Last time: Izuku ruminates on his encounter with Kacchan before activating his escape plan, Dabi and Kurogiri just manage to get him out.
When Izuku turns himself in, he's not prepared for why Tartarus is named after a place darker than hell.
He holds onto the image of Kacchan's back, broad and marked in tan lines from his hero costume. The one Izuku has always been after, the one he is still fighting for. Kacchan wouldn't bend, wouldn't struggle, wouldn't break. Izuku made this decision, he is going to follow through with it, for Kacchan - he has no choice regardless - but he is scared. The maidens are like a weight on his chest, innocuous perhaps, but they itch. They press just hard enough that Izuku's lungs don't expand quite right, and it's maddening, like walking into a familiar room and finding all the furniture moved exactly one inch to the left, a lingering sense of wrongness that you cannot place.
It takes Izuku less than a day to figure it out: it's his body that's wrong.
Intellectually, he knows what maidens are—quirk suppressant cuffs. Having them on is a very different story. Out of all the things that he dislikes about being in prison, the feeling of being Quirkless makes Izuku faint less than a week into his new life. He is familiar with panic attacks, has had them before even, but it's been a long time since he felt with such utter certainty that he was going to die. He's not sure what - exactly - triggers it beyond flashes of feeling. Useless, Quirkless, Villain! When Izuku comes to himself, he's pressed against a corner of his cell, crying. It takes him a minute to understand the whining is coming from himself, his sobs muffled by the contraption around his mouth.
Izuku raises his head to meet the eyes of Detective Tsukauchi on the other side of the glass, and a wave of anger makes itself known, thrumming inside him. Izuku isn't sure why he's angry or why he'd take it out on the detective. No one's forced Izuku to be here. He stands up, rubbing angrily at his face and glaring the officer down. He's not sure the effect of such a glare when he feels like the world will fold under his feet any minute, that or he might puke, but who cares? What charade is he supposed to put up? Izuku's plan only requires the police to rely on him for information, and by the detective's presence, it's worked.
"You offered me a deal." If he is curious about Izuku's crying, the detective keeps it to himself. Maybe he thinks Izuku's trying to manipulate him. Izuku dismisses the idea; it wouldn't work, clearly. The muzzle indicates that they don't want him speaking to anyone, particularly the guards, most likely to avoid him bargaining the secret of One For All -like this, there's no one he can tell. Grudgingly, Izuku admits it's a smart play.
He watches the detective, trying to decipher his feelings or opinions about Izuku. Before being arrested, they'd only seen each other a handful of times, but Tsukauchi is All Might's friend, who Izuku basically scammed and left quirkless. In the end, the man looks neutral, neither judging nor friendly, merely interested, a cop willing to make a deal with the devil.
Izuku nods.
This is where it starts.
Izuku is meticulous and overworking in the few cases he is called upon, and he lands more than one acquaintance in jail, but that's on them, really. Turning himself in or not, he is not planning to stay in Tartarus, and for that, he cannot become obsolete; he must not be forgotten. What was it that they said? No honor amongst thieves?
Izuku's worked tirelessly to develop a character that always does what needs to be done -no matter what.
Entering the League's new safehouse in Dabi's arms is not one of Izuku's most dignified moments, the man barely keeps him from slamming on the floor, but he's in so much pain that it's hard to care. The feeling of passing through the warp is so familiar it makes Izuku nostalgic. As they appear in what must be the common room, he breathes out a sigh of relief that immediately jostles his injury. Fuck. Dabi must feel him tense-up because he looks down at Izuku unimpressed, to which the younger teen offers an embarrassed smile.
Spinner, forever failing to read a room, is the first to greet the pair.
"Midoriya, you crazy son of a bitch!" Izuku tries to smile at Shuichi, but he feels a little disoriented, a strange mixture of hospital drugs and pain. Kacchan's voice reverberates inside his head. Guilt, sudden and surprising, gnaws his insides, a familiar feeling. He must be so mad.
"You're fucking heavy," Dabi informs him. He's most likely exaggerating. For all that Izuku's grown now that he's closer to being 18, taller, and significantly more built than his quirkless self could've ever imagined, prison hasn't been kind to him. Unlike other inmates, Izuku was not privy to luxuries such as access to the gym or the outside. As a former UA student with a provisional hero license, Izuku is considered armed and dangerous at all times. He's done as much exercise in his cell as he can, but he has seen his body wither away through the long months captured. It had been painful, see his work dissipate, but nothing to do now about that other than recover. Dabi's teal-colored eyes glare down at him, and Izuku does his best to offer a sheepish grin. His hands were freed to separate him from the bed, but his legs are still chained in maidens. Dabi's comment plants some mild panic.
"Eh, please don't drop me?" The fire user huffs, walking a few steps to the couch and putting Izuku into it. It's not the gentlest movement, and Izuku bites his lip in agony, but Dabi does not, in fact, drop the injured villain like an unloved sack of potatoes, and Izuku will count that as a win. He tries to sit up against the cushion as best as he can to look around the room. It looks like the living room of any house, except that it has no windows -like any proper safe house. The floor, Izuku notes, is rugged in a muted red color akin to brick; it's the most colorful thing in the room. Everything else is dark brown wood, or soft cream leather, including the L-style sofa Izuku rests in.
Next to him, eyes glued to the silent screen on the other side of the room, Tomura struggles through a round of Mario Kart, hands covered in thin black gloves except for his pinky finger, which is left bare. A gift from Izuku after Tomura got frustrated at the second video game console he disintegrated in excitement. The villain's leader hasn't turned to look at Izuku once, making him a little anxious, but Tomura will eventually speak. Before Izuku can say anything else, he braces himself in pain as Himiko bursts into the room.
"Izuku-chiiiiii!" Her shrill voice heralds pain.
"Holy fuck," Izuku cannot breathe, his insides are scorching with fire, and he coughs out desperately.
"Bitch, this time you're really going to kill him!" Dabi pulls at one of Himiko's buns, and the girl immediately flings herself off Izuku to complain. He lets out a pained moan, trying to relax his breathing to not agitate his wounds further. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches that Tomura has stopped playing his video game, hand heading towards Izuku (he'll feel guilty later, but there is a level of reasonable fear where Tomura's hands are concerned and he's still fresh from his worries at the hospital) only to ruffle Izuku's hair.
"Still so soft," he murmurs off-handedly. Unbidden, a smile curls Izuku's lips, fondness warming him down to his toes. He's missed this. He's never been to this place, and he has shaky relationships with half the room, but it still feels like home. It's similar to watching Kacchan enter his hospital room, a fruit of similar flavor.
"I can't believe he didn't flinch, yikes," Atsuhiro mentions. He's not wearing his mask, and his displeasure is visible in his visage. "Are we going to talk about Midoriya selling villain secrets to the police? Or his incomplete reports?"
"Always eager for trouble, Compress," Kurogiri comments, looking towards Izuku. The teen does his best to offer him a grateful smile for the buffer. Kurogiri had been vital to getting out of prison, Izuku is thankful beyond words.
"We will," Tomura mutters, still patting Izuku's hair. "Just not right now."
"I do bring a peace offering with me," Izuku offers, feeling the nervous energy from what he wishes to propose. He knew that even with Tomura's soft spot for him, he'd have to bring something back to the League. Tomura seems to have better control over the villains, which is reassuring and puzzling at the same time. Izuku wonders if he could actually get away from this scot-free just by his word.
"You better, pipsqueak," Dabi mutters from where he stands in between Izuku and Himiko. "Saving your ass was a completely unnecessary hassle."
"A peace offering? For me?!" Himiko screams as well, rolling back and forth in the ball of her feet. Himiko's excitement has always been a little catchy, and Izuku rarely minds how over the top it is.
"I said," Tomura is forceful. Izuku notices that the power he commands in the room is different from when he left. Izuku smiles; it looks like even Tomura is doing some growing up. "Not right now."
"Got it." The younger teen agrees.
Present in the room aren't every villain Izuku knows, but those present are familiar.
Dabi, Himiko, and Kurogiri are old faces by now.
Atsuhiro and Shuichi.
Tomura, of course, who Izuku knows must have a thousand and one questions for him. Or a punch to the face. Maybe even both. The freckled teen is unsure how available his arrest details are, but he wonders if Tomura knows that he gave himself up. Izuku has no idea how his old friend would react to that and therefore isn't really in a place to guess.
Finally, Tomura shifts enough that Izuku can see his red eyes meeting green. He consciously realizes that Kacchan and Tomura have the same eye color, yet their eyes are nothing alike.
"Fine, Midoriya, you're out."
"It's nice to see you," Izuku grins cheekily, happy and relieved, "doing well?" Tomura snorts, but his gaze is solemn as he studies the former prisoner.
"I expect better, Izuku." The words are heavy, weighted, and it's a chilling realization how much they remind the former hero of All For One.
"I will." It's never a good feeling to disappoint his friends. Izuku has done plenty of that, but there's something about Tomura, his complete boldness and lack of tact, that always seems to speak directly into Izuku's soul. He's not going to waste his breath on a tirade apparently, or in physical violence. He leaves Izuku with the road to forgiveness clear as day, make rescuing you worth it. On that line of thought, something else pricks at the former hero-student. "...Did you buy the thing I told you about?" Tomura snorts again, going back to his video game.
"Also a pain in the ass, Izuku."
"Do you know how much money that shit took?" Dabi grumbles from where he's moved to the bar, now standing next to Kurogiri as he fixes himself a drink.
"Izuku-chiii's plans were so much fun!" Izuku smiles at Himiko. Yeah, he figured she, in particular, would have a blast with some of the sketches he'd left behind. Does that mean that…?
"This is the basement to The Quirk Times." Kurogiri elaborates on the cryptic answers.
Izuku looks around the safe house once more, something like elation and wonder curling in his chest like a pleased cat. It's a familiar feeling, one that used to possess Izuku often when he was younger and still ran after heroes. He twists towards Tomura, careful to turn around without causing himself too much pain, and gives his old friend a wild grin, maybe tearing up a little.
Tomura has never been much for emotion, and he frowns slightly at Izuku, but tentatively, his own lips pull up softly to mirror the gesture.
"No way," Izuku breathes out in delight.
It's funny - in the realm of uncomfortable laughter - that everyone in Izuku's life considers him an evil genius and a prodigious actor. How could he possibly fake it? They ask themselves.
I didn't, Izuku doesn't say.
It's not that Izuku was a masterful villain pretending to be a hero, more like an exhausted boy who's gotten lost while desperately wanting things to change. It's not that Izuku from the League of Villains is a fake persona or that Deku from UA is a fake person as much as they're both a testament to how wide a character truly expands if Izuku can thrive in a society he hates. He cannot do so forever. There's nowhere else to run now; he'll come through.
This society... Izuku is going to break it.
Anddddddd, it's a wrap.
I can't believe it, honest, I'm so excited abut this project. I love TWAQ but guys, you have no idea what 'Grace' is looking like. The first chapter teaser should be out by the end of the week and then we'll get consistent updates for it once December rolls around. It's going to be a long one.
Thank you to every single person who review, followed, favorited, and reached out during this process, it's been a lot of fun. I hope you are pleased aboout how it wraps up and eager to find out all the truth behind the little hints left behind. We'll explore the aftermath of TWAQ in the series third installment 'Broken Society' but before that, we look back on how we got up to here in 'Grace'.
Also, I did a sad thing yesterday and I'll leave it here in case you wanna check it out.
-Behind Closed Doors-
BkDk die in each other's arms during a battle. As Japan mourns their deaths, their friends and family clean out their apartment and discover they were a couple.
Be sure to give me a follow so that you don't miss Volume 2!
much love and thankfulness,
Dee