Chapter 21:

Hmmm, Paul breakout arc then. Or eventually, at least.

Mina caught Izuku in her arms before he could fall flat on her apartment floor. She checked and realized that he is knocked out, burnt, and bleeding. It was a good thing Aizawa taught them how to do basic first aid.

"All right, time to rip that shirt off. Wait, that sounds weird." Mina shook her head as she removed his burnt shirt and jacket. She ignored the fact that he had abs in favour of treating his wounds. He's unconscious so she didn't need to be too careful. Once she's finished with everything, she gently wrapped him in bandages and set him down on her couch.

"What am I gonna do with you?" She wondered aloud. She could turn him in on the police but at the same time, she doesn't want to. Mina was knocked off her thoughts when she heard Izuku groan loudly. He tried to stand up but she stopped him.

"Don't. Move." She tried to sound threatening and was trying hard not to fail at that. Considering she immediately sat on him to prevent him from moving with acid dripping from her hands. "We have a lot to talk about."

He silently looked at her and then pointed on his stitches. Mina rolled her eyes, picked up the scissors from the medkit, and cut off the one thing keeping his mouth from moving. "Now, can you talk?"

"I'm sorry."

"OH, NOW YOU'RE SORRY?!" She threw her hands up in the air while she was still sitting on him. It threw off her balance, almost making her fall off if it weren't for him sitting up and grabbing her by the shoulders. Their face was close and they could feel each other's breathing. Izuku gently let go of Mina after making sure she's balanced while sitting on top of him.

"No, seriously, I'm sorry." He hesitated a little. He truly did not mean to hurt her feelings. "For causing you trouble."

"Yeah, as if that would fix the problems you caused!" Despite knowing his apology is genuine, it didn't stop her from staying mad at him for lying to her. Most of it, anyway.

"And these are the problems we'll force everyone to fix." Izuku scowled at the ground, refusing to look at her. "I know it's an edgy backstory, but Tomura and I do want to make things change for the better."

"By hurting people?!"

"What? You think you can actually make a change as a hero? Or just be all talk like a politician?" Now he's facing her after snapping. She hates that he's making a little bit of sense. They were in a stalemate.

"And can you even create a perfect world?"

"We know a perfect world is impossible, Mina! We just… we just want to make a better one than this." Izuku shook his head, laid back down on the couch, and covered his face with his arm. "Twice lost his job over an accident and went insane. Compress was a failed magician. Magne has been rejected by everyone around her. Toga's parents disowned her because of her quirk. Paul's mom died in America. Dabi? Burnt himself trying to impress his cruel father. Tomura accidentally killed his entire family and no one but Sensei was there to help him. People went after me just because I had no quirk. Spinner had an anti-mutant cult go after him. I'm surprised you haven't encountered them."

He took his arm off his face and glanced at Mina, who was listening intently. "Call us a villain all you like but we're all still human trying to make a change, even if it's the most questionable method possible."

"You know, people did go after me because I looked different…" Mina looked away, not wanting to remember her one encounter with the Creature Rejection Clan. Izuku reached out his hand and touched her fluffy hair. She did the same with his.

"And you owned it and made them suck it all up as you got into UA. I know you would." Izuku paused for a moment, admiring Mina's kind and determined heart. "That's why you're an incredible person. You're my favorite person, but sometimes, you can be quite an annoying cunt."

Mina snorted at Izuku's compliment and insult. She laid down and squeezed next to him on the couch. All anger she had for him simmered down when she realized that as vicious as he can be, Izuku is still a vulnerable softie underneath."You know, I'm still calling the police on you, Izuku."

"I know. I hate the fact that no matter how many walls I put up in my heart, you'll still be there to melt it down and reach me. Still, can we… just this once, forget about all this? What we're supposed to be?" He held her close to him. They hugged each other in comforting silence. "Also forget the fact that I just stabbed All Might and shot Bakugou five times."

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

One week later…

"Ay, Bakubro, I brought you some spicy ramen." Kirishima placed the food on the desk near Katsuki's bed. The explosive blonde was looking out the window on his wheelchair. His new high-tech spine protruded from his back. "Recovery Girl said she could save you two months worth of healing if you just let her."

"You know what's funny? I spent 10 years making him think he was a cripple. Ironic how I'm the one sitting in a wheelchair now, unable to move my lower half."

"That same person defended you back then. If he weren't a villain, I would have called him a true bro." Kirishima told his friend while sitting down beside him. "After crippling you, he apparently went to Mina's house and stayed there for the night. She called the police early morning and he turned himself over quietly. Rumour said he's in Tartarus."

"Keh," Katsuki grunted, knowing the true outcome. "He'll escape."

"From Tartarus? I don't think so."

"They'll underestimate him, thinking he can't do anything without a gun. He'll use that to his advantage and escape." Katsuki explained what Izuku would be doing in the next few days. "I bet my ass he'll be out in two weeks. This guy managed to get a stab on All Might, remember?"

"Yeah, it still feels surreal seeing All Might. Not that it's your fault."

"Don't worry. He drilled it into my head that his retirement wasn't my fault. That old man with him then followed up with saying that my shattered lower spine IS my fault." Katsuki snorted, remembering Gran Torino whacking his head with a cane after his surgery. He stopped laughing and looked at Kirishima.

"I'm transferring to General Education."

Kirishima fell out of his chair, shocked by what he had heard. "WHAT?! D-Dude, are you ex-"

"Aizawa-sensei didn't expel me. I'm transferring on my own decision." Katsuki reassured his friend, who was standing up from falling over.

"Well, you can't just give up!"

"I'm not giving up." Katsuki shook his head. "I just want some time to think, and I know doing that while trying to go through hero classes is too much of a distraction for me to think clearly. I've done a lot of fucked up shit to a single person and it looks like I've finally gotten my comeuppance."

Kirishima tried to protest but he knew deep down his friend had already made up his mind. He sighed, accepting the decision and reached his fist out. "I'll keep the seat warm for ya."

"Thanks, and sorry that you'll have to deal with Monoma for a while." Katsuki returned the fist bump.

"Dude, really? Now I want you to hurry up on that self-reflection arc."

"Don't worry, I got Hound Dog to help me with that."

Akusquad…

"You really turned him in?" Shinso asked Mina one more time just to make sure. She nodded one more time. Mina called in a meeting a week ago and now they're all hanging out in Starducks. Tooru decided to bring Ojiro along to act as the secondary straight man of the group after Shinso.

"You let him spend the night with you? You sure nothing happened?" Tooru presumably got close on her friend's face, surprising Mina with the question.

"TOORU!" Ojiro scolded his friend for asking an inappropriate question. The same question that had Mina blushing hard.

"WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, OKAY?!" She screamed in a panic. "We just… cleared things up. He's not mad that I called the police on him."

"He didn't even try to resist?" Shinso lifted his eyebrow. He's reminded again that Akusero is still different from Izuku. Both of which he would still consider his best friend. It didn't stop the feeling of betrayal from making him biased against his friend.

"Shinso, you and I both know that one way or another, someone is gonna break him out. If nobody does, he'll break himself out of prison." Mina shook her head, giving it two or three weeks before the news about his break out starts rolling in.

"...So are you two still dating?"

"TOORU!"

"What? That's an important question." The invisible girl probably shrugged when Ojiro scolded her again. Mina started blushing again.

"IT'S COMPLICATED, OKAY?!" Mina accidentally melted her frappe.

With the League…

"First order of things," Tomura set down the blueprints of a prison. The League of Villains circled the makeshift table in their temporary hideout. The first thing they did was contact Giran, as per Paul's request before his arrest. Their hacker was right to make them reach out to the underworld broker. He had enough blackmail on a politician to order Paul's transfer. "We're breaking out Paul first. Any questions?"

"I'm surprised we're not breaking out Izuku first." Dabi expressed his shock, not expecting Tomura to prioritize someone who isn't Izuku.

"That would be the case but he was sent to Tartarus. We need Paul to take down their security systems if we even want a chance to break-in, and break Izuku and Sensei out." Tomura pointed his finger on one part of the map. "Behind this wall is a hollow system that we can break in from. We plant the C4, wait for Paul's signal, and then blast them out."

"May I ask a question?" Compress raised his hand.

"Ask away."

"What signal?"

"We get there 30 minutes before Paul's scheduled transfer, and drill a hole in the wall." Tomura mimicked the drilling with his hands while everyone listened intently. "After 30 minutes, we wait 30 seconds before pushing in a yen note through the hole and wait for Paul's scream. By then, we would have already planted the C4 and we blast our way through."

"All of us?"

"No, Toga, not all of us. Someone will have to stay put. Kurogiri is out running errands for the Doctor so Spinner will be our getaway driver."

"YES!"

"You don't mind if we use your van, right, Twice?"

"YES! NO!"

"The guys coming with me is Dabi, Magne, and Compress. The rest of you stay put in here while we pull off that heist. Paul's transfer is happening in a few days."

"Roger that, boss."

"Okay, no seriously, just call me Tomura."

In a cell…

Paul pretended to sleep in his temporary cell. From what he heard from the guards, he's getting transferred to another precinct. It still didn't make sense to him on how he got caught. He was sure he cut off any loose ends when the Camp Invasion was over.

"Seems like the Australian guy is getting transferred." He heard one of the guards say. "Some hotshot politician wanted him out of here and into another city. Stupid reason."

"I mean, we're slowly transferring him nearer to Tartarus. Every precinct is a checkpoint, anyway, to prevent any breakouts. Word from above said we're lucky to catch him. Some kind of unknown hacker finally managed to track him down."

"Hacker? No bloody way." Paul thought to himself as he struggled to not gasp from the revelation.

"Apparently it was some guy named 'Skeptic'."

"...Skeptic, eh? A bugger with that name found me, huh? This is bound to get interesting."

In Tartarus…

This is a rather light containment they placed him in, if Izuku was being honest. He expected to be strapped or something but he's just in the higher levels of the prison. Something about a low-risk inmate. He could use this as an advantage to escape. If Izuku would guess correctly, Tomura would try to break Paul out first before him, considering the risks of the security system in this prison. All For One is in the lower levels, maybe even in the lowest one. No point trying to risk his life in breaking out the former boss alone.

"Visitor for Izuku Midoriya" He got up from his bed and went to his door's opening. His eyes widened when he saw her. He didn't think she would get the clearance to even be here until he saw the heroine next to her. The same heroine who told him to sew his mouth shut along with the person he never wanted to see in this state.

"...Mom." He's still in disbelief, unable to say any other words than that. Mount Lady remained silent beside Inko.

"Izuku."

{- To Be Continued...

Short Chapter but hope y'all enjoyed it.