How can I live laugh love in these conditions

Izuku ran to catch her, but he was too late. She had already fallen. A voice jerked him out of his shock. "Hey kid, take care of the other kids, I'll get the girl!"

"Yosuke?" Izuku exclaimed, but Yosuke had already jumped down to save Ochako. Izuku turned to see more kids falling through the cracks in the ground. Izuku ran to the weird man and practically jumped into his body. For the first time however, the possession was difficult. Todoroki had been like wading through Jello, his mind and body feeling a little foggy to hold control over, but trying to take over the weird man was like fighting a sibling for the tv remote. Izuku clung to control as best he could, but the body fell to the ground.

Who are you? Somebody yelled at him in his mind. It sounded like the weird man, but a little echoey.

I'm trying to stop you from hurting them, Izuku thought back. Who are you?

Why should I tell you?

Probably because I'm dead. There's nobody I could tell.

It doesn't matter to you, the weird man said, but a thought appeared. Tomura Shigaraki.

Izuku gasped, recognizing the name. I know your grandma!

You what?

Your grandma! She's a hero, albeit a dead one, but a hero! Shigaraki's body convulsed on the floor as Izuku tried to hold control and Shigaraki tried to touch the floor again. The students nearby regained their footing and started to escape through a broken-open door. Ochako floated up to the cafeteria once again, and Yosuke jumped out of her body. Shigaraki's body stiffened for a moment, before Izuku realized Shigaraki's body had stopped breathing. Izuku took control of the body, and once again he started to breathe.

Izuku still wasn't used to being in a body. He hated it, but all he had to do was hold onto the body long enough for the heroes to show up. Who are you? Shigaraki asked.

Nobody important, Izuku said dismissively. Just dead.

I'm not asking if you're important, I'm asking who the hell is in my body! Izuku suddenly felt like somebody was grabbing him by the throat. Fear rushed over him, and for once he was reminded of the awful feeling of horror that had come with being attacked by the villain with a body made of sludge all those months ago, the struggling to hang onto life in the face of destruction. Once again he feared looking in the face of Death, even though he had already become quite acquainted with it. He hated being in a body again, the fear and weakness that came with being alive. He was in a living body, and therefore technically alive, and though he breathed air and felt a heartbeat, he knew he was still dead.

Just call me Deku, okay! He shouted frantically, mentally clawing at the metaphysical hands around his metaphysical throat. I'm Deku! He remembered Sakura's warning. Be polite to the host while you're in their body. Sakura had told him it was because the person would try to force him out, like Todoroki had, and then had the potential to hurt themselves in the process. But this, Sakura hadn't warned him about this.

Deku, huh? Izuku almost saw Shigaraki's grin in his mind's eye. So you're just some kid with the world's most accurate nickname. I've never seen a more useless kid in my life. Pity you're already dead.

Your grandma was a hero, Izuku said, trying to think of a way out of this. What changed?

Whoever you're talking about, I never knew her. And even if she was a hero, who's to say I care? Izuku struggled, and meanwhile, Katsuki was helping the students to evacuate. He lifted a hand and made an explosion, and the half-broken door was gone. The students started to run away. Katsuki looked over at Shigaraki, only to be met with the underwhelming and confusing sight of the man weakly convulsing on the floor.

Ochako nervously stared at Shigaraki and ran over, tapping his shoulder and making him float into the air.

"Is he okay?" she asked tentatively. "Like, what happened? He was decaying the floor one second and then he just collapsed to the floor." Something was familiar about this man, Katsuki and Ochako thought. However, neither of them could put their finger on what was so familiar about him. Shigaraki continued to flop about pathetically in the air, hardly alluding to the fierce battle inside his head. Izuku was terrified, and the scene in front of him (in what he could only call a literal mind palace) reminded him only of when Katsuki used to beat him up. He shook the thought away. He felt bad enough right now, he didn't have time to remember about old problems.

Back off! Izuku shouted, ignoring Shigaraki's chuckles at his distress. He panicked, reaching for control of the body and attacking it. He was suddenly grateful for his lack of an ability to feel the pain of the attack. Katsuki stared at Shigaraki in confusion as he saw Shigaraki start to hurt himself, yanking at his hair and biting his arm. Meanwhile, in the mindscape, Shigaraki yelled in pain and let Izuku go. The green-haired boy saw his chance and did what he did best at this point. He ran away.

Izuku held onto control of the body as the mindscape faded from his view. He just had to keep Shigaraki from hurting the students. He focused more on the scene around him. He was floating in midair, and the students were evacuating the lunch room through the broken down door. A couple of kids tried the other doors, finding them to be locked or stuck. Todoroki broke two more doors down with an ice blast to each, then swept a blast of ice across the room to hold together what was left of the floor. Finally, probably from seeing the chaos, several of the teachers showed up, saw the nomus on the floor, Shigaraki in the air, and the person controlling the fog completely knocked out, and stared in shock. Eraserhead ran into the room, examining the situation.

"What's going on here?" he asked Ochako, who was helping the last of the students out.

"We came into the lunch room and some purple fog appeared over there, I'm guessing it was controlled by that guy, but then that weird guy over there walked in with all these monsters through the fog. He kind of just held us in silence and fear for a while, but then this weird voice told us to look closer at the monsters and they kind of looked unfinished. A fight broke out and then the weird guy over there touched the floor and it started to break. Then he just flopped on the floor and he hasn't really done anything, especially since I floated him into the air."

"How did they get in without the alarm going off?" Eraserhead mused.

"I think the crusty guy there has something to do with it." Katsuki walked over, looking over the scene. "Yeah, the fog guy over there teleported them in, but I think he has someone under his control that can block electrical signals."

Eraserhead looked at Katsuki and Ochako. "How come you kids aren't out yet? The heroes are taking care of this now. Thank you for briefing me on the situation, but this scene is dangerous."

"By all means, sir, we're fine," Ochako said.

"Go take care of your classmates then. Check if anyone's hurt, then make sure nobody's too shaken up. Take care of yourselves, okay? A villain attack is nothing to sneeze at." Katsuki grumbled, but left the room. "Uraraka, can you let the villain down?"

"Yes, sir," Ochako nodded, touching her fingers together and dropping Shigaraki from the ceiling. He flopped limply on the ground, hardly reacting to the fall.

"What did you kids do?" Eraserhead asked.

"Nothing, not really," Ochako said flatly. "He just flopped on the floor without warning."

"Hm." Eraserhead thought for a moment. "Alright. Go take care of yourself." All Might and a few other heroes entered the room, and most of the heroes went straight to work gathering up the nomu and tying them up.

"What's the situation?" All Might asked.

"We had a villain and several unidentified beings breach the U.A barrier via a teleportation quirk, but it seems that after a while of there being a hostage situation, the majority of the villains were out of commission. Apparently none of the students did it, and the guy who seems to be the ringleader has been unresponsive for a while."

"That one over there?" All Might pointed at Shigaraki. "How did he get knocked out so easily?"

"A quirk side effect, perhaps?" Eraserhead offered. "Or something like that?"

"I'm not sure," All Might mused. "This is too weird."

"Let's get him to Tartarus first," Eraserhead said. Then we'll figure out what's up there."

Izuku felt a little calmer at the knowledge that the U.A kids were safe, but the longer he stayed in Shigaraki's body, the calmer Shigaraki seemed to be. Maybe he was getting worn out from the possession and fighting against it, Izuku thought, but he had to hang onto control for as long as possible, or at least until Shigaraki had been properly restrained or taken to Tartarus.

Izuku quietly rejoiced, trying his best to hang onto control for a little longer, and then Shigaraki relaxed. Izuku felt his hands being cuffed behind him, and though Izuku knew he wasn't really in trouble, he felt sick, almost a little guilty. He wasn't the one being arrested, but he could almost see his mom's disappointed face at the idea of her son getting in trouble with the law. He shifted uneasily, wanting to throw up a little. The heroes tensed up upon seeing Shigaraki move, but he quickly became still.

"He's still awake," Eraserhead noted. "I'm not sure if he's been knocked out by his quirk, but he's clearly not paralyzed, at least not completely." With a sudden burst of force from Shigaraki, Izuku was pushed out of the body, incidentally appearing in the world of the living. All Might stumbled backward, surprised but silent. Eraserhead, on the other hand, broke his usual composure only with a slight jump.

"I- What, huh?" All Might stumbled over his words, not entirely sure how to react.

"So it's the kid, huh?" Eraserhead raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who warned us about the USJ attack."

"That's what he must have been trying to talk about," All Might muttered.

"This was your fault, huh?" Eraserhead looked at Izuku. Izuku blinked, his vision a little blurry and his ears ringing. The room spun, an aftereffect that had never come from possession. He breathed shakily, not responding to what Eraserhead said. He looked around the room, panicked and disoriented, and still not completely realizing he had been pushed out of Shigaraki's body. "Hey kid, are you okay?" Izuku's mind and eyes focused, and he realized where he was.

Izuku spotted the heroes, and realized he had been seen. He looked at Eraserhead, then All Might, and vanished without a word. He stumbled backward, still reeling from the sudden return to being dead again. He felt suffocated, suddenly unable to breathe like he was able to in Shigaraki's body. He had stopped being able to walk, to connect with the ground, and unsure of what was going on, he was scared.

"Kid! What's going on?" Yosuke glided over, his feet not completely touching the floor as per usual. "Hey! Are you alright?" Yosuke patted Izuku's shoulder. Izuku shook his head. "Oh crud, it's the possession," Yosuke realized, running his hand through his black hair. "Alright, Midoriya. Hang on. I got you." He scooped up the panicking Izuku, ready to leave.

"Hey!" Ram Horns ran over. "Is he alright? What's happening?"

"He stayed in that weird guy's body for a little too long and must have been shoved out. He's having an adverse reaction to the sudden change."

"Huh?"

"In other words, he's having an allergic reaction to death."

"Oh," Ram Horns said, his white hair turning pink to match his skin. "How can I help?"

"Yeah," Blue Hair girl agreed. "He got the situation under control and kept my cousin safe. What can we do?"

"Do you guys know anyone with a teleportation quirk?" Yosuke asked.

"I have one," Ram Horns said. "Though it might not be pleasant, it's a lot safer for me to use on ghosts than humans."

"How do you mean?" Blue Hair Girl asked.

"Most of the time living folks have to be completely still as I cast the portals lest they come out of it with chemical burns. But ghosts have a little wiggle room." Ram Horns flicked his hand at the ground, a pink liquid appearing from his hands like Ashido's acid. It splashed on the tile floor, the puddle spreading across the floor and creating a black circle. "Where are you headed?"

"Kyoto," Yosuke said nervously.

"Alright. Take my hand and imagine the place. I'll take you there." Yosuke shifted Izuku to his pother arm and took Ram Horns' hand. The black circle turned into an image of Sakura's room. "Hop in."

"Thank you," Yosuke nodded, Izuku still dazed and confused. He glanced at the portal and hopped through.

Izuku hated the feeling of teleportation. He'd had to get help with moving great distances with a teleportation quirk before, like when his third grade teacher took the class on an impromptu field trip to France. But, regardless, he still felt sick every time, regardless if he was dead or not. They arrived in Sakura's room, finding her relaxing on her bed, her earbuds in her ears. She looked up after a moment or two and let out a shout of surprise, yanking out her earbuds. "Yosuke?"

"We need your help," Yosuke said frantically.

"Oh, you're lucky I just got out of my video call for class," Sakura muttered. "What happened?"