Izuku landed roughly on the packed dirt, just barely getting his feet under him in time to avoid face-planting. He didn't know all the zones of the USJ— UA doesn't make that information available, even to students— but he appeared to be in some sort of urban environment. He was in an alley. There was no visible destruction; he couldn't count on that lasting, though, USJ was specifically designed to simulate natural disasters, not urban combat.

With his assessment of his surroundings complete, Izuku began to move. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew that he couldn't expect any teachers to find him that soon. His eyes rested on the fire escape climbing up the side of the building next to him. Perfect. He could get a good vantage point to keep an eye out for his classmates. Or villains. Hopefully not both in the same place, although that seemed unlikely considering how he got here.

The steps creaked under his weight, but showed no signs of buckling. He moved quickly, deciding that the added noise was worth the risk of being too late to see someone who needed help. At the last landing, with no more stairs to go, he had to balance on the edge of the railing, step onto a small windowsill, and finally grab the edge of the roof to pull himself up.

From the roof, he could see to the edge of the USJ, but there were taller buildings that blocked him from seeing the entrance or most of the other zones. On one side, he could see hints of flame, but no signs of people. To the other, snowdrifts and flurries, but, again, no signs of people.

He continued to scan the streets below him, when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. His knees fell out beneath him, but the hand stayed. Every muscle went limp, he couldn't even muster a shout. A man stepped out from behind him, but the weight on his shoulder stayed. The man's dark hair brushed the top of his poisonous green eyes, and his smile was sharp and cruel. "Why, hello, little hero," he spoke," Today is not your day,"

Izuku tried to glare, but he didn't even have that much control.

"What do you want to do with him?" a lilting voice spoke from behind.

The man's face split into a wicked grin," How about we wrap him up all prettily, a little gift for the heroes."

Izuku did not like the sound of that. The man grabbed gloves from one of his pockets, put them on, and then grabbed several loops of something metallic. He stepped closer and Izuku recognized it. Barbed wire. Fuck.

Izuku fell back on one of his earliest coping skills: distraction. More specifically, distracting himself from fear and pain via analyzing the Quirks of his tormentors. The woman behind him never let go of him, even as it got awkward to do so with the man wrapping barbed wire around him. Must be a touch-activated quirk.

Izuku's attempts to distract himself began to fail as barbed wire strung his thighs to his ankles. It wasn't that tight, just enough to make sure he knew that the barbs would puncture several important areas should he struggle too much.

The man's quirk was more of a mystery. No mutation visible, and he hadn't shown signs of any physical enhancement. Perhaps it had something to do with how they ambushed him?

Izuku's arms were fastened to his thighs as well, inner wrist facing upwards so that any attempted escape would surely shred the arteries.

Perhaps the man could dampen the noise he makes? They did approach him from behind, so it might not entirely block them from sight. Whatever it is, it must be able to affect others, to hide the woman. Were they already on the roof or did they manage to find him after he climbed up here?

Barbed wire was woven around his wrists, down and behind his back, and around his throat. If he moved, he didn't just have to worry about the arteries in his wrists and thighs, but his neck as well. One of the barbs pressed into his Adam's apple. He could breathe just fine, but it still felt strangling.

The man stood and clapped his hands together, "Perfect. You may let him move," he spoke to the woman.

She released his arm, and Izuku immediately began to speak,"Why? What did I do to you?"

The woman answered, "You're a hero. What more do you need to do?"

"I'm a kid," Izuku desperately hoped that he could convince them to just let him go,"I'm only fifteen. I just started high school last week," It was a long shot, but, well, where would he be without hope?

"You're at U.A. You learn from the heroes so you can follow in their footsteps. Might as well knock you down when we can."

"You're evil," Izuku tried to bite back the fear that he'd be left, wrapped up, unable to even try to get free.

"Yeah, I know," she agreed and turned to her partner," C'mon, let's go find some real action."

The man nodded," Just let me make sure this one isn't freed too soon," he circled around him, focusing intently. On what, Izuku couldn't tell, but after doing a full circle around Izuku's prone form, he stopped. He turned to the woman and they walked to the edge of the building before climbing off, presumably onto the fire escape that had led him to this predicament.

Izuku was alone. He was alone and he couldn't move. He could breathe, and talk, and blink, and wiggle his fingers and toes, but he couldn't sit up or walk or stretch or fight or run or hide. One For All was useless. It'd only make the barbs rip through him faster, with more force.

The USJ was rather quiet. There was a faint wind, ghosting through the buildings. He could hear the occasional bird, but that was it.

At one point, he saw a grey blur shoot up through the dome around the USJ. It was far from him, perhaps by the entrance. Maybe the fighting was over. Maybe someone would come find him.

The concrete was rough on his skin. It dug in, just enough to get painful after a while. It was hard, making his limbs fall asleep and prickle painfully. He tried to shift around, but he couldn't do much before the sharp barbs deterred him.

It was getting darker. Maybe they'd forgotten about him? Maybe he wasn't worth being rescued. Maybe this was all just a sign that he wasn't cut out to be a hero after all.

He needed to pee. Even though he hadn't had water since this morning, and it was now very dark in the USJ dome. He needed to pee. Badly.

Surely his mom, at least, would insist he be found? And he'd like to think that All Might even rescues useless people too. But, most people don't reveal how useless they are after convincing him to give up his quirk, do they?

He doesn't need to pee any more. He's also not sure he'd like to be rescued by All Might in this state. He's thirsty though. Thirsty enough to be grateful anyway, so long as they brought water.

This must be his punishment for failing to defend himself. He can't be a hero if he can't even save himself. Yes, once he's learned his lesson, surely he'll be let free.

It's getting brighter. He tried to doze, but it's hard to get meaningful sleep when you can't really relax. Physically or emotionally. If he relaxes physically, the barbs press in so hard that he wonders if they're drawing blood. Emotionally, well, he was abandoned with nothing but his thoughts and pain for company, so. He's never had great self-confidence and he's self-aware enough to recognize that this is not helping.

Was the sun this hot yesterday? He's sticky. Mostly from sweat, but he can both see and feel where the barbs have drawn blood on his arms and legs. That's probably an infection risk. Although, in this heat, dehydration will probably get to him before the infection.

Maybe he's supposed to die here? Forgotten, tired, weak. Maybe UA was a fluke, and this is fate's way of correcting it. He got overconfident, thinking he could be strong and worthy of notice. Well, he's not going to make that mistake again.

He heard something, it sounded like it was right behind him. He can't turn to look. There's voices. He's so tired, it takes a minute to make out the words.

"I don't get it, the heat map said he'd be right here."

"Oh, come on, it was Nezu. He probably sent us on a wild goose chase for fun."

"I don't know, they seem genuinely worried about the kid."

"Yeah, but do you think the heroes would trust us measly police with any sort of responsibility?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Pretentious bastards"

Can't they see him? He isn't exactly hidden. He shouts. His voice is scratchy from dehydration. They don't seem to hear him. Well, he has a pretty good idea of the man's quirk now. He's invisible and unheard. Slowly wasting away. Did they even catch them? Does he have any hope of being found?

The police leave. He's alone again. Alone. He's always been alone, in a certain way. No friends, his mom working long hours, his dad off to who-knows-where. Now he's just more aware of it.

It's getting dark. He's definitely been here more than a day now. The pin-pricks along his limbs itch. He's tired. He can't sleep. His cheeks are crusted with dried tears. He can't remember crying. Maybe he didn't even notice, the wet cheeks drowned out by the pain, the itch, the heat, the stickiness, the exhaustion. He wants to go home.

On the bright side, if you can call it that, he's getting a bit delirious, thoughts disjointed, he can hardly think self-deprecating thoughts any more. He laughs. That's probably a bad sign.

The stars are nice. He can't see nearly this many at home. There's not as many as there were when his mom took him to the mountains as a kid, though. Strangely, this middle ground has its own beauty. Instead of the endless shimmering expanse, or the brave few stars shining through, it's a balanced myriad of pin-pricks of light. Ha, the stars match him. Well, the stars are white. His are red. Still. Pin-pricks. Aren't there red stars too? They don't look very red to him.

He's so tired. He finally managed to sleep for a couple hours. He was woken up when his head lolled enough to pull the wire around his neck into him. He can feel the blood. It's so sticky. His neck stings. So do his arms and legs, but the neck is new. He'd been so careful.

The sun is rising. Day three. Isn't three days the limit without water? Welp. Guess this is it. He's going to die. All alone. On a roof at the school he'd broken his body to reach. Heh. Maybe staying quirkless would've helped his health after all.

There are voices again. He's too tired to hope. He's invisible, what's the point? One of them is in front of him. Oh! He recognizes him. That's Snipe. He teaches science. Whoo, his memory is still there.

Snipe is really close to him. Would he notice if he stepped on Izuku? Hopefully. Izuku doesn't want to be stepped on. He's talking. Izuku's too tired to pick out the words. He just wants to sleep. He closes his eyes. Snipe gets louder. Izuku feels a hand on his shoulder. No! He won't be paralyzed again. He jerks back, ignoring the pain from the barbs as he does so.

Snipe steps back. Izuku watches him more closely. He trusts Snipe. He's a hero. He's scared. He's tired and his thoughts won't connect and Snipe grabbed him and he's talking again and Izuku can't make it connect in his brain. He's so tired.

His eyes flutter shut and Snipe gets louder. He opens them, to make sure he isn't grabbed again. Snipe moves towards him. He shifts away, gently. The startle earlier hurt. Snipe moves slowly towards him, but doesn't make any effort to touch him. Snipe speaks slowly. More voices arrive.

They're paramedics. One of them has a bolt-cutter. It hurts when they clip the wire. It hurts when they pull it out of his wounds. But it feels good, too. Being able to move without the stabbing is nice.

He can sit and rotate his arms and straighten out his legs and it feels so good. The paramedics stand around, but don't try to touch him once the barbed wire is off. He appreciates it. Snipe is still kneeling next to him, and offers him a water bottle. He takes it. The cap gives him some issues, his fingers clumsy with exhaustion, but he gets it off eventually. He gulps down the water, sputtering when he goes a bit fast and chokes on some of it.

"Careful," Snipe says and he can finally understand the words.

Izuku nods, not quite trusting his voice, and hands the now empty bottle to Snipe.

"Can you stand?" he asks

Izuku shakily gets up on his feet, his knees protesting after being curled up for so long. He's unsteady, but he nods anyway.

"Okay," Snipe's voice is still unbelievably soft," Let's get you home."

"Yeah," Izuku says in a scratchy whisper. A tear falls down his cheek, and this time he notices.