1 The Death of a Dream

Izuku numbly watched the door shut behind All Might. Kacchan had been right, he really couldn't be a hero. Izuku felt the tears prickling at the corners of his eyes and looked around. If he went home right now, Mom would hear him crying in his room and wonder what was wrong, and Izuku didn't really feel up to explaining himself right then. This rooftop, however, was completely deserted. Making his decision, he sat down and hugged his knees to his chest as he let himself break down. 

He should have known that would be All Might's answer. He had studied quirks for years, so he of all people should know that a quirkless teenager had no chance of beating villains with strong quirks. He couldn't even beat Kacchan! He should have seen this coming, so why did it still hurt so much?

After a few minutes of this, he became vaguely aware of the sounds of fireworks in the distance and almost stood up to look before changing his mind and curling up even tighter as he sobbed harder. The fireworks would probably look pretty and might even cheer him up a little bit, but Izuku wasn't really in the mood for pretty things. No matter how cool they looked, fireworks wouldn't be able to put his shattered dream back together. 

The explosions were a good background for his pity party though, Izuku thought with a wet chuckle. It was almost like the world itself was celebrating that he'd finally come to terms with reality. He couldn't really tell if he was sobbing or laughing at the mental image of Kacchan and his teachers in party hats, gathering around a cake with All Might's true form on it as they set off confetti poppers. Congratulations!

He was definitely laughing now. Kacchan would totally have a disgruntled expression on his face at being forced into a party hat, but Auntie Mistuki would probably just hit him on the head if he tried to take it off. Mom would be the one to cut the cake, and she'd look proud and relieved as she gave him the first piece and told him to be sure to pick something safe for his next dream. 

Izuku took a deep breath and stood up, wiping the last of his tears from his cheeks. There was still a dull ache in his chest, and he still didn't know what he was supposed to do now, but...well, it probably wasn't the best coping mechanism, but he felt like his imaginary pity party was almost like a funeral for his aspirations of being a hero. Wait, was this feeling grief? That would make sense, but it seemed weird to feel grief for something that wasn't a person. His dream was kind of like a pet, right? He'd cared for it for years and refused to let go, and now it was gone, so it was probably okay to be a little sad. 

The sun had set sometime during his breakdown, so Izuku hurried straight home, only pausing once to check his reflection in a shop window to make sure his eyes weren't too red. He ran up the stairs to his apartment and quickly took off his shoes before digging in his backpack for his hero analysis notebook. Between the sludge villain and the koi pond, he was lucky that it was legible at all. He should put it in the freezer to save it so he could transfer his notes into another book, then he could carefully take out the pages that All Might had signed and frame them!

"I'm home!" He called out as he walked toward the kitchen. He should put the notebook in a plastic bag before putting it in the freezer so it didn't get anything gross on the food...

His thoughts were interrupted by his mom running at him so fast that she slid across the kitchen floor and almost knocked him down with the force of her hug, "Oh Izuku! I was so worried about you!"

Izuku looked at the clock. He wasn't that much later than he normally was. He knew for a fact he'd gotten home much later because he'd lost track of time watching hero fights, so why was Mom so worried today? She couldn't know what All Might had told him yet, could she?

Mom was still talking, rambling in her worry, "I saw about Katsuki on the news and I know that you take that route home sometimes, and I couldn't see you and you weren't answering your phone and I was just imagining what would have happened if the villain had grabbed you instead, because Katsuki was barely fighting him off with his explosions and…"

Izuku went cold, "What?! What happened to Kacchan?!"

Mom froze, "Y-you didn't know?"

Izuku shook his head frantically and stared at her with wide eyes. Mom pressed her lips together in worry, then led him into the living room and unmuted the TV. There was a young reporter on the screen, backlit against a few still-burning fires as Backdraft and a few other heroes lingered in the background.

"...the sludge villain seemed to be intent on suffocating his victim. Thankfully, the heroes on the scene were able to keep the others in the area safe until the arrival of All Might, who defeated the villain and saved the hostage, as expected of the number one hero. The sludge villain has now been taken into custody by police, while the hostage and several bystanders were taken to the hospital for various injuries…"

"They had to take him to the hospital?" Izuku fretted. "Is he going to be ok?"

Thankfully, Mom nodded quickly, "Mistuki said he won't even have to stay the night. The only reason they took him at all was because he apparently passed out for a minute or two before All Might got to him, but he's going to be ok!"

Izuku sighed in relief. He wasn't sure what he'd do if Kacchan had been hurt or died. It would have been his fault for distracting All Might and making him use up all his time, and Izuku wasn't sure if he'd be able to deal with that, especially since the description of the villain sounded like the one All Might had saved Izuku from, which meant that Izuku distracting him probably allowed the villain to escape. It was a good thing he'd already held the funeral for his dream, because there was no way he was capable of being a hero if he let villains escape like that. But Kacchan was ok, All Might saved him. 

Oh no! Was All Might ok? Izuku quickly excused himself and ran to his computer to look up footage of the fight. All Might didn't look tired, but then again, he didn't look like a skeleton either, so Izuku knew he was good at hiding things. He almost melted in relief when All Might jumped away without talking to a single reporter as soon as Kacchan was safe. He was already past his limit when he talked to Izuku, and he'd probably had to go beyond that to save Kacchan, but that didn't mean he had to force himself to stay and chat. Hopefully he was at home taking a well-deserved nap. 

Izuku spent the rest of the night studying the fight. The sludge villain was a lot less impressive when he wasn't drowning in it, but apparently the heroes on the scene before All MIght got there didn't agree, because they seemed at a loss for what to do. Izuku pulled out a new notebook and started analyzing. While it made sense for Backdraft to fight the fires, it would have been better to prioritize the rescue and have him dilute the villain enough for him to let go of Kacchan. It would have meant leaving the fires burning, but since there were more fires the longer Kacchan was held hostage, it would have been better in the long run. 

Mt. Lady could have helped with evacuation, especially if Backdraft was busy taking care of the villain. Her height prevented her from getting into the narrow street where the fight was, but it was wide enough that she could have reached her arm in and let people climb onto it from the upper windows. And if she could reach her arm in, it might even have been possible for her to grab Kacchan from the villain without ever stepping into the street, depending on how far down the street they were. 

Kamui Woods and Death Arms were more difficult, but if Kamui had looped around to come at the villain from behind, he might have been able to grab Kacchan without getting in range of his hands. Death Arms could easily have helped with evacuation. 

Eventually, Mom confiscated his notebook and forced him to go to bed, but Izuku's head still kept him awake for another hour going through all the possibilities of how that fight could have gone differently. Finally, his thoughts slowed down enough for him to slowly drift off to sleep with one last coherent thought:

Is there a way to help heroes work smarter?