A/N: Full story on AO3 because FF is so damn limited with story formatting.


Stubbornness


II

Katsuki refused to be their slave. He refused to obey them.

When he talked back, they hurt him with a beating. Never harsh enough to cause permanent damage. But just enough to make him bleed.

Throwing insults felt like a waste of time already. So he resorted to other ways of resistance.

When they gave him water, he didn't drink it. It could be drugged.

When they gave him food, he didn't eat it. He didn't know what that shit was made of.

They just laughed at his face and took the food and water away.

He wanted to refuse to sleep as well, and held on out of sheer willpower and spite. He didn't know what these people would do to him while he was out cold.

His mind became increasingly muddled as the hours went by. His eyes were heavy and he was soon having a hard time just keeping them open. He couldn't keep his head steady anymore.

He sighed and dozed off, just to rest his eyes a bit, and then he startled himself into attention, his face was on the ground and his hands were no longer chained to the wall. They were chained close together in front of him, but no longer above his head and stuck.

He passed out. Goddamn it…!

Katsuki pulled at the new restrains as he sat up, clicking his tongue. It disturbed him that these people got so close while he was asleep… But he supposed they could have just knocked him out if they wanted to do something weird

Maybe not sleeping wasn't his brightest idea… He was left exhausted, with his mind heavy. Like thinking was just too much of a hassle.

Now, though, the emergency in his mind snapped back to the main issue.

The manacles were off and he was alone, so he tried to get the collar off, only to get shocked again and ended up paralyzed on the ground, feeling like the back of his neck and throat was being cooked.

It took a ridiculous amount of time for it to wear off.

He thought he just wasn't fast or strong or persistent enough, and tried again, harder. Same result. Down on the ground, twitchy and feeling an uncomfortable buzz everywhere.

After that round of paralysis wore off, he sat up and then tried to pry the device for weaknesses with his fingers, carefully now. He could hear faded steps somewhere, but ignored it.

"Aah." That man stood on the other end of his cell again, smirking. "Don't do that. That thing is made to deal with people with powerful Quirks, but it causes nerve damage. It's why it's considered a violation of 'human rights'." He said with air quotes, laughing as if the concept itself was a joke. "So if you keep that up, you'll just end up a vegetable."

Katsuki stopped, glaring daggers before something snapped in his head. He stood and tried to grab him through the bars, snarling in rage, which his captor seemed to find amusing.

His only reward that day/night was a beating. Without his Quirk, he was no match for anyone…

He wakes up again, feeling numbness in most of his body, but his head was just a bit clearer and now he was at least free to wander in his cell… His legs weren't broken, at least. How gracious. Those fucks…

A small cubicle of space, just enough to stretch both arms in any direction with little problem – if he could stretch his damn arms – and with a toilet, which he desperately needed to use and now finally could. But that was about it. The metal of the bars was sturdy, he couldn't break it, and he couldn't find anything he could use to try his luck with picking a lock or something.

He didn't know how many times he wandered in circles in the cell. He didn't want to sit and wait. He was restless. Wasting energy he wasn't replacing. Looking for… something.

A weak spot on the wall, maybe.

Just… anything that could help.

He didn't know anything about prison escapes. Probably because he never thought he'd ever be on the wrong side of the bars. He had no idea what he was doing.

So he wandered and stupidly pulled at the chains around his wrists.

He stopped wasting his breath on that bastard whenever he passed by, but he was still refusing food and water and sleep.

He knew this was senseless. If he wanted to escape, he'd need the energy to do so, needed food and water, needed sleep. But staying still just felt like defeat. He was tired, his whole body was sore from the rough treatment, and his legs burned.

If he sat down now, he wouldn't want to get up…

But he couldn't keep moving. He needed rest. And he needed to sit down and be patient.

Katsuki stopped and leaned back on the wall, bringing his hands up to touch the collar. This fucking collar.

He needed a key. So he needed to know where to find one. Maybe if he paid attention long enough, he'd get a clue…

Okay… He'd stop wandering.

He sat down to watch instead. It felt like such a relief to rest his legs…

He's been there for… he'd say two or three days…? Could he wait much longer without taking their damn food and water and avoiding sleep? He didn't notice until he sat down, but it was ridiculously difficult to stand again…

He got tired so quickly without nutrients and dehydrated. He hasn't felt the need to use that toiled for way too long… He's running dangerously low on water…

Hours must have gone by after he noted this.

…No, he couldn't wait. Not really. Katsuki was hungry, and by the third day, he was too thirsty to care about spiked drinks. He drank their fucking water when it was given this time – it was the very definition of relief.

No drugs, hopefully.

He threw the cup at their fucking faces and got another beating, which his stomach did not enjoy, and neither did his face. He had stressed himself over nothing, probably looked foolish while doing it too, wearing himself ragged with hunger and thirst. No wonder they were laughing at his face. Mocking him with foreign words.

To add more salt to the wound, he found no clues as to how he could escape and find the keys, even after three rounds from guards.

There were always two guards dealing with the cages, one to open it with a key, and other to handle the prisoner, and to top it off, they never gave him a clue as to what their Quirks were. Then they left with the keys tied to their wrists and hid them somewhere else entirely afterwards, and Katsuki couldn't go looking when he couldn't even leave the fucking cell.

To further escalate the annoying feeling in his gut, he realized he wasn't the only person in this shitty situation. There were other cells in the hallway, he knew, but it was just too dark to see and the angle wasn't favorable from where he usually sat, they were just a little too quiet…

He tried getting their attention when there were no guards, but no one spoke a word. He only saw them move when he approached the bars while food and water was brought, and even then, it was still difficult to get a clear look. They were quiet and hunched over.

Like wounded animals.

His eyes widened in outrage. This is what these bastards wanted to do to him. Turn him into that.

Well, he wasn't letting them.

Even though he was sleeping on the floor and eating their damn food and drinking their fucking water.

He couldn't escape if he had no energy to do so. This was just necessary.


III

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Katsuki didn't know how many days have passed with him sitting and staring ahead at nothing.

He was filthy. His hair was matted, his skin felt like wet pieces of ham, and his clothes reeked. Looking down as his crossed legs under him, the soles of his feet were dark, as someone had taken his shoes while he was passed out.

That makes it two times they got so close while he was out cold… The only two times they've left him with evidence of it, at least. Who knows what else they've done without him noticing?

Who knows what they could do…?

When nobody came, there was nothing to do other than stare at the walls. Nobody in the other cells talked to him, so it was no use wasting his time with them.

He hated it, he was bored most of the time spent alone. But also irritated, tired, and spaced-out.

When somebody came, he'd watch for possible weaknesses while eating shitty bread and drinking lukewarm water. For a while, they actually sort of left him alone as long as he didn't speak.

It was getting more and more frustrating…

He couldn't track their routine well when he couldn't see the sun. He'd settled for counting the seconds, but that was thrown off-whack every time he passed out.

He wasn't even sure tracking their patterns would help. All plans ended with the fact that he was powerless and stuck in a small cell. What could he do while functionally Quirkless…?

Just as he mulled his options quietly, glaring at the floor and biting his nails, that man showed up.

"How are you holding up there?" The question was asked with obvious amusement.

'Peachy' Katsuki wanted to say, but much to his own mortification, he hesitated to let the word out and bit his thumb's nail instead, maintaining his glare.

His ribs still stung painfully from the last time he slipped out a word. If he moved too much, he swore he could feel it poke his damn lung.

The man nodded with a smile and moved on. Fucking asshole… He should have spat something insulting, consequences be damned.

Katsuki was starting to think he and that asshat were the only ones there who spoke Japanese, too. No one else spoke to him. Only that guy took upon himself to annoy the shit out of him by asking stupid questions with that smug expression.

The moment Katsuki snapped and raised his voice, he'd be punished.

If he spoke, he'd just get hurt.

If he didn't speak, he'd be obeying them.

…Fuck… When realizing the trickery, he began talking back on purpose, because staying quiet was accepting defeat.

He could handle what they threw at him.

He attempted to get information while talking back, anything important, but it seems getting him to snap with words and then punishing him for it was all that fuckface wanted to do.

The moment Katsuki opened his mouth, he was done talking to him and his lackeys did the rest.

He had trained his body since young. He could handle beatings. Punches until blood dripped from his mouth and nose, and until he was having a hard time breathing, and until his eyes were swollen shut. Kicks once he was down and leaving him with splintered bones on top of it all.

It was fine. It was all healed by this woman soon after, so it was just stupid torture to break him. He could handle that pain, easy.

…He couldn't stand this place anymore, though.

He thought that maybe he could fight back without his Quirk and grab their keys to free his hands. If only he could leave his cell, he could run for it and find the key to the collar.

Yeah… desperate plan, maybe. But the longer he stayed in this hole, the more dread seemed to grow inside him. The more he felt like they'd do something to him. He needed to move.

The first time Katsuki attempted to actively fight back, despite being unable to use his Quirk, he caught them by surprise. Expected, he'd been relatively compliant until then.

He was tired, but he still found himself capable of kicking one down in the solar plexus once he walked into his cell with his meal. The one by the door froze for a single second before Katsuki was on him, both hands grabbing him by the neck and hitting his head on the empty cell bars behind.

Neither passed out, but were just mildly disoriented and one nearly grabbed him – Katsuki took off into the hallway to the right, towards where the guards always came from.

That led him to another adjacent hallway and everything slowed down.

Shit! Now he had to guess which side to follow! He usually heard footsteps coming from the right, but when they left, they always went in the other direction – so he went right, since they got the keys from somewhere before coming to the cells, don't they?!

Katsuki barely ran five steps into that direction before something tied around his legs and made him face-plant into the ground, his hands barely stopping his momentum. A foot dug into his back, uncomfortably close to his collared neck.

"That was very dumb, Katsuki. Very, very dumb." That fuckface. Katsuki craned his neck to look, saw that his fingers turned into silvery wires, now tied painfully around his ankles. "You know what we do with slaves who try to escape?" He smirked and Katsuki found himself swallowing dry despite his sneer.

Strings were tied around his chest and arms instead, and he was dragged back. Katsuki swore and cursed out loud all the way as he tried to find his footing. It was difficult to do so while he was dragged off and he just got scratches on his feet for his troubles.

He found himself in another room, and there was also a tank of water. Katsuki swore mentally when seeing it and readied himself for what was coming. Two more entered the room.

The usual violent beat down was expected – it injured him more than usual, also expected. Maybe he should just be glad they wouldn't do something worse to him, but the thought didn't quench the dread.

After that round of abuse, he was dragged and forced to kneel in front of the tank, then had something tied around his neck over the collar – harsh enough to nearly make him choke, and a hand dunked his head in.

Being drowned in freezing water hurt. It hurt a lot. No matter how long he tried to hold his breath in and struggle to pull out, his body inevitably betrayed him and drew breath, making him panic when there was no air coming in.

It burned his throat and lungs. When pulled out, he coughed harshly enough that it racked his whole torso in pain as his body attempted to expel the water from where it shouldn't be. He was beaten while down again, before being dragged by the hair and dunked under water again, having it mix with his own blood.

…He could stand pain. He knew he could…

This was done enough times that he could barely breathe or move…

His vision spun and blurred, his mind trudged along slowly to process, and then he was dragged back to his cell, this time too exhausted to fight back and he could see the trail of blood his wounds left from his bleeding face and limbs as well as the water dripping from his soaked head. Whatever had been tied around his neck to keep the collar mostly dry was pulled off, easing the pressure.

He was shoved back into his cell, unable to stand, barely managing to draw air, and that woman showed up to tend to his wounds once again. She was… kind and nice…

He couldn't help it, he laughed breathlessly at their attempts at manipulating him into compliance, laughed despite the pain it inflicted on his chest.

He knew what this shit was. He knew exactly what they were trying to do. He knew this woman couldn't be trusted, with her soft voice and her healing Quirk, which seemed to work by the way she rubbed her hands over where the pain and wounds were.

Like a nice massage… It made him want to sleep more.

She tended to show up to take care of him whenever things got too rough. Healed even the scars and fractures and missing teeth.

Such a stupid trick…

This goddamn bitch was dumb as a rock if she thought she was getting to him with her fake caress. She wasn't. Even if he kind of looked forward to it… Even if he relaxed while she was around…

He just wanted to be healed so the pain would disappear. That's all there was to it… Really…

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