Katsuki: do you want to know your gay name?
Izuku: my gay name?
Katsuki: yeah, it’s your first name-
Izuku: ha ha, very funny Kacchan.
Katsuki, getting down on one knee: -and my last name.
Izuku, in tears: oh my go d-
Just when I thought Deku couldn't possibly feel any more pressured than he already does to beat AFO, chapter 304 burst through my expectations like the fucking Kool-aid man.
This boy just cannot catch a break. He's been pushing himself hard since that very first day on the beach. He started with a pretty clear path he wanted to follow, but it's gradually narrowed over this last year. And now he's reached the point where he can't diverge from it even if he wants to.
Before now there was always the option of passing OFA on to someone more capable, and we know he's considered it with Mirio. As much as it would hurt, there'd be at least some sense of relief. A heavy burden, lifted.
The other successors understood their place as just one part of a greater team. A life and death relay race where the goal isn't getting to the end the fastest, but rather strengthening the baton as much as possible along the way.
The fourth survived the longest, excluding AM, by using this strategy. The predecessors could focus on doing all they could with the power they had. The ultimate goal was getting OFA to the future. As long as it exists there is hope.
The freedom of passing it on was a safety net to fall back on. When Deku accepted the quirk, it was with the understanding that he, too, had the power to transfer it, even without consent. Keeping it was a choice.
But now? Now he can't even die without putting countless lives at risk. Can you imagine that pressure?
You're the last leg of a centuries long death-race and now, if you die, you not only nullify the efforts and deaths of your predecessors, but potentially leave millions of people stuck in a war they can't win? Imagine if there was only one weapon capable of preventing mass death, destruction and suffering, and it was tied to your small, fragile human life?
Deku's it, now. If he dies, he's essentially taking hope itself with him. He's leaving the world with less than he entered it with.
At least failure was an option for the others. Even if it meant their death, they could rest easy knowing they'd done their part by getting that metaphorical baton to the next runner.
When he agreed to take OFA, his goal was to become a hero who could save anyone. New goal?
Don't die before you kill the most dangerous person who has ever existed.
My boy did not sign up for this 😭
Some really awesome stuff here
Art by kerembeyit
More inspiration from photos of animals :)
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