Chapter Text
It was dawn, the light slowly spilling through the dirty window and brightening up the room. Izuku started to stir as the light penetrated his closed eyelids so easily. He grumbled and turned over onto his sides to shield himself from the light. He want to go back to sleep but he new it was a loosing game. Once his mind started to think, there was no stopping it.
It’s been nine years, ten months and twelve days since this whole mess started. Since Izuku found himself in a new world, with even more danger. The villains are still around. Hell, there are more of them now. Life as he new it had completely changed and within a few days, back then, it was everyone for themselves.
Izuku remembered how this all started as if it were yesterday.
He was walking home from middle school, clutching a burnt wet notebook, close to his chest and remembering those cruel words spoken by his once childhood friend turned bully.
He was walking through the streets to get back home from his exhausting day when he heard a weird sound coming from his pocket. Izuku reached in and grabbed his phone. It’s not a ringtone he has heard coming from his phone before. It was unbelievably loud. He looked at the screen and a chill ran down his spine.
There was a yellow and red warning on his home screen. He’d seen these types of warning before when destructive villains hit an area, or when extreme weather conditions meant that people had to get to shelter as soon as possible. Having experience with a warning like this once in the past, didn’t seem to help in the slightest, as his skin began prickling with goosebumps. It was an unnerving sound and only used in extreme dangerous situations.
Izuku read through the simple instructions at the bottom of the screen. It was the usual: Go directly home or to your nearest shelter and stay there until notified otherwise.
He new he should do the latter but there was no way he was leaving his mum on her own in a serious situation like this. He new they where both as bad as each other. Either he ignored the warning to go to the nearest shelter or his mum would come out looking for him. Either way one of them was going to be ignoring the warning, and as it stood, he was the fastest out of the two.
And as if on cue, his phone began to ring. Izuku answered the call and began to run in the direction of home.
“Hey mum, I’m coming home right now. I’ll be ten minutes so stay inside.”
He heard his mothers frantic worry of “Be carful, darling. I don’t want you to get hurt.” And reassured her as best he could, telling her he would be back soon but he needed to hang up as he couldn’t talk and sprint home at the same time. She understood and it was a moment later that Izuku pocketed his phone and began a mad dash home.
There were sirens echoing all through the roads, going in various directions. Izuku being the hero fanatic he was, thought this was a little strange. Usually the vehicles would converge to one area but they all seemed to be speeding in opposite directions. How weird.
After a near miss of being hit by a speeding car on a cross walk, Izuku finally made it to the front door of their flat. He didn’t waist a moment, pulling out his keys and unlocking the door quickly. Soon enough he was home and the door closed and securely locked behind him.
He dumped his bag, removes his shoes and went straight through to the living room, giving his mum a comforting smile as he passed her, making his way to the balcony doors. They were three stories up in their building, so it was a great vantage point to see a good chunk of the city.
Izuku slid open the glass door and took a few steps out, looking out over the streets and into the horizon. He could see plumes of smoke dotted around in various areas and sirens muffled in all directions. Never had he seen anything like it. Even with all the daily hero and villain fights.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by his mothers anxious beckoning for him to come back inside. He took one last look out onto the horizon before she ushered him in insistently and the door locked behind them.
It was a long few days before they understood the gravity of the situation. No instructions were given and when their phone service and internet got disconnected, it really hit home at how bad things could possibly be.
Izuku sighed. “Better get up I suppose.” He said, sitting up sluggishly, rubbing his eyes. There was no way he was going to fall back asleep now.
He took a few gulps from his water bottle and stood up with an almighty stretch, back arching and hands high up in the air. He relaxed and shook out his arms and legs, ready for the long day ahead.
Now you might think Izuku was getting up and heading out for work but that was not the case. It wasn’t because he didn’t have a job but rather, there where no jobs anymore. After a virus that spreads from person to person, quickly asserted its dominance over the human population, things like jobs became a thing of the past.
Now Izuku spent his days roaming around from location to location, door to door, shop to empty shop, trying to find food and water to keep himself alive. All whilst trying to avoid the new threat that roamed the streets.
They could be given any type of name. Walkers, biters, lurker’s…it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that, under no circumstances, could you let them close enough to grab and transfer any bodily fluid. It didn’t take people long to work out that the virus was spread through the transfer of saliva and blood from an infected person. Therefore, staying the hell away or taking them out before they could grab or pin you down, was the best option.
With Izuku feeling fully awake and ready to really start his day, he made sure to roll up his sleeping bag and stuffed it in his trusty yellow backpack before securely putting it on. He bent down and grabbed the last of what he needed to survive outside.
His bat.
It wasn’t anything fancy just a normal wooden baseball bat, but it did the trick and when being as quiet as possible meant not attracting more infected. A bat was, in his opinion, the best weapon to deal with them. It was hell of a lot more effective than any other weapon he’s tried in the past and as someone without a quirk, it was all he had to protect himself with.
Izuku walked to the front door of the flat he was staying in for the night and removed the chair he had placed against the handle. It wasn’t perfect, but it kept out any infected or people that might try to get in whilst he slept.
He made his way out the door and down the hall. A quick glance around before he headed towards the fire exit. Pushing the door open, he stood on the top of the steps, a good two stories high. It was a perfect to view over the streets and alley below. Izuku almost always found himself camping out on the higher levels of building than the lower.
Making sure there were no infected around, Izuku quickly and quietly made his way down the metal steps. Once at the bottom, he paused a moment to double check everything was safe before making his way to the main street.
He made sure to walk on the path as usual. No one used cars anymore, they were too noisy and required fuel which wasn’t as easily available, but this didn’t mean walking out in the open was a good idea. Many hostile people with long distance quirks could easily make mince meat of him and he wasn’t going to risk it.
Walking too close to the buildings posed a similar danger. Anyone or anything could easily rush him from a doorway or alley, leaving him no time to react. He was walking a very fine line between the two possibilities. There was more than just infected to worry about in this new world.
Unfortunately, In the beginning, villains had temporarily taken charge of almost all areas not protected by hero’s in the ‘safe zones’ most were evacuated to. That was until their numbers meant less supplies to hand out and villain groups starting attacking each other for resources. Eventually even they fell victim to the new world.
The ‘safe zones’ had also become a danger themselves. With food shortages and more survivors pouring in everyday, a fair few zones ended up compromised by unknown infected people, which caused a disaster all on its own.
As thousands of people flooded these areas and capacity reaching its limit, it didn’t take long for the doors to remain closed to civilians. That forced them to have to survive on their own and with others that weren’t as lucky to be evacuated, or weren’t close enough to safely get themselves to a zone.
There were three types of people. The first type were people who managed to successfully stay in a safe zone free from any harm.
The second type were people who became angry at the system for not protecting them. They banded together to bring down these government run areas who refused to let them in.
The third, and last type of people, where those who simply relied on themselves, either alone or in small groups, to get through this disaster of a new world and who weren’t interested in the squabbling of powerful groups.
Where were the hero’s in all of this? The ones that were supposed to protect citizens? The best of the best and the most equipped to dealing with disasters?
Well, they simple weren’t around to help.
As people inside and out of these zones fought to survive, villains began to majorly outnumber hero’s and in a government push to keep control, hero’s where only sighted in government controlled areas of great importance. These areas mainly consisted of privileged individuals and those with high qualifications in pharmaceutics and human science.
Their strict guidelines meant the hero’s where to focus on protecting the people within its walls and not venturing out to help anyone who stayed behind. Weather it being their own choice or the choice of the doors being shut in their face as they attempted to find security and safety in a government that was meant to protect them.
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It was midday before Izuku decided to take a break and sit inside an empty small shop. He’d been walking around, searching for supplies and defending himself against infected since the crack of dawn, and as he removed what he had placed in his pockets, he sighed at the total he managed to find.
A chocolate bar, half a bottle of clean water and a handful of hard sweets. It was a pitiful amount and wouldn’t last him more than a day. The sweets would help with keeping his mind off his hunger but it wasn’t going to keep his stomach from eating itself.
He hadn’t eaten at all the previous night so Izuku decided to tuck into the chocolate bar. It was far too sweat but he wasn’t going to voice his complaint. “Beggars can’t be choosers” he heard his mothers words in his head as he swallowed his first bite.
He pulled out his map of the whole city of Musutafu from his back pocket and began looking over the area he was in. The map was very detailed and very…Izuku like. Each area had a colour code system. Areas that where coloured red were used by villains or aggressive groups and where a no go. He’d tried to slip into one of those areas before and that landed him with an awful scar on his cheek, nearly loosing an eye in the process.
The yellow areas where places he had been before and wanted to go back to at some point. And lastly the areas that are unmarked, like the one he was in now, where areas he hadn’t been to before. After over nine years of fanning out, going from street to street, his map looked very intricate. It was his life line and the second most important item he couldn’t live without. His bat and map. Neither of which ever went into his backpack incase it got taken or he had to dump his bag quickly.
Looking over the area, Izuku noted the possible buildings no one would necessarily think to look. There was a decent sized library a street over and a swimming centre close by. The library was sure to have back offices with desks that could hold a forgotten cereal bar or something and the swimming centre had lockers. He’d have to be extra carful at making noise when prying them open, but who knows if someone left some food in there.
In this world every stone had to be turned. A single piece of food could be the difference between life and death from starvation. Water on the other hand was a little easier to come by. It wasn’t smart to drink from taps or ponds incase the source was contaminated, but when it rained Izuku made sure to collect as much as he could in the decent number of plastic bottles he kept in his backpack.
The winter months, although bitterly cold, were easier to collect fresh water. The summer months were a little difficult but If he rationed the water, he wouldn’t have to worry too much about it not raining for a few days. And that’s only if he didn’t find any bottled water lying around, preferably untouched.
Izuku stood up and collected his things, making sure to stuff the map in his back pocket before heading to the front door of the shop. He was going to check out the library first. Hell, he might even find something decent to read to pass his restless nights with.
His thoughts were halted when a slow group of six infected stumbled across the street, coming towards the shop. Izuku’s breath hitched immediately but he soon took a deep breath to help settle his nerves.
“Calm down, Izuku.” He whispered to himself. Not moving from the door and watching as they slowly got closer and closer. His body was telling him to fight or run but he new they didn’t know he was there. He was fine, he was safe. He just needed to wait it out and let them pass.
Sure he could take them out but it was too risky when he didn’t actually need to. If he didn’t move and stayed quiet, then they would move on and he could leave this now uncomfortably small shop.
They staked closer and each step caused Izuku’s heart rate to accelerate. Adrenaline was keeping his mind sharp and he new if he needed to, his movements to attack or dart away would be quick and precise.
The infected moved closer still and the grip on Izuku’s bat became stronger as his knuckles turned white. Two of the infected walked into the shops main window and thankfully bounced off the glass with a loud thud, instead of crashing through. One of them stumbled sideways and Izuku soon found himself face to face with an infected, with only a thin layer of glass and door frame separating them. Shit, shit, shit!
He stilled his nerves and willed himself not to move an inch. He had to be confident in his reasonings and remind himself that even though it was staring right at him, it couldn’t see him. The reflection of the outside light on the glass made it practically a one way mirror.
The infected person jolted and moved so unnaturally. It made Izuku wince when the movements where so erratic it would most definitely cause any normal person a lot of pain as it’s limbs twisted and jaw moved as if it where disjointed.
Izuku could hear the clicks and grinding of bone even through the other side of the glass. The disturbing sounds that came from its mouth, didn’t make things any better. Some infected groaned, and disturbing as it may be, it was a lot better than when they were silent. At least the groaning covered up the noise of bone moving and teeth knocking together, as the infected slammed their unnaturally strong jaws shut.
It was like a silent threat. Like the infected were imagining tearing you apart and their jaw reacted instinctively, snapping shut in an instant. The movements of the infected’s jaws always unnerved Izuku. It was like they were taunting and reminding him that one day, a jaw like that, would close around his flesh.
After an uncomfortable minute of a one sided staring contest, the six infected stumbled away down the street, tripping and banging into anything loose laying on the pavement. Izuku let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding and placed his palm against the doorframe to lean and catch his breath.
“Next time, I’m just going to close my eyes.” Izuku mumbled to himself, before a single laugh left his mouth. He always said he wouldn’t look when they get that close, but like a deer caught in headlights, he always does.
After giving enough time so that there was a decent amount of distance between him and the small group of infected, Izuku left the shop and made his way across the road, making sure to take in his surroundings.
After walking down two alleys and straight through a shop, thankfully not encountering any infected, Izuku finally made it to the library. He would usually look through the windows first to make sure no one or any infected where inside, but the windows where too out in the open to stand around with his back to the street, so he made the risky decision to go straight in.
He slowly opened the front door and quietly as possible, he closed it behind himself. He looked around the small reception area and to his surprise, there was a map on the wall detailing all the areas of the library.
As he got closer to the map, Izuku noticed shoes peeking out from the floor of the desk. He rounded the desk cautiously with his bat raised, and found the body of an infected woman. She had already been taken out by someone.
That knowledge was a good and bad thing. It was good because it meant Izuku didn’t have to take her out himself but it also meant that someone had already been here. And that meant the supplies he was hoping for, might have already been taken. Also, because she was infected it was impossible to know when she had been dispatched, and if the person/s who took her down were still here, that posed a risk.
After pulling his gaze away from the corpse, Izuku got closer and looked at the map again. It was a very detailed map, which would most definitely help him navigate the library safely. Every entry/exit was marked down, as well as the offices and club rooms located on the first floor.
“Perfect.” Izuku whispered, making sure to memorise the layout as best he could. Thankfully it had a very similar layout, to the library near his childhood home so there wasn’t too much to memorise. He debated breaking the frame and taking it with him but he would only throw it away later. Memorising the layout was easier than having to keep checking a map whilst also keeping an eye in his surroundings anyway.
After a few minutes making sure he was okay with moving on, Izuku went ahead and opened the second set of doors in the reception area that led to the open floor of the library. As you would expect the library was full of shelving with books everywhere. There were tables and chairs in the centre of the room and a staircase to the upper floors.
The library almost looked normal as if the world hadn’t changed for the worse. If it wasn’t for the fact that there were bags and chairs fallen randomly around the room, and books left open at tables and discarded on the floor. It was like time was frozen in here.
Once everyone was alerted, in the beginning, the panic it caused wasn’t surprising. And here in this library was proof of the people who where going about there normal routines before it all went to hell. The books on the table, left open as a reminder of how relaxed things used to be, where covered in nine years worth of dust.
The realisation that most of the people who where halfway through reading these books, were now probably infected or dead.
Izuku took a deep breath, making sure not to dwell on his feelings for too long before making his way to the stairs. So far he hadn’t found any infected but he new that could all change in a blink of an eye. Who knows what was lurking in this place and with so many shelves full of books, there were so many blind spots that the infected could stumble out from.
He slowly climbed the stairs, his bat secure in his hands and his footsteps slow and quiet. Every creek of the stairs made Izuku wince and pause a moment before continuing, as he walked up to the first floor.
The first floor was where the offices, more tables, and club rooms were located. The offices where on the left, the tables in the centre and the club rooms on the right. It made sense to Izuku, that he should check out the offices first. That was his main reason for coming here.
He reached the top of the stairs and paused, looking around carefully. He didn’t want to miss a thing. Trollies of books and chairs strewn across the floor posed a risk of making noise if he bumped into them. He had to plan his route carefully. He needed to make sure that if he needed to get away quickly, he could, without tripping or getting trapped.
Izuku turned to the left and made his way towards the offices that lined the room. Hopefully all the doors wouldn’t be locked and no infected inside. Fingers crossed.
He made his way into the first room and with his bat raised he slowly opened the door. It was empty. Phew! He entered and closed the door behind himself quietly and began opening every draw and cupboard he could find. In the end he found a bag of crisps, a lighter, a sealed bottle of water, that had fallen behind the desk, and some gum. In any case it wasn’t a bad find and a good start to his search.
After placing all that he found in his backpack, Izuku moved onto the next room. Before he entered, he checked through the small window and, of course, his luck with not bumping into any infected had run out. There were two staggering around in the centre of the office.
Izuku could have easily said “fuck this” and not bothered with trying to enter the room, but he saw a red and black bag behind the infected, sitting pretty on the desk. His curiosity got the better of him and now he really needed to get to that bag.
Now it was time for Izuku to put his brain to good use. This was undoubtedly going to make some noise but there wasn’t anything else he could do. But, if he dealt with it smartly then he could dispatch with them quickly and limit the noise.
After a few second of thinking, Izuku quietly picked up a plastic chair from the floor. The best way to stay quiet was to take them out inside the room, but seeing as there were two infected, he needed to be smart about it. He ran the risk of one grabbing him whist he held back the other.
With a deep breath, Izuku waited until they both faced away from the door and slowly opened it with his bat loosely in his hand. The other hand was holding the chair and once the door was opened fully enough that he could enter without banging the chair on the doorframe, he took a step in and threw the chair at one of the infected. The infected tumbled down with the force of the chair hitting it and that meant Izuku had plenty of time to tighten his grip, with both hands, on the bat and swing hard at the infected that wasn’t knocked down.
With one heavy hit to the head, the infected was out for the count. Izuku made his way to the other infected that was trying to scramble up from under the chair. He placed his foot on the chair to hold the thing down before lifting the bat above his head and bringing it down. Once, twice and done.
The room was silent again and Izuku took a moment to lower his bat and calm down his breathing caused by the adrenaline rush. He zeroed in onto the bag immediately and tipped everything out into the floor. Crouching down to inspect the contents, Izuku was content to see his troubles were not in vain.
Two cans of coke, a cereal bar and a small pack of crackers. Things seemed to be finally looking up for Izuku. Although, his expression never seemed to change no matter how good things got. He could never seem to smile. Not after that happened.
Shaking his head and stopping his doomed thoughts, he placed the items in his backpack. Izuku checked the rest of the office and found nothing of worth. So, it was onto the next office.
Three offices down, Izuku came out of the last room. He’d managed to find a packet of Maltesers, but that was all he could find after the initial treasure trove. Seems that the first two rooms had been the only luck he was going to get today, but he wasn’t going to call it a day just yet. He still wanted to check out the club rooms and maybe even pick out a book to take with him.
Turns out Izuku’s initial good luck had most definitely run dry. There was absolutely nothing in the club rooms, not even a crumb. He was just glad that he didn’t run into any more infected, but then again, when the alarm went off in the beginning, most people went to a shelter or home so a library should be a little safer.
That didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any infected. Like himself, Izuku came here and others would have too. They could have been bitten here or outside and came here to escape. People could have turned in here and that still meant there could be more infected somewhere.
Izuku made his way back down the stairs to the ground floor and looked around at the signs hanging from the ceiling. “Fiction, fiction, fiction…” he muttered to himself, turning around in a circle to look at all the signs to find the area he was looking for.
Once he found the section he was looking for, he headed straight there, with caution and his bat at the ready of course. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was looking for but he was sure something would catch his interest.
He made his way through the isle of shelves. He was almost lost at the amount of books he was looking at. It had been such a long time since he had come to a library, it was almost overwhelming.
The first isle was a dud, and Izuku walked around the edge of the shelving and down the next isle. As he walked down, scanning the titles and hoping something would stand out to him, his backpack caught a stack of books, precariously teetering on the edge of a shelf. The books started to fall before Izuku even registered what was going to happen and they fell with an almighty thud. The noise echoed through the quiet library.
“Shit.” Izuku hissed, standing still immediately and listening for any infected that may have been attracted to the sudden loud sound. It was just his horrible luck that his backpack would betray him. And it was even more bad luck when he heard infected groaning from the other side of the library and making their way towards him.
Izuku sighed and stared at the floor a moment memorising the layout. His head whipped to the left and he made his way out of the isle. There was a hallway that looped around to the back of the building and other smaller hallways shot off from the main one, where large storage rooms were located. After some navigation through the winding passages, there should be a fire escape door and it was the only exit now that the, now ten infected, where in the way of the front entrance.
He tightened his grip on his bat and ran out of the isle and past the infected. They couldn’t run but they could catch up pretty fast with their determination to eat a person alive, and if Izuku went the wring way by mistake, he would need some spare time to come up with a plan.
He ran down the hallway and round a corner, jumping down three steps as quietly as possible. There might be infected down here too that weren’t alerted by his clumsiness. He paused and looked back down the hallway to find out if the infected had followed him, and after a few seconds they appeared and were still coming down the hall towards him.
Izuku continued down the hallway but slower this time. He had managed to get a manageable distance between them, and now he just needed to keep that distance. He walked fast past the other hallways, looking around as he did so. He couldn’t allow himself to be trapped down here.
He looked back once again to make sure he was keeping his distance and then turned down another hallway that was to his right, and burst through a set of doors that led to a room. His bat came up instinctively, ready to strike, as he came face to face with someone. At first he thought it was an infected but his eyes widened at who was standing in front of him with a knife raised.
“Kacchan?” Izuku questioned. Of all the people to randomly bump into, it had to be him. He lowered his bat and stared at the man.
“Deku…” Katsuki called back in disbelief before lowering his weapon also. Katsuki looked Izuku up and down in one swift motion. “The fuck are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question.” Izuku said, swiftly moving past Katsuki to pick up an empty table to barricade the doors he just came through. There was an awkward silence that fell on them both, neither knowing what to say to each other.
The last conversation they had, if you could call it that, was Kastuki telling Izuku to jump from a roof and to hope he will have a quirk in his next life. They weren’t exactly words to reminisce on. They had unknowingly parted ways on such bad terms that day, without being given the chance to sort through their issues, and it was showing. The air felt too heavy for Izuku, too charged. Just like it did back in middle school. He felt as if one wrong move or if he said the wrong thing, it would set Katsuki off and he would pay for it. Like he always did back then.
Izuku managed to barricade the doors easily, just before the infected caught up and started banging against them. He turned around and began looking in the desk draws.
“There’s nothing here.” Katsuki stated seemingly agitated at Izuku’s silence. He was ignoring Katsuki’s presence completely, not even looking at him as he began searching the room for supplies. “Tch.” Katsuki responded at being ignored.
The banging on the door was getting louder as the ten infected pushed against it. The table was shifting slightly and Izuku new he only had a few more seconds before they made their way in. He stopped searching and made his way to the door on the opposite side of the room.
Izuku just managed to leave the room before the infected pushed through the doors behind him. He went to run to the left but before he would take a step, he was grabbed by his wrist and pulled down the hall leading to the right.
“Kacchan, let go!” Izuku protested and used his free hand to try and pry Katsuki’s hand away from his wrist. “This is the wrong way, you’re leading us to a dead end!” He protested, firmly placing his feet flat and leaning back to try and stop the blond asshole from dragging him forward but it’s no use, Katsuki was just easily pulling him along with no effort.
They rounded a corner, and as Izuku thought, it was a dead end. His day was just getting worse and worse by the minute and his frustration was at boiling point. “Well done Kacchan, it’s a dead end.” Izuku said sarcastically.
“How the hell was I supposed to know?” Katsuki spat back, glaring at Izuku.
“You should have listened to me!” Izuku shouted back as he yanked his wrist out of Katsuki’s hold. At least that’s one think Izuku can say has never changed in Katsuki. He still doesn’t listen.
Now he is frustrated, trapped, and ten infected are closing in, with no other rooms or hallways to escape to and better yet, Katsuki is here. As if that makes the whole situation any better.
Izuku ignored the grumbling of the blond and walked a few steps closer to the infected. He didn’t want to be backed up against the wall and he wanted as much room as he could get, to swing his bat around and doge flailing hands ready to grab him.
Izuku could see Katsuki follow and step up next to him which ticked him off even more. He turned silently and lifted his bat, pointing the thick end to Katsuki’s chest and firmly pushed him back a few steps, towards the dead end. “Stay back there or I won’t be able to swing without hitting you.”
Katsuki looked at the bat pressed against his chest as of it had personally offended him, and then glared at Izuku is disbelief. He was uncharacteristically quiet, didn’t make any sarcastic comments or throw cruel words. It was different and made it awkward to say the least. Izuku isn’t sure what the idiot is thinking, but he better sort his shit out fast before they are face to face with infected.
Their was a weird tension in the air though. Izuku felt it immediately. He would never have even thought about pushing Katsuki back like that. So assertive, confident, no room for discussion. Then again, he wasn’t that little kid anymore. He had to change in order to survive.
“You’re gonna take them all down on your own?” Katsuki scoffed.
“No.” Izuku answered, turning back around to face the infected and getting ready for the onslaught. “I’ll push a few through to you now and again. You got us into this mess and I’m definitely not going to let you sit back and watch me deal with it.” He stated bluntly and refused to turn around to see Katsuki expression.
Katsuki still didn’t say anything back. He was still silent. Izuku was laying out his own set of instructions and Katsuki wasn’t disagreeing with him. He hadn’t voiced his agreement, but he didn’t shut them down either. It just felt so…odd.
The infected were now a few feet away from his position and Izuku took a deep steadying breath. As they stumbled closer, he was glad the the hallway was narrow. It meant no more than three could get close at any given time. The downside was that the Infected behind the initial three would push them forward and with ten of them, itching to take a bite, it could get out of control very quickly.
Ten infected for Izuku to deal with…
Izuku leaned forward and pushed one of the three at the front line back with the end of his bat, like he had just done to Katsuki. Two stumbled forward and he sidestepped them and stepped up behind them quickly, pushing their backs with each of his hands, so they went towards Katsuki.
Eight infected…
He turned back around just in time and swung his bat high, hitting the an infected on the very right, in the neck, and causing it to tumble sideways onto the floor and taking two more with it. Izuku lifted the bat and angled it behind his back, over his head, and brought it down on an infected coming towards him from the middle. It went down instantly.
Seven infected…
Izuku was trying to keep an eye out on everything all at once and he got a little too close to the three infected crawling around on the floor. One of them grabbed his ankle and Izuku stumbled forward. He composed himself quickly and brought his other foot down on the two arms stretched out, with a loud crack as both arms broke instantly. He kept his foot there to pin that infected down for a moment.
He raised his bat out in front of him, with both hands on either end, and blocked two infected that where still standing in front of him. They extended their arms and Izuku had to lean back slightly whilst also trying to push them back, in order to not get grabbed by four flailing hands. The two behind where also pushing forward now and Izuku grit his teeth and growled through the strain of trying to keep his stance in place.
He glanced in his peripherals a moment and saw Katsuki had already disposed of one and was taking care of the second one he let through. Izuku used all the strength he had a shoved the two infected against his bat, back. This caused the four in total standing to stumble back a little before walking towards them again.
Izuku took a step back to regain some space. He lifted his bat and brought it down onto the crown of another infected, stopping it instantly. He hooked his bat around the back of another infected’s head and pulled it past him and towards Katsuki.
Five infected…
Izuku kicked an infected on the left of the two that were still standing and swung his bat from right to left causing it to smash the infected’s skull against the wall.
Four infected…
Now the three infected that were on the ground had the room and time to clumsily get back up. Izuku glanced back to make sure he had room and proceeded to take another step back. He had managed to transfer some to Katsuki and successfully take out a fair few of the group, but Izuku was getting tired now.
The whole group of four infected were closing the gap fast and Izuku could still hear Katsuki dealing with the one he sent through. That’s the trouble with having a knife as a weapon. One had to get up close and personal in order to deal a killing blow and with flailing arms, ready to grab, it could be a little more challenging.
Izuku took another step back. He needed time. Time to think and recover a little. With a deep breath out his mouth, Izuku raised his bat up high and swung at an angle to attempt what he had done in the beginning. He hit an infected on the right and it tumbled left, taking the other two with it but instead of falling over, they hit the wall and bounced off. They were upright and moving forward in seconds.
Shit.
“Clear!” He heard Katsuki shout to him.
Izuku turned to the side and swung his bat to the knees of one of an infected and without lifting it back up straight away, he twisted his wrists and brought the bat back up and into the chin of the next infected. One fell to the ground and the other stumbled back, It’s neck broken but still moving around. Izuku grabbed its shirt tightly and pulled it past him and towards Katsuki before bringing his foot down hard onto the head of the one on the floor.
Two infected…
The next part was easy. Izuku lifted his bat and without any hesitation, he swing it towards one of the two infected in front of him. It fell to the side but the hit wasn’t hard enough. Exhaustion was definitely taking its toll and it was showing. Izuku kicked the other standing infected away and swiftly brought his bat down on the infected on the ground.
One infected…
With only one left, Izuku was determined to make Katsuki take it out. It was his fault they where trapped like this anyway. He stepped back once more and used his bat to change the infected’s momentum, leading it towards Katsuki.
Izuku tuned around to watch but it was clear that he was tired and it was clouding his judgement. Katsuki’s back was turned towards them and he was still dealing with the other one he sent before. Izuku failed to check before sending the infected his way and now it was a disaster waiting to happen.
“Kacchan!” Izuku shouted in warning before lunging forward with his bat raised over his right shoulder. Izuku saw Katsuki turn and look before ducking, just as he swung the bat, hitting the infected on the side if the head.
Katsuki regained his balance and shoved his knife up through the chin of last infected he was originally dealing with. He turned to face Izuku, anger clearly seen on his face. “What the fuck was that?”
“Sorry. I got, a little carried away.” Izuku panted, walking backward towards the wall and sliding down to a sitting position to catch his breath. He really needed to find some decent supplies soon, being constantly unable to eat well enough to replenish his strength was starting to affect his ability to fight and make split second decisions.
“Tch, idiot.” Katsuki hissed, unimpressed.
Izuku rolled his eyes and looked away from the blond. “Unbelievable.” He mumbled. As if he hadn’t just saved their asses. Yeah sure, he messed up a little at the end, but he dealt with it and no one got hurt. He could almost feel proud of himself, if it wasn’t for the blond moron making him feel like crap.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.” Izuku replied with a sigh. He stood up and began to walk back down the hall, to where they had come from. They had only been together for ten minutes and already Izuku had had enough if him.
“Your leaving?”
“Yes.” Izuku shrugged, not stopping or looking his way.
He could feel the deep red eyes boring a hole in the back of his head but he wasn’t going to give Katsuki the pleasure of seeing him turn to face him. His back was the only think the blond was going to see. It was petty and he new that. So what? The asshole didn’t exactly treat him well in the past and Izuku was still holding onto his grudge.
“Do you have a group?” Katsuki asked, following him.
“No.” This idiot was just not taking the hint of: leave me the fuck alone.
“Do you want to join me?”
“No.” Definitely not. Izuku thought. No way in hell was that happening.
Then the hallway fell silent and it was like a blessing to Izuku. Maybe he was too premature with thinking Katsuki wasn’t taking the hint. Maybe, just maybe, he would be left alone. Soon he would leave the library and most definitely without this asshole.
Izuku continued to walk towards the room they where in, before he was dragged down the wrong hallway. Once he reached it, he continues forward down to where he should have gone to get to the fire escape. Izuku could have gone back to find a book like he originally wanted to, but that was out of the question now that Katsuki was following him around. He wanted to get out as fast as possible.
He made it to the fire exit and pushed the bar to open the door but paused in taking a step, making sure to not turn around, when Katsuki spoke again.
“Well. See ya around then, Deku.”
“No thank you.” Izuku said bluntly before ducking out of the door, letting it close behind him.
“Haa?” Katsuki said loudly in disbelief and stared at the closed door in front of him. He stepped forward and opened it, hoping to still see Izuku on the other side. “Deku?”
Katsuki looked around but the alley was completely empty. There wasn’t a green mop of hair anywhere to be seen. He ran down the few steps in front of him and out of the alley, towards the street. He looked everywhere but couldn’t find Izuku anywhere. It was like he just vanished. “The fuck?”
He stood there for longer than he would like to admit. He was completely taken aback by the whole shitty scenario that had just taken place. He bumped into Izuku out of pure chance and the nerd took control of the situation and Katsuki just followed his lead. Well, after accidentally taking them to a dead fucking end. And surprisingly, with the odds stacked against them, they survived the fight with ten infected in such a small space.
Katsuki was literally shocked to silence at Izuku’s demeanour and control. Let alone the nerds built physique and how he held himself now. The confidence and assertiveness was practically pouring off him. Katsuki has to admit, it was a rarity for even him to not have anything to say. He never stayed silent and yet after all this time apart, and a surprise reunion, the nerd had actually managed it. Huh.
That scrawny, weak, crybaby kid wasn’t there anymore and now Izuku was nearly the same hight as him now. His muscles were built up and showing through his clothes. Katsuki wouldn’t be ashamed to admit, Izuku looked good now. Really good.
If someone had asked Katsuki nine years ago, If Izuku would have been able to survive in this new would, he would have laughed in their fucking face. But now…after today, he would have slapped his younger self for even thinking that way.
What sort of fucked up world was he living in now, where a small fragile kid like Izuku, with no quirk or physical strength could turn into…into that! Into someone so…capable. If he wasn’t already pinching himself, Katsuki would most definitely think this was a weird fuck-ass dream. Well shit, now he just feels like a total dumbass.
And, now he’s even more of a dumbass because he’s still standing in the middle of the fucking street, looking around for someone that’s long gone by now. “Dammit.” Katsuki hissed to himself.
This was the first time he had travelled further out from the areas he new, to find food and other supplies. Katsuki hadn’t had any luck today but he was going to keep looking and stick around this area, if not for supplies then for the possibility of seeing the nerd again.
It was pretty clear Izuku didn’t want anything to do with Katsuki anymore. He couldn’t blame him. He wasn’t exactly the best towards Izuku when they where kids and he was a royal asshole towards him in middle school. He always found himself replaying the last thing he said to Izuku before everything went to shit.
…there actually might be another way. Just pray you’ll be born with a quirk in your next life, and take a swan dive off the roof of the building.
Katsuki has spent years wanting to make things right with Izuku, and he thought he’d never get the chance but now, knowing that Izuku was alive, he could-he would! He was certain he would see Izuku again. He was stubborn when it came to things he wanted, and he always got his way.
He was starting to walk back to the library to search further inside. He had only managed to look through the back areas before bumping into the greenette. But he stopped suddenly with the thoughts that, Izuku most probably cleaned the building out, so it was pointless going back.
Instead he made his way to the shop next to the library in the other side of the alley. He was going to continue his plan of going from shop to shop, in hopes of finding food. There was plenty of daylight left and he was wasting time. He needed to focus and find food soon. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning and it was starting to show in his stamina, or the lack of.
He made his way through the front door, slowly and cautiously, with his knife raised. Thankfully there where no infected on the shop floor but he could hear scratching coming from the back room. He just new today was going to be one of those days.