Full Summary: Five years ago, Bakugou's favorite nerdy victim vanished off the face of earth. Even if that was the proper thing for a quirkless, useless kid to do, he never quite forgot those bright green eyes staring resolutely up at him even in the face of Bakugou's violence and explosive quirk.
The last thing he expects is to find the boy again in his final year at Yuuei- not just that, but to have him hauled into the middle of a fight by a group of bizarro villains out to smash All Might to bits (or something). Admittedly, it's hard to pay attention to a madman's stupid raving when your childhood friend (not dead. not missing anymore. still useless. still so pathetic. utterly helpless.) stares up at you with eyes that are begging for help.
Yuuei hasn't taken his rage or his vulgarity away from him, but it has given him something. Bakugou is a hero. And heroes? They save even the useless ones and save Deku he will. He doesn't have a single plan beyond that moment, doesn't need one.
Besides, when it comes right down to it, Deku has all the plans that any of them need.
Villain!Izuku, Canon-Divergent.
(Warnings for: past kidnapping, past torture, past experimentation and brainwashing.)
This was co-written by kattenprinsen and is cross-posted onto archive of our own.
Chapter One: a promise to save, unspoken, a promise to protect, implicit
Shouto tapped his toe idly against the concrete ground, listening absently as Thirteen welcomed them back to the rescue arena. His eye caught on Uraraka, who gave him a wave, a thumbs up and a wink all in the span of about two seconds. He gave a slight smile back to his friend before glancing back to their sensei. They'd gone to USJ plenty of times over their first two years at Yuuei but apparently the third years got to go to EUSJ or the Extremely Unforeseen Simulation Joint.
It was, as far as Shouto could tell, about the same size as USJ proper. Thirteen explained that it was a far more dangerous edition of the first area, built to show the dire circumstances that cropped up during rescues- aftershocks, flash floods, liquefaction, and cave ins. The area they arrive at isn't static. In a time of crisis, the ground is ever shifting underfoot and as Heroes they had to be flexible to such drastic changes.
Thirteen has just started to assign their groups when a strange black mist begins to form in the air behind him.
The Pro Hero turns at someone's gasp and exclamation- Shouto identifies it as Uraraka's voice- and immediately Shouto can see tension in the man's shoulders.
The black mist spreads out from an epicenter, swirling like an ever shifting cloud and Shouto shifts his feet for better balance. Whatever this is, be it another one of their sensei's intense tests or an actual surprise and possible threat, he'll be ready to face it. He slides his right foot forward, readying himself as something pale appears in the center of the blackness.
It's a head. Shaggy grey hair that parted oddly around a hand- a disembodied hand clutching the front of this man's face- and Shouto feels his stomach clench at the sight. He's seen some injuries on his field training excursions and one of the worst was the body smashed to bits under the force of an oncoming truck. This man doesn't just have one hand but several, at least a dozen, clinging to his thin frame as he comes out of the mist.
Portal, Shouto thinks, a portal quirk. Who is this?
He's not alone either. A dozen, two dozen people or more, follow him out of the mist, brushing it aside like sheer curtains and fanning him.
A hulking beast of a, well if it was ever human it isn't now, is the last thing that steps out of the mist. As it does, the man with hands all over begins to speak.
"Ehh?" He says, head swinging back and forth, one wild eye visible between the fingers, "Is All Might not here after all? And after all the trouble-"
His voice is drowned out by the ever familiar, almost nearly constant sound of Bakugou's shouting explosion combination. Where Shouto, and others, linger and listen to find out who the hell these people are and what they want, Bakugou's already made his decision on the matter. He flings himself into the thick of things with firey explosions launching him forward and his voice rising in the shout of "Go die you fuckhead!"
The monstrous creature-human (God, Shouto thinks he can see its brain) lurches away from the portal with incredible speed. It's so quick that he thinks that he can see two of them, actually, but suddenly no one can see much of anything anymore. Bakugou's explosive hands land on something- possibly that creature, possibly the ground or someone else- in the center of the villains (and what else could they be, looking like that?). Fire and smoke fill the air, obscuring everyone from sight.
Shouto coughed and brought his hand up to block his mouth and nose. Thirteen is already on it, dispersing the smoke with a tiny ball of his quirk and he dismisses it once things begin to clear. Someone on the villain side clears away the smoke as well as he can suddenly see Bakugou's blond hair.
Bakugou is surrounded. He's still in the air too- except this time it's that monster creature that holds him there with one huge hand on Bakugou's shoulder. The creature is half crouched, its other arm protecting something small and, from what Shouto can see, green. Bakugou twists in its grip, kicks at the head but his strike does nothing. Shouto has felt Bakugou's kicks- the ones he gives in sparring matches are never as held back as they should be- and winces reflexively. One of Bakugou's boots to the face should have broken a bone or something.
The monster doesn't even flinch.
In fact, it only straightens up, lifting Bakugou higher into the air. This reveals the small green thing- a person- that he was protecting.
At the time, Shouto had no idea how much that wide eyed boy was going to change his life. All he knew was the boy stood with hunched shoulders, in the shadow under the creature's body, with one of it's hands curled over him.
Shouto was moving before he thought of it. This boy wasn't wearing some stylized outfit. He wasn't scarred. He wasn't carrying a weapon. He might not have been bound, but it was clear that he was there against his will. There was horror in his face as he looked up at Bakugou. His mouth moved but Shouto was too far away to hear him.
Shouto wasn't the only one moving now. His classmates surged forward, even as Aizawa-sensei went forward to attack. They weren't fourteen year olds. They weren't freshmen. They were in their final year- they were definitely able and willing to fight.
"Sensei," He said to Thirteen, coming up to his side, "You said Heroes have to be ready for anything in a rescue situation, right? Things are always changing underfoot?"
"Todoroki," Thirteen said, with a voice that said he knew exactly what Shouto was going to say next and wanted him to not say it. It was a voice Shouto had heard a lot, mostly from his sister when he was having 'conversations' with his father.
"We have to save that boy!" Uraraka shouted from the other side. "And we have to help Bakugou!"
"Kids," Thirteen said, urgent, "This isn't a game-"
"Right!" Someone else added, it sounded like Kirishima, "And we're not kids!"
Bakugou's voice cut through the air, stopping them from arguing. It wasn't his usual vulgar shouting either. There was a strange almost desperate edge to it. "Give him back, motherfucker! Let him go and I'll kill you quickly!" He had gotten free of the monster's grip, stood several feet away with villains all around and blood, that was definitely blood, dripping down his arm and hitting the ground. Bakugou didn't seem to even notice it though as fires continued to burst in his palms.
The monster held the green haired boy around the waist, up and off the ground. The boy reached for Bakugou with one hand, the other braced on that arm, and called out, "Kacchan!"
Suddenly it doesn't matter whether or not Thirteen gives them permission or whether or not Aizawa can save Bakugou on his own. That boy's desperation reaches down inside of Shouto's gut and yanks. He finds himself going forward again, ice forming like a shell on his right side and his classmates are rushing up with him.
What follows can only be described as chaos. He sees Uraraka propelled forward by someone -Iida probably- with the buoyancy that means she's lightened her body considerably. She lands just after Aoyama's navel beam cuts through the air and sends villains scattering. The monster one lurches along with the others, keeping the boy with one arm.
While that makes it difficult attack him with full force, it also gives the monster a severe handicap. The kind that keeps it rooted to the ground. The kind that makes it easy for Shouto to send a spike of ice screaming across the concrete and snagging it around the ankle. Bakugou, in his wrath, might not even notice the others arriving, because he's screaming obscenities and going forward again, bomb palms slapping against the creature's face. It lets out a low, grating sound of pain, reaching up for its face with one hand.
It's the same hand that's holding the boy. Bakugou grabs him by the front of his shirt and yanks him free. He kicks off of the creature at the same time, shouts, "Uravity!" and tosses the boy over his head backwards.
Shouto pays enough attention to make sure she catches him- (his mind will replay, later on, the vision of that boy floating in the air, his hand held in Uraraka's, his eyes wide and shining with gratitude and tears, his hair drifting along with his floating clothes and Shouto will wonder why he can't get the image out of his head- he's seen plenty of people rescued before, what is different about this boy?)- and that Asui snatches her out of the fray and into safety.
After that, it's all ice and explosions, it's Tokoyami's shadow and Kaminari's electricity and it's the villains with their knives and weapons and their flames and their mist. Shouto fights, not at Bakugou's side exactly, but near enough that they bounce villains between the two of them.
It's the hand guy, too, and he's got a wild eye, a crazy eye, as Shouto keeps him at bay with his ice. He's stopped shouting about All Might, though, and now seems driven to recapture the boy with green hair. His hand closes on one of Shouto's icy spikes and at the same time as Shouto tries to get the ice to climb up his arm and freeze him, what the man holds begins to disintegrate.
The man rushes up to him, ice crystals in his hair, on his clothes, hands outstretched and reaching for Shouto. "Give him back to me!" The man cries, "Izukun is mine!"
Shouto grimaces in disgust, he skips back from the man, giving up ground and hating that but he's seen what those hands can do now. He won't get caught under them and see if they can dissolve flesh as well as ice. "What do you expect heroes to do when you go around capturing kids as hostages?" He snaps, snapping his hand against the man's elbow to knock that dangerous grip aside. "We're not going to ever give him back to you!"
"Izukun!" Hand man screams as Shouto drives ice through his elbow, a spike from his own palm.
A huge explosion rocks through the air. It's large enough that some of the ice Shouto's laid down splinters and flies into the air. He flinches back, using his left arm as cover for his face. He's about to snap at Bakugou to remember there are allies here too, idiot! When he realizes that wasn't Bakugou at all.
All Might has arrived, his grin broad and his fist in the ground. Relief sweeps through Shouto.
Hand man turns on All Might, snarling, "You're late."
Shouto tries to use that time to strike, because underhanded doesn't mean much when you're fighting a hero like, well, Hand man. He just gets a knee to the gut for it, Hand man tossing him aside with a dismissive turn of his head and a grunt as Shouto tries to understand just what the fuck happened. He'd been fighting to disable or at the very least immobilize the man. He had assumed the man was fighting back at his full ability- he was hysterical, there was no way he could hold himself back!
And yet Shouto got knocked aside, winded and gasping as he hits the ground covered with his own ice. He's shivering, he realizes belatedly, shivering and vulnerable and just because Hand man is done with him doesn't mean some other villain doesn't come after him.
A girl with a wide smile and a cat's eyes comes at him with a knife red with blood already. "Ooooh!" She cried, "You are sooo cute! What's your name?"
Reflexive icy armor protects him from getting his arm stabbed, but the knife skitters off his arm and lands in his chest instead. Shouto gasps again, once more breathless. The girl's eyes are feverish, her face flushed, and she cooes at him, "Give me all of your blood, pretty boy! I'll take super good care of it. Promise!"
Sudden electricity crackles across her body, surges down her arm and, through the knife she holds, into Shouto's own chest. He jerks as all his nerves dance in pain and his heart stutters in his chest. As the charge fades, smoke rises from the girl's shoulders and her eyes roll back in her head.
Shouto sees her start to fall but his own head turns away, his eyes rolling, as he struggles to breathe, his heart laboring in his chest. Someone, somewhere is calling his name, shouting something, but he only sees the bright blue sky above, a billowing of smoke at the edges of his vision and then nothing but blackness.
In the middle of the battlefield that was supposed to be a routine rescue training session, Shouto blacks out.
Ochako is surprised how tall the boy really is when she sets him down on the ground away from the fight. His eyes are a brilliant green, made even more startling by the frantic shine to them and the sheen of sweat on his tanned skin. She holds his arms as his knees buckle from under him and he sinks to the ground.
They're well away from the fight, with Tsuyu's tongue giving them the distance they need for safety. Ochako smiles gently, kneeling down beside the boy. She keeps calm, letting him hold onto her arms tightly as he struggles against hyperventilating. "You're okay," she says, "You're all right now. We're heroes here and we're going to protect you."
His gaze pulls away from the faraway fight and he looks at her. "H-heroes?" He looks her over, "B-but you're… Aren't you my age?"
She laughed, "Yup! We're still studying but one day everyone here will be a real hero. So don't worry about a thing! We'll absolutely protect you from any villains here!"
For a moment he gave her the strangest look, like he couldn't quite believe it, or like hearing those words hurt. But then he blinked and he gave a little smile and said timidly, "My name is Midoriya. Midoriya Izuku."
Ochako grinned, "I'm Uravity! Well, that's my hero name anyway!" She surreptitiously looked him over, searching for any obvious injuries, but other than some dirt and scratches, he looked fine. Well, his shirt was missing a few buttons from where Bakugou had grabbed him, but what could you expect? Bakugou wasn't a very, ah, gentle hero type.
"Are you okay, Midoriya? Are you hurt anywhere?" Just because she couldn't see anything didn't exclude other injuries.
"I think, um…" he patted his chest and abdomen and then nodded, "Yeah. I'm okay. Sore and uh, I'm definitely gonna feel some aches in the morning, but I'm okay."
"Great!"
He glanced past her again, "Um, don't you have to go back to the fight, Uravity?"
She shook her head. "My priority is you. Besides, my quirk is really good for rescue types, but not so much open brawling like this. I'll stay with you until the Pros show up and can help you get home!"
He gave her another odd little look. "Do you… Do you think they'll just let me go home?"
"Well of course!" She affectionately brushed some crumbles of cement out of his hair. Really, Bakugou should be more careful with his explosions! "Your family must be super worried about you- I mean, unless they don't know you're gone yet, and then they'll be worried but relieved that you're safe! Besides, why wouldn't you be able to go home?"
"Oh. I just." He hunched his shoulders, looking down. "I um. I've been gone for a while… I mean…"
Ochako leaned in to hear his muttering. "Yes?"
"Won't the Pros think that I'm one of those villains? Because I was with them so long? I mean. I mean, maybe there were times I could have escaped on my own but…" He worried his bottom lip with his teeth, "I was with them for a long time. Longer than a few days."
Ochako thought of the way Bakugou had screamed for the villains to let go of this boy. She thought of the way he'd looked so small at first, like he was eleven or twelve, not the sixteen or seventeen year old young man he really was. "...How long did the villains have you captured?"
She puts her hand over his, squeezing gently. His hands are shaking, trembling.
Without looking up at her, he whispers, "Five years."
Ochako's heart aches in her chest. It reminds her of her first heartbreak- a relationship that ended as sharp and as sudden as a flash of lightning. She had had all these assumptions and then the reality had crashed around her and broke all of it. "Oh," She whispered back, "Oh Midoriya- You must be- Your family- Oh Midoriya-" She sniffles, tears welling in her eyes. She hugs him suddenly, tightly. "Don't worry about that. Don't even think it! You're safe now! We won't let those villains near you again! I promise."
He puts his arms around her, holds her tightly, and buries his face against her shoulder. She can feel his body shaking in her arms. She runs her hand up and down his back to comfort him. "You're okay," she whispered to him, "I won't let them call you a villain too. You were just a victim. They had you against your will. It's okay! You'll be okay."
She's still holding him when All Might arrives with an earth shaking punch. Ochako twists to turn and watch, Midoriya still in her arms, still holding onto her, and they watch as he fights against the brain monster and the man covered in hands. Other students are pulling back now. She sees them limping, supporting each other, in their rush to open the field to the Pro. Satou and Shouji are carrying Aizawa-sensei. Iida and Ojiro are carrying Todoroki between them.
But it's Bakugou who catches her attention. His eyes are riveted to her and Midoriya. She feels the rescued boy freeze up in her arms and Ochako swallows. His hands are fists, his mouth a twisted sneer, and he's staring right through her. He opens his mouth and she knows the first thing he is going to say will be terrible and not what Midoriya needs in his life.
She covers Midoriya's ear with one hand, holding his head against her shoulder to block the other one, and glares at Bakugou. "Don't you say a damn word, Bakugou! Don't you have any idea what Midoriya's gone through? Those villains had him captive for years!"
The others circle around them, some watching, some watching All Might's fight, some watching the gate, some with the injured parties. Ochako doesn't pay them any mind. She might have been Bakugou's classmate for two years now, just starting the third, but it hasn't really lessened her fear of him. His temper might have begun to mellow, somewhat, last year, but it's clear now that Midoriya inspires First Year level fury in Bakugou. He's too strong to be so impulsive, but Ochako knows he'll lash out whether or not others around him are prepared for it.
She has to focus completely on him, on him and Midoriya in her arms, if she is to overcome her trepidation of her explosive classmate. Ochako promised she would protect Midoriya- and that means from Bakugou too.
"Yeah," Bakugou says, biting off the word like it hurts him to say. He doesn't even look at her, just stares at Midoriya. "I fucking know. It's been five years and eight fucking months since he went missing. I know that, you stupid bitch. Why the fuck do you think I had to pull him away from that fucking thing?" He jerks his hand first from his chest with I had and then points back to the fight where All Might is, indicating where that fucking thing still was. "Deku is fucking useless. Someone had to save his stupid ass from those fucking villains."
"You know each other?" Ochako hears someone say.
"Well then you should know better than come over here looking like you're going to hurt him too!" Ochako hears herself say, holding Midoriya closer. He doesn't resist her at all, is almost limp in her arms, except for the rise and fall of his chest, except for his one hand that rests on her arm still, firm and solid. "He doesn't need you blowing up in his face after something like this!"
Bakugou sneers. She's always hated his face when he does that, hates the way he shows off his teeth like a dog, but she's never said anything about it. Now, Ochako lifts her chin defiantly, daring him to press the issue.
Bakugou is arrogant. So of course he does. "I saved his damn life." Bakugou jerked his thumb against his chest again, "Excuse me if that means I want to fucking make sure it was fucking worth saving in the first place! I didn't mean to interrupt you two as you fucking comfort him with your tits, bitch. I'll just fucking wait over here until you're done babying this quirkless little asshole."
Ochako's mouth drops open, snaps shut, opens again to speak and she can't find the words. She has never felt so angry before. Sure, fine. Bakugou gets on her nerves but, dammit!, he wasn't ever this bad! Where did she even start with this?!
Midoriya's hand closes on hers and pulls it down off his ear. He gives her a slight smile, "Thanks for the effort, but Kacchan's voice can be heard across town when he wants it too. Your hand doesn't do much, Uravity."
"Kacchan?" She repeats, blinking. She's blindsided by Midoriya's name for Bakugou- she hardly remembers her classmate's first name these days with how much she really wants to avoid him- and it makes her look from the sweet boy in her arms to Bakugou.
Bakugou whose cheeks are flushed and his teeth bared as he grinds them together, "Deku," he snarls out the word like it's the most foul curse he can think of. "What. Happened."
Midoriya's hand is warm in hers. He sits up a little, but doesn't really pull away from Ochako as he speaks to Bakugou. "Do you remember Tsubasa? From when we were little, Kacchan?"
Bakugou's head jerks back as though his spine was forcibly straightened. "Sure. He transferred out of our middle school. Who the fuck cares about that winged bastard?"
"Sometimes I saw him walking home from his school," Midoriya says. His voice is so much softer than Bakugou's but somehow it's even harder to listen to. "One time, I saw him talking to an older man. Alone. He looked scared."
Midoriya gives this abashed smile, "And you know I can't leave someone to face something they're scared of on their own, Kacchan."
Bakugou's hands open and shut at his sides. "You. Fucking. Useless. Quirkless. Little. Shit." Each word brings him a step closer until he's looming over the both of them. Ochako gets her legs under herself, about to pop up and chase Bakugou off but Midoriya's still holding her. His grip is warm and deceptively strong. "Always sticking your nose where it doesn't fucking belong! What the fuck were you thinking? You could have gotten-"
"Killed? Yeah," Midoriya laughs. It sounds painful. "I guess so. I mean. Tsubasa did, after all."
Bakugou's already wide eyes go wider. He pales and for the first time in months, if ever, Ochako sees something akin to shock blanch his face. "...what?"
"Kids-" Ochako isn't the only one who jumps at the sudden voice. Suddenly Cementoss is there, looking around at them like he's counting them, "Kids, it's time to get out of here."
Ochako blinks and realizes that they're not alone anymore. Pro Heroes have arrived to clear out the rest of the villains. The black mist is gone, along with Mr. Hands, and the giant beast had been laid out by All Might.
Standing, Ochako helps Midoriya to his feet. He's way taller than she thought before, even when she'd noticed his height as they sat. The top of her head barely hits his shoulder. Even Bakugou, who hasn't grown a centimeter in at least a year, blinks up at Midoriya in surprise. Cementoss looks at the young man at her side and Ochako remembers her promise.
She hooks her arm around Midoriya's and smiles at her teacher. "Sensei, we successfully rescued the civilian named Midoriya Izuku from the villain Mr. Hands!"
Midoriya makes a muffled snort of surprise but bites his lip and doesn't laugh.
"Ah, good job Uravity," Cementoss says. "We can take care of him from here."
Ochako hugs herself tighter to Midoriya and gives her teacher her absolutely most shining smile. "Sensei, if you don't mind, I really want to make sure that Midoriya is well taken care of! He's gone through a lot, you see, and I promised I would help protect him."
Cementoss's face is hard to read- he's so blocky it leads to natural expressionlessness- but she knows what it means when he rubs his hand over his forehead. "Uravity-"
"Excuse me!" Ochako jumps at All Might's booming voice. He approached from the side, scuffed from battle but still smiling brightly. "Did I hear you right, Uravity? You addressed this boy as Midoriya Izuku?"
"Yup!" She exclaimed, turning to face the man. "Midoriya, this is All Might!"
"Yeah," the boy at her side said softly, "I know. I've seen the cartoons too."
What was strange was the way All Might looked at Midoriya, like he knew the boy too. "Midoriya my boy," and the way he spoke made it sound like he knew him too. Ochako peeked at Midoriya, but his serious expression gave nothing away. "May I speak to you?" A pause and then, "Privately?"
All Might gestured off to the side with one hand. This was the least boisterous that Ochako had ever seen him. Worried, and growing more so as Midoriya gently extracted his arm from her grip, she said, "Um, Midoriya-"
"Don't worry," the boy says, smiling, patting her hand as he steps away, "Surely All Might can keep me as safe as you can, Uravity."
Ochako flushes, feels her cheeks burn, because of course All Might can keep him safe? What is she thinking? "Um. Okay. I'll just…" Her voice trails off and he steps away. She watches as All Might takes Midoriya out of hearing range, his hand on his shoulder. Their conversation looks incredibly serious and she feels kind of bad staring at them so she turns away.
As she does so, she catches Bakugou's expression the moment before he's put his back to her.
Ochako never thought she'd see someone so angry and, well, emotionally one-dimensional look so… haunted before. However Bakugou was expecting this day to go, finding and saving Midoriya was clearly not anywhere on that list.
She wants to know more, but her questions will have to wait. There's no way she's going to ask Bakugou about Midoriya- not when that would just get her an explosion to the face.
So it'll have to be later. Later and from Midoriya.
He was tall and broad shouldered. He looked more like a man than a little boy but Toshinori has looked at that tattered photograph of the green eyed twelve year old boy every day for five years and seeing him in person now doesn't change that fact. It just makes it easy for him to overlay the image in his mind and see the boy he used to be in the man he is now.
And with eyes so hard, like malachite stone, not budding leaves like they'd looked when he was younger, there is no other word for Midoriya than grown man. Still, he says, "My boy, we have a lot to talk about, you and I."
Toshinori isn't quite sure where to begin. Your mother asked me, personally, to search for you when you went missing but I couldn't find you? No, no, that wouldn't work. I carry a picture of you around with me, just in case I found you while I worked in the city? But I never did? No, no, not that either. I'm sorry I gave up? I'm sorry I thought you dead? I'm sorry I never told your mother that I stopped looking for you? No. No. That was the worst one yet.
"Can I…" Midoriya says, preventing him from having to start the real conversation, "Can I see my mom before you take me away, please?"
"Of course you-" He starts, then stops, "What do you mean take you away?"
Midoriya gives a self-depreciating smile. He spreads his hands as if to say, this is all of me, look, and tell me what you see. "I was held captive by villains for five years, All Might. They told me that meant I was as good as a villain myself. You're going to want to know everything I know, right? You're going to lock me up and interrogate me, right?"
Toshinori has felt punches to the gut that were weaker than this one now. It doesn't wind him physically, but it stuns him mentally. "We do want to know about your time with the villains," he says, "And anything you can tell us about them specifically will help, of course, but our priority is getting you somewhere safe. That includes letting you go to see your mother."
Midoriya glances away. His shoulders shake. He covers his hand with his mouth and then whispers, "Mom…. I can see Mom again… I thought I would never…" Tears spill down his cheeks and Toshinori hesitantly puts his hand on the boy's shoulder.
Midoriya hides his face in his hand and sobs. Toshinori stands with him as he cries and when he's finally done, he says, "Come on Midoriya, my boy, let's take you to Yuuei. We'll get you checked up in the infirmary and I'll have someone go pick up your mother and bring here to you. How does that sound?"
"Please," Midoriya says, his voice trembling with his tears. "Please. That sounds great."
Toshinori beams and that five year weight on his shoulders finally, finally, lifts.
Tomura's rage is echoed in the others that are gathered in the bar. Kurogiri has put the actual bar between himself and the others villains, gaining enough distance to keep his sanity. He aches from the fight still and a lot of the others are far worse off. They lost twenty members of the lower levels of the League and that loss will be felt for weeks now-
But the one that hurts the most is the boy's capture.
Tomura grabs a cup and throws it, but it's half dissolved before it hits the wall. He rounds away from the damage, looking for something else to turn his anger against, when the screen on the bar clicks on. Kurogiri is flooded with relief at the sight of Sensei, sitting in his shadowy chair, hands folded together in his lap.
"Tomura," that cool voice catches the wayward man's attention like hooks in a fish's mouth and drags him around. "Your status?"
"They took him!" Tomura shouts. "They took Izukun! How dare they!"
Dabi, nursing a wounded side and with a still unconscious Himiko slumped half across his lap, repeats the words under his breath. His frenetic belief isn't as burning as Tomura's but, well, they all have a special place that bears Izuku's name on their souls. Even Kurogiri is fond of the boy. He can't help it. You have to be truly heartless to not care about the boy.
"And the others?" Sensei asks. "How many were lost to the young heroes?"
"Nineteen," Tomura snaps, "Aren't you listening, Sensei? They have Izukun! We must go get him back at once!"
"Nonsense," Sensei says.
"Sensei!" Tomura's hands curl around empty air. "They stole Izukun!"
Sensei's voice is ice when he speaks next. Kurogiri sees it make not only Tomura, but the others in the room, freeze up and listen and obey.
"If you think that Izukun could be captured by anyone against his will… Then you sorely underestimate my son's skill or the level of his planning." Sensei leans forward slightly, his mouth turned down in a frown, "Leave him to work. We have other things to concern ourselves with."
A long pause and then, "Am I understood?"
Tomura's smile is as creepy as ever, Kurogiri thinks, but at least he's appeased and, well, laughing. "Of course, of course, Sensei. We'll leave him be. We have so much more to do before he comes back. We need to be ready for him."
Kurogiri relaxes completely then. Tomura's calm again and that radiates out to the others around them.
Good luck, Izukun. I hope we meet again soon.
TBC