Chapter Text
A child that is lost in the forest is a child that is typically searched for if they are truly loved.
A child in the forest won't stay in the forest long if they are loved.
If a child gets lost, they are found.
…
A heavy breath is heard in the night, the trees rustling with a harsh wind and covering up any noise of this life that’s trying to just breathe.
He was running out of time.
Rain mixes in with red, he can feel himself fading away.
A child gets lost, they get found.
A child gets lost.. They…
He doesn’t want to go yet.
A tree falls near his head, but he doesn’t hear or feel it.
He’s numb.
A child that gets lost will get found.
Izuku however, has been lost for hours. And no one has found him.
Until it’s too late.
He doesn’t remember what happened, it all fades away so quickly when you’re like this. On the forest ground, drenched in rain and enveloped in the dark.
Dying.
When a child gets lost, they get found.
Izuku is only five, and he got lost.
No one found him.
When a child gets lost-
Abandoned. He was abandoned.
A fallen tree trunk shifts once nearby, Izuku’s eyes shift towards it once before closing completely.
You’ll be okay. A soft voice in his mind offers, but it just makes him cry.
You’ll be okay.
He may be a lost, abandoned child- but someone would find him.
Even if it’s… Not like this.
…
When a child is lost, you fucking find them.
Is all that flickers through Aizawa’s mind as he walks through the forest near a small town decently away from the main city of Musutafu. He was only visiting there for a meeting with a smaller known hero who needed underground advice, but then he spotted said hero trying to calm down a woman with spiky blonde hair distressed about her friend- or, ex-friend’s son lost somewhere way out in the forest.
Apparently, her ‘ex-friend’ abandoned her own kid and confessed not even two hours later about it to this blonde, and was currently in custody with the police as she was questioned as to where the hell her son was.
So far, they were getting nothing. And the woman was pissed about it.
Now, Aizawa doesn’t blame her, he’s pretty upset himself about a kid being lost in the forest without any way of getting back- but he doesn’t think the poor hero can really do anything more other than help look. Which is what he and himself were doing now.
But with thoughts of anger for the Mother who abandoned her kid aside, he was filled with concerned. It was pouring rain at this point and the wind was chilling- if he didn’t have his jacket and capture scarf he’d be freezing. Even so, the rain was slowly starting to soak his clothing- so he could only imagine how this child was faring right now.
The thought just makes him pick up the pace, despite the dread building up in his chest at the other feeling inside telling him that he was too late.
Because that feeling is usually right, and for fucks sake he wished for once in his life that the feeling would be wrong.
He finds the kid, but there’s no body.
There’s just something he’s seen before- and he wants to curse Arceus out for this.
A Phantump sits in the middle of the forest, green glowing eyes staring down at the ground where there’s a pair of red shoes just sitting there, slowly fading away while the ghost Pokemon just watches.
While the kid just watches.
While the abandoned child watches.
..He was too late.
Aizawa shuts his eyes tightly for a moment, frustration and complete sadness washing over him in waves.
But once again he has to shove it aside and open his eyes- he takes a quiet step forward into the small opening, revealing himself to the Phantump that looks slowly up to him with the most lost of looks.
“Hey kid,” Aizawa greets softly with a little wave, the Phantump tilts his head. “You mind if I step closer?”
The Phantump seems so confused and almost hopeless, just looking from where his shoes once were, to Aizawa, then to the sky and to the trees. It makes Aizawa’s heart break even more, and the man looks to the ground sadly- just sitting down and deciding to be patient.
While he waits for the kid to come to him, he takes out his phone and texts the news to Tsukauchi first. Letting the detective know so he can take over the case- because like hell was he letting this poor kid be taken or run away to try and live amongst pokemon or end up in a cave alone and sad.
Not all Phantumps found friends or new family.
He puts his phone away rather quickly when he hears a little squeak from the Phantump. Aizawa looks up with furrowed eyebrows, and his eyes widen when the Phantump comes barreling into his chest. The log on the Phantump’s head bumps his chin, definitely leaving a red mark there but it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that there’s a lost child clinging to him with wispy ghostly hands and crying a haunting cry that almost echoes throughout the forest if it wasn’t for the god awful rain and wind.
“It’s okay.. It’s okay..” Aizawa whispers close to the Phantump, who whines in response. “I found you.. I’m so sorry I was so late.. But I found you, okay?”
And the kids name.. What was it?
..
“You’ll be okay, Izuku.”
Izuku’s head looks up, eyes wide.
“You’ll be okay.”
I’ll make sure of it.
…
When a child is lost, they are found.
Even if it’s too late.