Chapter Text
They say the embrace of death is cold, but Tensei has never felt warmer.
Maybe it’s the blood puddling beneath him, or the way his engines have overheated, but he’s sweltering.
And yet, his body still occasionally shivers.
“May you rest in peace, Ingenium,” Stain croaks as he sheathes his blade once more. The blade coated in his blood, the blade that had been in his-
Then he’s gone.
Tensei doesn’t know if he passed out for a bit, or if he had just blinked, but he can’t die here.
Tenya.
Oh god, Tenya, he’s still at UA, he’s still participating in the Sports Festival-
He can’t die here.
He isn’t allowed to die here.
Not like this.
Not today, during such an important day for Tenya, and not ever.
Tensei wheezes and groans and grunts, shakily scraping his arm against the concrete as he pulls it up to his communicator.
“Help,” he whispers. At least, he thinks he manages to say it.
He doesn’t know.
His body is numb, but he’s still alive.
He has to stay alive.
He just has to stay awake.
He… he just has to live for Tenya.
And his team.
They’re still patrolling, they should have noticed his absence.
They shouldn’t have to see him like this.
They… they should’ve responded to him by now.
But his ears are ringing so badly that he can’t-
He’s going to die here.
His vision is cluttered with unwavering splotches of foreboding darkness.
He…
He doesn’t want to die like this.
-~-
There’s a hand on his shoulder, a thumb holding his eyelid open, and a light being shined into his eye.
“—BP is—”
“—can you hear—”
“—call his—”
He’s cold.
-~-
“He’s in surgery right now. They… they think he’s going to make it, but he’s in really bad shape.”
“It was the Hero Killer.”
-~-
“Where’s Mom?” Tenya asks from where he sits in a chair next to Tensei’s bed. He’s still in his gym uniform. From his lap, his hand twitches like he wants to reach out and hold his older brother’s hand like he always used to insist on doing.
“She had to make a few calls,” Tatsuya replies.
Their voices are just another noise in the sea of beeps and clicks and huffs and hums of medical equipment.
Tenya’s phone audibly chirps with another text message.
“You should answer them. They seem worried,” Tatsuya says, his gaze never leaving his eldest son. His beautiful boy who laughed when butterflies landed on him, his little boy who cried when a dog on a television whimpered too long.
His baby who may never wake up.
-~-
Shouta is very proud of his class for doing so well at the Sports Festival but he has a different priority right now.
He’s only been sitting on this plastic chair for an hour, but his entire being is already aching and protesting violently.
Tensei is still comatose in his hospital bed.
It’s been nine days, sixteen hours, and twenty-three minutes since he’s heard Tensei’s voice. His infectious laughter. His carefree mentions about preparing an internship slip for Tenya after the Sports Festival. His startled squawks at Shouta’s dry jokes.
And now, Tensei may never wake up.
The doctors had said his vitals were stable, but it’s been days.
When he was watching his students spar, his friend was dueling to the death with a killer.
When he was limping to the infirmary to check on Midoriya, his friend had a katana skewered through his abdomen.
When he was in the announcer’s booth, his friend was bleeding out in an alleyway.
It’s not another building collapsing, but it’s still another friend that he couldn’t— didn’t—save.
-~-
He doesn’t feel pain, he just feels… floaty.
Like he’s on a cloud, or he’s absolutely drowned to his teeth in painkillers.
It’s likely the latter.
He remembers the katana skewering him and being found but-
He’s supposed to be dead.
He isn’t supposed to feel floaty, he’s supposed to feel nothing.
With no small amount of effort, Tensei manages to open his eyes to slivers only to see the dreaded white ceiling tiles of a medical facility.
There’s a tube in his throat.
His body is numb, and his head is already getting heavier, but he’s alive.
But… he remembers how bad his wounds were.
Tensei is alive, but he knows he’ll never live quite right ever again.
-~-
The Hero Killer attacks once more.
He kills two.
A hero, and a boy who tried to be one.
The world mourns them both, but nobody mourns as much as Iida Tensei.
Candles remain lit in the wake of their deaths, but there is no light in Tensei’s life.
First it was the death of his life’s purpose.
Now it’s the death of his reason to live.