Bakugou flexed subtly against the metal encasing his hands, testing the strength of the contraption that was, for the time being, preventing him from ending everyone in this room and making them regret deciding he was the one they thought would make the ideal recruit. To his frustration, the metal held solid against his efforts, though apparently his thoughts of escape hadn't gone completely unnoticed.
"Now, now Bakugou, you can't want to leave already," drawled Shigaraki, "we haven't even had the chance to properly explain why you would be the perfect fit for us," the villain finished with an airy wave of his hands, gesturing to the rest of his accomplices that stood or sat around the room watching with mild interest.
"Save it, you fucking asshole," Bakugou spat out. "Whatever you have to say, it's not going to change the fact that you and all your villain friends are weak! If you think I want to waste any of my time talking to you when you're so far beneath me then you're even more deluded than I thought." As he spoke, Bakugou lifted his head defiantly and gave their leader the deadliest stare he could muster, all the while simultaneously being glad for the first time his hands were encased so that their tremble didn't betray his illusion of ferocity.
Shigaraki tilted his head and studied the youth for a moment before replying. "You are so terribly misguided," he mused, "You cannot begin to comprehend what you could achieve with us, although, perhaps a bit of persuasion will help you see things a bit more clearly." As he finished, the villain turned towards Dabi, who was watching the exchange with almost disinterest.
"Dabi, would you please run downstairs and fetch our other promising new recruit?" Shigaraki's words sent a bolt of fear straight down Bakugou's spine. There was no way the league had managed to capture another one of his classmates, was there? His brain worked in overdrive trying to think if he had seen or heard anything that would suggest so, but came up entirely blank. With a nod of acknowledgement, Dabi turned from the room, and as he did so, Shigaraki turned his gaze back on Bakugou.
"Luckily for you we have a perfect example of what happens to those who are a little more, well, reluctant, to see reason." His words were accompanied by a chilling, stretching smile and a foreboding glint in his eyes, and Bakugou's mind instantly strayed to the worst possible scenarios of what was about to walk back through the door. He imagined various classmates, beaten, bloodied or tortured, and swallowed a large lump in his throat, making a silent plea that would not be the case. What he got was not far from what he had imagined, although there was one key difference that at least gave him some temporary relief; the person that Dabi re-entered with, he did not know.
The door opened to reveal the taller villain half dragging half supporting a smaller figure inside. It was a girl, and she couldn't have been any older than Bakugou himself, nearly dwarfed in the frame of the scarred man who dragged her along. He had one hand fisted in the hair of her scalp, which Bakugou could tell must normally be as pale as fresh milk but was full of grime and what could only be cakey dried blood. The other hand had a tight grasp of both of hers where they were bound painfully behind her back. But it wasn't her appearance or the villain's rough handling of her that Bakugou reacted to, it was the blood.
Thin, deep cuts marred the soft flesh of her legs, stomach and upper arms, clearly visible as she wore practically nothing, only thin fabrics covering her chest and lower half. The wounds had clearly been left completely untreated, as rivers of dried blood coated her underneath each slice. In some cases, they were still fresh enough that new blood oozed slowly from the cuts. Bakugou's mouth was completely dry and his heart threatened to pound out of his chest with rage as he tried to imagine her receiving each of the numerous wounds and the pain they would cause. There was so much blood he was struck with a moment of overwhelming nausea when the sharp iron smell hit the back of his throat.
One particular mark caught his attention and caused him to snap, and he furiously pulled at his confined hands, making the chain go taut with a resounding clang. Across her rib cage was a perfectly shaped human handprint. A burn. He could clearly see the blistering, weeping skin from where he sat, and his eyes zeroed in on the villain holding her with unrelenting rage. The fire user raised his eyebrows and merely shrugged in response, and Bakugou's skin crawled at his lack of remorse.
"Come now, there's no need for that," Shigaraki broke the silence, gesturing vaguely at Bakugou in reference to his sudden and intense attempt at revolt against his restraints. "You needn't worry, Hiru here has quite the healing quirk, she'll be just fine." As he spoke, Dabi walked the stumbling girl forward a few paces to the centre of the room, then harshly forced her to her knees, her legs smudging crimson blood across the floor beneath her as she tumbled.
"However, she would certainly be looking a lot less worse for wear if she simply behaved and did as we asked," continued Shigaraki, as he lazily rose from his chair to squat in front of her. He reached out a pale, bony hand and grasped her chin firmly, tilting her head up so that she looked directly into his eyes. "So, my lovely, what do you say? What do you say we make today the day where show me how good your manners can be, you are a guest of ours after all." Shigaraki finished his words by releasing her chin and letting his hand caress softly over her cheek, almost tenderly, and Bakugou couldn't help the snarl that escaped his mouth at the wanton touching. At the noise, her eyes flitted away from Shigaraki and met Bakugou's for the first time.
He had expected to see many things in them; pain, fear, sadness, and while there were shades of all of those, they were outweighed by something far stronger: defiance. Her golden eyes glowed with determination and spirit and Bakugou almost wanted to slump out of relief at seeing she hadn't been completely broken, and couldn't help but admire that, despite what she had been through, she clearly still hadn't given in to whatever demand Shigaraki had wanted. He matched the intensity of her gaze with his own, sending her a silent promise that they would make it out of here. She held his gaze steadily for a few more moments, before turning back to the villain in front of her, who was still impatiently awaiting some sort of response on her behalf. Then, faster and with more resolve than Bakugou could imagine from someone so wounded, she snapped her head forward and there was a sickening crunch as her forehead made contact with Shigaraki's nose.
The villain reeled back in shock and pain, and in retaliation Dabi quickly and cruelly jerked her head back by her hair, and for just a moment Bakugou saw pain flicker across her face. "You naughty little bitch," Shigaraki managed to spit out through a stream of blood, roughly wiping his hand across his face, coating it in red. Bakugou couldn't help the loud laughter that bubbled up in his chest at the sight of the villain being bested by a restrained girl a fraction of his size. His small chuckles pierced the tense momentary silence, feeling incredibly foreign to the dark atmosphere. In response to his laughter, the girl, Hiru, let her own face lit up with a small smile, sharing in their small moment of victory. But small it was.
With a snarl of rage at being ridiculed, Shigaraki set upon the Hiru. His hand encased the pale expanse of her throat, drawing a small noise of shock and pain, and Bakugou cried out in sudden fear for her. "Don't fucking touch her you freak!" Shigaraki paused for a moment at his words, then let his head loll backwards to meet Bakugou's gaze over his shoulder, not releasing Hiru's throat. "Oh?" he lilted, raising his other hand to his chin in a faux thoughtful manner. "You know, you've actually given me a great idea, young Bakugou!" With a snap, he drew his hand back from Hiru's neck, and rose to begin walking towards the young hero.
"You see, if there's one thing we've learnt about Hiru, it's that we can can push her as hard as we want, but thanks to her faster healing, she endures all the pain we can give and still refuses to show us what we want to see," he continued, pacing intermittently across the room and emphasising his point with exaggerated arm movements.
"However, much like yourself, I believe our little Hiru here has something of a hero complex, and now, having you here has given us the perfect opportunity to see just how deep that heroic drive is." The villain finished with his dark red eyes trained on Bakugou with an intensity that had the younger man squirming uneasily in his restraints. The villain did a small twirl, casting his gaze over his comrades before settling on the smallest in the room.
"Toga!" He called gleefully. "Perhaps you would like the honours? I know how much you enjoy having a little fun." At his words, the blonde girl all but skipped forward, a grin plastered wide over her face and her eyes lit up with a crazed passion. "I would love to!" She all but sang as she made her way towards Bakugou. "Playing with Hiru is so boring," she drew out the last word and her face became pouty and sad. "She never lets me have any fun." Her gaze drifted over Bakugou's figure and her smile returned. "But you," she murmured, "I bet you will look all kinds of cute when I cut you."
Hiru's response was sudden and desperate. She lunged forward despite Dabi's hair still being coiled tightly around the hair in her scalp, earning herself an instant jerk back from the villain holding her. She appeared to pay no mind to the pain, however, and continued to struggle in vain against his hold as Toga approached Bakugou.
"Please! He hasn't done anything, you don't have to do this!" For the first time, Bakugou heard her voice as she pleaded with Shigaraki. It was hoarse, either from lack of use or something else that Bakugou preferred not to think about, and somehow soft and firm at the same time. Her outcry had made Shigaraki lazily turn towards her, but the smile on his face offered no comfort.
"You're right, little Hiru, I don't have to at all," he said, eerily calm. "But I ever, ever so want to," he finished, turning back towards Toga and guestering with his hand for her to go ahead. Hiru resumed her desperate struggle, earning herself a harsh slap to the side of her head from the hand of Dabi, making her cry out in shock. Bakugou's view of her was temporarily obscured by Toga who was now standing in front of him, and the sharp gleam of a blade stole his attention as she twirled it, seemingly deep in thought.
"Now, now, now, what part of you would look best with my mark on you?" She mused, eyes raking over Bakugou's vulnerable figure. "How about fucking none?" He snapped in response, eyes glinting with anger as he stared her down. "You're so loud! I bet you you cry very prettily," she cut back, simultaneously raising the knife to the side of his chest along his ribcage. "Let's find out, shall we?" And with no further warning, she sliced brutally through his shirt and skin in a long line running from his upper chest and curving to just below his belly button.
Bakugou was vaguely aware of Hiru's cries, however his shock momentarily numbed all his senses as the blade sliced through tissue. Only milliseconds later, his nervous system caught up and he felt the pain. Agonizing, burning pain, easily the worst he had ever experienced. He only just managed to catch the scream that clawed desperately at his throat, he refused to give Toga the satisfaction. Instead he bit down hard enough on the inside of his cheek to taste blood, only releasing a small groan instead, letting his head drop to hide his grimace of pain. Shigaraki's voice danced at the edge of his senses as the villain turned back to Hiru.
"Now Hiru, what do you say we fix this little mess, hm? After all, it is your fault that poor Bakugo here might bleed out on the carpet." Bakugou felt his heart drop. Bleed out? His eyes snapped downwards to assess the damage of the wound and what he saw turned his mouth dry. It was bad, far worse than he had imagined. From the restricted view he had of what wasn't still covered by his shirt, the cut had exposed bone and tissue along the line of his ribs, and already blood had seeped into his pants and dripped freely from the bottom of the chair.
Though he refused to show any of it outwardly, he began to feel panic take ahold of him. He needed a doctor, badly. Amidst his internal chaos, he hadn't even noticed that Hiru had been unbound, until she was shoved forward and landed in a heap at his feet. "Come now dear, you're wasting time, the poor boy looks like he might pass out any moment." Shigaraki's tone was casual, but his eyes were fixated on Hiru with a burning intensity.
"I'm so sorry," the words tumbled out of Hiru's mouth with a sob as she came face to face with the devastating wound. Her eyes lifted to meet Bakugou's and his heart clenched at the sorrow in them, deciding he much preferred earlier when they were bright with defiance. "I'm going to fix it, okay? It's going to be okay Bakugou, I'm sorry." Her soft words were sad and did not reassure him. Fix it? The villains had earlier mentioned her abilities to heal herself, so maybe she had some kind of healing quirk like Recovery Girl? Bakugou's brain was still catching up when she raised her hands, and before he could question her, it was done.
She drew her arms back, away from his body, and with it the gruesome slice seemed to peel off of his chest, almost as if it were a wet sticker this whole time. Bakugou felt instant relief from the pain, and to his shock there was not a single mark where the life-threatening injury had been just moments ago. For a split second, Hiru held the wound in the air, a suspended stream of phantom red, twisted and coiling under her palms. Then, it continued the path her hands had made and snapped into her own body, her entire figure going rigid as it tore its way into her own flesh, identical to where it had been in his own. Bakugou could only watch on in horror as what had been his injury made its new home along Hiru's side, and the girl slumped to her knees and keened a low sound of pain and distress.
"What the fuck did you do?" His words came out far more angry than he had meant them to, but he was still in complete shock at what had just transpired and why, why she would do such a thing for a complete stranger, even if they were both captives of the same people. The girl he was questioning didn't respond at all and remained hunched over, bleeding profusely, and Bakugou began to wonder if she was going to die right there in front of him.
"Oh, so noble, isn't she?" Shigaraki strained the word noble like it was something that had personally offended him. "You know what I think Hiru? I think there's a good chance you and Bakugou here would have been classmates, you both have the same principles. But it is those very principles that make you weak, and predictable. Of course, I imagine after that truly unfortunate accident with your mother, there wasn't really anyone around to support yo-"
He never managed to finish his sentence, instead getting brutally cut off as Hiru spurred into action. Her movement was so fast Bakugou almost missed what happened, it reminded him of a viper striking out at a threat. In one motion, she lifted her head and spun in an arc while crouching. Her hand lifted from her side in a vicious movement and with it, the wound from her side came too. The movement of her hands reminded Bakugou of a sword being drawn from its sheath, and indeed for a moment it looked like a long phantom red blade appeared in her hand. She sliced forward decisively with her arm, and the crimson weapon appeared to vanish the second the motion was completed. For a moment, the room was completely still. Then Bakugou saw the blood.
It seeped slowly through the clothing on Shigaraki's left side, then all at once his entire torso became a mess of red. Bakugou's eyes snapped to Hiru's body to find her own left side completely free of the horrific wound. His eyes widened in realization. Not only could Hiru take the wounds from others, she could also project them outwards. The slice that had originally marred his own flesh had been taken by Hiru, and now, she had weaponized it onto Shigaraki. It was a quirk that could be both a blessing or a curse, entirely dependent on the discretion of the user.
Shigaraki's head slowly drifted downwards to assess his newfound state, and his response was almost the exact opposite of what Bakugou had been prepared for. "Incredible," he murmured wistfully, "Thankyou for finally showing us what you can really do Hiru, your quirk is perfect. You are perfect, for him." When he raised his head, his eyes were gleaming with satisfaction. Neither Bakugou nor Hiru had even a moment to comprehend what the crazed villain might mean, when there was an almost polite rap on the back door of the room, and a muffled voice announced.
"Hello? This is Pizza-La, Kamino store."
Then, everything erupted into chaos.