The several-mile stretch of cityscape was called the Ghost Quarter, because nobody lived there. It was a remnant from one of Japan’s earliest big-threat villains, named Seismic, whose ability to control earth and ground-matter was still one of the strongest recorded Elemental Quirks to ever exist. The Ghost Quarter was the site of the final battle to take him down. It had been hard and gruesome. A shudderingly high casualty number. The damage to the city itself had been astronomical.

Class 1-A had gone there as part of a unit on minimizing collateral damage. They had been hit by a very powerful Fear Inducer Quirk.

Go in. Find your students, one at a time. Knock them out by breaking a capsule of Midnight’s Somnambulist, which could last about a half hour away from her body. Send up a single, and another teacher would carefully pick their way to the sleeping kid and bring them to the base outside the Ghost Quarter while you moved on to the next one. Simple plan. A good plan, even.

There was no doubt that Kirishima saw dead bodies which weren’t there, right now.

Kneeling in the center of the street, staring at an empty place in front of him, he was the picture of frozen devastation. Arm half-reached out in front of him, a hesitant, fluttering bird, wanting to touch but unwilling to deal with the implications of that touch.

He was muttering under his breath “Come on, you might still be able to save them. You can still save them… stop being so weak, just reach out and—”

He snatched his hand back, cradling it to his chest

He choked on a sob, Hardening began to climb up his arms

“Stupid, stupid — come on, guys, please say something. Shit. Shit. I—”

Kirishima crumpled. He pressed his forehead into the road. You had the sudden, horrifying mental image of him rearing his head back, and slamming it into the concrete.