There are a lot of things going on in this world at once.
You're here, reading a story. But someone somewhere weeps over someone else's death. Someone somewhere is getting married to the most important person in their life. Someone somewhere is trying to build up the courage to tell their parents that they like the same sex.
For you, this may just be another day. But for someone else, this is the day they could never forget. The day that will make or break their future.
When Izuku opened his eyes, he was feeling groggy. His surroundings were a blur, his whole body ached, and his throat was parched. His mouth was warm and he feels as if his breath was going bad - the sensation he usually feels when he wakes up in the morning and he hasn't brushed his teeth yet. Needless to say, he felt unpleasant.
He blinks, trying to adjust his blurred sight. He tries to move his hands but finds himself unable to. Something was restricting his movement. He doesn't know what that is yet. All he can make out is the outline of boxes - a lot of them. They were vibrating - in fact, Izuku can feel as if the whole place is.
"The kid's awake," says a gruff unfamiliar voice. It came from the left. Izuku turns his head towards that direction and blinks at the man directly sitting beside him on the floor. He was wearing a medical mask, but his eyebrows were thick and very expressive. They were furrowed as if disapproving the situation they are currently in.
The masked man raises one of his hands.
There was this heavy feeling on the pit of Izuku's stomach, as if something terrible will happen in the next few seconds that he can't evade. It was a horrible combination of dread and helplessness. He tries to struggle in his seat, but apparently, he was wearing constraints not only on his wrists, but also on his ankles.
The man rests his hand on his hair and ruffles it as gently as he could.
"You have a pretty mom," the unfamiliar voice speaks again. His eyebrows were raised, and his eyes were almost closed because of the way his cheeks were pulled up by his expression, as if his eyes were smiling at him. Somehow, even if the expression was supposed to display something positive, Izuku saw sadness.
A second wave of confusion hits the young boy. Panic mixes with it.
What was going on? Who is this man ruffling his hair? Why did he know his mom? Why was he tied up? Why are they in the back of a truck? What are they going to do to him? Izuku's mind was swimming with questions.
"You're going to be okay." The man says again, but softly, trying to reassure the boy. Izuku almost believes him.
"Put him to sleep with your quirk, damn it." A shrill voice shouts, catching the both of them off-guard.
The man's reassuring expression turns into a scowl. He pulls back his hand that had been playing with Izuku's bird's nest of a hair. The young boy can see the exact moment the man's body tenses up, his form becoming stiff after he heard the annoying voice.
"I already told you, my quirk doesn't work if he can't talk," the masked man says, annoyance in his voice. The way he said it was loud and clear, but his whole body was shaking after he spoke, as if it took so much energy to talk back.
"Men really can't do shit," the shrill voice speaks up again, this time it was more complaining than the reprimanding tone it had earlier. Izuku could hear the sound of movement. Someone was walking towards them - he can hear the sound of shoes hitting the floor and can feel the stronger vibrations that matched its sound.
The person with the shrill voice appears. Her clothing is exactly like that of the kindergarten teachers in his school - a yellow apron over a white shirt and gray pants. But when he reached her face, he found someone unfamiliar. It wasn't the face of the teacher he last saw (the one who put him to sleep, he remembers). Her violet eyes were narrowed at him, intimidating the young boy. Her lips formed a frown.
She crouches down to Izuku's level and shows him her hands, dainty with nails colored pastel pink. Her index finger pointed towards him, inching nearer and nearer.
Izuku squirms. This hadn't gone well last time.
But there's not much you can do if you're a four-year-old kid with currently restrained wrists and ankles, two of your adult captors present. Izuku still tries despite that. He tries to activate a quirk, if his struggle won't work. His quirk hasn't come yet, but maybe lady luck will help him and grant him one when he needed it best, right? He doesn't think the world is that cruel.
A teleportation quirk would be really useful at the moment, he thinks.
And that's the last thought that enters his mind before he's unconscious once again.
"Quit trying to give the kid false hope," the woman says, turning to the masked man who was seated beside the little boy. "You know full well what's gonna happen to him. You know he's not gonna be okay." Her brows furrow at him.
The masked man continues to play with the little boy's curly green locks, making sure the boy doesn't get a stiff neck by making him rest on his lap. He doesn't answer. He just looks at the little boy, sadness in his eyes.
The woman decides she's had enough of that, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "Do your job properly, dipshit. Your life's on the line here."
The man continues to look away from the woman, whispering his response. "I never said I wanted to continue living."
She pauses for a few seconds, taking the moment to look at his expression, releases him and stands up, dusting her hands with her yellow apron. "Cool. Not like it'd save the boy from the fate you helped in sealing. Whether you live or not, he's still gonna suffer, coward."
She walks away from the two, but before she's entirely out of his sight, she speaks up again.
"Being a school teacher sucks. Can't believe that's the kind of job you wanted."
The truck passes by a police station, with nobody else aware of the commotion that was happening inside of it.
"I'm sorry I'm so sorry sweetie I'm so…"
Inko cries, a policewoman sitting beside her in the station and trying to calm her by rubbing circles on her back. A search party is currently being conducted by the police, and some of the school staff and the people who lived in the area that surrounded it were put into questioning by a Detective called Kurahashi, who apparently had the ability to look into a person's past.
She had a conversation with the detective immediately after she came to the station, asking for help regarding her missing child. He asks various questions, though Inko's mind was too muddled to remember what questions he asked exactly. She was distraught.
Inko had no idea when the detective used his quirk on her. She's sure he asked for consent to look into the things she did in the past few hours, she just wasn't aware when it happened. Everything on her head was jumbled, and nothing was making sense.
From what Mr. Kurahashi had gathered, she was a victim of a quirk. It was the man wearing the mask whom she tried to help on the way to Izuku's school. His ability was apparently one that controlled the minds of his victims into doing his bidding. Inko's order was apparently to 'stay away from your son's school', and she had started walking in the opposite direction to where she was originally headed to. She had been walking for a span of two hours, which they deduced is the limit to the man's quirk. Her eyes were open while the quirk affected her, so they were able to see that much.
Thanks to that information, they were able to have an idea of what the suspect looked like. It was unfortunate that he was wearing a medical mask, but they were able to discern the fact that he was slim-built, had thick bushy brows, and jet black hair. It wasn't much to go by - a lot of people in the city have jet black hair and bushy brows. But it's better than nothing, he says. Inko doesn't feel so reassured.
It doesn't feel right to currently be sitting in the station, just bawling her eyes out as her sweet little boy is missing. Everyone protested against making her look for him - she tripped as she ran towards his school, causing a strain on her ankle.
If she was being honest, she can't feel the pain. Not when her heart hurts more. Not when her innocent child is missing and probably afraid - Inko doesn't even know if he's still alive. What were they going to do to him? Will they kill him?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door to the interrogation room opening. Detective Kurahashi was first to step out, behind him was one of Izuku's kindergarten teachers, visibly shaken up by the whole situation as she stares at her own feet as she walked.
"Miss Kobayashi was unconscious for nearly the entire school day," he says. "But according to the memories of the teachers, she attended all of her classes today."
One of the seated policemen stood up, eyes widening. "Y-you mean?"
Kurahashi nods, affirming the man's theory. "Someone used their quirk on Miss Kobayashi, making her unconscious, and pretended to be her to capture Mrs. Midoriya's son."
As if on cue, the teacher covers her face with her palms. Her body trembled, and she was taking harsh breaths and muffling the sound of her sobbing. Inko knows this teacher, she's young, about the age of twenty-four, and had only been a teacher for a year. She was sweet and absolutely adored Izuku. This must be heartbreaking for her too.
"Before Miss Kobayashi lost consciousness, she was talking to an old lady on her neighborhood, whose name is still unknown at the moment. We're taking a visit to where she apparently lives," the detective informs everyone.
Kurahashi doesn't say it in order to not make Inko feel worse, but he's not entirely sure if the questioning will bring them any closer to the whereabouts of the young boy.
If he were to base the current situation to the previous cases of missing children, the old woman was most likely dead.
Izuku opens his eyes once again.
He sits up, rubbing his tired eyes and stretched his arms. He blinks.
He's still inside the truck, except his two captors aren't present, and the vehicle isn't currently moving. The truck's trailer was opened, and the young boy could easily see the night sky from where he is inside.
He has no restraints, he just noticed. He blinks at his small hands, shaking them as if he can't believe that he can finally move them freely.
The little boy doesn't know how long he's been asleep exactly, but it's dark now, so maybe it's been a few hours. He has no idea if his two captors will be there anytime soon, or if the truck's driver is currently resting on the driver's seat. He's clueless about the entire situation he's currently in.
Why would his kidnappers leave him alone inside an open truck trailer?
Izuku blinks again. Is this freedom?
The little boy stands up, but falls immediately. His legs were feeling wobbly and tired. It makes a loud noise, and the child could feel his heart beating unusually quick. Did they hear the noise? Are they coming back for him? He doesn't know.
After a few minutes pass and he doesn't see the masked man and the scary woman, he tries to stand up again, this time succeeding, but with the help of one of the boxes inside the trailer. He walks over to the exit and feels the cold air touch his skin.
He looks down the ground. He's small. It would hurt if he jumps down from this height. For a few minutes, he hesitates.
He gulps down his fear of getting hurt, crouches down, and jumps.
He falls down to the cemented ground, legs first. He feels it as his skin grazes the floor. It hurts, and he'd probably have wounds later. Izuku's doe eyes water at the sensation of pain. He feels a sob escape his lips. He sits up, stares at the place with watery eyes, trying to bravely suppress his tears.
He's used to trying to stifle his own cries, since everyone besides his mom hated it.
Izuku misses his mom.
He misses how she would soothe his tears by kissing his head, or hugging him as she hums. He misses how whenever he's hurt, she'd treat his little boo-boos and give him ice cream to make him feel better. Then, when dinner comes around, she'd cook Katsudon for him.
He wants to go back.
He stands up and runs. He makes sure to stay away from the scary looking building that was near and runs toward to what seems like the entrance. There's nobody in the place.
The little boy runs. He feels his little legs wobble from how tired they are, and falls.
His eyes water again, and he hiccups. He's so bad at suppressing his tears.
"Oh dear!" He hears a voice - a woman's voice. There was a sound of plastic being ruffled, and he sees an outline of a kind-looking lady crouching down to take a good look at him. The lady gasps, putting a hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened. "Oh my god, it's a child!"
Izuku's tired. He slept for a long time inside the truck, but he's still tired. His eyelids felt so heavy. He can't help it when his eyes closed and he felt consciousness drift away from him.
The last thing he heard was the woman's voice. Izuku felt that maybe he's safe now.
"Honey! Call the ambulance! There's an injured little boy!"
Inko couldn't sleep.
The police escorted her to her home, despite Inko's protests.
The moment she stepped inside her house and caught sight of the All Might nameplate on one of the doors, she breaks down, then and there.
She stayed inside of the police station while the police went to take a visit to Miss Kobayashi's town. She insisted on coming with them, wanting to see the old woman herself, but everyone in the station seemed to agree that it would be much better if she didn't come with them.
They all probably knew the old woman would be dead. When the news broke out that she died in front of her dinner table, her food poisoned, she noted the lack of surprise on the faces of the policemen.
This kidnapping was planned. They were aiming for her son. That much, she knows.
She doesn't know why they'd want to take him specifically- why they went through all the trouble to capture him, but then again, Inko can't understand criminals.
For the past few hours, she had been sitting on the ground beside Izuku's bed, sobbing on his sheets, crying out his name. Some of her family had called her, having received the news already. They tried to calm her down ('The police will find him, don't worry') but none of what they said had made her feel better. They were empty words of consolation and reassurance.
Her phone rings again, and she almost dreaded it. Is it another family member trying to make sure she's okay? Trying to make sure that she's not bawling her eyes out because her son - her sweet little baby boy who never did anything wrong and was full of dreams and a bright future ahead of him - was taken away from her?
It takes her a few seconds to pull herself together - not completely, but good enough to handle a phone call. She wipes her tears and reaches for her phone.
Her eyes widened at the screen, the name of the police detective she met earlier staring at her.
She answers it, her arm shaking as she brings the phone up to her ear. Is it good news? She hopes it's good news.
"Hello, detective?" She spoke.
"Mrs. Midoriya! We just received a report about your son!"
Inko's eyes widened, suddenly alert. "What about Izuku?"
"He's currently resting in a hospital in Nagano. They found him."