-Chapter Four-

When Izuku returned to consciousness, the first thing that came to his mind was the aching pain that encompassed his head. The second was the knife poised directly above his throat.

Instructively, he reached out his arm to push the weapon away, but whoever it's wielder was jumped away before he could even make contact. The sudden withdraw was accompanied by a shrill squeak, too high to be that of a teenager.

Izuku was extremely confused, but the gradually dulling pain echoing across his temples kept him from investigating immediately. It felt as though he had been struck with something exceedingly heavy, but couldn't remember what. Upon gauging his surroundings, however, his memory returned to him.

For a second he dwelled on the events that had led him to this point. There was a myriad of questions and concerns that rose to the forefront of his thoughts, though he knew that if they were to answered, it would be with time and not contemplation, so he dismissed them in favor of focusing on the problem at hand.

The headache, he reasoned, was likely a byproduct of the women from earlier's quirk. The knife, however, was much more difficult to explain away.

By ignoring the strain on his head temporarily, Izuku was able to get into an at least relatively comfortable sitting position, allowing for a view of the room he now occupied.

Though it resembled the previous cell in structure, the new room was obviously built with long term stay in mind. Not only was it significantly more spacious, but it also contained a number of amenities. A single, metal framed bed was wedged into one of the far corners of the room not far from a small restroom area. All in all the area resembled a typical prison cell that one would see on television aside from a few peculiarities. The concrete floors and walls, though mostly clean, had numerous red stains dotting their surfaces, and oddly enough there was a rack of weapons haphazardly leaning against one wall. Lastly, the most unfitting component of the room was the holder of the knife in question, a ragged looking girl somewhere between the ages of nine and twelve.

Though she was trying to put on a brave face, the girl was obviously very shaken. The knife shuddered anxiously in her grasp despite the fact that it was held with both hands, and her stance was entirely defensive. She must've been abducted in a similar manner to Izuku to provoke this kind of reaction, though judging from her unrestricted movement she hadn't undergone the same experiences afterwards.

Another confusing factor was the direction of the girl's fear. Though it was to expected that the girl would be a bit frightened, all of it was focused on Izuku, who really felt as though he couldn't look less threatening in his current state. Of course if the women from earlier was telling the truth, then he could be horribly incorrect in that assumption.

"Stay back!" The girl warned, brandishing her weapon in front of her as she spoke. "I'm not afraid to use this thing!"

Her actions contradicted her words, eyes flashing back and forth from the weapon to the wall beside Izuku, afraid to look him in the eyes.

Izuku considered the situation as he formulated a response. The girl was obviously not in the right state to be reasoned with considering her high level of emotion, but at the same time she probably wouldn't calm down without some form of reassurance. Izuku decided that removing himself as a threat was probably the best course of action to take.

"Don't worry, I don't plan on hurting you." He insisted in the calmest voice possible. "I'd just like to hear more details about our situation if that's okay with you. I'm a bit in the dark here considering that I just woke up."

The girl dropped her guard a bit but kept the knife pointed out in Izuku's direction. Despite the genuine quality his words had possessed, she obviously found it difficult to believe that the danger had passed.

"Well I don't know what you know already so I need to hear your story before I explain anything. If what you say doesn't add up I'm not talking at all." She declared, her posture retaining it's rigidness.

It was probably best to agree to her terms, and it might make her view Izuku as less of a threat.

"Okay." Izuku responded amicably. "I was out with some of my friends when we were attacked by some guys who I think work here somewhere. They sent me here, and then I met with someone. A women with dark hair who wore a suit, and she told me that they had captured my friends too. Then afterwards she..."

"Used her quirk on you, right?" The girl finished, her expression shifting into one of grim expectation. "She told me she did. She also told me what that meant."

Izuku nodded, fairly sure of what the girl was getting at. "Yeah. But I don't really feel much different. Other than having a headache I guess, but that's really not new for me at this point. If you met with her, then does that mean that we're in the same boat?"

A doubtful look was thrown in Izuku's direction before the girl spoke. "No I don't think so. She didn't use her quirk on me or even seem to think I was worth anything. Just told me that since I was quirkless I was dispensable enough to be sent here."

Before Izuku could ask exactly what that meant, he had a sudden realization.

"This cell is meant for one person judging by the size and furniture, and the weapons rack would imply that-"

"One of us isn't meant to leave alive. Yeah."

Now the situation made much more sense. The people who had trapped him here were human traffickers who sold and created weapons for the city's underground crime population. They were popular enough to warrant a large area of business as well as multiple hires who possessed rare and unusual quirks. Why not train their merchandise in the most realistic way possible?

"But that's crazy! No matter what she said her quirk was I would never kill anyone. Especially an innocent."

The girl shrugged, finally lowering the weapon in her hands.

"Well that lady didn't seem to think so. Besides, she did tell me it'd take a bit to kick in and would be kind of slow. That's why I was trying to..." The girl's speech trailed off but Izuku could guess what she was going to say. Trying to kill me before I became dangerous.

He shivered involuntarily, remembering the knife hovering above his head just a few minutes ago. He couldn't blame the girl though, since she obviously believed that her life hung in the balance. Still, her hesitance to take action was a testament to her good character. She had probably had a large window of time in which to attack, but hadn't. Izuku sincerely hoped that it had been a good decision on her part.

"As long as we're here together, we might as well introduce ourselves." Izuku forced himself to stand, leaning partially on the wall behind him. "I'm Midoriya Izuku, but you can also call me Deku if you'd like."

The girl tilted her head slightly, a look of curious puzzlement on her face. "Deku? But doesn't that mean-" Seemingly thinking better of the comment the girl switched to a less offensive line of speech. "Well I guess I'll call you Midoriya then."

Izuku waited a bit in strained silence for the girl to give her name, but when no introduction came he decided to start up a conversation on another topic. He needed some sort of distraction or he knew he'd revert to thinking about his encounter with the women from earlier, something that he'd rather pretend never occurred as long as there was nothing he could do to change it.

"So, how long were you here before I was?" He questioned awkwardly. He had never been good at conversing in tense situations.

"In this room? About an hour I think. In the facility in general. At least a week. I think they keep people like me around for when they have people like you to train. They told me awhile ago that I wasn't going to get out easy, so I'd kind of accepted it. Even if I can kill you I think they'll just use me for someone else."

Well that line of conversation had turned depressing fast. Just as Izuku was thinking that maybe talking wasn't the best idea, a question came from an unlikely source.

"You were a hero in training, right?" The girl asked, her face neutral as she went to sit on the room's only bed. "That's what they told me anyways."

"Yeah."He nodded. "I still am."

That comment earned him an almost pitying glance from the girl.

"Anyways, I wanted to know what it's like. At a hero school. I'm quirkless so I couldn't really ever even dream of doing what you did, but I've always been curious."

Izuku felt a pang of sympathy for the girl. He knew all too well what it was like to be seen as useless for not having a quirk, and it seemed as though she had similar aspirations to his own as well.

"Its very exciting, but dangerous too. My class in particular has had a lot of run ins with villains, and the workload is crazy too. Even with all of that going on it's still more than worth it though. Everyone there is so talented and dedicated, you're pretty much constantly surrounded with amazing people, not to mention how rewarding it is to know that the work you're doing is going to help other people someday."

The girl got a somewhat wistful expression on her face as she listened, though it disappeared once Izuku stopped talking.

She wedged the knife between the mattress and the bar of the bed frame next to her before settling in and pulling the thin sheet on top of the bed over herself, both claiming the space as her own and ending any chance of further conversation in one fell swoop.

This left Izuku to sleep on the floor, which though uncomfortable wasn't difficult considering how tired he still felt.

The next day came with a new set of challenges other than boring small talk.

Though Izuku had formerly denied that he felt any effects of the women's quirk, it was becoming much more difficult to believe.

Though it was hard to place, he certainly felt off. It was the kind of nagging feeling he usually got in the back of his mind when he wanted to do something but couldn't quite place what. As if his mind certainly felt the need to perform an action, but had never done it before then so it didn't know quite how to phrase it. Then, the intrusive thoughts came. When he looked at the girl he shared his cell with, he involuntarily began to size her up as a potential threat. The thought process usually came back to the idea that the girl was defenseless and easy to dispatch, going into detail on the ways he could do so, highlighting how simple it would be to snap the girl's neck or slit her throat. Izuku even occasionally got to the point where he rationalized the action. The girl was going to die one way or another, he might as well make it quick.

He came back to his senses every time, but each felt more delayed than the last, not to mention how horrified and anxious he felt afterwards. He'd never be able to forgive himself if the girl was hurt by him at all, much less if she was killed.

He wanted to warn her, but at the same time worried that it would cause her to be even more worried.

The only time the two had talked since the day before was when the day's lunch had arrived through a one way slot in the door. The food was of a bland, unidentifiable variety that was likely bought due to cost effectiveness.

Since there was only enough portion for one person, the two had been forced to talk in order to sort out how it should be split.

Despite the girl's insistence otherwise, she had ended up with the majority of the food while Izuku had only eaten a measly portion.

Considering the initial defensiveness that the girl had shown, she mellowed considerably over the coarse of the day. Every so often, Izuku would even see her sneaking hesitant glances at him as though she had something to say that she couldn't manage to articulate.

When Izuku had finally lost all hope of hearing whatever it was she had to say though, the girl finally spoke up.

"Hey Midoriya." She began shyly. "You know earlier when I said that I only guessed you were a hero in training because of what that lady told me? I wasn't really telling the truth. I saw you during that televised event your school held."

Izuku wasn't really surprised to hear this. After all nearly the entire country watched the broadcasts, and he had been stopped in public multiple times due to others recognizing him. Why the girl had acted as though it was some sort of secret was the only confusing part.

"My mom and I watched it together actually. We used to get together every year and make a big event out of the whole thing. We'd pick our favorite students, cheer them on as loudly as we could, and bet on who would win. My mom would put so much effort into it that it was a blast whether or not our picks actually made it. I think she did it because she knew about how much I wanted to be a hero but couldn't." The girl paused, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. "Watching it this year was pretty much the same as always, but I enjoyed it a lot more for some reason. When your grade was going, I didn't know who to root for at first, but after a bit I settled on you. I think it was because you seemed like you couldn't really use your quirk right, but you still tried so hard. You even won the race portion all by yourself! To me it almost proved that someone who didn't have control over their quirk... Or who didn't have a quirk at all, could still be a hero. After that I seriously thought that maybe if I was just determined enough, I could really do it."

Izuku was genuinely shocked. His goal as a hero had always been to help others, and by being such an inspiration to even one person he felt that he had already succeeded. He had often dreamed of having fans but the experience was so different in real life especially knowing that it had meant so much to the girl. Someone who had had an experience almost exactly like his as a child had found their determination based on him. It was unbelievable. He want to show his gratitude, but didn't really get the chance since the girl hadn't finished talking.

"I practiced every day after that, getting stronger even though I didn't have a quirk. Someday I wanted to be brave enough to fight criminals and keep the peace. My dad... He died in a mugging when I was really little so I always wanted to stop stuff like that from happening to other families. It was tough at first but I got pretty good at it after awhile. I had to do it behind my mom's back though, because if she knew I was putting myself in danger she would've told me to stop. So I went to a dangerous part of town to run laps and told her I was hanging out with friends. That's when I got taken." She was sniffling a bit now as well, rubbing her sleeve across her face to catch her tears. "At first I wanted to be brave, but when I saw it was you who they said was going to kill me, I couldn't fight you. But I didn't want to talk to you either, because that would just make it worse, so I was rude to you, but you're just as nice as I expected you to be, and I wanted to tell you that before I... Before I have to go."

"No." Izuku said suddenly. "You aren't going to go anywhere. If I get dangerous or try to do anything, you have to stop me okay? I'll die before anything happens to you alright?"

The girl shook her head feverishly through her tears. "No! You're so much more important than me, I'd never have really amounted to anything anyways!"

"Look, I'm a hero. If I couldn't protect a little girl like you then I'd be failing to do what I know is right. Please, for my sake even if you don't mean it, promise me that you'll make sure you survive."

The girl collected herself for a minute before replying. "Fine. But I don't really mean it."

Izuku nodded. That would have to be enough for now.

Tired out by her outburst, the girl climbed into bed and placed her head on the pillow, signalling for Izuku to start trying to sleep in his spot on the ground.

He was almost asleep when the girl spoke again.

"My name. It's Ima."

Okay, thank you all so much for reading!

I'm sorry if this chapter was a bit late or short but it was a bit difficult to write considering that it's so emotional and not much happens for it's duration.

I'm sorry for adding yet another oc but it's probably better that you don't get too attached to this one, so it's good for you if you don't like her much.

As always I'd like to encourage you to leave comments and thank everyone who has done so so far.

Thank you!