I won't use my quirk without the consent of those involved."

"I promise! She sent me to get you specifically!" The greenette explained through his panic, and the teacher nodded before placing both his hands out.

"She's a brave girl then. I'm sorry for your loss." He said with a heavy tone, as his hands began to glow red.

Izuku's body and the girl's both began to glow a similar red colour as the boy's eyes went wide. "Wait, what do you mean loss-"

BWOOOSH!

An explosion of light filled the room, and after a moment it dissipated to reveal Izuku standing tall. His body crackled with green energy and he looked down at himself.

He was… stronger, yet lighter. Lithe, and powerful at the same time. He felt the well of energy hidden just beneath the surface of his body crackle in response to whatever just happened and he just knew he could handle way more of One for All now.

Then his senses came back to him as he realized Jirou's body was completely missing.

"What…" his eyes began to burn with a fiery fury and passion and his gaze turned to Yuichi. "Wait, what the crap just happened?! Where's Jirou?!"

"You… don't know?" He asked, eyes going wide. Then he looked down with a frown. "What did the girl tell you?"

"That If you used your quirk she would be saved! So where is she?" he demanded, patience quickly wearing thin. Which was odd really, he never normally snapped this quick. Then again, given the stress of the situation.

"I'm sorry, but she lied to you." Yuichi said silently, looking up. Izuku's throat went dry and his mind went blank. "My quirk is the ability to essentially fuse people together. It essentially erases the weaker of the two involved however, leaving only traces of their personality and all of their physical abilities to the stronger of the two."

"W-what?..."

"That is why I asked if she had consented to this. I thought she had explained this to you, why I rarely do it outside of extreme circumstances like these." The man explained, before rubbing his face in frustration. "I am sorry… but as far as I am aware, she is gone for good."

"What…" A million emotions ran through the greenette's mind that he couldn't process, and he ended up settling on the strongest of them all, as red lines started to surround his body and vibrant green lightning burst off of him as he began to bolt away. "WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF YOU THEN!?"

Rage. Unbridled, blinding rage coursed through his body as he tore through the city, smacking thugs away from his friends as he quickly closed in near the centre. Not a single one stood up for more than a moment to his new strength even at the measly five percent he was using.

As he appeared, he heard various cries of surprise and relief when his classmates saw him but he didn't stick around for long any time.

There was only two people he cared about getting to right now. Nomu, and Shigaraki.

In what seemed like no time at all, he soon dropped in front of the conflict between Aizawa and the teleporter causing everyone to shout in surprise. Their shock at his sudden arrival only increased when he was in front of the teleport in less than a second, a harsh blow to the stomach knocking him out before he had the chance to run.

"two percent." He said aloud, to no one in particular as he mentally measured the new strength of his attacks.

"Midoriya!?" Aizawa asked in shock, before glaring. "Get out here, prob-"

He suddenly stopped when the greenette looked at him with a simple glare, that seemed to freeze his soul. It was a look that had never been on his face before, and one that never should have been no matter what. A look of endless anger that would petrify the bravest of men.

It was a look that quickly left a gripping terror in Aizawa heart, because what the hell could possibly cause a look like that on someone like Izuku?!

"Well, that's disappointing." Shigaraki sighed at his fallen comrade, before looking up with a horrible cruel grin, scratching at his neck. "My, Izuku, you look so murderous today. I'm sure Toga will be pleased."

"Fuck you." Izuku said without hesitation, surprising everyone with his unexpected crudeness.

"Hmph, someone has been hanging around that Bakugou brat too much." Dabi sighed, lifting up his hands ready to fry them.

If Izuku said he didn't want to rip the people in front of him to shreds, he'd be lying. Never in his life had he felt anger like this, probably because never before had he lost someone to a villain or had the power to fight back but now…

Now it was taking all his willpower to root himself in place, to remind himself no matter how much he wanted to give his new power a test drive on the villains, he had to figure out what the hell was going on first.

"….Why is Nomu back?" He asked simply, eyes wandering briefly to the monster. "I thought he was dealt with."

"Ha. It would appear someone seemed to think his deactivated state meant he didn't need much security, even after his brawl with the symbol of peace." Shigaraki offered up, and Midoriya sighed. The blue haired maniac gestured to his fallen new comrade. "It wasn't hard for our friend Vanish here to get him out. Well done on defeating him by the way, clearly you are starting to become more capable than the ones teaching you. Still, can't have you getting to good, so I think I'll let Nomu finally get you off my back for good."

"Speaking of your friend, why get him to grab Nomu but not Kurogiri? Even if he was a replacement why wouldn't you want multiple teleporters?" He asked raising a brow, and when he the villain just let out an angry grunt the answer hit him naturally. "You don't know where he is, do you?"

"You are annoyingly perceptive, you know that? Kurogiri got locked out our party so we're making due."

"Midoriya…" Aizawa said warningly, and the greenette grit his teeth, before moving into a fighting stance. Vaguely the greenette registered some of his classmates closing in, including pretty much all of the girls, Kaminari, Todoroki and Bakugou.

He looked straight into the maniac's eyes, into those hate filled wells of insanity and he got ready to ask his only other question.

"You killed someone already." Izuku said simply, doing his best to ignore the horrified gasps that escaped his classmates. "She wasn't even given a chance to fight for her life because of your cowardly actions. She may not have been close to me or anything, but even despite that I considered her a friend."

"Ugh, sentimental much?" Mr. Compress asked from in amongst them and Midoriya's already angry eyes flared to life with a fire that actually caused many of the villains to take just a single step back from how intense it was.

"She had purple hair, and could user her mutated earlobes like weapons." He described Kyoka simply, the barest description he could give of her. He felt so guilty deep down when he heard a muffled scream from Kaminari, who was being held back by an equally horrified Momo. "What was her name?"

Shigaraki scoffed, the only one either too stupid or too arrogant to see the situation he was in with Izuku.

"why should I care-"

"WHAT WAS HER NAME YOU BASTARD?!" Izuku screamed, ground cracking beneath him as the crackles of energy, causing many to let out frightened shouts at his sudden rage.

"….I don't know." He shrugged nonchalantly. It didn't matter to him.

It was the last mistake he made before Izuku finally launched into action, appearing before him in the blink of an eye and throwing a punch.

"NOMU!"

The bird creature got in the way just in time as a massive gust of wind kicked up from hitting the creature square in the stomach where it's new metal plate was. The ground and buildings around them cracked and everyone was blown away by the sheer power in the strike.

That metal plate shattered instantly, much to everyone's surprise as it fell away, leaving a stronger Nomu on his own merits to face off against this suddenly more powerful Midoriya.

The greenette's eyes looked up, just as he prepared himself to do this and he let out his loudest cry yet.

"HER NAME WAS JIROU!"

As he screamed that, his arms grabbed the creature by the legs and picked it up, spinning it around and launching it down the street to everyone's surprise.

"Nomu! Kill him!" Shigaraki called out angrily, and the monster came rushing back after a moment gunning for the greenette who just glared the monster down, before letting out another cry.

"THIRTY PERCENT FULL COWLING!"

The monster's fist came down in rapid succession, but every single one was almost effortlessly dodged by the greenette. He may not have had the full strength of One for All like All Might did but his much lighter body and increased capabilities thanks to Jirou's decision left him much faster than Nomu could hope to compare to.

The greenette's own strikes back, though much rarer due to being on the defensive, they were the very definition of cataclysmic. His increased strength beyond what he'd ever had before, higher capacity and want to practically decimate the monster before him made sure that even the smallest punches were kicking up tremors.

His punches were much more focused than the monster as well. Even in his rage-filled state he wasn't an idiot, he knew he couldn't just randomly hit the monster and win with his power.

Fortunately, he had a LONG time to think about how to combat Nomu with his lesser power, and though he'd come up with an answer many a time, he'd often found he didn't think he could go through with it, because it would involve ending the monster's life. Even in what must have been a hellish existence for it, he didn't ever think he could bring himself to the point of ending a life.

Now… now he had no such issue doing as much. He refused to lose someone else, no matter what that meant. Another fist came down in an attempt to squash him and he dodged before jumping on top of the monster and getting his legs around its neck, unleashing a flurry of blows into its exposed brain.

It was something he had realized two days after his encounter with Stain, the Nomu always had their brain exposed. Soon after he'd realized that in all the ways the original had been damaged before All Might defeated it for good, it's brain never once was destroyed.

That combined with the realization that the villains must have had some back up plan for if a Nomu fell out of their control lead him to a simple conclusion: Their brains were exposed in case the villains needed a kill switch.

It let out a shriek of pain at the never-ending blow before managing to throw him off, causing him to have to flip and land on his feet, barely dodging another punch that tried to strike him in retaliation.

'Crap, as long as he can focus on me getting the finishing blow isn't going to happen. Need to distract him long enough to get a good strike in.'

His eyes shifted back to the city, and he saw the perfect opportunity. He dodged another fist and turned, bolting near to the end of the street where a few cars where spread about. Cars no one actually owned, and that could be destroyed free of consequence right now.

He jumped onto the hood of one and waited as the monster descended upon him. He knew he could handle practically double the amount of One for All he could before constantly without breaking, but there was a second level to his quirk.

Those brief few second his limbs could handle being pushed far beyond their usual limit without breaking. He needed the perfect opportunity to utilize it though, knowing he only had one shot at it.

'Wait for it…'

The monster throw a punch as he got close enough, and his strike cane to mere inches away from the greenette's face before he finally reacted, bolting up in a flash of lightning towards the sky.

Nomu's strike destroyed the car, causing it to explode into a fireball which worked out perfectly for the greenette as the smoke screen and fire distracted it giving Midoriya the chance to jump on top of it in the confusion.

'This is for what you did to Jirou!'

"FIFTY PERCENT DOUBLE DETROIT SMASH!"

As he landed, his right hand came down first, crashing violently into the monster's brain and causing an explosion of wind and power that caused the windows all around them to shatter and the ground to start to cave.

Of course, the second strike a moment later, with all the same power now in his other arm combining with the still barely present impact of the first strike ended up compensating for the lack of proper one hundred percent strike and obliterated the creatures head, blood spraying everywhere in the process and the ground around him falling away.

He saw rubble falling and quickly went back to his thirty percent full cowling, weaving around the debris and destruction and in no time at all coming back to where the villains had been gathered.

Everyone still standing, meaning the usual League of Villain members, Aizawa, Yuichi and all of the boy's classmates all had made it to this one spot.

And regardless of what side they were on, they were all looking at the greenette with looks of horror, from the display of total power and domination he'd just put on.

"WHAT THE FUCK, DEKU?!" Bakugou screamed, eyes filled with confusion and anger amidst even his own horror.

"You… You…" Shigaraki muttered, hands shaking in anger. He began to lean forward, as if ready to strike and the league quickly followed suite knowing they didn't have a choice.

"Don't." Midoriya warned simply, with a glare. They were stupid enough not to listen.

Shigaraki moved first, in an attempt at disintegrating the child only to find him gone. Midoriya didn't strike him immediately however, he wanted to save him until last.

Dabi moved next, trying to flay the teenager alive. Once the fire disappeared however, it revealed that Midoriya had escaped long before it hit him and a quickly look around revealed him next to Mr. Compress, who he kicked straight into the fire villain, knocking them both out in the process.

Spinner and Toga both came slicing at him next, swords and knives in hand. Izuku grabbed both without a second thought and shattered them in his grasp, ignoring the blood dripping from his hands because of the move.

A second later and two swift strikes to the back of their necks had them down and out. Only two villains left, and Twice to his credit seemed to understand he was screwed even as he threw as many desperate clones as he could at the greenette.

They all dogpiled him, and for a moment calm enveloped them as it seemed somehow they held the boy down. That was until a very sudden strike hit the real twice in the stomach and winded him, bringing him to the ground.

"You… YOU DAMN BRAT!" Shigaraki screamed, and Izuku's glare hardened as he launched himself at the leader, throwing his fist forward.

Before it could strike, the man disappeared, and Izuku hit nothing, sending a pointless wave of destruction into the city. He hadn't been holding back on that last punch.

He turned to see the only villain left around was the new teleporter who lifted his head up with a grin. Before he could teleport himself, a strike from a pole knocked him out, Yaoyorouzu managing to stop at least one of the villains escaping.

And everything went quiet. No one had anything to say as Midoriya's power fell away and finally…

Finally the rage subsided, nothing around to hold his attention to it any more. And it finally hit him, properly and truly hit him.

One of his friends was dead, and so the tears began to flow.

A hand landed on his back, but he never knew who. He just kind of stopped responding to the world at that point, and he didn't come back to it until much later.

The morning of Jirou's funeral

After the attack, and the aftermath was revealed to everyone, the mood around the school dropped in the blink of an eye. Even students from other classes seemed solemn wherever they went and the members of class 1-A….

They were barely getting by. Half the desks were destroyed, mainly by Bakugou and Ashido when they had their inevitable breakdowns of anger, the blonde usually running off on his own and the pink skinned girl ending up in a fit of tears.

Everyone else rarely smiled, and it would fade just as fast if they did smile, feeling like they were betraying the girl's memory. Pretty much all the girls ended up crying to themselves and others eventually and most of the boys were locked almost constantly in sparring matches to get out their emotions in a less destructive way then Ashido and Bakugou's methods.

The three worst affected though were undoubtedly Kaminari, Momo and Izuku. The former two had been close friends with the girl, a natural result of the events at the USJ bringing them together.

Despite all the teasing and stabs the purple haired girl used to take at the electricity boy, they clearly had a fondness for one another and were closer than she would let on.

As for Momo… it was a tragedy to be sure. It wasn't exactly a secret the older girl had been having some confused feelings over her shorter friend for a while, but they had all found out the girl had been planning to deal with it after school the day of the villain attack. She had been one of the first breakdowns and no one could forget one of her most heart breaking wails that day, lamenting that even being rejected would have at least had more closure than what she was left with.

Finally… Izuku.

It had taken a while for his friends to come back to him, mainly on the orders of Aizawa because of how much raw emotion he'd gone through during the attack. He was left alone for a while to sit and think and just process all his emotions, which mostly involved trying not to breakdown crying again.

Once his friends were allowed to see him again, as he was released from the infirmary, he worried about how his classmates would react to him. Not in terms of his new power or his snap back then, he knew they would have gotten over that.

But when he'd walked into the classroom, he'd not been able to meet anyone's eyes as he waited to be accused of being the reason Jirou was gone. He knew it, if he hadn't of gotten Yuichi, if he'd just left to get recovery girl straight away or better yet if he had the foresight to bring the nurse with him with some supplies she might have just barely survived and to be told he didn't deserve to feel so much sadness and anger over the girl's death, because they hadn't even been close.

Instead however, they all just welcomed him back solemnly and left him to his own devices for the most part. They didn't seem to share the idea he was to blame, and even seemed to understand why he was one of the most emotional of those affected.

It was something he always forgot about 1-A, they weren't like old classes he knew. They were understanding, caring and compassionate. They cared about one another and perhaps now more than ever they'd need to rely on their bonds they'd made with each other.

Later that same day, Midoriya finally found out what his teachers stances were on his actions. They recognised it as a traumatic situation that pushed him over the edge and they acknowledged that they didn't have the luxury of being picky with a creature like Nomu.

Due to technicalities, there was no law broken by the boy's actions in the situation he was in and with a lot of internal debate, they had decided to let it go but remind the boy to always try to avoid such actions in the future.

To his surprise, All Might had been one of the few people who had actually thought it a good thing the Nomu had come to an end and when pressed on it, all he would give up is that he felt sorry for it.

The next few days passed by, as news broke to the public about the attack and the death. Naturally, U.A. came under more fire than It ever had before and there were parents all around demanding answers and threatening to pull their kids from the program.

Izuku had texted his mom ahead of time, telling her only part of the news and simple message. A message telling her that even is she wanted to take him out, to leave it for now because the boy needed to deal with something at the school himself first.

After all, if he ended up pulled up now then he'd never forgive himself especially after Jirou's sacrifice. The girl's parents of course were heartbroken, and the most vocal in their anger against U.A.

The school were the one who arranged her funeral ultimately, holding it on school grounds so everyone who knew Kyoka could attend.

Izuku had done everything in his power to prepare for that day. To show her all the respect she deserved. He'd forgone his exercises, he'd spent practically all his money on obtaining a decent suit and he'd left the tie behind so even the terrible knot he usually tied wouldn't come across as insulting.

But… that was all physically preparation. He simply couldn't prepare for it emotionally, no matter what he did.

He'd walked in step with his classmates. Uraraka holding onto him with tears in her eyes and Iida walking solemnly beside him. They all walked in three's, Momo, Kaminari and Mina at the front of them all.

Once they had all gotten outside, they had split up walking to each of their assigned seats in the rows of twenty. The girl's parents and rest of her family were sitting in the first two rows, then class 1-A took up the next one. Well most of 1-A, where Izuku would have been sitting was instead taken up Aizawa and the rest of the teachers who had taught her sat in the next row. The next two rows were more sporadically filled with students from other classes who knew the girl in passing.

Finally, all on his own in the final row is where Izuku sat. He had gone out his way to make sure he was put no closer, under any circumstances.

Because he didn't deserve to be. Hell, he didn't even deserve to be at her funeral when he was the reason she was gone. The reason why the casket ahead of them was empty.

Why her parents couldn't bury their own daughter.

His fists had clenched as thoughts like those swirled through his mind, reminding him of everything that had happened.

The pressure and guilty and pain had continued to build without end as the service went on. As people said their goodbyes, as the wind began to pick up and as it all began to sink in once more it hit him for the hundredth time.

Kyoka Jirou is gone, and it's all your fault.

And this time, he couldn't just hold himself down as his breathing hitched and the tears began to flow. He stood up silently, as the current speakers back was turned and everyone was to pre-occupied to see him

And he ran, utilizing his quirk to get back to the dorms without anyone even knowing he'd disappeared because he couldn't take. it. Anymore.

He'd slammed the front door behind him, ending up destroying them in the process not that he cared as he jumped whole flights of stairs and burst into his room, collapsing onto the floor with a single question as he gripped at the carpet, body shuddering.

"Why…"

"I'm sorry…" Midoriya muttered into the room for what felt like the millionth time, unable to stop himself from uttering the words. It wasn't anything better but he ended up managing to force out something new at the least a moment later this time. "Did I even do…. What you wanted….?"

'Midoriya.'

"Did your plan work? I mean I beat the villains but did I got to far?"

'Midoriya!'

"I just… I wish you were still here…."

'GOD DAMMIT, MIDORIYA!'

"AGGH!" He let out a startled scream, jumping to his feet and looking around for the source of the voice. "Who's there?!"

'It's me, you dolt!'

That voice…. His eyes widened. 'There's no way.'

'Yeah there is actually, apparently.'

"J-Jirou?" He asked in shock, looking around for the girl. "What the?! How? Where are you?!"

'In your head. I think. I mean I'm seeing through your eyes and hearing through your ears so…'

"Wait, wait, what?!" He asked, before his eyes shrunk to pinpricks. "Oh god, I'm going insane."

'No, actually, you aren't.'

"…Schizophrenic?"

'No. Although going back to insane you already were that. Anyways, just listen ok!'

He was incredibly, incredibly confused and worried but he nodded his understanding and sat down on his bed, waiting.

'I think it's that guy's quirk, you know the one that-'

"That you sent me after in a trick, when I could have saved you instead?"

'You couldn't have saved me dude. I was literally missing my stomach. I'm sorry I lied, but I wasn't going to let you waste time when I could save the rest of her friends.'

"…"

'Anyways, after I blacked out I stayed out of it for quite a while but I kind of just started seeing stuff yesterday. Then after what I think must have been like two or three hours I began hearing things and realized I was in someone else's body considering I couldn't control anything. Then you looked in the mirror.'

"Wait so… if you've been in my head that long why didn't you say anything?"

'I couldn't. literally, I tried and tried but I couldn't say anything until this morning, and by then you kinda went into your breakdown. Gotta tell you, seeing my own funeral was weird and depressing as anything could possibly be.'

"….So…. What now then?" Midoriya asked, laying back in his bed. He wasn't sure he even actually believed this yet, it was absurd and he might just be suffering some grief born hallucination.

But if this WAS real…. It left a lot of questions.

'Well, as much as I want to let everyone know I'm ok even if I'm stuck in a boy's head of all places.' "Hey!" 'I know now isn't the best time for you to go screaming I'm in your head. Probably better to just bring it up with Nezu and Recovery Girl and see what they say first.'

"That I'm clearly hallucinating from grief? I mean even Yuichi said you'd be gone forever and it's his quirk!"

'I mean to be fair, you think he'd have many chances to see the long term side effects?'

"….Touche."

'Besides even if you were hallucinating, and again you aren't, it wouldn't hurt to let Recovery Girl know so she could help.'

Izuku let out a sigh. "Life just got way more complicated for me, didn't it?"

'Hey, at least you still have a body!'

With the mention of bodies, Midoriya realized something incredibly important as his face began to heat up. "Wait did you see me getting changed!?"

'Oh. Yep, and I'mma be totally honest, you are packing way more than I expected.'

"JIROU!"

As his embarrassment hit its peak and he was blessed with the chance to hear her laugh one more time, he didn't realize that for the foreseeable future, this was the kind of interaction he had to look forward to every waking minute.