Chapter 3: Awakening

It was currently 4 AM in the morning, and Inko Midoriya had been nervously pacing back and forth in her living room for untold hours. She was worried about her son, as he was supposed to have come back home from school hours ago.

She had received word from the school principal about how Izuku had had an altercation that day, and that he, reportedly had been the one who started the fight. But she couldn't find herself able to be mad at him for that, in fact she had only blamed herself.

Only recently, his lifelong dream had been denied to him, and she hadn't done anything for him but cry, just like she had all those years ago, when they had learned that he was quirkless. She had failed to tell him the words he had needed to hear, and now, because she had never said those words he was going through all this pain.

But Inko was his mother and he was her son, she had now made up her mind on this. She wouldn't sit on the sidelines any longer, especially not as he now had so much to cope with. From now on she would be there for him through this difficult time in his life, that was her newfound promise to herself and Izuku.

She had planned everything out, she had made his favorite meal, for when he got home, and she would talk with, and give him the chance to pour out all his feelings onto her. Then tomorrow she would see his principal and would sort this whole mess out.

She had planned everything out as well as she could've, but Izuku hadn't shown up home. At first she thought that he was taking some extra time to walk around, to calm his nerves, but one hour turned into two, and two into three, so she started to send him texts, but he never responded.

At that point she began to grow afraid, she was fearing for the worst, and because of all the stress she couldn't sleep and so she started pacing in the livingroom and had made a habit out of glancing at the clock several times a minute. She wanted to go out and find him, but she was no hero, all she could do was hope.

"Knock, knock, knock." someone had just knocked on the door, with energy surging through her, she raced for the door in hopes that Izuku had come back home. However when she had opened the door, her son was not what greeted her but rather it was a man dressed in blue.

"Excuse me. Are you Ms. Midoriya?" the police officer at her doorstep asked.

"Y-Yes" Inko responded nervously.

"I see, Ms. Midoriya, it pains me to inform you this but there is evidence that your son, Izuku Midoriya has been abducted by criminals." the officer said in a tone that was professional but didn't hide his sympathy for her and her situation.

Hearing those words Inko felt her heart drop. As soon as she saw the officer she already knew that this was coming, in fact she had known before, but she had only been shutting the obvious truth out. But now that the facts were staring her in the face, she had no choice but to accept it.

"W- W- Wha- What?" Inko could barely get her words out, she backed away from the officer as she began to tear up. "H- How could this be? Please tell me that you're joking. PLEASE JUST TELL ME THAT THIS IS JUST ONE CRUEL JOKE!" she began to scream.

"I'm sorry to say but this is not a joke. Your son has been abducted, and an investigation has been mobilized to find him and bring the perpetrators to justice." the officer responded.

"I see." Inko cried quietly. "Please, just bring my baby back home to me."

At police headquarters...

Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi was currently at his desk putting together the file for the latest case that had popped up. Apparently a middle school boy namd Izuku Midoriya had been kidnapped by an unknown group of villains. What's more that same boy had also been the target of an attack by a villain only a few days earlier.

A couple hours ago, the police department had received a photo of the unconscious boy who they quickly ID'd, with his hands tied behind his back, on a chair. Judging by the picture, the boy was being held in an abandoned industrial building of some sort.

On the surface this appeared to be just a kidnapping, and Naomasa had successfully solved several of those over the course of his career. What was different about this case however that bothered the seasoned detective was that no demands were made, and no note had accompanied the picture. Usually when there is a kidnapping like this, either demands are made by the perpetrator, or the perpetrator sends over nothing and the crime is discovered after the missing persons report. But in this case there were no demands, no note, just a picture, it was just an announcement that the crime had been committed, but no reason as to why.

On top of all this, the photo was sent directly to the police, instead of the victims family, as the boy's mother hadn't reported anything, so they had confirmation of this fact. Whoever was responsible for this crime, they clearly had little concern for the family, and was not doing this for monetary gain, or at least not the ransom money. Naomasa also doubted that this was because of any kind of personal reason, because if it were they would only want Izuku, and would avoid police attention entirely, it was almost like the kidnapping was to further some bigger goal, but there were no visible clues as to what that could be so that conclusion could not yet be reached logically.

Whatever was going on here, Naomasa had a hunch that it was bigger than just one boy. But of course there was always the possibility that the perpetrator was simply insane, as there did exist a number of villains who were like that.

The next morning...

As Naomasa was studying the bulletin board in his office. The one he was using for the new kidnapping case, that he had set up with red string, several photographs, and a map of the whole city. Someone had opened his door and welcomed themselves into his office.

"Are you especially busy right now? Because I really need to talk." said the familiar voice of All Might, or Tosinori as he was better known in this form.

"Oh, it's good to see you Toshi, but I am currently working on this new case that popped up" Naomase replied.

"Well what I want to talk about, is actually related to that case." said All Might, who had been wearing a downtrodden expression on his face since he entered.

"In that case, I guess I can make some time to talk." said Naomasa, suddenly more motivated than earlier.

"So what part of this case do you want to talk about?" asked Naomasa.

"Well, It's about that boy who was kidnaped." All Might started to explain. "I think that, I might be the reason behind it, I think that this is my fault."

"Why do you think that?" Naomasa asked puzzled.

"Because a week ago, I had saved him from a villain, and I had been careless enough to put his face on TV. I have no shortage of enemies among criminals, and ever since the news of this kidnapping got out earlier today my popularity ratings have already started to stager" All Might said.

"So you think that whoever did this, is after you, and that they want to diminish public opinion of you?" Naomasa asked.

"Yes, whoever did wants to create chaos, to get people to abandon the symbol of peace, they want to do this by proving that I can't save everyone, by proving that I can do more harm than good." All Might said as his gaze drifted to the floor.

"Do you think the perpetrator could be, THAT villain? Naomasa questioned as he began to look upward.

"I don't know." All Might replied "But, can you promise me something?".

"What do you need?" Naomasa asked his old friend.

"When you find this kid, please let me know as soon as you can. I have to save him, I have to make this right." All Might said, this time in a more determined tone.

"Of course." Naomasa answered sincerely.

This conversation had proved more useful to Naomasa than he had previously thought it would be. He now had a potential motive and suspect. But now it was time to get back to work, he had a kid to find.

Two weeks later...

All Izuku Midoriya could feel right now was pain. Pain was felt from the constant sensation in his head that made his brain feel like it was melting. Pain was felt from the intense itchiness that had crawled all across every inch of his skin. Pain was felt from the burning icy feeling down in his throat and trachea that constricted his breathing, and left him gasping for air. Pain was felt on his insides as his organs cried in agony, as if an animal had been eating him, and scratching him from the inside.

Pain and fear had been the only constant in Midoriya's life ever since he had been placed in this chair that brought aches to his back, and tied to these bonds that dug into his wrists. At first it was just an annoyance, a few itches here and there that he couldn't scratch, and a distasteful smell in the room that caused discomfort, but was not unbearable. But over time those pains grew and grew until he could barely stay sane. On top of this he didn't know how long he had been here, as the windows had been completely boarded up and he had no sense of time in this near-complete darkness.

Despite all this pain, or perhaps because of it all he could think to himself, was why. Why him? Why did he have to suffer like he was right now, why did he have to suffer like he had his whole life. None of it made any sense, he had always been treated like garbage his whole life because he was quirkless, and that made him lesser in the eyes of everyone. Because he was powerless, he was in this mess, stuck in a pit of helplessness where he could never do anything. He always wanted to become a hero, and save people, but here he was now, as the person who needed saving.

No matter how hard he tried to struggle, tried to break free, he was never able to. He couldn't break these bonds, he couldn't save himself from the sludge villain, and he could never free himself from the torment of his life. He had always been weaker than his tormentors, he had learned to fear them, as was born powerless in a society ruled by those who were born powerful, he was weak and couldn't win a fight to save his own life. He knew all these facts and had learned to accept them even if he didn't always realize it. But then... If that was truly the case, then why? Why did Bakugo, someone with far more power than the average person, look at him with such fear in his eyes? Why did every person in that room, each of whom had more power than him, act like he was some monster that they had to fear, even though he was powerless.

This question had puzzled Izuku for a long time, probably ever since the pain got like this, as the only word that had raced through his mind for what felt like years was "WHY WHY WHY WHY!" He couldn't depend on his ability to reason, because he hadn't gotten any sleep this whole time and istead faded in and out of consciousness erratically. But all of the sudden, it stopped, all the pain stopped, as his quarries had all clicked together.

That was why, that was why they, who were powerful, were afraid of he who was powerless. It was because he was powerless that he had evoked such fear, because he was powerless and had fought back. This whole superhuman society was structured so that those with power became powerful, and dictated society, and those without became powerless, and were put in their place, this rule had become unspoken law, and it had defined society for so long.

It was why people could still smile, why they could walk outside without fear of villains. Because no matter what happened, this one rule would always be constant, because at the heart of every threat was a human who carried the supernatural element with them, and no one was afraid because they carried an element of the supernatural with them too. This superhuman society had moved beyond the age of monsters, and to the age where everything had clicked and made sense.

But when Izuku had stood up for himself, he broke that all explaining law, he had shattered everyone's world view and tried to define his own place. At that moment, to them, he had broken the rule they didn't know that they depended on, he had become an unknown factor, an anomaly, a monster. That was how fragile this society was, it was kept together by a single thread, and that thread was this rule of power that had made his life hell for so long.

Izuku then knew what this society was missing, he then knew what he himself needed right now. It was not a hero, it was a monster, and Izuku was the only one who could be that monster, because if he didn't, everything would continue, the same way it always had. He would continue to be pushed around, would continue to be forced to wait for the heroes to save him, He would continue to live without happiness. But that monster he desperately needed was nowhere in sight, just like the heroes, so it had to be him, he had to become the monster that he needed, because if not him, Who?

Izuku then smiled at that moment, and stood up as he broke bonds, and his vision was dyed red as from his eyes, tears of blood flowed like a river.