Last time: Iida and Uraraka reminisce about Deku's eagerness to be a hero, while Bakugou fills Aizawa in as to his conversation with Deku.
Izuku didn't mean to betray anyone, even when he spied on his classmates and fed incomplete information to the League. (A human mind's ability to hold two opposing thoughts simultaneously is awe-inspiring.) The thing about villains is that they are self-serving by nature, even amongst allies. There's an understanding of if we're running away from a bear and you trip, I'll keep running. No hard feelings attached. Villains do not expect others to carry their ambitions or mistakes, so they are much more likely to forgive Izuku.
Alas, it is an uncontested truth that he ended up in prison because Izuku couldn't commit to one or the other, losing both.
Seeing Kacchan again makes getting stabbed totally worth it; Izuku has no regrets. Okay, no, Izuku has plenty of regrets but laying eyes on Kacchan after over a year... it'd rammed into him with the strength of a Delaware Smash. It was like the cackling of One For All at 100%, electrifying and terrifying at the same time.
Kacchan always brings Izuku to his knees, if not metaphorically, then physically. On some occasions, it's both. Taller and broader and softer than Izuku had ever seen him, and it might've been prison time egging him on, but his former classmate looked good enough to eat.
(Nothing new there, really.)
Kacchan has always been like the sunset of Izuku's life. All Might is daybreak: the beginning, the bright path to the future. A promise of hope the world barely manages to keep and that humanity ruins as they go carelessly along their day. Kacchan, on the other hand, is the conclusion, the epilogue - what it all comes down to, divine retribution and executive force wielded by unfeeling gods. An explosion of color upon clear blue skies after a day's heartbreak and hard work. Izuku loves him more than he loves anyone and anything. The herald of dark beauty and lonely nights, a sky brimming with stars and hiding plenty in between.
Izuku missed him viscerally. Felt his absence inside of him like a Kacchan-shaped hole has been surgically removed from him. Maybe if he reached out, he could scoop out his own insides - his guilt and his shame and his wracking pain.
Izuku pondered endlessly that if it came down to choosing between his ambitions and Kacchan, what would he choose? The Izuku who wants to be a hero, who wants to be like All Might, wants to say that he loves Kacchan, but some things are more significant than them both. Izuku doesn't just fight for himself. He fights for every quirkless or discriminated child, for the villains that life makes, good people who could've done better. For the heroes his friends could have become. A lot is riding on his shoulders, including the legacy of One For All. Not that it is now what All Might envisioned.
(Izuku has undoubtedly taken steps to make the power his own.)
But when Kacchan asked for it, Izuku turned himself in, like the pathetic, desperate-for-approval child that he has always been. Helpless to Kacchan's every whim. The only thing Izuku could think about at that moment was trying to make sure that no matter what, no matter how far apart they were going to be, no matter how many lies Kacchan would uncover, he knew the one thing Izuku had never been able to throw away: that Izuku loves him.
If it took jail time to prove it, he would. He did.
Kacchan hadn't been happy, Izuku could tell. He'd been more challenging to read than usual, but if Izuku has to peg him down as anything, it'd be conflicted. Hard to read a person who doesn't know what to feel. Which is reasonable; Izuku's not sure what he expects. He remains truthful to Kacchan, if only because he cannot picture anyone else taking his place, but he doubts the courtesy goes both ways. Izuku wants Kacchan to be happy, he doesn't want anyone else with him, but he also knows that Kacchan will never betray the heroes, not even for him.
It's a fundamental difference between them.
For Kacchan, Izuku thinks he'd burned down the world.
Izuku cannot put his significant other under his own beliefs; Kacchan will. Painfully, perhaps, but definitely with the same unshakeable intensity that allowed him to turn Izuku in.
The young villain designed a plan for his capture because he's an anxious wreck, not because he expected to get caught.
It worked out well, though, somehow. Izuku never wants Kacchan to think that he lied about what he feels for him.
In the dejected silence left behind by Kacchan, a wistful Izuku runs his tongue lazily across his molars. It's time. He looks up for a moment, reminding himself that this is his plan and praying to whoever answers wayward political activist's spiritual needs. He bites down on the GPS transmitter; the pain as his tooth creaks is sharp and heady. Its destruction is the signal for pick-up. If this plan fails, Izuku has no other way of contacting the League, and he might definitely rot away in prison for the rest of his life. A minute passes, and then it's been five.
They are… coming for him, right?
Izuku recognizes anxiety-induced panic, but that doesn't make it any more bearable. Himiko stabbed him, and Kacchan was kidnapped; Tomura definitely remembered Izuku's plan. Himiko's knife had hit his lung - probably because of Izuku's blind writhing - but in the end, the result was the same. If anything, it made the assassination subplot more believable. (Izuku is good at compartmentalizing, it's his own fault he'd almost died.) Why go through all that trouble and then not finish breaking Izuku out. Unless… unless they really were trying to kill him.
Izuku has gotten away with a lot through the years when it comes to the League. Partly because he's useful, a founding member of the League, and partially because he's managed to squirm his way into Tomura's prickly heart. Now that All For One is behind bars, Izuku's friend calls all the shots. Very bad for the League and villainy in general, very positive in Izuku's constant need for leeway.
But even Tomura has limits.
Izuku's nails bleed under the realization that he might've pushed too far.
Kurogiri's warp gate has a very distinctive, almost flute-like chime to it, and Izuku has never been happier to hear it in his life.
"Dabi…" Izuku half-sobs as the lanky figure, exits the portal.
"What the fuck?" the fire-user whispers, quickly stepping back into the door's blindspot as the black hole disperses into nothingness. Izuku quickly swallows down his emotions; they have no time for his mental health issues now.
"I'm just… very happy to see you," the smiles he offers feels watery, but it's no less genuine for it.
"I see prison makes you weirder," Dabi mutters, untouched by Izuku's display of emotion, "but whatever, we have no time; what's the plan."
This Izuku has been restlessly building and rebuilding since he woke up.
"The guards have vision of the bed, so it'll be a race against time to get the cuffs off. I'll distract one, and you'll incapacitate him, avoid using your quirk."
"What about the other one?"
"They're trained to never enter the room at the same time. When guard #1 fails to return, the other immediately looks for help.
"That's bad."
"Yes, but not unexpected. Kacchan has Aizawa-sensei duly entertained, for now, I think. They'll be here in less than 5 minutes unless something else happens." Adrenaline beats furiously along his bloodstream, fighting against how sluggish he's been because of the drugs. His chest burns with the effort of sitting up, but Izuku pays it no mind. He's had a lot worse. "If not them, someone else will, so be sure to lock the door. It won't stop Kacchan, but it'll slow Aizawa sensei if he doesn't bring him with. How long until you get me out of the maidens?"
"Under two minutes is my average; Kurogiri has been beating my ass about it," Izuku decides he needs to get something nice for Kurogiri as soon as possible.
"Good, remember. Knock the guard out, no quirk, close the door and then get me out of this."
"Prison also didn't make you any less bossy, I see."
"Dabi."
"Fine, fine. I'm ready when you are."
Izuku takes a deep breath, grabbing the emergency bottom. He reclines back, making his best impression of someone in agonizing pain, which isn't that hard and throws the control off the bed. It hangs nearby through the emergency cord, but it's enough of a stretch for it to be understood that Izuku -recently out of major surgery - can't reach it without pain.
"Guard!" he gasps out, his lungs protesting at the strain, "Guard!" The door opens a little bit, one guard popping his head in as Dabi stops breathing at the other side of the door.
"What is it, Midoriya?"
"Ah, Officer Guju, I'm, ah, sorry to bother you, could you… could you please? The remote…" the guard frowns at him in suspicions, and Izuku closes his eyes to wither in pain. He tenses up, which sends lighting across his body but has the desired effect of the guard stepping up to help him. He's taken two steps into the room when Dabi grabs him in a chokehold. Izuku looks, but the other guard still hasn't turned around. When the officer goes limp, Dabi drags him by the neck and leaves him in a nearby chair, the same one Kacchan had scoffed at when he'd been there and sprinted quickly to lock the door.
He leans over Izuku because there's no place around the bed that the window does not catch and immediately gets to work on the maidens. his skin is painful up close, thick, and off-colored.
"My feet are tied up to each other, so we can leave with those on," Izuku murmurs off-handedly,=. The scene is a little fuzzy at the seams, despite Izuku willing this moment into existence since his first day in Tartarus.
"Carried off into the sunset, such a princess," but Dabi's tone is too focused on his work to carry any bite. Izuku's heart is beating itself out of his chest, and his eyes stay glued on the window. Thirty seconds in, the other guard notices Dabi and immediately sets out on a run. If he's smart, he'll radio in reinforcements. "No pressure, but we'll have company soon."
"Fuck," after a little more fidgeting, one of the maidens comes undone. Izuku doesn't know why it's never occurred to him until then, but this is the first time he's been uncuffed while conscious since he got arrested. That level of constant restraint must be breaking some type of humanitarian law, he's sure. Dabi jiggles and prods, but it's been over just two minus, and the cuff doesn't budge. Izuku starts contemplating if there's any way to get the cuff off the bed instead of his wrist. Crazily he ponders about cutting off the appendage altogether. It could be melted, but Dabi's fire cannot burn that hot. His heart chokes in his throat when he makes eye contact with Aizawa-sensei through the tiny window on the door. The pro wastes no time activating his quirk, red eyes lit in anger. It's useless when there's no quirk at play. "Erased Head's here," he notes unnecessarily, watching as his teacher's binding cloth, deceptively gentle but powerfully built, dents the metal door. It doesn't budge.
"No shit," Dabi hisses out. This is a high-security room, and as with any space meant to keep someone from getting out, it's equally hard to get in.
"Call the portal," Izuku scrambles for Dabi's phone, pressing the familiar icon of the League's panic bottoms there. This might be the happiest he's ever been to hear the chiming of the portal as it manifests a few feet away. Kurogiri's accuracy is inhuman as always. The door keeps shaking, the wall cracking from the strength of Aizawa -sensei's assault. Honestly, the cement might cave in before the entrance. Dabi's still working the cuff when things get worse.
Izuku lives the moment in a few seconds that stretch into eternity, and his heart goes cold as the image of his cell - the eternal silence, the dusty atmosphere, the pressing cold - steals the spotlight of his mind. He can't do it: chafing wrists and the constant kiss of metal on his face. Izuku can't do it again. He can't.
He's not going back to jail.
"Get out of my fucking way!" Ah. It was naive to think that Kacchan had left. Even now, his voice gives Izuku comfort. The thought of his promise to Kacchan, of why he'd submitted in the first place, had carried him forward through hell. But even Izuku's fierce drive was at its limit.
In one superheated blast, the door blows off its hinges. Simultaneously, too well-timed to be planned, Izuku's cuff becomes undone. It's absolute agony as Dabi throws him through the warp gate, but somehow, by the skin of their teeth, they get clear.
The last Izuku hear is Kacchan's furious yelling and Dabi's swear as he grabs onto Izuku from behind.
Oh damn and just like that, we only have one more chapter to go.
I'm catching up with the manga and it's almost overwhelming how much I'm looking forward for our guilt-ridden, ambiguously moral Deku to meet some characters that I've seen -lots of villains redefining what evil means lately. 'Vol. 2: Grace' is going to be a bit of a long ride, at least twice as much as this, so I'll try to get most of it out before posting. Like with this one, there will be a prologue available way sooner though.
Hope you enjoyed the read 3