No review answering today, I'm super tired lol.
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Chapter 23: In Silence
Sera squints as she passes through the misty portal, the last thing she sees being Midoriya's green hair as he desperately tries to reach her.
As her body is pulled through the portal, she lands in a thud on the floor. The hand of the villain holding the back of her neck is hot against her skin, as he presses her down. The left side of her face meets with the cold hardwood floor, and she can see Bakugou struggling against the villains holding him down.
"Go grab two chairs and some chains." The villain holding her says.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS BETTER LET US GO!" She hears Bakugou scream as he struggles against their grip.
Sera doesn't struggle as he does, instead she lies limp on the floor trying her best to keep herself calm. Which was hard, when her heart was practically beating out of her chest. From what she can see, they were in a room surrounded by villains. Nearly a dozen of them surrounded both her and Bakugou as they stared at them like animals in a zoo. It was near impossible for both of them to escape.
Neither of them knew where the hell they were. Or whether that door led to the outside or to another room filled with villains. It was best to stay quiet and preserve her energy.
'The heroes will come soon.' She thinks, trying to hold back the sheer frustration she felt.
Hearing the sound of chairs scraping against the floor, she looks up to see the lizard looking villain dragging two chairs towards Bakugou and her. The hand on her neck eases before pulling her up. Sera complies and obediently sits on her chair, trying her best to play the part of an emotionless doll.
No reactions.
No talking unless necessary.
Two simple rules that would increase her chances of survival. It is in these moments that she was glad she had a period of severe paranoia with villain kidnappings. All those books she read would finally come in handy.
"Hm?" Shigaraki hums, looking at her with amused eyes, "Not fighting back are you little cockroach."
She ignores him, focusing on some random space on the ground. She feels the dark-haired villain wrap the chains around her before clicking the handcuffs in place. Next to her Bakugou struggles as he fights off the two villains trying to force him into the chair with no avail.
Finally, when both of them are strapped to their respective chairs, the villains crowd around them.
"Do you know why we captured you?" Shigaraki asks, his lips forming into an eerie smile as he stares at them.
They both stay silent, Bakugou realizing that it would only put them in an even worse position if he ran his mouth. But even though he was quiet he stared their captors down, eyes promising murder.
Shigaraki seemed offended to not receive an answer, as he stands up from his seat at the bar and walks towards them. He stops right in front of her, and holds her chin, lifting her head up so that her eyes met his. Everyone in the room stays quiet, nothing but the ticking clock on the wall makes any indication that sound existed at all.
"I really dislike you. I had wanted to capture you and kill you since you ruined my plans the first time," Shigaraki says, voice full of disgust as his dry fingers scratch at her skin, "But," He pauses as if for dramatic effect, lips lifting into a smirk, and she could just see the satisfied gleam in his eyes, "That was before I knew what your quirk was."
Against everything in her that screams at her to not give any reaction, Sera freezes. She felt as if time had frozen as every thought, every plan, everything in her mind came to a halting stop.
Her eyes met his, and despite what she had reminded herself over and over again before her lips opened,
"what..?"
The word is whispered so softly that if Shigaraki was not inches away from her, he would not have heard. If she had been in a better state of mind she would have cursed aloud at how weak and utterly broken she sounded. Like everything she had been living for this entire time had shattered before her eyes.
Shigaraki's smile widens at her reaction, his finger rubbing against the delicate skin of her jaw. "Vitakinesis." He whispers softly, "The strongest healing quirk the world has ever seen." His face moves closer to her, and the hand that is covering his face grazes her nose, "To think, that UA had been hiding you, right under our noses."
At the name of her quirk Sera's eyes widened and she stared at Shigaraki in pure terror.
'Nononononono…'
She wants to scream all of a sudden. Her worst fears coming true. The USJ attack was scary but the villains were never after her specifically. But this time they are. This time they truly were after her, for her quirk. Even though she had tried so hard to hide it, they had still found out about it.
Shigaraki sees the panic in her eyes, and smiles widely, his eyes turning into crescents. He lets go of his grip on her chin and breaks into giggles as he takes in her shaking form. Her head droops limply down, and her hair covers her face. But the pure fear radiating from her was obvious, and to Shigaraki it was like the strongest of drugs pumping into his system.
"Let me tell you now," Shigaraki says, an easy grin appearing on his face, like a satisfied cat after catching its prey, "Join the League of Villains. Be our healer, and I promise you no harm will come your way."
Sera hears his voice over her tornado of thoughts and pauses. Like putting ice in boiling water or turning off the tap, the fear inside her simmers down.
Slowly her trembling comes to a stop, and slowly she raises her head to meet his gaze. Parts of her face was blocked by stray strands of hair, but the slow smile forming on her chapped lips was as clear as glass.
"Join you?" She questions, humor lacing every word that comes from her mouth. She feels the fear slowly recede, and a wave of calmness takes over.
Suddenly her entire presence changes. She is still sitting in a chair, chains wrapped around her, in a room surrounded by villains. But, instead of the trembling girl she was before, she felt like the center of the room despite her position.
She raises an eyebrow at Shigaraki, eyes glancing over his lanky form, before breaking into scoffing, "You really are insane, you crazy bastard."
Shigaraki looks shocked at her sudden change in demeanor and scowls, "You don't seem to realize what type of position you're in right now." He says, taking quick steps towards her.
He grabs a fistful of her tangled hair and yanks sharply so her gaze once again meets his, "The heroes aren't coming for you. If you won't go the easy way and join us," He leans in closely and keeps their gazes locked, "I'll break you until you do."
Sera meets his gaze defiantly and resumes her previous mentality.
Ignore him.
Shigaraki seeing her blatant dismissal is infuriated. Raising a dry hand he quickly brings it down on her face. A loud slap echoed across the room, followed by a crash as Sera along with the chair she was strapped to toppled to the ground.
Sera's cheek feels hot as the friction from the slap causes her cheek to swell. The wound on the side of her lip healed in seconds leaving behind the barest trace of blood. She doesn't move from her position, lying limp on the ground.
The entire bar is quiet, as Bakugou watches in slight shock from the side. The sudden slap given to Sera was a rude awakening to just who his captors were. They were villains, and they unlike him had no morals or laws holding them back.
"Tomura," A voice suddenly says, the raspy sound echoing across the room. Sera slowly lifts her head to the monitor, where the voice came from, her tired body straining against the weight of her head. She sees the dark shadows of a large figure on the screen, and a sense of dread fills her.
She had a guess on who that man was.
"Don't be rude to our guests."
All For One.
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"Are you guys sure about this?" Toru asks nervously, adjusting the beret on her head, "I mean our disguises aren't very good, if anything, it makes us stand out even more."
Yaoyorozu waves her hand in denial, "No, no, these disguises are perfect! Who would expect UA students to dress like this!" She tucks in a stray hair from her large wig behind her ear, "We covered up any recognizable feature we have. Due to the Sports Festival, everyone recognizes us, so we need to disguise ourselves perfectly."
Toru raises an invisible eyebrow, "Midoriya is dressed like a thug, Iida looks like a bartender, it's incredibly obvious that Todoroki is wearing a wig, Yaomomo you look like yourself but with bigger hair and sunglasses, and Kirishima looks like Kirishima but with straightened hair!" She raises a gloved hand in exasperation, pointing at her black and white striped outfit, "I look like a mime! How is that even supposed to work? This is a stealth mission, I don't think I should be even wearing anything."
Kirishima cocks his head to the side in confusion, "But I think these disguises are pretty good."
"Enough about the costumes," Iida says, scooting to the edge of his seat he leans in towards the rest of his classmates, "We should start planning our escape plan."
The goofy smile fell from Kirishima's face and he nodded, Toru stayed silent but also scooted closer towards Iida, being careful to look for any eavesdroppers or eyes that might've noticed them.
"Let's clarify the goal of this mission," Midoriya says, chin rested on his threaded fingers, "We are going to Kamino Ward in order to rescue Kacchan and Sera. If we encounter villains, we try our best to escape. Do not purposefully make contact."
Everyone nodded in understanding, and Midoriya continued, "Now let's identify the enemy."
The familiar words cause everyone other than Toru to freeze. Seeing their reaction and the strange glint in Midoriya's eyes, Toru realizes he did it on purpose.
"Our enemy is the League of Villains, and from what we know they have 8 known villains in their group. We are familiar with 2 of them, Tomura Shigaraki the leader, and his right-hand man, Kurogiri. The other six from what we know are new members since they weren't at the USJ raid nor have they been seen before."
Everyone nods along to Midoriya's words, carefully memorizing everything he was saying. "We already know what quirks Shigaraki and Kurogiri have, now we just need to classify what quirks the other six have so we can find a way to counter it when we find them."
Kirishima jumps up just as Midoriya finishes, "The blonde-haired villain, I think Uraraka said her name was Toga or something. Uraraka and Tsuyu encountered her in the forest, it seems like she has a quirk that allows her to turn into anyone she can drink the blood of."
Midoriya nods his fingers rubbing his chin slowly, "A quirk like that won't be too tough if we have a code word among ourselves. Something only we know, using it we can eliminate the chances of any imposters among us."
Everyone begins to think for a few moments before Kirishima raises a hand, "What about the note."
Iida blinks in confusion, "The note?"
Kirishima nods rapidly with a sharp smile forming on his face, "Out of everyone other than Sera, only we know what the note said."
"Only for emergencies." Midoriya repeats quietly and he goes quiet for a few moments before nodding, "Okay, that works. Anytime we may separate or something happens, we should ask questions regarding the note, the pills, or something along the lines of that. Only we can safely answer the questions because only we opened the bottle."
"The black-haired villain," Todoroki who had been silent the entire time finally said, "The one with the blue eyes. He has a fire quirk, his flames are even hotter than mine are."
"Then because of your ice, you would be the best defense against him," Toru says, her beret bobbing up and down was the only indication that she was nodding her head. She looked closely at Todoroki for a few seconds, and suddenly paused her rhythmic nodding, "You okay Todoroki?" She asked, noticing the dual-colored hair boys' hesitant look.
Todoroki hummed under his breath, and shook his head, "I'm fine. It's just that," He pauses as if trying to find the correct words, "The dark-haired villain…. I think I've seen him somewhere."
At his words, everyone looked up in surprise.
"Really? When?" Midoriya asked curiously, "Do you know him?"
Todoroki shook his head, "No, it's just his...eyes," He raised a hand to his dark wig, flicking a stray lock of hair behind him, "I feel like I've seen them somewhere."
.
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"Unchain her." The voice of All For One says from behind the monitor.
The room goes silent for a few moments before Dabi, who was closest to her, grabbed the key from off the table. Kneeling down next to her, he casually stuck the key into the hole and unlocked the chains holding her in place.
The heavy chains that tightly held her loosened, and fell to the ground with a clang.
"Please stand, Hideyoshi-san." All For One says, his voice like smooth ice. Sera hesitates for a few seconds, before gathering her strength and standing up. The rest of the chains fall to the ground in rapid succession, the sound of metal hitting metal echoing in the quiet room.
"Kurogiri, make a portal," All For One commands, "I want to have a chat with miss Hideyoshi."
Sera freezes, every fiber of her being wanting to refuse. But, her rationality took over, she could not afford to make any wrong moves here.
All For One seemed to have seen her hesitation, because he suddenly chuckled, "Don't worry Hideyoshi-san, I won't be doing anything to you. I just want to talk."
Sera could feel every set of eyes in the room staring at her as she made her way towards Kurogiri's misty portal. The dark purple mist waved towards her as if beckoning her to her doom.
This was All For One she was meeting. All Might's greatest enemy, his greatest arch-nemesis, the man who started it all, the ultimate supervillain. A man who could and probably would steal her quirk. The mere thought of her quirk being taken away from her almost sent Sera over the edge of rationality, but by sheer will, she held through.
Perhaps her months spent at UA and facing her fears numbed her bit since she was not feeling as fearful as she thought she would. Instead, behind the paranoia and fear, there was a piece of calmness in her heart, a small weight, but heavy enough to stop her from toppling off the edge.
She walks through the misty portal trying her best to take as long as possible, she wanted to prolong her meeting with the man beyond this purple vortex as much as she could. But all things must come to an end, after-all she could only take her sweet time for so long.
Instead of being pulled through the portal, she instead walked through it. Before she had been pulled through too quickly and was too panicky to notice the sensation of stepping through a portal. This time though, she let the feeling wash over her as she brought her entire body through the swirling vortex.
It felt like walking through a wave of heavy mist, but instead of finding herself a few feet from where she started, she was transported into a whole other place.
The dimly lit room was simple enough, with 4 cream white walls, and all the furniture you would find in an average study.
At the center of the room, sitting on a large black velvet chair was a strange-looking man, if you could even call him a man. He had no facial features except a mouth. His eyes, nose, ears, were but a mass of scar tissue. She could tell immediately that the only way the man could breathe was through the ventilation tubes inserted into his neck.
Seeing her come in, he motioned to the seat across from him, separated by only a small glass table. Sera tried her best to keep a blank face, carefully making her way to the seat, instinctively trying to make as little noise as possible.
She sits down carefully, every sound she makes causes her to internally cringe as if in preparation for an incoming attack. But to her relief the man opposite of her stays in place, his posture ever so relaxed.
"Would you like some tea?" He asks her, motioning to the delicate porcelain on the table.
A part of her wants to agree, because she is parched from all the screaming, running, and fighting just mere hours ago.
"No thank you."
But the rational and paranoid part of her immediately smashes the idea to pieces. Who knows what he might've done to it, poison, some sort of drug, etc. The possibilities were endless. It was better to be safe than sorry.
All For One hums, "Suit yourself." He says, before crossing one of his legs above the other.
The sudden movement makes Sera stiffen in her seat and her hands that had been neatly placed in her lap clench tightly.
All For One chuckles once again when he notices her obvious discomfort, how she doesn't know. She suspects that he was a quirk that allows him to see without eyes, "Honestly, you don't have to be so jittery. I already said I won't do anything to you."
Sera frowns, "You're a villain, you can't honestly be expecting me to trust you."
All For One shrugs, "Villains may break laws but some of us tend to keep promises."
Sera threads her fingers together, knuckles turning white at how hard she was squeezing her hands, "I've never met one."
All For One chuckles, "I wouldn't have expected you too." He shuffles in his seat a bit as if trying to find a more comfortable position, "But that's not what we're here to talk about, are we."
Sera raises an eyebrow, unknowingly his relaxed posture and tone caused her to let down her guard a bit. Instead of keeping quiet in fear of his retaliation, she became more casual, "You tell me. You're the one who wanted to talk."
"Hm," He hums, "You're right," He turns over to the side table next to his chair, opening the cabinet he takes out a thin packet of paper before placing it in front of her.
Sera stares at the paper, taking in the smiling face of the girl on it. The picture was taken nearly 4 months ago on the day of her middle school graduation. The small face of the girl in the picture, the wide smile, the shining eyes, all of it seemed so incredibly unfamiliar to her.
The picture was only taken 4 months ago yet Sera could hardly recognize the girl. The look on her face was worry-free and happy. Like she had nothing holding her back, unlike how the current Sera was.
"You never wanted to be a hero, right?" All For One asks, and Sera snaps out of her daze and whips her head up to look at him.
"How do yo—"
He cuts her off, "It's pretty obvious, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out," He says, taking a sip of his tea, "You spent 10 years of your life as a girl with a small regeneration quirk. Unnoticed and safe. You were quite obviously very happy with your life. You knew what your quirk was, seeing as you healed All Might. But you didn't use it. You never used it, not even when you could've saved people." he leans in a bit closer, more of his figure is revealed into the light, "Admit it Hideyoshi-san, you never wanted to be a hero. They forced you, threatened you."
Sera stays silent, her thumbs fiddling with the hem of her shirt, she opens her mouth to reply but hesitates for a few seconds, trying to come up with the right words.
"You're right," She finally says, "I didn't want to be a hero," She pauses for a few moments before continuing, "Not at first." Her fingers stop playing with the hem of her shirt and goes back to being neatly placed in her lap, "I have Shigaraki Tomura to thank for that. If he hadn't attacked the USJ, perhaps I wouldn't have realized how great it was to be a hero."
"But aren't you tired?" All For One asks her curiously, and even though he had no features, she could just imagine the raised eyebrow that he would have had, "All they do is take from you. You had a peaceful life, you were happy, you had a set future, everything was good and well. But, it all crumbled just because they needed your quirk. They threatened you when you revealed your weakness, they used you."
All For One's voice was a soft baritone, like fine wine. He didn't raise his voice, instead, he talked slowly and carefully, each word enunciated perfectly, "If it wasn't for UA, you wouldn't have encountered villains, even I would have never known that you existed. The world of heroes is never kind to healers, the ones who heal only know how to give, and the world only knows how to take. Take, take, take, until nothing else is left."
Sera stares down at the table in deep thought, as his words poke at her earliest memories. How many old articles and books did she read at that time? Healers are portrayed as kind and good in books, movies, games, etc. But the world is never kind to good people. How many healers have died before her?
All For One's lips curved into a small smile, as if sensing her emotional fluctuation, "I don't know if you know her, but a long time ago, I knew a girl named Kang Soo-Yeon." At his words Sera slowly lifts her head, her eyes widened by a fraction. She had forgotten how old All For One was, he had been around since the beginning.
"She was a good kid, all she wanted to do was help people. When she awoke her quirk, she was given the ability to do so. Painful Heal or as she used to call it, No Pain No Gain. Perhaps her version was less gruesome than the official one.
Broken bones, stab wounds, bullet wounds, severed limbs, and hundreds more. She healed every single one of them. How much pain do you think a person feels when they break a bone or worse lose an arm or a leg. Obviously it's painful, right? How painful do you think it would be to feel the pain of hundreds of people every day, from all types of injuries, yet have no wound on your body.
She used to cry a lot when she first used it, but slowly when more patients kept rolling in and she fixed every single one of them she grew numb. From the smallest broken finger to the crushed lungs and ruptured hearts. She fixed it all.
But no matter how many tears she shed, how painful it was, they didn't let her stop. You see, she was a symbol. A symbol of pure good and yet they kept using her, taking advantage of her. They worked her for years until she forgot what it felt like to not be in pain. Sure, they gave her things in return, money, houses, fame, anything she could have wanted. But what's the point of it all when you spend every moment of your life in excruciating pain."
He lets out a sad sigh as if he was sharing with her a great burden in his heart, "She was only 14 when her quirk was discovered." He says, his voice a painful whisper, "Fourteen. She was around your age. Yet it was only 10 years later that she finally broke. She killed herself on pain relievers. The funny thing is the pills stopped working years ago, yet she still liked taking them. Perhaps it's because a small part of her imagined that it did take away the pain, however little it did."
"The hero world is full of falsities and lies. A society built on the ideas of selfish humans. They take what they want promising glory, wealth, and fame. Yet they'll use you until you are nothing but a husk. They'll slowly take away everything you've ever loved, only to throw you away when they're done." All For One gives her a nostalgic smile, like remembering happier days,
"Healers are symbols Sera." He says once again, and his soft smile turns hard, "But you know the thing about symbols?" He asks.
But he does not wait for her to answer, "They can always be replaced."
Listening to his words, Sera couldn't help but let herself fall into a trance, the words of Recovery Girl a mere 2 weeks ago echoing in her mind.
You are a symbol Sera. We all are.
"Don't you realize, Hideyoshi?" He asks her, "They will only ever take from you. Until you are nothing but ashes."
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AN: I had been planning the convo between All For One and Sera for a LONG while now. But, I didn't think the conversation would go in that direction. Sometimes the ideas just come out when I'm writing that it surprises even me. I didn't think I'd like this chapter very much but it turned out to be one of my favorites. Especially in the last part. Tell me what you guys think :)
Edit: Edited the last part a bit, I think it sounds better now :)