16. Your Fault

Izuku Midoriya stared at his breakfast with bloodshot eyes. He was lifeless as he watched the heat leave his morning meal. He wore no expression, hardly even seemed to breathe. For Izuku there was really no reason to take another breath.

After the incident at the shopping mall the authorities were called and they began a hopeless investigation for his girlfriend. They searched the premises and surrounding areas at first, but with a teleporter quirk the League of Villains could be anywhere. The police guessed she was taken back to whatever place they consider their base of operations. Especially after they all found out who she really was.

After an extensive questioning and database research they were able to match her up to the villain who she was before meeting the green-haired boy. Izuku thought if he told them everything the truth could somehow solve all his problems, but it only added to the constant downward spiral. Izuku was stuck in the police station for hours. Question after question. His brain attempted to register each word thrown at him but he was left in a stuttering mess for the most part. When Izuku was let out they decided to let him off easy, most of the police force knew him and took pity on him, despite him illegally hiding a villain. A couple hours later Izuku finally was able to comprehend the conclusion from the whole investigation. It would be put on hold with the rest of the League of Villain cases.

Izuku arrived at home alone, noticing his mother was still gone on her trip. The police station had called her for him earlier and she said she was going to come home as quick as she could but it wouldn't be easy. His small apartment suddenly felt like a haunted mansion. No not haunted because haunted implies even the dead reside there with you. This was worse. There was no one. Not even their cat was to be found.

Izuku considered just going to bed but then he noticed Himiko's room out of the side of his vision and approached the door. Every step closer he felt weaker. Like his heart was glass that could shatter at any sudden movement. He reached out to open the handle but his muscles wouldn't let him. His hand began to shake and his arm began to twitch. He was breaking. He couldn't hold it in anymore.

A loud scream wailed out from the Midoriya apartment that day. It's hard to really call it a scream though. The sound was one only people can make when there is nothing left. It is deep yet, somehow carries a pitch that can break glass. It is purely animalistic, burned into our cores as instinct that reacts to the highest amount of disaster. It calls to others to let them know it's the end. The noise was simply despair.

After that Izuku collapsed against her door, not even able to open it up. He didn't have enough strength to. He just leaned up against it, pressing his messy hair against its solid structure as tears drained from his face. It was by no means a dignified cry. It was messy and almost violent to a certain extent.

Hours went by but it didn't matter. Many people called the boy but he wouldn't have heard the phone even if it was blasting through his skull. Nothing mattered because all of this was his fault. He was the one to blame for her capture. He wasn't strong enough to stop it, wasn't smart enough to foresee it.

After a while the tears stopped flowing. He didn't have enough strength to cry. In fact that's what his problem was. He didn't have enough power to do anything. So he just lay there for hours on end spanding into the night. Despite how exhausted he was he didn't sleep. He didn't feel like he deserved it.

With the sun rising so did Izuku Midoriya. Despite not having a wink of sleep that whole agonizing night he felt enegried. It was with anger. He started by doing push ups until he could no longer move his arms even with his quirk and then went on a 12 mile run, blaring aggressive music into his headphones. He wanted to feel something again. Something powerful. Later that day he went into the alley next to his apartment building and strung up a punching bag.

He was stuck in a loop. He would workout till he literally dropped or could no longer move, then he would eat something and take a nap for a couple hours. He didn't allow himself to properly rest or eat but only gave himself enough time until he had enough strength to train again. The only way you could tell time was even changing was when he went outdoors to run or box.

The week passed this same way until finally Mrs. Midoriya opened the door to her apartment. She had tried to make her business trip shorter but a combination of bad weather and expensive fees held her flight back. She looked around the apartment to see their cat stretching on the kitchen table. It was a total mess. Usually Izuku would be very diligent in cleaning but scattered dirty dishes seemed to fill every inch. Instant ramen containers were falling out of the tipped trash can and the smell was even worse. The trail continued over to Izuku's open door where even his All Might merchandise was mixed up in the garbage. The green-haired woman looked around sadly and began to clean up a couple of things still wondering where her poor son was. She then realized the noise coming from outside of the open window and looked down into the alley to see her son hitting a punching bag. No, hitting is an understatement. He was beyond aggressive, each punch was precise and powerful. Each blow was one intending to kill.

She was about to call down to him when she realized he had headphones on. Plus he looked like he really just needed to be left alone and get everything out. Little did she know he had been 'getting everything out' for the last five days. She used this time to begin to clean the sad room. After about 30 minutes she had the room back to the way it originally was and was working her way out to the living room. That's when she noticed Himiko's room. The door was closed and almost seemed like there was a shield around it, because none of the trash was even remotely near it. In a way she felt it would have been better if there was something near it, because that meant there was someone there. However now it just looked abandoned. She walked over towards it and was about to place her hand on the handle when another door opened.

Suddenly heavy breathing and a foul smell filled the apartment. She looked over to see her son staring blankly at her. He didn't even seem surprised, just blank.

"Mom," he said. That was all he said. They just continued in a staring contest that was tearing at the woman's heart. Her son looked like he hadn't showered since they last spoke and his voice was dry from not talking. He hadn't even answered her calls after the first one. His eyes had dark rings around them, but the rest of his expression had no other signs of it. He was emotionless. That's when she broke down into tears right in front of him. She collapsed onto the floor and Izuku just grabbed some food and walked into his room closing the door behind him.

His mother over the next couple of days worked as hard as she could caring for the broken boy. He didn't want to clean up after himself or take a shower for that matter, but when she asked him to clean up after himself he gave little to no effort. He said he didn't understand the point of it. Inko found herself yelling at him more as he looked at her with his dead eyes. He never yelled back or hardly responded at all but his mother always found herself crying afterward. Eventually it was time for camp and she told him he shouldn't go but nothing she could do seemed to stop him. Eventually she was able to use it as a little leverage to at least have him clean himself up and pack some clothes, but everything was still far from ok.

As Izuku continued to stare at his meal she patted his back and asked if he was hungry. In order to avoid further conversation he ate his food and began to head out the door without any further words. Inko tried to say something to him before he left but found herself at a loss for words in front of his expressionless face.

"She loved you," is all she could make out at last as he turned to leave. With that he hesitated and stopped in his tracks.

"I know," he said, almost growling as he stood up a little taller. Not even looking back at her he left for camp. She began to cry in the kitchen as she did the dishes, feeling a similar way to how her son felt when he arrived home that day after Himiko disappeared. Incredibly lonely.

If she had looked outside however she would have realized she wasn't as lonely as she thought. A tall figure suddenly leapt down from a high window in the apartment building and landed in the alleyway on her hands and feet like a feline. Getting up and brushing off her clothing she found a peculiar sight that caused her to chuckle a bit. Stepping over the sand that had recently started to cover the ground she then proceeded to turn around and walk out, leaving the five punctured punching bags on the ground of the alley.

Izuku arrived at school late, despite leaving early he intentionally took as much time as possible on the walk over there in order to not have to talk to his classmates for prolonged periods of time. The bus doors were just beginning to close when he stepped on and his entire class suddenly went quiet when he stepped on. Saying he looked unwell was an understatement. Upon walking by Aizawa, he stood up to stop him.

"Are you sure you are able to—"

"I'm fine," Izuku said, not even looking up at his teacher but instead pushing out of the way to walk by.

"Since when did he get so tall?" Eraserhead thought to himself. In the time Izuku had spent with Himiko, he had changed, physically and mentally. And now he had changed again. Hopefully not permanently though.

Izuku walked to the back of the bus and no one even dared to say anything to him. Not even Kacchan, something seemed really unsettling about seeing the kid he had bullied so defeated. Izuku took the last unopened seat and popped in headphones immediately, going to sleep. Anyone who was thinking about talking to him earlier was now completely shut down by this last move.

When they arrived at their drop off point, Izuku opened his eyes before anyone had the chance to wake him and walked off the bus behind the crowd. Uraraka and Iida went to talk to him but then the ground opened up underneath them and the first test of camp began. Everyone was caught off guard at first but began to get up ready to face the earth creatures that Pro Hero Pixie Bob had created for them to fight. Everyone except Izuku. He was not even phased. He had shredded through the first 3 creatures before anyone else had reached their first. Not even Bakugou could keep up with him as he used the most of his surroundings to destroy every creature in sight. However, it soon became clear to people that he wasn't even trying to get to the end and simply wanted to rip apart everything that crossed his path.

After a long day everyone in Class 1-A had finished and were exhausted at the entrance of the actual camp. All except Izuku that is. He was still in the middle of the woods on a rampage. The other class members began to talk about the green-haired kid and where he was, so Aizawa went up to the Wild, Wild Pussycats to see if the rumors were true.

"Yup, he's still out there taking all of my babies out," Pixie Bob said wiping her forehead, all this use of her quirk was really tiring her out.

"He's not even trying to get to the finish," Ragdoll said with a confused look.

Aizawa sighed and then called for Pixie Bob to stop making enemies for him to fight. Izuku would have been out all night if they didn't do something about it. After about only an hour Izuku arrived drenched in sweat. Before he could do anything however Aizawa grabbed the boy and began harshly talking to him.

"If you say you want to be here, then really BE HERE. I'm not gonna let you ruin this whole training experience for everyone else just because you are feeling awful and need to blow off some steam."

Izuku understood and said he was sorry and that he would act mature for the next couple of days. Izuku stuck to his promise and trained until he felt like he was gonna break. He didn't talk to his class much, even his close friends, and stayed relatively emotionless around others. His friends were worried about him but he would just make excuses to stay away from them if they began to pry at him too much. The only time they ever saw him seem to experience any emotion at all was when he was fighting, but it was somewhat unsettling. It was an anger to a degree that almost made others uncomfortable. It was painful for everyone to see Izuku's current condition, but the real pain was only on the horizon.

Izuku and Class 1-A witnessed their forest on fire. Panic was everywhere while many students were sprawled around the forest in the midst of the chaos. No one seemed to know what was really going on. A villain attack was what many speculated, but only a few knew for certain. Everyone except Izuku however, because he knew for certain. He was the only one who seemed to notice the group of shady people standing on top of the cliff above the forest. He was the only one who could have recognized the blonde figure collapsed in one of the arms of those people. He was the only one who knew what it ment. Shigaraki had come to bargain.

[Sorry for the wait everyone! I was pretty busy and really had to look where I'm going to take the rest of this story, but the next chapter should be coming out fairly soon so look forward to that! Also don't worry I love this story and I'm gonna see it through till the end!]