Chapter 68: the things we do for love.

The one thing about losing weight is that everyone expects you to simultaneously get fitter. That, especially in his case, wasn't the case. He still craved his wasabi crisps, now more than ever.

Yotsune was running as fast as his feet would carry him, only stopping every other turn to slide the stolen key card through the readers. Less and less doors separated him from his first destination; One of the last rooms down the hallway.

The boy panted. He chose to take the stairs, too afraid to be cornered in the elevator. He stumbled the last few steps, almost slithered past the desired door. No one spared him a glance. All of Dragon's followers were too busy with their own tasks, the operation was in full swing.

Yotsune raised his hand to knock, but brown eyes already peeked at him through a crack. Relief filled them as soon as he was being recognised.

"You're late," The Void whispered. The younger teen cracked the door open a little further to hand Yotsune a small backpack.

"I want… To see you… Run up… t-ten f-floors…" He breathed heavily. They should thank him for risking his ass. He knew he only waited for a few seconds, but the boy felt like an hour had passed when the two girls finally stepped outside. A drop of sweat was running along his brow.

Big red eyes fixed on him, in a mixture of wonder and genuine fear. The little girl, Eri, tightly held onto the Void's leg.

Yotsune didn't like children. He didn't know what to do with them. Rubbing the back of his neck, he spoke his very first words to the child, "Hey, kid."

"He-hello," a quiet, timid voice replied. Could have gone worse. Satisfied with the reaction, the quirkless teen grabbed The Void by the arm and dragged both along.

"We don't have time. Someone must have tipped the heroes off, they're already gathering."

A stale, rancid smell. The rattling of fan blades. Other than that, it was so quiet he could hear the rush of his own blood.

Izuku had fallen asleep in many different positions. Sitting had never been his favourite. No matter how comfortable he felt while drifting off, either his neck would be stiff the next morning, or his legs had fallen asleep. So, why again did he…?

His head instantly shot up, sending pain down his neck. He wanted to raise his arms, but his wrists were tied to a chair. Nothing he couldn't deal with by using a bit of One for All-

Nothing.

He tore at the restraints, the chair creaked, it might have even broken from his natural strength if it wasn't made from metal.

"Good afternoon, son."

No. Not him. Izuku craned his neck to get a better look over his shoulder. There he stood, the villain Dragon, his father, leaning against a bare concrete wall. The teen tore at the rope around his wrists once more, ignoring how they ripped a hole into his new gloves and painfully dug into his flesh. The room around him was empty, no windows, just a single door leading out of the cell. Using his own panic as a trigger he activated burst to burn the rope-

Nothing.

Quirk suppressing cuffs? No, it was just rope. Then how…?

"Trade. Sorry about that, I didn't want to repeat our mistake from last time," his father began as if having read his mind, "let's have a peaceful chat, my boy."

"I'm not your boy!" Izuku snapped, voice thin. Only All Might was allowed to call him that. He had trouble breathing. Did Dragon really inject him with Trade? The villain had to know about the side effects, what if Izuku became unable to use his quirk? What if he couldn't fight anymore? How could he be a hero if he couldn't fight to save? What if he just betrayed All Might's legacy? Who would fight All for One, should he escape, and Shigaraki Tomura? Dragon couldn't possibly want that-

Yes, he could, a quiet voice spoke in the back of his mind. Dragon would like to see him become defenceless. Dragon would want him to be unable to rebel. All the villain had in mind was to get his family back, whether they wanted to be with him or not. He would enjoy seeing Izuku become quirkless again, dependent. On him.

But his friends wouldn't let that happen. All Might, Aizawa-sensei, the heroes, they wouldn't let it happen. They would find a way, maybe Eri could restore his quirk…

Eri. Dragon still had her. Had that been his perfidious plan all along? Was she some kind of leverage against Izuku? Would he try to manipulate him into staying by promising Eri could restore his quirk?

"Well, son, the sooner you give up your childish tantrum, the sooner I'll set you free. You shouldn't be a prisoner, but my guest. This could be your home. I know some of our worldviews clash, but within time, I'm sure we'll find common ground."

Izuku would never agree to anything his father believed in.

"Don't give me that spiteful glare. I can come back later, once you're calmer. I didn't mean to surprise you, but with all those heroes around it was a bit difficult to organise a civilized meeting." If Dragon called tying him to a chair 'civilized'. "Don't worry, we have all the time in the world. The heroes will never find you here."

Find him - Izuku looked down on himself and found his belt pouches missing. All his supplies, his phone, his new notebook, it was all gone. The heroes truly had no means of finding him, he had no means to contact them, and even if he did, he had no idea where he was, they couldn't track his location...

That was the keyword. They could tack him. Izuku closed his eyes and let his head hang, apparently in defeat, to hide the spark that lit his face. He did have an option. He just needed to reach his wrist somehow…

There was flapping. Izuku looked up and found his father holding up his new notebook. The villain skimmed through the empty pages.

"Brand new, I see." It sounded disappointed. Dragon was about to close it but paused as something interesting caught his attention. Izuku tensed. His father opened the cover and narrowed his eyes before holding up a small, rectangular piece of paper.

The photograph.

It was obvious the man tried to conceal his emotions, but Izuku clearly saw his jaw tense. Dragon pierced the picture with his icing glare. He seemed to take in every detail, then turned it around for Izuku to see.

"Your new family, I presume?"

Mom looked so happy. Hikari grinned a bit shyly. His own face smiled back at him.

"Don't-!" It was for naught. Bright green fire lit the room, only one breath, and ashes were dancing through the cool air. Dragon mockingly blew whatever was left of the grey dust off his hand before wiping it with a bleached white handkerchief.

"I can't allow you to have such distractions, my boy. But don't worry, your mother will join us soon enough. We'll be a happy family again-"

"You don't even know what family means!" Izuku found himself screaming, tears stinging in his eyes. "You don't know anything about true happiness, about the bonds between people, about relationships and l-"

"Love?" The villain taunted. "Boy, all I do is for love. For my love to you and your mother. Society has failed us, all of us in their own ways. I'm just trying to make the world a better place, for us and everyone else. And what would be better suited than a wakeup call of this scale?"

"Wakeup call?" Izuku repeated, voicelessly. So many heroes had been present at the event. It should have been impossible for the villain to drug him and drag him away. Izuku frowned, he tried to remember. Something happened, just before he lost consciousness. There had been a weird sound, then screaming, an explosion…

"What did you do?"

Dragon didn't get to answer. A knock echoed through the empty space. The iron door opened, something small clattered to the floor.

"WHAT?!" Smoke rose from Dragon's nostrils. He turned to the dark void that was the entry. Izuku craned his neck even harder, but he couldn't see the face of the intruder.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, Dragon," a woman spoke, "but I came to inform you that the Spider left. We tried to stop him, but-"

Izuku's stomach turned. He tuned out the rest of the apology and Dragon's following outbreak. He knew of only one person Dragon's men called the Spider, but that was impossible, that man died, he had been burned alive…

He should have trusted his instincts. He had been right. Izuku didn't hear anything until his father turned to leave, not without one last reminder, "I told you, son. No distractions."

A pounding in her skull forced her back into consciousness. She tried to open her eyes, but the brightness was too much. The steady up and down made her seasick, and she clawed tighter at the… Fur…?

"Oh, good, you're awake."

She knew that voice. Not too well, but she had exchanged two or three words with that person before. Hikari didn't know what was going on, all she felt was senseless panic rising. She forced her head up, making the drumming worse.

"Woah there, take it easy. You took a hit to the head," another known voice informed her. Finally able to pull her lids apart the girl blinked a few times to get used to the sunlight. They were still outside. The sky was blue, almost no clouds reflected on the tall glass buildings. The world was moving, up and down, forward, along an empty street.

Almost empty. Two broken cars lay on their sides, one was still smoking. Cracks split the asphalt, debris blocked the sidewalks, there was a red stain that looked dangerously close to blood.

Hikari pushed herself away from the brown fur. Her living vehicle came to a halt. At last, her brain caught up, and she recognized Shishida, the class B student with the beast quirk. How did she end up here? She tried to wiggle out of his iron grip, but he didn't even budge. Shishida turned his head and squinted at her through the corner of his eye.

"Can you stand?"

Hikari wasn't sure, the hammering hadn't stopped yet, but she nodded anyway. The tall hero course students bent his knees and carefully placed her down, before shrinking in size. She had to hold on to him for one more moment until the world became stable and the dizziness began to fade.

People passed them, but they weren't in focus. A hand landed on her shoulder.

"You took a heavy hit during the evacuation, make sure to take it easy, yeah?" The second voice was Kendo's, another student from class B. A few scratches grazed her cheekbone, her suit was dirtier than it should be, but she still sent Hikari a smile.

The evacuation. Right, one moment she had spoken to Aizawa-sensei, then that smoke rose, and people started screaming. She remembered helping Izuku up, but someone knocked them over, she managed to get up but couldn't see her classmates anymore, multiple heroes were yelling, she found Burnin who told her to help with the evac, then…

"Where are the others?" She found herself asking in a raspy voice and cleared her throat.

Kendo's smile turned into a frown, and she explained, "We got separated. We're leading the civilians to the closest shelter and apply first aid wherever necessary. We were hoping to meet up with them there."

They were strictly following protocol, but Hikari couldn't help but feel like it wasn't enough. The dizziness finally disappeared and with a clear head she could take a better look at her surroundings. A small crowd had formed around them. People were slowly passing them; There were families with crying children, Hikari only saw one or two elderly people but there hadn't been many at the event either, so that didn't come as a surprise. What did, was the amount of injuredpeople. Almost no one had left unscathed. A lot of younger people were supporting each other, even some heroes or sidekicks she didn't recognize had to be carried.

Her stomach dropped. It was just like before. Just like the first time. This couldn't be happening.

"There was something in the gas," Kendo tried to get her attention, "it made people in the crowd go berserk-"

"Overload." She should have known. That was what the twins and Kougan and all the other previous Seishin students had been doing there. That's why they had been wearing winter coats, to hide the whatever had been containing the gas they themselves were immune to. So many people, so many heroes with strong quirks had been at the event, if they all breathed in the gas… It must have been a massacre.

Hikari felt sick. The two class B students seemed to notice because Kendo carefully placed a hand on her back and pushed her forward.

"Let's move on. We're supposed to keep an eye out for trouble and help those who need it."

It was happening again. Dragon had, somehow, orchestrated all of this. If Dragon was here, he would be coming after Izuku. Her chest suddenly felt tight, too small for her lungs, it was hard to breathe. Hikari shook her head. Her feet carried her further down the road, and she stuck to Shishida's heels. Forcing herself to stay calm she watched their surroundings, making sure they weren't attacked was the least thing she could do.

Izuku would be fine. He was strong and with his newly found quirk, he had the means to face Dragon. And she gave him her tracker. If anything happened, it would alarm Aizawa and the other heroes.

Feeling a bit more reassured by that though, Hikari straightened her back. Kendo's hand disappeared. The ginger haired girl left to talk to a pro and to check on some civilians from time to time, while Shishida kept walking in the middle of the crowd. Hikari guessed he was saving his energy so he could activate his beast mode during an emergency.

"We should reach the shelter in five to ten minutes!" Kendo announced at last as she jogged up to them, visibly relieved. Then she turned to Hikari, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks. I still have a bit of a headache, but it's not a concussion or anything."

"That's good to hear, I'm glad. We could really use your strength."

How did she deserve that smile? Was Kendo just trying to be nice? The last time Hikari had interacted with class B had been after the joint training and that… She didn't want to remember it. The memories made her grimace. The girl brushed some dust off her left glove.

"Hey, uhm, Kendo-san?" Hikari couldn't believe she was doing this.

"Yeah?"

"I just… Wanted to apologize. For my outburst after dinner when we… I kind of overreacted, sorry."

There was a pause. Maybe she shouldn't have brought it up. The previous Seishin attendee risked a glance at Shishida, who was eyeing her with interest, before she ducked her head and decided to study the rubble under her moving feet instead.

At last, Kendo answered, "There's nothing to be sorry about, don't sweat it. Our questions made you feel uncomfortable, we should have taken your feelings into account. It's just that your situation is… Hard to understand for most of us. So, if anyone should be apologizing, it should be us."

"There's no need-" But Shishida agreed with a hum before Hikari could finish. Her cheeks flushed.

"I, uh… That's very nice of you, Kendo-san, Shishida-san. I still feel bad, though," she admitted, rubbing the reinforced fabric covering her elbow. Too much had happened lately, she didn't get to really think about it, but the subject still bothered her. Most of class A and B – save for maybe Monomoa – got along well, either sharing a rivalry or even a friendship. Why couldn't she?

"So, uhm, once this is over… Could we… Could we maybe try again? Have a fresh start?" Hikari shily peeked at the orange haired hero course student who exchanged another glance with her classmate. The silent exchange took far too long for her liking, but in the end, Kendo flashed her a grin.

"Of course! Your classmates made sure to tell us that you're actually pretty chill and fun, and that you were probably having a bad day, by the way. It was a weird situation, but it's not like we're offended in any way."

Hikari felt a heavy weight fall off her chest. They were giving her a second chance, and she would do better next time. "Thank you, Ken-"

"Big Fist, Beast! Hurry, there's some people buried under rubble!" The distorted voice of a hero rang over the crowd. All three U.A. students exchanged a glance. Hikari nodded to the class B students to assure them she would be okay, and it was fine for them to leave. They nodded back before taking off, not without Kendo advising her to continue keeping an eye out for anything strange or unwanted. Hikari watched them disappear behind a building, finally giving to the temptation of rubbing the back of her head. There definitely was a crust of dried blood in her hair. Gross.

Still not as gross as the cold, wet cloth slapping the back of her calf that moment. Hikari almost jumped, she spun around, scaring her 'attacker' instead. It was nothing more than a kid in an oversized jacket. The little boy's skin was blue and looked slippery, and he blushed purple as he explained, "S-sorry, 's m-my quirk."

Quickly catching herself Hikari came to her knees. "Ah, don't worry, I'm sorry for startling you. How can I help? Where are your parents?"

The squidgy looking kid pointed to the side, where an equally wet looking man and a woman with blue skin stood. They looked fine. A sigh escaped her.

"Y-you're a h-hero, right? I, uh, I s-saw something." The little boy nervously pulled at the jacket's sleeves. "There was c-creepy looking guy stan-standing be-between those…" He trailed off and pointed further back at two abandoned busses. Hikari reached out to ruffle the little boy's hair - which she immediately regretted because slime was snow sticking to her gloves - but still sent the boy a smile anyway and assured him, "I'll take a look. Just go back to your parents, okay? You'll be safe with them."

The boy bit his lower lip bashfully but nodded before wordlessly jumping back to his parents. The smile left Hikari's own lips as soon as he turned around. A creepy looking guy? That didn't sound good. Maybe it was simply someone with a weird mutant type quirk, Kendo and Shishida hadn't mentioned anything about villains, only the gas.

She wished Momo were here. She could have made some respirators, just in case.

A few heads rose but no one questioned it when she began moving against the tide. Hikari knew she should probably have asked a pro how to proceed, but there only seemed to be few among their group, and they couldn't afford losing any of those. They needed to stay here and protect the civilians.

When the girl arrived, the bus doors were still open, indicating everything had been left in a hurry, but no one was there. She peeked inside; there were newspapers, a few plastic cups, some other trash. A glittery keychain some kid must have lost. The second bus was equally empty.

The city was quiet, too quiet. Icing winds pricked her skin, and she pulled her hood up, hoping it would warm the frozen tips of her ears. The sun stood high but spent no warmth.

A metallic clatter. Hikari ducked and pressed herself to the side of the bus. She peered around the end of the vehicle. A trash can rolled down the closest crossing, spilling its whole contents, adding to the mess the fallen traffic signals had created. It was too heavy to have fallen on its own.

The U.A. student threw one last glance over her shoulder, back to where her group had been a minute ago, but they had already moved on. She reached into her pocket, only to find a broken, black screen staring back at her. Damn. This was the third phone she trashed this school year alone.

She couldn't call for backup. She didn't have her tracker. The most logical thing to do would be to return to the group, but what if there was someone who needed her help? What if it was simply a scared kid with a mutant type quirk hiding, to afraid to call for help? She couldn't just leave a potential victim all by themselves…

Hikari made up her mind. She stuck to the passage offering some coverage below the closest building and approached the source. As soon as she reached the corner another sound demanded her attention, down the street to her right.

She ignored the suspicion that someone was actively trying to lure her away and followed the noises. It made no sense; Dragon had said he wasn't interested in her anymore. More noise led her past a construction site towards a park. Dragon was out of the question, mom was gone, her brother had been killed by the league, no one had a reason to single her out…

Someone stepped out of the shadows.

Nightmare, was Hikari's first thought. Because the person that stood in front of her couldn't really be here. He was dead. Gone. Burned to ash. Nightmare must have touched her while she was out, maybe he was hiding among the group, which meant she needed to hurry back and warn the others-

"Missed me?" The young man mocked her, a self-satisfactory grin stretching from ear to ear. Neo Kumo's eyes were fully focussed on her, his hands casually buried in the front pocket of his hoodie, his quirk was already activated.

"You're dead," the words left her mouth. This had to be an illusion or a mental quirk, it couldn't be...

"Apparently," he retorted. Could Nightmare's sand speak? Could it imitate not only shapes but also colours and structures? Was it someone else's quirk? Was she still out and dreaming?

"Don't look at me like I'm a ghost. I look more alive than you do right now, precious sister. You don't seem so well."

Her hands were shaking. It couldn't be… Hikari clenched her fists. She couldn't let her confusion get the better of her. There was only one way to find out whether this was an illusion, Nightmare's doing, or something else. She widened her stance, slightly bent her knees. There was a familiar bubbling in her back before her own spiderlike legs sprung to life.

Izuku didn't care how much noise he was making. If he was held only half as secluded as Dragon suggested, no one was going to hear it. Somehow, he had managed to turn the chair around by wiggling and jumping, which took quite the effort with his ankles tied to the chair's legs, but he even crossed half the way to the door.

Something clanked - A screw? Not, it was longer, there was no thread… It was something else, something better. A hinge pin. Meaning one of the hinges already came undone, so he simply needed to get away from his chair, push the second pin out, and then he would be able to open the door even without One for All. The only obstacles left were the ropes, or the door opening and the man stepping out at this very moment.

"I'm back, my boy. It's time to move."

A black tendril missed her face by the width of a palm, sliced through the fabric of her hood and tore it down. Hikari dove to the left, used two spider legs to twist her body mid-air and avoided another attack. The black limbs stabbed at her mercilessly, most of them missing, but a few ripped through her costume. Nothing major, so far.

"Really? You're struggling more than I expected. Like a fish in a net, jumping up and down without any means of esc-"

Golden particles shot at the villain's face. He smashed into a shop window and Hikari tried not to think about the property damage, the city was already in shambles and she was about to die if she didn't sacrifice a bit more. She jumped towards the newly created hole; The push of her quirk had amplified the speed of the motion. She soared through the air and only saw the black point closing in when it was too late. A shield of golden particles saved her from being pierced, but the power of the impact was enough to send her flying backwards. She rolled over the pavement; Shards dug into her gloves.

The heroics student barely pushed herself up in time. Eight spider legs tore a huge hole into the street where she had been a second ago. She wrapped one of her own around the cluster of his eight and used them to pull herself towards her enemy. Her soles connected with Neo Kumo's chest. A rib cracked under Hikari's foot.

He spit blood onto her boots. The girl held herself in position with her quirk and wrapped her tight around her brother's neck but before she could squeeze, an undetected black tendril slashed across her back. She screamed.

They stumbled apart. The left side of her face was throbbing where she had been slammed into a wall not long ago. She could barely keep that eye open. Her muscles were burning, there were so many scratches and cuts her whole body was in pain but as far as she could tell, there weren't any serious injuries except for maybe the cut on her back, tight or right side.

Okay, maybe there were a few, but she could still move, and she wasn't anywhere near giving up. Neo Kumo also looked terrible. Even after spitting another mouth full of blood onto the street, he grinned.

"You weren't sleeping on this, were you, little sister?"

"Why are you alive? Did Dragon stage your death?" No answer. "I thought you hated each other. Why would he free you?"

"Maybe he doesn't hate me as much as he hates you." He dashed towards her. Hikari pushed herself up, boosting her ascend by shooting more particles from her feet. Her spider legs wrapped around the railings of a balcony and she spun around, increasing the momentum that sent her crushing into her opponent with incredible force. Neo Kumo managed to get hold of her leg and yanked her away. Hikari clawed at the first thing in her sight, a lamp post. Even her gloves didn't provide enough grip to hold on, but she managed to soften the force that sent her slamming into the closest building.

She saw blue - the sky – and something moving in the distance. The last hit had disoriented her, white noise filled her ears. She tried to push herself up, but her arms gave in. She believed to hear her brother's taunt, but she couldn't be sure. Dirty toe caps appeared in her eyesight.

"Done already?"

She formed a 'no' with her lips, not knowing whether she had produced any sounds at all. It didn't matter if she couldn't hear or that her sight grew blurry. Her particles wandered through the ground, ascended behind Neo Kumo, wrapped around the villain, and lifted him off his feet. He yelped as he was tossed up in the air. Even he couldn't do anything in that position, not until something came in reach of his quirk.

Hikari took a deep breath. And another one. This time, she mustered enough strength to come back to her feet. Her vision cleared; She could hear faint crackling. Neo Kumo was already closing in again. The girl evaded another of her brother's advances, but he never let her get close enough to cut his spider legs off.

"Your strategy won't work a second time!"

Hikari simply smiled, her eyes fixed her brother's knee. Neo Kumo froze.

"It doesn't have to."

A/N: hahah a GOT reference? After all these years? -Always.

PS: I wrote a short one-shot, feel free to check it out? It's tododeku tho *channels multi shipper energy*

PPS: It's decided, Vigilante AU is coming once this fic is done.

Review Time:

*Totem-Mimikyu: Thank you so much for the review! It might take another month until the next chapter arrives. Only 5-6 to go...

*Nixxon Mysterio: omg I would have laughed so hard, even the idea made my day, thank you so much! Don't ever feel awkward, you're welcome to write me any time lol. I assure you, I'm more awkward than you could ever be. The vigilante AU is definitely coming because I totally didn't write first drafts for four chaptes and a prologue. Not me, no. Yeah, the fluff will be gone until the end hahah WE ARE SO CLOSE TO THE END. Thank you again!

*Ryu: Thanks again for your support! It means a lot!