How does one deal with any kind of grief? How does one move on?

This past week, these are questions Tenya can't find answers to. He isn't even sure if he could've answered it before this internship, before Tensei was... hospitalized. Maybe before then, he'd have said to not think about the problem. Maybe before then, he'd have said that so long as one has a good support system, they'd be alright. Maybe he'd say that if one were to stay strong, it'd be over eventually.

Now that he's experienced it, Tenya doesn't think it's possible anymore, to move on completely. He also doesn't think that grief will fade in its entirety. When Tensei recovers, or if Tensei—dies, both of these facts will linger like nasty, warped scars nestled in his heart, screaming until it stops beating.

So how does one deal with any kind of grief? How does one move on?

It all depends on the person, Tenya's realized. Bleeding out on the ground, breaths slowing, mind spinning, he thinks he's seen what his death is: a slow, drawn-out montage of memories. Happy ones, sad ones, angry ones, funny ones, embarrassing ones, all sorts of snippets from the past that make his entire being ache with longing and think about those two questions. Grief is like that, too, and so is "moving on," individualized things that take time to find, only showing in the lowest of lows.

So here is what Tenya thinks:

Tenya's grief is a storm—a tempest, or perhaps a hurricane. It starts in the calm waters of the sea and turns it all into whirlpools and charged water, before moving to the land and leaving uprooted earth in its wake, the wind screaming as it hurts everything it can erode away. Friendships, family, people... anything. And anyone around him who survives the wind will plunge into the oceans, sucked into this same dangerous grief, unable to get out and find help.

So unlike the past, Tenya won't run after and try to control it. He'll make everyone, including himself, wait it out. Tenya will find or build his own bunker, keeping in contact with others but not risking him or them getting caught up in the storm. He'll be alone, maybe, but he'll be safe from himself as the winds and the seas rage on.

His shelter will be made from and strengthened by the joy of everyone he'll save as a hero. (It'll start off as Tensei, laughing with him, an arm around Tenya's shoulders, saying "Well, if you admire me, Tenya, then I might be the best hero around!")

And when the storm fades and the waters become still once more, Tenya will come out of his bunker and move on.

"Moving on" will be rebuilding every structure his grief has destroyed. Whether it be the powerlines that connect Tenya back to the Internet and revive his cellular data for calls to the other broken homes and standing bunkers surrounding his, Tenya will mend it. Maybe he'll miss some spots, maybe he'll notice and leave them for another day. But regardless of its state, nothing he rebuilds will be the same as before.

So he'll upgrade those buildings, add basements and fortify walls and improve windows and doors. Tenya will get paint and he'll decorate them anew, turn them into something more beautiful than the last, and highlight all their new little flaws by letting time and life seal the cracks, plants pulling the buildings together with their roots. It'll be hard, strenuous work, something that makes his entire being hurt all the time. And when people come back, relieved that Tenya is safe, their smiles will brighten his world for many days to come.

Yes, grief will drill a hole in his chest and moving on will fill it with mud, but that doesn't mean that Tenya can't plant flowers in his heart and make it something newer.

(Tenya thinks he'll deal with his grief by saving others from theirs, and move on by seeing them smile in Tensei's place.

["People are dying outside of here, but I saw the news about Ingenium, and y-you were acting weird, and I'm here to save you, you jerk."]

["If you want us to stop, then get up. We're going to be heroes, Iida—our job will be to keep going no matter what."]

And the first person he'll save from grief is himself.)

===

Tenya's hand thrums with strain when he drags his fingers into a fist, but managing to pound it against the ground seems to remove the rest of the Quirk-induced paralysis on it. His hand begins buzzing like he's pinched his nerves, that feeling travelling down his arm slowly. From there, it spreads to his torso and then to the rest of his body until Tenya's entire body shakes. Despite it, he lifts himself up, putting his full weight on his arm, and stands on shaking knees.

"Your right, Todoroki!" Midoriya shouts. The noise hurts Tenya's head. "Try to overwhelm him until I—ah—!" After the shrill cry of a blade being unsheathed, a loud thunk sounds right when Midoriya cuts himself off. Tenya grits his teeth, but keeps breathing.

The world shakes. Tenya stumbles on the first step he takes, boots covered in his blood, but he takes in a ragged, hard breath, charges his engines, looks up with blurry eyes, and—

"TODOROKI!"

Tenya started this fight just like this, and he'll turn it in their favor like this, too: with a swift kick aimed towards Stain, just as the Hero Killer's about to cut Todoroki in half.

The strike, perfectly aimed, breaks Stain's sword cleanly. He wastes no time in using that same momentum to twist around, slam-kick Stain to the side, grab Todoroki by the shoulder, and get some distance between them and Stain while the Hero Killer crashes into a wall. On the way, Tenya spots Midoriya against another wall, a hand on his stomach, the surface behind him fractured, and a small knife embedded next to him, dangerously close to his neck.

He can't return Midoriya's beaming, watery grin, so focused on Stain as he is, but Tenya settles with nodding for now.

"Bl-Blood type!" Midoriya exclaims. His breath hitches like he's holding back a cry of pain. "It—St-S-Stain's Quirk, the duration, Native's still not up, so, blood type! I'm O, so Todoroki—"

"I am, too," Todoroki affirms, giving Tenya a small smile. "You?"

"A." Tenya says, body leaning forward and prepared to move. His hand rests lightly where Stain once stabbed his thigh, now nothing more than a discolored patch of skin. "Native must be type B or AB. I-I'm sorry for everything, for what it's worth. You shouldn't be bleeding for me."

Stain spits a glob of blood out before Tenya's classmates can respond. "How annoying," he seethes as he gets up, "to act reformed to survive. Disgusting, unchanging, cancerous vermin..." He holds his shattered sword out, right at Tenya. "You won't change. When I get to you, you won't even be recognizable."

Earlier, Tenya would've probably charged at him for that. But now, he just smiles at Stain, a small, bitter thing. "Maybe I am a vermin," he concedes, "but all three of us are in-training. We've still got room to change."

Todoroki sends a surge of fire at Stain before the Hero Killer, who lunged at Tenya right when he finished his sentence, can get too close. It wouldn't have mattered anyway because Tenya's already moved away to help Midoriya up, looking away shamefully when, in order to down the rest of a vial of the golden healing liquid*, Midoriya reveals a bleeding wound on the side of his stomach.

Midoriya sighs in relief as his injury stitches itself up, having been freed from Stain's Quirk as soon as Tenya came to help him. This time, when he smiles, Tenya returns it hesitantly. And then, in near sync, the two of them rush back to Todoroki's side, ready to fight.

"Something's changed about Stain," Midoriya mutters, Todoroki still holding Stain off. His eyes track Stain with pinpoint accuracy even through the ice and flames. "He's m-more—wild? He—up, Todoroki—his attacks, they're less coordinated, more unstable, like he isn't holding back anymore. I-I think he's serious now."

"Or flustered," Todoroki grunts out, creating a swirl of ice that wraps around the three of them and blocks a strike from Stain. "And that's all the better for us. Three against one—surely he'll tire faster, even with our inexperience. He'll get desperate, too—he'll get close at any cost, leaving him open." Todoroki exhales when Stain tries to get close again, his breath coming out as a thick mist while he throws more ice to the Hero Killer's way. "He's running out of time."

Tenya glances down at his legs, revving his Quirk up. Surprisingly, they activate, heat spewing from his exhaust pipes—perhaps more than usual, actually. Was it that healing liquid Midoriya gave him? (Tenya has a distant, crazed thought that maybe he should drink apple juice instead of orange juice.)

But that doesn't matter now, does it? He moves forward, watching, waiting for Stain to—

When several blades pierce through Todoroki's fire at random, Tenya doesn't hesitate to block them with his body. His side wails in pain at the three—no, four blades digging into it, a couple barely poking past his armor and into his skin, the other two deep in his flesh. He hisses sharply through his teeth and pushes through the pain, ripping out the knives that aren't in him too deep.

"Iida!" Midoriya calls out worriedly, hands hovering over him. Tenya brushes them away as he cranes his neck up, finding Stain perched on some pipes high above, waiting for Todoroki to stop using his fire.

"Stall," Tenya says. "We have to stall longer. At least until N-Native can leave and get help."

"We can't even run with him; Stain's too fast." Tenya isn't sure Todoroki meant it as a twisted joke—he's sure that wasn't a joke at all, really, but something in it has him laughing miserably. Maybe the running part.

All three of them, just beginning school at U.A., have to withstand someone who has years of experience killing full-fledged heroes. One of them—the only one with a Quirk related to running—got so consumed in rage he nearly died from it, and now none of them can get out of this in this instant. How funny.

Tenya knows better now, of course, but self-awareness doesn't stop self-depreciation. He hides from what must be Todoroki's sudden searching, possibly worried look, by yelling, "Keep the fire going!" He ducks his head, focusing on putting every ounce of power into his engines, feeling their own special heat emanating from them despite being so close to Todoroki's flames.

"Wh-What are you—?!" Tenya looks up again. When Midoriya does, too, realization gradually falls on his face. He lowers his voice. "W-Wait, if Stain's in the air he can't move as fast, right? And w-w-with how hasty he's become and with you as a target, Iida, you can lure him out, and I can—I can sneak from behind and, and we can overwhelm him and—!"

Tenya was thinking about something much more reckless, but he might as well go along with Midoriya, so he nods. Visibly, Midoriya swallows, looking back up before nodding. All at once, lightning crackles around him, energy racing across his costume and face, the air filled with ozone. "Okay. On my mark, Todoroki, you stop the f-fire. You move when Stain does, Iida, and I'll follow. Ready? Three, two, one—!"

Todoroki stops using his Quirk, the alley suddenly becoming a lot more dimmer. As predicted, Stain leaps down like a predator lunging for its prey. Tenya crouches down and rockets upwards with his Recipro: Extend, the wind blowing his hair back while his vision blurs even more. Next to him, just a foot behind, Midoriya leaps from wall to wall, climbing with him, higher and higher until—

For a moment, Stain locks eyes with Tenya, and then Izuku, eyes widening—

But even he can do nothing about Tenya's armor-strengthened calf ramming into his waist and Midoriya's Quirk-enhanced fist crashing into his jaw.

===

Izuku wanted to use only twenty percent since his finger still hurt from clearing the fog, but he must've used forty or so instead from the way Stain's bones crack and give easily under his fist. His arm pulses, border-lining pain, but that doesn't stop Izuku from keeping his eyes open, locked on the Hero Killer, who—who can still move, who can still move, enough to where he slashes as Iida's hair, no no no no no—

"TODOROKI!" He screams as the three of them start falling, watching Iida manage to land another Quirk-boosted kick to Stain's gut. "NOW!"

"I KNOW!" Todoroki shouts back, already making rushes of flames clamber up the walls to them. It's not fast enough, Izuku knows it isn't, so he grits his teeth, twists mid-air, and assists in striking Stain again with his foot. He tries to aim for the kidney; anything that hits the kidney can cause someone to pass out, Izuku thinks.

His kick ends up pushing Stain away from Iida, and Izuku only realizes that Stain's frothing blood from his mouth because Todoroki's fire burns it away with a hiss. Just as he's about to tell Todoroki to stop, he does, with Stain's face only having a few large yet minor burns on it. It gives him a confusing, odd sense of relief and accomplishment as the three of them get closer to the ground, Izuku and Iida being caught by the smooth planes of Todoroki's ice while the Hero Killer tumbles on the ground. (They end up slipping and landing nastily anyway, but that's not the point.)

"Stand up!" Todoroki demands. "He's still..."

Izuku bites back a curse, hearing the sound of rising ice. "Even after all of that...?!"

But when he manages to lift his head up, the Hero Killer, laying on a small cliff of ice, face shadowed by his scarves and long, dark hair... looks dead.

The three of them stare at him for what feels like hours.

They're all breathing. Izuku's hand hurts, his legs are beginning to hurt, and Iida might've been grazed while in the air. Todoroki's the only one relatively unharmed despite how the burn on his face looks worse. But—but they're all breathing, and the Hero Killer looks dead.

Izuku feels an incredulous smile creeping on his face, tears welling in his eyes. "Did—I-I... I think we killed the Hero Killer. I—I think I broke his face in. Oh my God..."

When Todoroki looks at him, his face is impassive, but there's a bit of hysterical mirth in his eyes, too. "I burned his face."

"And I—I think I paralyzed him like he did my brother," Iida says, something that sounds like desperation but probably isn't in his tone. He looks at his legs, haunted. "Did—are we going to jail...?"

"Personally?" A voice—Native—calls out. Izuku jumps, him and Iida whirling to the side and towards the wide-eyed hero, who's currently and finally able to get up to his, albeit wobbly, feet. Todoroki doesn't turn, but a jolt of ice jumps from the ground in Native's direction. "I... I think you all deserve the highest awards U.A. can offer."

Izuku swallows. "Todoroki, you should probably restrain St-Stain anyway," he suggests, making his way to Native. Iida's looked away, already moving towards his discarded glasses and helmet. "A-Are you—Native, are you alright?"

Native smiles, a tired, exhausted thing. "I—"

The crack of ice makes Izuku twist around, eyes locked in wide horror as—oh God—as Stain gets back up, broken blades in hand, and Izuku's already charging OFA in his legs, aiming to knock Todoroki out of the way because Izuku told Todoroki to restrain Stain which is why Todoroki lowered the Hero Killer down but now there's a cut on his hand and a small blade in the ground and Stain's too close and there's ice along Todoroki's arm and fire growing on the floor but it's all in slow motion and it'll be too late—

—but then SomeTHThINPP.

Todoroki's hand stutters. Stain's tongue, right at Todoroki's palm, hesitates. Something... something happens between that, something Izuku can't explain, something... something like a glitch that twists the entire world for just a moment, but it—it causes Todoroki's ice and fire to, to switch places. Fire now climbs along his hand, ice seeping across the floor, and Todoroki's hand... twitches, or something, grasping Stain's tongue tightly, fire probably over a thousand Celsius gathering in his palm, orange and vibrant, and—

—and Todoroki—

burns

Stain's

tongue

off.

Time slows to a halt.

The sizzling sounds like it lasts forever. Izuku can see half of Todoroki's face from here: his gray eye wide in horror, hand still bleeding, fire flaring from his skin, Stain's tongue in his hand. The flames, orange and vibrant, run over his knuckles, through the crevasses of his fingers, and concentrate at his palm. There's blood dripping from Todoroki's palm; Izuku isn't sure who's bleeding anymore.

Izuku doesn't know if Stain's trying to pull away, or if he's so exhausted that he can't. That, that primal noise of agony he makes, though, will ring in Izuku's head for hours.

This scene will be in his head for weeks.

And then, slowly, suddenly, time resumes.

Todoroki lets go, turning his Quirk off in an instant, but it's too late. Part of Stain's tongue is, is—it's blackened, charred, a hand-shaped band of burnt flesh around its bumpy, long form, starkly thinner and weaker than the rest of the tongue. Stain doesn't even back off or pull his tongue back in; it's like he dies then and there, body slumping against Todoroki's. (There's a belated, sharp inhale; it might've been Native, it might've been Todoroki, it could've been all of them.) If anything, that makes Todoroki look more terrified, looking at his hand and the Hero Killer on him in horror.

It worsens when the burned part of Stain's tongue severs itself. It worsens when Izuku hears the still-flesh-like tip of the Hero Killer's tongue fall to the ground with a wet sound.

Izuku still wants to throw up, but he doesn't. He swallows his bile down instead, taking shaky yet determined and hurried steps towards his friend. When he's close enough to Todoroki, who hasn't moved, Izuku gently takes Stain off of him and sets the Hero Killer on the ground far, far away. From the sound of it, Iida's approaching Todoroki, too, yet with more hesitance like he's getting close to a fragile balance that might blow up if the wind brushes it the wrong way.

"I—" Todoroki exhales shakily. When Izuku turns around, his expression is so hauntingly familiar Izuku can remember how it felt. He has to look away. "I didn't do that. I didn't do that. I didn't mean to do that. I—I was only going to use ice. I was going to freeze him in place. I was... I... was..."

"I know you weren't," Izuku says, pushing all the confidence he can into his voice. When Todoroki looks down at his hand, ashes and blood mixed together, Izuku shoves down his fear, grabs Todoroki by the shoulders (slowly), and demands, "Look at me." When he does, Izuku continues, forcing himself to stare into Todoroki's horror-filled eyes. "I saw the ice. It—it just... switched places all of a sudden. You can't do that in an i-instant, or else I'd have been defeated a lot faster in the Sports Festival."