izuku's august cdc tracker

[arcy]

[div style="0px; width:400px; height:auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 8pt; line-height:13px;"][align=center]LOYALTY
[534 words]

Maybe, once a few years ago, or maybe even just one, Izuku's sense of loyalty had been more set in stone. There hadn't been any other factors, had there? It was just .. Izuku and his friends. People he cared about. Anyone. He'd defend them to the end. And this isn't to say that Izuku wouldn't defend people he cared for anymore. Quite the opposite, in fact. For however careful his defense of his friends had been then, it was downright vicious now. No mercy, he'd just tear straight though anyone who dared to speak badly of them. He didn't have time for them. He had enough things to do, things to fret about. Things to learn.
Now .. well, it was a little different now. People were dangerous. A single person, especially. Maybe that was strange. You were stronger in numbers, weren't you? .. Of course you were. Why else would Izuku be where he was? Besides .. things. But one person? They were the most frightening. They were the ones who wouldn't hesitate to hurt you, wouldn't hesitate to betray you or tear you down because there was nothing to stop them. Groups of people, on the other hand, were more reliable. People to fall back on. Unless they all collectively decided to do something, then it wasn't the entire group's fault, was it? Their morals were always more decided, more obvious to the outside eye. Then, it'd just be left into somebody else paws whether or not to avoid them. Izuku had learned this lesson time and time again, until it was drilled in. It was why he trusted his old group not to hurt him. It was why, when he'd left, he immediately sought out another one. Loyalty. Izuku may not have been loyal enough to his old group, simply tugged away as he was. But .. well. That was harder to apply here, was it not? He was already so deeply rooted in Snowbound that it'd take maybe more effort than people would expect to pry him away.
Maybe that was to be expected. Izuku had lost that sense of loyalty when he was alone. Because there was nothing to be loyal to, in the wilds. Nothing to be loyal to that wouldn't get him killed. He couldn't be loyal to his morals or his friends or a single soul. And that had .. hurt. He'd always been a loyal person. He'd been loyal to Kacchan for all his life, despite the shit he'd been put through. Despite there having been no reason to stay loyal to his childhood friend/bully. He'd been loyal to his classmates, his friends, at UA. And yes, perhaps Izuku's loyalties had shifted a little. He was tired. He was tired of all of his classmates showing up. He still cared for them, of course, and his loyalties hadn't focused off of them entirely. But it made it more complicated to focus on his clanmates when he can't help but file them in different categories. He may have friends by his sides, friends besides Atbash and Cry and whatever other clanmates had practically disappeared in smoke, but it just left him feeling more split than ever, unfortunately.