Jade

Part 64

Izuku couldn't breathe.

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This is a double update, make sure you read Part 63 before this.

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Aizawa Shota was many things.

He was a son, a friend, a boyfriend, a mentor, a hero and, very recently, he had become a father.

Being a father was no easy feat, he knows that now. His kid was brilliant, stubborn,  headstrong and adorable, and he loved his little problem child with every bit of his heart.

One thing that Aizawa Shota definitely was, however, was afraid.

He was terrified.

His headstrong kid had been taken a day ago and now he had to recount, by the second, how he had let it happen.

"When I got there Mezou Shoji caught my attention and asked me not to engage. Izuku was laying on the ground with a wound on his right side. Todoroki was by Izuku, yelling at the villain, who's name was Dabi, to get away."

Don't you just love retelling your own failures? Shota sure did.

"Dabi had a hand or a finger on Izuku's chest, ready to hurt him if he or Todoroki didn't cooperate." Tsukauchi was nodding as the little device recording his account sat between them.

"Todoroki saw me and started taunting Dabi, saying things about how he was a coward. Dabi got riled up and tried to activate his quirk after taking his hand off Izuku, but I was already on him and knocked him out." Tsukauchi tried to keep a neutral expression but his eyes, filled with apprehension, betrayed him.

He was sporting eyebags that rivaled Shota's.

"I got there and used my capture gear to wrap the wound on Izuku's right hip, it had been cauterized." Shota had told himself that he wouldn't cry during his statement but revisiting this...this nightmare...it was getting t him. All the terrifying sights he'd seems that night.

There was so much blood and it was all Izuku's.

He would not cry.

Izuku didn't need Shota to be a worried father right now, he needed Shota to be a hero.

So a hero he would be.

"A little bit after I had patched him up, the warp villain showed up and all the other villains who were attacking the camp came to the clearing." Were his hands always this shaky? "Izuku. Todoroki, Shouji and I were surrounded." Shota had steady hands, he had always had steady hands.

Tsukauchi was jotting down some stuff in a notepad while Shota tried to understand why the patterns on the walls of the interrogation room seemed to be blurring together.

"We fought them off for as long as we could but in the mayhem of it all..."

He could cry a little.

Izuku wouldn't mind.

"Himiko Toga slipped past us and held a knife to Izuku's neck."

The room was getting smaller.

"Sh-She made a cut on his shoulder and uh she licked off the blood. Sh-She-"

Why were there no windows in this room?

"can I just-"

Why was there no air in the room?

Shota couldn't breathe.

And suddenly he was there.

At the clearing. Reliving the moment he would regret for the remainder of his life.

He could see it happening again. He could see her caressing his son- his unconscious son- with a knife. Telling Shota to stay back or she would show him how pretty Izuku could be.

As if Izuku wasn't already on death's doorstep.

"He needs medical attention!" He remembers screaming pointlessly, "He could die!" but they didn't care.

They just got the guy in the black and grey body suit to carry Izuku towards the portal with Toga twirling next to them, knife at the ready.

All the other villains had left, only he, Todoroki, Shouji, Toga, Izuku and the guy carrying Izuku remained in the dark clearing. 

Well, the latter three wouldn't remain for very long this rate, they were about 4 feet from the portal.

Shota tried to run to them. He tried so damned hard but he was pretty sure he had broken his ankle, or at the very least, sprained it really bad and dislocated his shoulder.

So he was on his hands and knees, practically crawling towards the portal, to his son, when Todoroki shot past him. Grappling towards the villains and Izuku.

He had made it as far as he possibly could have, he had even grabbed a hold of Izuku's left foot, pulling him back to their side of the portal as if his life depended on it.

Todoroki didn't have any major injuries to speak of but he had pushed his quirk to it's limits. What, with the training and the fighting, Todoroki was about to pass out.

He used what was left of his quirk to freeze the guy who was carrying Izuku and Toga's feet to the ground and used his body weight and the feeble strength of his strained muscles to pull.

It was a stalemate.

In the end it was Dabi who had ended the fight. He had stalked through the portal, a skip in his step, and put a hand on Todoroki's shoulder.

"Let him go!" Todoroki yelled.

Dabi just smirked.

He shoved Todoroki back. Hard.

Todoroki hit his elbow on a pointed stone when he fell to the ground and cried out at the pain.

Dabi knelt down beside him and put his hand around Todoroki's neck.

"Quit while you're ahead, kiddo"

He walked back into the portal and left Todoroki with a burn around his neck in the shape of a hand.

Shoto remained there, choking and holding on to his elbow, as if that would stop the pain, about 6 feet from where he lay in anguish and about 10 feet from where Shota crawled.

The portal was closing, slowly– hauntingly so.

They had lost.

Izuku was gone.

Even after help had arrived and all the students were gathered, Shota hadn't uttered a single word.

"Aizawa!"

Shota looked up, stunned to see himself on the ground. Tsukauchi was next to him, clutching his hand, fear rippling is his eyes.

"I'm fine." the chair got knocked over and he hastily stood. "I'm fine, I- I need to get some air."

Shota made for the door. His head was pounding and his ears were ringing and his throat was closing up and he couldn't fucking breathe.

"Shota," Tsukauchi walked around the table to where Shota stood, a hand going to his shoulder. "We'll get him back. We'll get them both back."

Tsukauchi pulled him into a hug and let him leave right after.

Shota couldn't breathe.

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So uh....hi