Chapter 4: Deku

Voices speaking softly pulled Deku slowly into consciousness. His head pounded terribly and his vision was splotchy, but as his fuzzied brain began to clear, he realized that these voices were not the familiar ones of Kacchan, Uraraka and Tsu-chan, but familiar nonetheless. He couldn't place exactly who they belonged to, so he struggled to open his eyes and bring his senses into awareness of what was around him.

With a deep heaviness, Deku managed to pull his eyelids into a soft squint and found that the ground was moving quickly underneath him, or so it appeared. He began to feel pressure against his lower stomach, then realized he had been flung over someone's shoulder and was being carried. Deku carefully craned his neck, wincing with the sharp pain, and noticed the heels of a pair of red shoes moving quickly over gravel and chunks of metal. He also noticed as his vision traveled up the legs of the person that his own hands were bound tightly with thick rope.

Red shoes, restraints… Deku could feel panic rising quickly in his chest. This can't be Shigaraki Tomura himself! I don't understand, we were cornered by a bunch of random Villains and then I fell into that hole, but the League of Villains is involved?

Then realization dawned on Deku as the words of the man with the quirk that had created the hole came flooding back into his mind: "My boys and I are here on a little business deal. We'll get good money for you, I should think." Had the League of Villains hired those goons to bring Deku to them? Why?

He arched his head back to try to get a better look around his environment, but realized that with no clue of the League's intentions, it was probably best to fake unconsciousness so the others around Shigaraki wouldn't see that he was awake. If he took the time to listen to their conversation, he might be able to figure out where they were taking him and how to get away. Deku let his head slump down again and closed his eyes.

If Deku's hearing was as reliable as he was hoping it to be, there were at least three others accompanying Shigaraki, two male and one female. He recognized the female voice instantly as the blonde girl who had impersonated Uraraka with her unusual quirk at the provisional licensing exam. The two male voices were harder to place, but Deku was sure they had been present at the training camp when Kacchan had been abducted. The group seemed spread out across whatever area they were walking through, their voices echoing off the walls. Deku waited and waited for someone to say anything that would clue him in on their plans, but nothing helpful came up. Toga, the girl, just kept squealing about how happy she was that Deku was "hers," which sent shivers up Deku's spine. The others seemed to keep telling her to shut up, while Shigaraki kept quiet.

Finally, Shigaraki stopped abruptly and Deku's face slammed into his lower back. He could tell by the feeling of Shigaraki's shirt against his skin that Deku's face was still bleeding heavily from his earlier injuries and the blood was saturating the Villain's thin coat. Deku shot another quick glance down towards his own arms and noticed that almost the entirety of his white arm-length gloves were soaked in red.

Well, at least he doesn't mind a little bit of blood, Deku joked to himself halfheartedly as he shut his eyes again.

"Kurogiri," Shigaraki spoke assertively. "We're back, get us back home."

"Of course," came the reply of a new voice. A moment later, Deku felt Shigaraki begin to move again. He cracked open one eye and gasped inaudibly as he watched Shigaraki's red shoes step one after the other through a cloud of purplish-black smoke and onto a hardwood floor. Wherever they had just been, they were now in an entirely different place. Deku was sure of it.

It had been dimly lit and rather cold wherever they were before, but here it was warm and bright. As Shigaraki continued moving, Deku began watching the details in the wood grain below his feet. Shigaraki crossed a threshold and proceeded into a less-well-lit area, most likely a hallway. A few moments later, Deku heard a metallic screeching noise, like the hinges of an exceptionally thick, reinforced door, and thought it was probably time to close his eyes again. He could sense that he wouldn't be riding around on Shigaraki's shoulder much longer.

As soon as Deku heard the door slam again, the amount of light in the room diminished significantly. He could tell even with his eyes closed. He had been right to close them, as he felt his body being lifted off of Shigaraki's shoulder only seconds later. The pressure of hands around his waist dug into several spots where he had been wounded, and Deku had to bite his tongue to keep from screaming. He was then slammed down hard onto a cold, metallic chair and felt the pressure release from around his wrists as the rope bindings were removed, but the relief lasted only milliseconds. His arms were then shoved behind him and around the back of the chair, causing surges of pain to travel from his fingers all the way to his shoulders, and he felt the cold, dead weight of metal shackles replace his false sensation of freedom. Next, each leg was rammed up against a leg of the chair and shackled to it as well. As Deku recovered from the additional pain they had inflicted on all of his present injuries, he noticed that he could actually feel a cold, hard sensation on the underside of one foot.

Oh, Deku thought as he cursed the pain silently. Apparently I've also lost a shoe.

"Alright," Deku heard Shigaraki say from far away. "That's enough. Let's go and eat while we wait for our little hero to wake up." The metal swinging sounded again and several pairs of footsteps walked out of the room, then the door slammed shut.

Deku's eyes shot open and he tried to survey his surroundings as quickly and efficiently as possible. The only source of light in the room was a small, square window built into the highest part of a wall to his right, probably more than fifteen feet high. He strained his neck to see outside. It was dark, moonlight washing the room in a pale, muted whiteness. Deku turned to look down and inspect the state he was in. His hero costume was like red-and-green camouflage with all of the patches of blood across his torso and thighs, blood dripping off the tip of his nose adding to the pattern on his stomach. He leaned forward, feeling a painful tug on his shackled arms, and inspected his lower legs.

His right leg, though banged up and just as patchy as the rest of his uniform, looked to be in decent shape. He wiggled his toes inside his shoe and found that he had a full range of movement and sensation, and hell was there a painful sensation. He turned to his left leg. Indeed, his shoe was gone and his once-white sock was just as splotched and torn as his hero costume. He could see deep gashes in his skin between the tears in the fabric. Deku hesitated, then brought his gaze further up his leg.

If not for being shackled to the chair leg, his left leg would have been completely limp. The bone was definitely fractured in multiple places, if not shattered entirely. It was indented in some places and sticking out in so many others that it was almost like someone had thrown a handful of jagged pieces of glass into a bag, shaken it up a little bit, and labeled that "Deku's Left Leg." Even if he could figure out a way to get out of his restraints, there was no way that Deku would be able to get out of this place walking. What had happened? Had his leg been crushed under falling cement from the street, and the League of Villains been careless-of course-with yanking it out as they took him? Most likely.

Deku sat back against the cold metal chair and sighed heavily, trying to convince his brain not to register the tremendous amount of pain radiating across his entire body. He was starting to sweat and feel faint, the bloodloss still steady as his wounds were left unbandaged. If the League of Villains wanted to talk to him for any reason, they better get to it fast before he keeled over. Of course, Deku hoped that, if there was no other way out, he did keel over before sharing a word with them about anything.

He rested his head on the back of the chair and began staring at the ceiling, replaying what little he had seen on his way to that room and constructing what he could of a floor plan for the building. Any kind of plan, no matter how small, was better than just waiting to be the League's next victim. He couldn't get very far before the events of the day came flooding back into his head, especially the tortured faces of his friends right before he had blacked out. Deku knew they would be frantic, especially Uraraka. Tsuyu was pretty good at staying calm under pressure and Kacchan, well, frankly, he probably didn't care as much as it had seemed the last time Deku saw his face.

Suddenly, a short, sharp bzzz noise vibrated from Deku's belt, jolting him out of his recollection. My phone! He felt heat rise to his cheeks as his excitement grew. If I can just get to it, I might be able to send my location to someone! With his hands restrained behind him, however, it would be a challenge.

Deku leaned forward as far as his throbbing arms would let him, intending to rip open the pocket containing his phone with only his teeth. But he was still too far. Having no other choice, Deku shifted his positioning on the chair and planted his feet firmly on the ground, then pushed against the excruciating pain in his left leg to raise his hips upward. The belt swayed with his movement just enough that Deku was able to bite and pull, ripping it from his waist. He then yanked his head to one side and tossed the belt over his shoulder. He carefully balanced it with his shoulder while he ripped open the pocket and dragged the phone out by one corner with his teeth. Then Deku froze.

How the hell am I going to use this thing with no hands? Deku stared at the metal door in front of him, clenching the phone tightly between his teeth, and racked his brain. I guess I have no other choice…

He readjusted his grip on the phone, biting so tightly that his teeth began to ache, then started shifting his weight from left to right. The chair began to teeter, then finally crashed to Deku's right as his momentum got going. His body bounced against the chair and collided with the floor simultaneously, then the sudden pain ripping through his arms was too much. His wrists hadn't just been bound together, but had been attached to a chain bolted into the floor. The strain of Deku's fall had allowed no slack on the chain, and now it felt as though both his arms had been ripped from their sockets. Deku couldn't control it any longer. He let out a sharp yelp of pain and the phone dropped from his mouth and clattered across the cold concrete floor.

"Damn it..." Deku whispered as tears began to ring his vision. He let his head thud against the floor again and stared hopelessly at the phone, now too far away for him to reach without attempting to rip his body apart from his chained arms.

The phone buzzed again, its screen lighting up to show the same notification from before. Deku raised his head and was just able to make out a message from Uraraka: "Deku-kun, I hope you're okay. Wherever you are, if you can hold on until tomorrow, I'm coming to find you. Don't give up hope."

Relief washed over Deku, and he slowly rested his head down on the cool floor. Despite the fact that Uraraka probably didn't have a clue where he really was, she was going to look for him. He wasn't in this alone, of course. He couldn't believe he had almost forgotten that. Uraraka and many others at U.A. cared about him and wouldn't stop looking for him until he was found. He could definitely hold on for that.

The phone buzzed a third time, and Deku stirred up what little energy he had left to raise his head again. This time, the notification wasn't a message at all, but an alert: Contact Uraraka Ochako has just viewed your location. Swipe left to manage Location Services.

Deku smiled widely as he closed his eyes and let his head flop onto the floor. He had forgotten that they'd exchanged location information, but he was so thankful that Uraraka had remembered. Her concerned face from on the rooftop earlier that day lingered in his mind as he drifted off to sleep.

A sharp jolt of pain at the top of Deku's head quickly pulled him out of sleep. He was again sitting up in the chair, shackles still intact, with sunlight cutting a path from the high window directly into his eyes. A hand was gripping the mop of dark hair on his head, pulling with incredible force.

"Good morning, Midoriya Izuku." Deku's head was yanked forward and taken out of the path of the direct sunlight, only to stop inches away from that of Shigaraki Tomura. "Did you sleep well?"

Shigaraki let Deku's hair fall from his hand and took a few steps back, folding his arms across his chest. Deku scowled as he locked eyes with the Villain briefly, then looked around the room. With the exception of the beam of sunlight filtering through the window, the room was still dark. None of Shigaraki's allies had come into the room with him this time-he and Deku were alone. Deku glanced down and noticed that some of the larger wounds on his biceps and around his torso had been hastily dressed, then something below his chair caught his attention. His phone, screen shattered and inner hardware poking out visibly on either side, lay next to his left foot.

"Oh, look, you two are matching," Shigaraki remarked snidely. "You shouldn't have tried contacting your friends, Midoriya. You tipped us off that you had a phone on you, and that was a stupid move. But I'm impressed that you were able to get to it with no hands.

"Moving on, you remember our last one-on-one conversation, do you not? I informed you that the next time I saw you I would probably want to kill you? Well, that's still the case, but I think I would like to save that for the end. You see, after All Might was defeated and left the world of heroism, I thought I had attained my goal: a world without All Might. But then I realized that simply wasn't true. And I realized yet another reason why you irk me so much, Midoriya. You have taken up his mantle, carried on his legacy, call it what you will."

At this moment he leaned in close and leveled his eyes with Deku's own.

"Even if All Might no longer exists as a pro-hero, you will be the one to replace him if I don't stop you now. I can see it in your eyes. It is your conviction, just as it is my conviction to eliminate All Might and every influence he has ever had in this world. And!" Shigaraki stood at his full height again and raised a pointed finger into the air. "It is not enough for All Might to be a retired hero. He still has influence! It is evident enough in your relationship with him. Believe me, I know what kind of favoritism he has shown for you during training at that school. So, he must die, and you will help me with that."

"I will never do anything you ask of me," Deku spat back, doing what he could to lunge at Shigaraki despite his restraints.

"I'm not asking. It's really just a matter of whether or not he cares enough about you to come looking for you when an anonymous tip notifies him a few days from now. But I would love to make the most of the time I have with you before that happens, you know, hear a bit about your special friendship with your sensei and how I can use it to my advantage."

Deku glared at him, but refrained from saying anything else. Shigaraki rolled up the sleeves on his black shirt and sat down on the floor in front of Deku, a wide grin slowly creeping across his face. He stretched his arms out in front of him and laced his fingers together, cracking each of his knuckles in turn and pausing dramatically after each crack.

"Maybe you'll change your mind about helping me after we chat for a little while."

He's going to use his quirk on me, Deku surmised frantically. He leaned as far back as possible in the metal chair and tried to push himself away, his feet scraping in vain at the floor as Shigaraki inched closer.

Shigaraki slammed both palms down on Deku's knees, stopping any possibility of movement and issuing currents of immense pain up and down Deku's legs. Deku fought the pain, but he let out a hoarse, agonized scream as the fabric of his hero costume crumbled, the skin on his knees peeled away, and his muscles, raw and red, were exposed to the light.

"Well, how about now?" Shigaraki smiled as he lifted his hands.

Deku's face fell forward as he let out a pained breath, but he didn't speak. He wouldn't give Shigaraki any satisfaction. He watched from his peripheral vision as Shigaraki's hands moved down his legs and stopped mid-calf.

"Oh, what a nasty injury," Shigaraki mused in a tone of false pity, brushing a few fingers across Deku's left leg. Then, in a rapid motion, he tightened both hands around the length of Deku's calf. "It must hurt so badly."

This time, he left his hands there for several moments, seeming to relish the sound of Deku's now unrestrained screaming. The pieces of bone that had been sticking up under Deku's skin were the first to emerge as his skin peeled away, revealing torn muscle tissue and broken sinew. Deku shot his eyes up to the ceiling, trying to distance himself from the pain and the absolute pleasure on Shigaraki's face.

"Shall we try one more spot?" Shigaraki asked as he lifted his hands and returned to a standing position. "It seems as though you're almost at your limit for today. Don't pass out until I'm done with you, hero."

Deku returned his gaze to Shigaraki and wadded up a glob of spit in his mouth, then shot it directly onto Shigaraki's forehead. It was saturated with blood that had lingered in Deku's mouth from the injuries he had sustained up to then. Shigaraki's smile vanished instantly as he pulled one of his shirtsleeves across his forehead.

"Well now, you really should not have done that."

He leaned over so that he was towering over Deku, then thrust his palms into Deku's chest with incredible force, sending the chair flying backward. Deku's head and arms smashed into the wall behind him, his arms being pulled forward simultaneously with a stinging yank of the chain binding him to the floor. Shigaraki pressed his hands down tighter and tighter onto Deku's chest, not only ripping off layers of skin and tissue, but crushing ribs as he went and suppressing Deku's ability to breathe. He screamed again, nothing but a soft wheeze actually escaping from his lips.

Shigaraki finally backed off, retreating to stand by the door. His form seemed to warp in Deku's field of vision as spots of black and rainbow color appeared.

"It seems you won't be of much help today, but you will break eventually," Shigaraki spoke casually as he stuffed his hands into his pockets, his words swimming through Deku's ears. "Hopefully I won't kill you before that happens… Well, see you tomorrow, All Might junior. I'll get everything I need from you then."

He gave a casual wave as Deku struggled to keep him in his line of sight, then he knocked three times on the metal door. It swung open, revealing a man Deku was able to recognize as Kurogiri, the one with the quirk that could open up those purplish-black portals. He ushered Shigaraki out quickly, then slammed the door behind him.

Deku sat and stared at the door for a long time, trying to slow down his rapid gasping and dull his mind to the pain that felt like it was engulfing his entire body. The black spots were beginning to consume his vision and his head felt weightless, disconnected from the rest of his body. He looked down to see fresh blood pooling slowly at his feet, from which open wounds he couldn't be sure.

His last thought before he lost consciousness was a prayer, over and over again, that Uraraka and others were on their way. Hopefully without All Might. The fear that he might become responsible for All Might's complete undoing followed Deku into unconsciousness, filling his head with nightmares of what the coming days might bring.