Chapter Two:

Two days later, over breakfast, Hisashi said, "I need to leave for a business trip tomorrow. Would you like to do anything special tonight? Perhaps a boardgame or art project?"

Izuku couldn't help stiffening.

Yoichi shot him a look saying, Come on, it's clearly a trap.

Izuku carefully did not look at his uncle. His hands tensed in the straitjacket. He swallowed a bite of eggs on the fork his father offered. "Either sounds fine."

Hisashi smiled. "Then I'll arrange some art supplies. You can draw a nice picture to thank me for everything I do for you."

Izuku choked. His eggs went down the wrong way. He coughed and sputtered. Without use of his arms, he couldn't even reach for his water.

Hisashi made no move to help him. The villain scowled. "You're living in a lovely mansion. I arranged a beautiful breakfast with your favorite dishes. Anyone else who'd defied me so many times would be dead, but I've offered you special treatment."

Dear god, his father had been serious. Izuku had already been about to snap when he thought it was a snide joke or an insult. But no, Hisashi actually believed that he deserved his son's gratitude. At some point it became more funny than infuriating—nope, on second thought, it could be both. Izuku wanted to scream. The only thing stopping him were the coughs still emerging from his throat.

Yoichi shifted in his seat and held up a glass of water to Izuku's lips. His hands trembled. The reflection of his eyes in the water looked terrified. The slightest change to Hisashi's mood always set Yoichi on edge, and that in turn made it difficult for Izuku not to give in.

Izuku drank deeply. Then he said, "Sure. I'll draw anything you'd like." He was impressed with how steady he kept his voice.

Hisashi crossed his arms. "I don't want a picture if there's no emotion behind it."

The villain was sulking like a small child. Ugh. Izuku needed the excuse to have his arms released. Even a little time free before the straitjacket went back on would help him recover before his escape. He would sacrifice his pride to appease his father's mood. Turning his tone coaxing, Izuku said, "Please, Dad. It's been ages since I had the free time to doodle. It will be just like when I used to draw pictures for you to hang around your office when I was young."

The nostalgia attack worked. Hisashi said, "I saved all of those. They were so cute."

"My art has improved since then. I'll do my best," Izuku said brightly.

Izuku's arms ached under the straitjacket. His shoulders throbbed a steady rhythm. His father often massaged his arms after letting them free for a bath or family bonding activity, but by now the ache had settled into his bones. He had a horrible itch on his left nostril. It had lasted for days now. Irritation had turned into borderline insanity. Not for the first time, he rubbed his nose on his shoulder.

Hisashi noticed. He reached over the table and scratched Izuku's nose. "Better?"

Not really. It wasn't quite the right spot. Izuku needed to be able to scratch it himself, or the ghost of an itch would always be there. Nor did he appreciate the touching without permission. He couldn't muster the energy to fake gratitude, but he didn't want to jeopardize the promised removal of the jacket. "Yeah," he said gruffly.

Luckily, Hisashi had switched back into solicitous mode. "I have a quirk I can use to numb your arms. That will ease any pain during the early stage."

Hairs rose down Izuku's neck. What did that mean? The early stage when using a straitjacket was necessary to control him, or the early stage of aches before his arms stopped working entirely? Either way, Izuku didn't want his father's quirks anywhere near him. "Maybe another time." His throat had suddenly dried. "Because tonight, you want me to draw something for you. I need my arms for that."

Hisashi smiled. "I'm eager to see what you give me. Of course, I'll love anything you draw. Yoichi used to draw pictures of my corpse, and I'd still hang them up around my work office. They confused people marvelously."

Yoichi flinched at the mention of his name and dropped his fork. It clattered loudly in a room too large for three people. His face paled as he grabbed it.

Feeling guilty, Izuku sank deeper into his chair and shut up for the rest of the meal.

After dinner, Izuku followed a familiar path to the living room. Hisashi must have sent a signal to someone, because art supplies were already spread out over the glass coffee table. Plain paper with bright crayons: how childish. Izuku wondered if his father was being deliberately infantilizing. Perhaps he just saw insult everywhere these days.

Izuku sighed in relief as his father unfastened the straitjacket belt. Hisashi chuckled and ruffled his hair. Izuku saw red. He nearly went straight for his captor's throat. His whole body shook from the effort of holding still. He was too close to jeopardize his plan. He'd also have better odds once his arms had time to recover.

His elbows felt swollen. When he tried to bend his arm, a cry nearly escaped his lips. He shook out the tingles from his hands, but this only made his shoulders ache worse.

Since Izuku was in no mood to be further touched by his father, he pretended not to feel the pain. He knelt down and grabbed a crayon.

What to draw? Izuku mostly wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so he could return to his room and plan. He scribbled a half-hearted tree with some oddly colored flowers underneath. It looked sloppy. His fingers throbbed. He winced, dropping the crayon.

"Here." As Yoichi handed over the crayon, his sleeve pulled up to reveal a network of scars.

A cold fury rose up in Izuku. He decided to take his father up on his suggestion at dinner. Izuku drew himself holding up All for One's severed head, with the villain's signature mask to make his identity obvious.

Hisashi accepted the finished drawing and looked it over. "How lovely! I'll hang it on a place of honor on my office door."

Izuku scowled, partly irritated not to have gotten a stronger reaction and partly relieved. His own relief irritated him further. He did not want to break to the point where he started to fear defying his father.

Strangely, Hisashi did not put the straitjacket back on before taking both Izuku and Yoichi back to their rooms. The invitation to escape was so obvious it insulted Izuku. But not enough to point out the supposed oversight. He flexed his fingers, trying to work out the numbness and hoping his remaining strength would be enough.

That night, huddled together under the covers, Izuku whispered, "Of course it's a trap. But it's an opportunity we can't pass up."

Yoichi snorted. "You go ahead. I'll head downstairs to the vault to wait for you."

Izuku took this sarcasm as a good sign. It was better than the fear and much, much better than the near-comatose state from when they'd first met. "Look, I've been going over everything you told me about the security the last couple days. And frankly, it looks hopeless. There are cameras in every room. There's almost certainly an alarm on the door and windows."

"I've already spotted five in each place," Yoichi said. "There's a wire hidden in the walls that will trigger an alarm if you break it down. As if the noise alone wouldn't be enough."

"The instant we try to escape, we'll get dogpiled by the fifty or so villains lurking in the forest outside."

"Only Nomu, these days. They keep getting rotated in and out so I can't even tell you what quirks they have."

"The wall around the forest is the other main issue. I can punch a hole in it with One for All, but that would serve as the equivalent of broadcasting my location. It makes stealth impossible. Finally, we must be a good ways outside the city. If we wander around the forest without direction, we'll certainly be caught."

"I did that before, and I don't recommend it," Yoichi said. "Too many mosquitos."

"All for One's supposed business trip is a trap. We're both in agreement there. He wants me to try to escape. But because he's a flashy drama king, he won't be satisfied with recapturing me immediately. He wants to break my will and teach me the hopelessness of my situation. So he'll let us get at least as far as the wall. No doubt he plans to surprise me there for a final showdown." A note of excitement crept into Izuku's voice. "That's our opportunity. We'll have a clear path through the forest because All for One's notorious overconfidence will cause him to pull back his minions and other security measures to handle me personally. We'll be able to steal whatever method of transportation he brings to escape. Only right now, when he's putting on a show, would he give us such a golden opportunity."

"You realize that he'd only let you get so far if he had complete confidence in his ability to recapture you." Yoichi's tone was neutral. "But I suppose you think you'll overcome him in one last, fateful battle with heroic willpower."

Izuku laughed. "I have no intention of facing All for One in single combat! I fought him together with most of U.A. and lost. That's how I ended up here. No, my plan is to bust a hole in the wall, then double-back and hide in the forest. He'll think we somehow slipped past him. As soon as he panics and leaves to start searching, we sneak out."

"That's better. He's a cheater. He would have had backup waiting just in case you did start beating him in a fight."

"That goes without saying. I'm not foolish enough to think I could win with my arms in their current condition anyway. I wouldn't want to fight All for One in single combat even in perfect health."

"You have a real plan." Despite his acknowledgement, Yoichi didn't sound happy. He sounded like he stood on the edge of a cliff. He let out a breath. "If I escape through the hole while you double-back, then I can act as a decoy. You'll have a better shot—"

"No," Izuku interrupted. "No, I'm not doing that to you."

"You can come back later and rescue me."

"Don't try to bullshit me. You'd never be here by the time I got back. You'd be moved to some distant location where I'd never find you." Izuku squirmed around to stare straight into Yoichi's eyes. The green irises were barely visible in the darkness. "I'm not doing that to you. I'm not abandoning you in this hellhole."

"I might slow you down. I certainly won't be useful. My health is awful, and I don't have a quirk."

"I don't care. I'll carry you the whole way if I have to. Look into my eyes. I promise to get you out of here no matter what."

In a broken voice, Yoichi whispered, "It hurts to believe that."

"Then you don't have to believe it. Not yet. Just come with me." Izuku clung to the other a little more tightly. "I swear on my name as a hero that I'm going to save you."

Someone slid a tray of breakfast through a flap in the door. (Probably a Nomu, if Izuku had to guess.) Izuku wolfed down a slice of toast as fast as possible while Yoichi barricaded the door with a chair to buy time.

Having a night free of the straitjacket had helped, but Izuku's arms still hurt. His joints protested each movement. Yoichi knelt down and massaged Izuku's arms. "Does that help?"

"I hoped I'd have recovered by morning," Izuku muttered. "Good thing my plan doesn't involve fighting All for One."

Yoichi shook his head. "It took me years to recover after the jacket came off. That was with the help of quirks. Can you use One for All?"

Izuku's brain was still stuck on the first part of that statement, but his mouth replied automatically. "I'll try."

Gritting his teeth, Izuku summed One for All for the first time in weeks, then snapped the shackles on his legs. The burning pain felt good. It reminded him that he was alive and fighting.

No one came, even though the cameras must have seen. His analysis of his father's plan must have been correct. He'd been certain, but it still came as a relief.

Yoichi handed him a pair of pants he'd sewn from the curtain last night. "Here you go. Every single piece of clothing in that dresser has multiple tracking devices. We're lucky it's summer, so we can go shirtless."

"What if he stuck tracking devices under our skin?" A horrible thought that had occurred to Izuku too late.

Yoichi smiled grimly. "I almost bled to death once after digging a bug out from inside my wrist. There haven't been any implanted trackers since then."

"Ah." Without another word, Izuku stripped off his clothes, sweaty from the jacket. Then he tied the baggy pants around his waist with a string.

Yoichi handed him a pair of sandals. "It's harder to hide bugs in these—less material to work with. I dug two out of the soles. I'm confident I got all of them."

No choice but to trust in his uncle's greater experience removing tracking devices. At least Tomura had still possessed Search when he'd died, denying it to All for One. Izuku did not like to think about Tomura's death. He'd made a promise to himself and the vestiges to save that lost child turned into a puppet, and he'd failed. His own hand had dealt the final blow. He would never forget the sound of Nana's cry slowly fading away. As he'd died, Tomura had dragged out enough of One for All to silence the vestiges forever. That battle had been celebrated by the heroes as a great victory. But Izuku knew he'd lost in more ways than one.

Maybe Izuku had a bad habit of overpromising. He shouldn't have promised Yoichi freedom when there were still so many ways his plan could go wrong.

Izuku shook his head and slapped his cheeks to clear his thoughts. Even if they failed this time, he would keep on trying, until he could save Yoichi. As long as he never gave up, surely he would one day be able to fulfil his vow. He would not fail someone he'd promised to save again.

Yoichi had already changed into his own pants made from the blue-and-green striped curtain. He picked up a chair and threw it through the window.

"The window wasn't locked," Izuku pointed out.

"This was more satisfying." Yoichi grinned. It was the first real smile Izuku had ever seen on his uncle's face. It lightened the shadows around his eyes and emphasized the faint freckles on his cheeks. Izuku found himself smiling back.

Izuku raced through the forest with Yoichi riding on his back. Although Yoichi could walk, he couldn't move nearly fast enough to keep up with the power of One for All.

When a Nomu lurched out from behind the trees, Izuku set his uncle down. Then he launched himself forward and ripped off its head with one blow.

"This is far too easy," Yoichi muttered. "I'm a little insulted he's not trying harder to make our escape look genuine."

"He knows that I know," Izuku said. "There would be no point in a charade. This is merely to tire me out before the dramatic one-on-one Star Wars confrontation he has planned."

Yoichi laughed. It turned into a cough. He leaned against the tree.

Izuku picked his uncle up again. They were close enough to see the wall now. It toward above the treetops, made of solid concrete at least twice an arm's length thick.

"I'll need you to stay on my back, so I can protect you from the debris," Izuku said. "Hold on tight."

Summoning One for All, Izuku punched through the concrete.

The punch sent dust and blocks flying. Izuku dodged and darted around them. He punched the biggest pieces of debris away.

Acting quickly, Izuku used another punch to create a hole in the ground. He set Yoichi down inside, then dragged a block of concrete over both of them. He left just enough space to barely peek out through a crack.

As he'd expected, All for One arrived at the hole almost immediately. He'd dressed in a suit and even put on a tie for once, as if to indicate this was an extra special occasion.

Next to him, Yoichi slumped down deeper into the hole. His eyes had widened and he had a hand clamped over his mouth. Shaking, he curled up in a ball and turned his face away from All for One.

Izuku didn't comment. He laid a comforting hand on the trembling shoulder.

Hisashi waited. And waited. At a distance, it was impossible to see facial expressions, but Izuku counted how many times his father reached up to tug on his hair. Izuku himself had the exact same nervous tic.

It amused Izuku to watch his father grow more and more agitated at being stood up for their final battle. Being an actual villain was no excuse for acting like one from a comic book.

Finally, Hisashi pulled out his phone and barked something into it. More than fifty Nomu showed up in short order. They quickly spread out across the forest beyond the wall. Hisashi took a team of three with him as he vanished among the trees.

"It worked." Yoichi whispered the words like a prayer. "It actually worked! He thinks that we got past him."

"No humans," Izuku muttered in disappointment. He'd been hoping for human minions to bring a jeep or another method of transportation they could steal.

Yoichi slapped his back. "Who cares? That was the least critical part of the plan." His earlier ennui had been replaced with a maniac energy.

"Come on. We'd better move fast." Izuku pushed aside the cement block and gestured for Yoichi to climb onto his back.

Nomu were loud enough to avoid. The trees quickly became thinner. Izuku didn't like that. It meant less cover. By the time the dirt turned to sand, there was no cover at all. He had no choice but to favor speed over stealth.

When Izuku first laid eyes on the lapping waves, his heart nearly stopped. They should have been far from coastal Japan. He'd assumed All for One would surely keep them closer to Musutafu for easy visits, especially now he'd lost Kurogiri. Apparently not.

Of course, there was no trace of a boat. One for All could do a lot of things, but it wouldn't let him walk on water.

"Oh, no," Yoichi whispered. A horrible flatness lurked behind those words. Green eyes glazed over.

"It's okay," Izuku said. "We just picked the wrong direction. Bad luck. If we head away from the ocean, we'll surely find a town." The longer they spent wandering around All for One's territory, the greater the odds they'd run into a search party. But Izuku saw no reason to point out the negatives.

Yoichi didn't reply. Instead, he broke off two branches and laid them at a cross position right where the beach begun.

Izuku was too focused on moving quickly to question the reasoning behind this. Besides, it didn't look like a sign of human activity. It was small enough to seem like the branches had coincidentally fallen that way.

After running backward far enough to see the wall, Izuku veered right. He'd picked his direction at random and could only hope he'd chosen one that would lead them to civilization.

One for All allowed him to move so quickly that he broke out of the forest in minutes. Only to be greeted by ocean again.

But he'd gone in a different direction! Perhaps they were in a cove, surrounded by water on two or three sides? Even worse, what if he'd accidentally gone in circles? Izuku knew full well that people with no wilderness experience often made that mistake.

Yoichi coughed on his back. He'd turned silent and closed his eyes. Was he slipping into a comatose state again? Worry for his uncle made Izuku's legs move even faster.

This time, Izuku ran parallel to the beach, so that he didn't accidentally lose track of his direction. By some stroke of luck, he didn't run into any Nomu. A bit odd, that. He was fairly certain his path was curving. He was going around the mansion. They were definitely in a cove, then. At some point, they would have to reach the connection to land.

Or so Izuku told himself as he kept running.

Yoichi whispered into his ear, "Look." He pointed at the ground, where a pair of sticks lay crossed.

Izuku's brain lagged, refusing to accept the sight. Then his confusion turned to horror. Those were the same sticks Yoichi had placed down. They'd gone in a full circle around the mansion. In other words, they were on an island.

A boat. They had to find a boat. But he'd yet to see any signs of a dock during his circle. With his quirks, All for One likely didn't need one.

"Ah, you've figured it out." Hisashi stepped out from behind a tree. "I wanted to say hello sooner, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise."

A low moan escaped Izuku's lips. It made his father smile, and he hated that.

Yoichi got down from his back. "I'm sorry, Izuku. This wasn't what I saw the last time I got over the wall. It was a much bigger forest, with no ocean."

"What? No! You have nothing to apologize for! This was my plan!" Izuku's eyes blurred with tears of frustration. He held them back, refusing to cry in front of his father. What now? Did it make sense to give in and wait for a better chance? Or should he fight?

"It was a clever trick. You actually made me think you'd slipped past me. I had to review the camera footage to see what happened. I never should have underestimated you." Hisashi delivered the compliment mockingly. "Unfortunately for you, I've upgraded security several times because of your escape artist uncle. Before, I always needed to stay close to a city. But after I created an enhanced teleportation quirk from a copy of Kurogiri's, I no longer have such a constraint. Little brother never knew he'd been moved because I shifted the entire house over while he was inside the vault."

"Where are we?" Izuku asked with deceptive calm.

"This island has no name. You won't find it on a map. It's not anywhere remotely close to Japan. It's not close enough to swim to mainland." Hisashi's smile grew colder with each word. "My Nomu destroy any boat or airplane that comes near here. Whenever I'm gone, there's no means of transportation left on this island. We can play this game a few more times if you like, but you'll never leave this place."

Yoichi's shoulders hunched over. He covered his face with his hands. Izuku realized that his uncle was crying. Sympathetic tears welled up in his own eyes. He clenched his fists, straining to stop them from falling.

"You know where you're going now," Hisashi said. "I don't want to hear any begging out of you this time, little brother. You've earned the vault."

Izuku's temper snapped. He'd never been able to tolerate other people being hurt in front of him. He knew he couldn't win, and he didn't care. He launched himself at his father.

Sheer surprise let his first blow connect. Hisashi staggered backward, clutching his smoking throat. His unnaturally tough skin deflected the punch.

Izuku gave his father no time to recover, kicking him in the chin. He landed on the sand and launched another attack.

This time, Hisashi blocked his punch with a fist. "I see we're doing this the hard way." He tightened his grip until Izuku screamed in pain.

Izuku flipped up in the air and brought both feet down on his father's arm, breaking his grip. His legs had more strength than his throbbing arms. He rolled, sand covering his back.

Hisashi shot an air canon at him. Izuku dodged. He leapt forward again, aiming to cave in his father's midsection.

Bone spears danced forth. Izuku darted around them. Hisashi's arm swelled up with quirks, blocking his charge.

One for All crackled down Izuku's arms and legs. He kept pushing it harder, to summon more every last bit he had left. He longed for all the quirks that One for All had once possessed before Tomura had stolen them, in the final battle only Izuku had walked away from. Failing that, he coaxed what sparks remained into an inferno. Something snapped inside his right tendon, but the power would hold him intact until it ran out.

With the green lightning came pain filling every nerve. His muscles screamed and his joints creaked. He hadn't come this close to breaking a bone in a long time.

Hisashi seemed to realize it too. "Playtime is over," he growled, grabbing Izuku and throwing him to the sand. The massive arm pinned him down as he kept struggling.

Yoichi threw himself forward and grabbed Hisashi's leg. Tears streamed down his face as he clawed and punched. "I hate you! I fucking hate you so much!"

Hisashi sighed, not even bothering to resist the weak blows. "Another tempter-tantrum? I swear, I've given up on getting you to appreciate everything I do for you even a tiny bit."

"I hate you!" Yoichi screamed. "Just kill me already! If you cared about me at all, you'd let me die!"

Hisashi's grip slackened just enough for Izuku to break free.

Both his arms were no longer responding to him. Instead, Izuku leapt up and sank his teeth into his father's throat.

An air canon to the head blasted Izuku into unconsciousness. As the world faded, he had the satisfaction of tasting blood on his tongue.

Izuku woke up.

He lay on a bed. His arms didn't hurt, but they wouldn't move, either. They'd been trapped in the straitjacket again. He blinked away the crust sticking his eyelids together.

That lack of pain worried him. Pain at least meant that his arms would still work if he could get them out of the jacket. This was new. Had Hisashi used his numbing quirk? Izuku's blood chilled. Arms completely unable to move would cease to function even faster. As might very well have been the intention.

The familiar walls of the vault surrounded him. Izuku felt crushed by the steel on all sides. His breathing came faster. The restricting sensation of the straitjacket made him even more claustrophobic. The itch in his nose had returned with a vengeance. He thrashed and tried to rub his nose against his shoulder. Nothing helped.

In his desperation, Izuku rammed his nose against the wall. The pain brought back his senses. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He lay still and took deep breaths until his sensation of being buried alive passed.

Izuku sat up. It wasn't easy to stand without his hands, but he managed after a few tries.

Yoichi leaned in the corner, slumped against the wall. He'd been totally silent throughout Izuku's panic attack. Yoichi's head lolled at an uncomfortable-looking angle. A bit of drool leaked from his mouth.

Izuku shuffled over as fast as his shackles would allow. "Are you injured?"

Dull, glassy eyes stared back at him.

"Let's at least get you into bed." Izuku tried to lift up Yoichi with his shoulder. It didn't work too well. He collapsed to the ground. "Please, help me out here."

This time, even a plea didn't provoke any response from Yoichi. Had he gotten even worse, if that was possible?

Whenever Izuku had needed him the most, Yoichi had always responded. Izuku crouched down. "I'm very worried about my arms. I've lost all sensation. Can you please try to help me loosen the jacket? Even a little bit?"

The unblinking green eyes held no hint of awareness that he'd spoken. If that sincere confession hadn't worked, then nothing would. Izuku wished for even blame compared to that empty look. With his false hope, he'd helped his father completely break his uncle. It filled him with bitter self-loathing.

Izuku sagged down. "I'm so sorry. My plan failed. I got your hopes up for nothing. It's all my fault."

Yoichi didn't so much as twitch. Izuku's eyes welled up with tears.

"Please. Is there anything I can do to help you? Anything at all?" Izuku tried to think of some encouraging words. He wanted to say I'll think of another plan but he remembered his uncle telling him that hope hurt.

In truth, he had absolutely no idea how to get off an island with no method of transportation. Rescue seemed unlikely given what he remembered of the state of Hero Society and Japan.

He had nothing left. No plans. No hope.

His mouth felt dry. His heart beat out heavy, frightened thuds. He'd only been here for a few weeks, and already he despaired. He couldn't even imagine how it must have been for Yoichi to spend decades like this. On second thought, he didn't need to imagine it—he had the evidence before his eyes, slumped against the metal walls.

Blinking his tear-blurred eyes, Izuku wondered how long it would take before he ended up as broken as his uncle.