The streets of Musutafu were crowded for a Thursday midnight. The city was thriving, the lights ebbing away at the darkness lurking beneath it all.
The outskirts of the city though... those were noticeably different. Almost like night and day, the two were. Nothing much happened aside from pick pockets, drug deals, and the other sad, sad things that went on there.
All of this, and yet... that day was different. The sleepy alertness of the backwater alleyways had noticed. They all had felt the same stillness in the air. Almost as if life, the Earth, time itself had...
...paused.
Then the next second passed.
Then, one deep breath of air, a shiver ran cold down a few spines, and shudders racking a few others bodies.
It was one misstep.
One falter.
One little hiccup.
And no one looked twice at it.
Some will tell you that it's because to survive back there, you learn not to look twice. Perhaps, it's just because no one knew better. Maybe it was the wind. The weather. That one insect that won't stop flying around you.
But life had seen it, had held its breathe. Time had halted itself for those few milliseconds, before moving foward as if nothing had happened.
Both knew, that where there was no one, there now existed a boy.
And both knew, that where there was supposed to be a green haired hero, there was no one.
No. That boy lay incomplete in the safety of his home. A broken puzzle of who he once was.
Ael sat up carefully, quietly. He knew not to make noise.
The glow of his eyes died out till they were their original pale blue grey. His hand remained stained with red.
"...uh oh." His wispy voice barely made a noise, sounding more akin to the wind chimes and the rustling of clothes lines.
The Factor did not come back. At least, as far as Ael could tell, not fully.
Ael could only sigh.
He could only assume he fell asleep.
-
The war.
What war?
Nomu. Nomu?
A what?
A big bird but with skin, easily the same size and height as All Might.
Who? No, we know All Might. We? Who is we?
Screams and yelling. Lots of yelling. Why were they yelling? Izuk- Midori- Deku. Deku was attacked.
A leak? No.
A traitor.
He remembers... what exactly. Pain...oh pain.
'Midoriya! You need to run-'
'AHHHH-'
'YOU CAN RUN LITTLE HERO-'
'Plz! We don't have time-'
'I can't do this anymore!'
'NO WAIT! SERO!'
'-BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE!'
'RUN!'
Izuku gasped as he shot up in his bed.
Something fell and made a faint thud but he paid it no mind.
He stared at the wall as he tried to catch his breathe.
Weird.
He turned to stare at the light coming in through the bottom of his door. His mother, he could hear her coming to check on him.
He flinched ad the light hit his eyes.
"Izuku dear? Are you alright? I heard something fall..." Midoriya Inko stood there in shock filled silence. "...oh dear. What happened?" She carefully walked over to her sons bed.
"Huh..." Izuku was confused. What happened? Nothing happened-
Something wet fell on his hand. He brought it up to the source and...
He was crying.
Crying?
Why?
"Why are you crying sweatheart?" She reached up a hand and started whiping off his tears. He refrained from telling her he was too old for that now, being 13 -20, his mind whispered- years old.
"Sweetie?" Oh. He hadn't answered her question.
"Uh-" He croaked, his voice hoarse. It almost feels like he had been screaming for days on end. "I don't..." His mother patted his hair down as she held him close. The smell of her perfume made him want to cry even more for some reason.
"It's okay, you can tell me." She smoothened his bed head.
The thing is, he would...
The threads were there, flickering in the wind. But they were torn to pieces, shredded beyond belief. They were just out of reach. Everytime he felt like he had it, it ended up getting scrammbled with the others when the wind picked up.
After all, it was a really weird dream.
"I don't..." He lifted his head to look at her.
But the problem was...
Inko couldn't help but notice how devastated her son looked.
"I don't... remember."
He couldn't remember.
And he couldn't help but feel like the worst.
"Huh. What a weird dream."
Like he had failed.
-
Ael wandered. He did not know where to go. He would be caught if he went out into the open, even though it was midnight.
Mama said 6 year olds weren't supposed to be out and about all alone. He doesn't think she was right, thinking back on it, as he is now about and wandering about all alone. It's okay. His mother has been wrong before so he was willing to forgive her.
Though, his mother also could've just meant that he might get hurt. He did not fancy getting hurt either. So the best course of action here was to make camp.
Mother said when he couldn't find her, to instead hide and hide till she could find him. Though, it has been a long time since she last found him. Since he last saw her.
He also needs to find that hero. Ael did not think the hero did his part as he did not come back. That complicates things. Ael will fix it though. Because Ael is good. He is nice and smart unlike that dumb hero.
Now... just to find the hero. Though, mother said to stay put until she found him.
...he did not want to wait that long.
He understands. Mother was old, thus she was slow.
Ael will do his job. He will find the hero. Till morning though. He is smart so he will wait for most of the nights people to go away.
As he found a corner and curled up into a ball, he could only hope it didn't take too long... this time.