The cold sting of metal pierced his skin, shallow, possibly accidental. Her blade was cutting methodically through his costume first, either the blade had slipped or she was a believer in doing two things at once. He heard the unmistakable sounds of the fabric of his costume tearing, he also felt cold flashes as his skin was exposed. His skin having apparently marinated in either blood or sweat and suddenly being exposed to open air. It might have been irrational to be bothered by the fact that he was slowly being stripped naked when he was at risk for being potentially stabbed to death and yet he felt more embarrassment than fear as he is costume was cut away. He was more concerned at her expression when she heard him reacting to pain, her smile shifted from a sort of odd empty cheer to something deeper, and somehow more disturbing. He didn't know what to do but he had to try to keep her busy with something that wasn't cutting him up.
The blade kept moving and at the sound of a clink of metal against something neither cloth nor flesh her expression temporarily shifted from that almost dreamy smile to an odd mix of curiosity and irritation. She gave an odd look of consternation, "Izuku-kun, what are you hiding in there? Armor? That wouln't be very nice trying to to do that, keeping me from my work.." taking the blade Himiko probed his left arm in similar places and only got winces of pain and fresh tears from Izuku. Her mood seemed to improve a bit though it also caused her to look at his right arm with more curiosity. She cut away more at the costume and started to peel, working diligently. Though she didn't loosen the restraints which somewhat slowed her and caused increased discomfort for Izuku.
He knew what was there, and the fact that she seemed to be so intent on using a blade there was not helping his mental faculties whatsoever. The brace, he had had to use his power beyond the proper limit when he was trying to rescue Kouta. And doing it had practically disintegrated that arm, as it was Recovery girl had said she wouldn't heal him again period after what he did. Not to mention the sobering information that if his arm was injured again in such a fashion he had a very good chance of it simply not working anymore. Himikos knife going anywhere near his right arm had him afraid, not just of pain but that if she got him in the right places he might lose the ability to use that arm. Depending on what she was intending to do to make him perfect he might even lose the arm as a whole. That thought caused him to start sweating more profusely, he also realized somewhat belatedly that he had been able to drift off to think without her trying to stab or prod him to keep his attention, apparently she was a lot more engrossed than she had been before, though he couldn't find a way to take advantage. He forced himself to start thinking, he had to try to come up with something, especially when he may have a window with her being distracted.
Once she had peeled the part of his costume covering his right arm she stared, at first looking a bit relieved then her face took on a more eager cast. Almost lascivious as she inspected his arm, she actually cooed as she traced her finger over it, her face flushed and breathing heavier. She seemed less violent but Izuku decided that this was far more disturbing. She started running her fingers over his arm, scarred from multiple surgeries and bone resettings, his hand was partially mangled and gnarled. It was something he would carry for the rest of his life which was starting to look increasingly short. Himiko instead started caressing the lines of scars, looking at them with undisguised fascination, her face flushed red as she stared at them almost lovingly if such a word would match the look in her eyes.
"I thought I saw a little bit when I noticed you the first time but I never realized…Oh this is so incredible." Izuku was increasingly unnerved but he saw a possible opening, she seemed interested, creepily interested, in the injuries. He might be able to keep her focused and distracted on that, which in turn would probably give him enough time or information to figure out a way out of here. He involuntarily shivered, both from her ministrations and from the blast of cold air that his his exposed arm, soaked in sweat and some blood from her probing blade and previous injuries.
He cleared his throat, "To-Himiko-san, w..would you like to know where the scars came from?"
She looked at him, and he could swear she looked lovesick, she actually partially climbed onto him, practically pressing herself against him, her butterfly knife put away as she leaned in very close, her golden eyes focused on him with a happy and sadistic smile, her voice breathy.""I would really enjoy that Izuku-kun. I never imagined that part of you would already be so nearly close to perfection, I would love to know how it happened."
He began to wonder if he had somehow put himself into a worse situation. It also didn't help that his body and mind were freaking out at a girl being in this close of a proximity to him, and not all of his bodies reactions to the situation were especially helpful or reasonable. Instead he forced himself to smile as he spoke, at this point trying to back out of it wouldn't help, though he would probably be both less unnerved and more able to focus if the crazy girl with cat teeth was not so intimately close…why did his brain use the word intimate?
"H..Himiko-san could you please maybe sit down y..you're a little distracting when you're that close to me like this." He tried to force a smile as he said it instead of fear or unease with her closeness both for fear of her attacking him again but also his unease at how…close she seemed to be trying to get. He didn't like her touching him, really didn't like her pressing against him or the look in her eyes as she did, he also didn't appreciate his body seeming to give him two sets of signals in regards to its opinion on the matter.
Toga looked initially somewhat miffed, then she smirked, "Really Izu-kun? I distract you? Why? Is it my pretty face, my shining smile, or how prettily I can cut you up?" She giggled madly and smiled, a flush on her face as she ran a finger over his scars again. He wanted to turn his head away from her but if he angered her she might start cutting again, no, he needed to try to keep her focused on listening to him instead of carving him. His mind was racing and starting to panic.
"Izu-kun, you're muttering." She said it in a singsong voice and leaned in, he flinched as she pressed herself against him, her face nearly touching his. He couldn't move his body, could barely move his head. Her eyes seeming to bore into his. Her hot breath was against his face, and it had a rather disturbing mixture of peppermint and a coppery tang that he wasn't sure he wanted to identify. He was shivering, she seemed to smirk again, her expression seemed to shift again and Izuku was quite certain he didn't enjoy it. He took a deep breath and managed to screw up his courage enough to speak.
"P..please Himiko-san. I..I need to make sure I can concentrate and right now you're very distracting being this close. I'm sure you want to hear the stories properly, you wouldn't want me to forget anything important or misspeak right?" He sweated nervously as he said it but hoped that she would be willing to do what he asked, hoping that this might buy enough time for someone to find them. Or at least buy him enough time to come up with a better plan than trying to just stall her out.
Himiko pondered for a few moments, then pouted, but she nodded. Almost skipping over to a chair and went to sit on it. She looked at him expectantly still playing with her knife but it seemed to be more out of reflex than out of current intent to use it on him. A smile on her face as she looked at him so intently, he decided that he didn't want to know what she was thinking as she smiled.
He took a deep breath and continued, "The first ones, the lasting ones I guess you might have seen if you watched the sports festival. I..I didn't have as strong a control over my quirk then as I do now. And there was almost no way for me to use my abilities without breaking my limbs." As he said that he could swear her smile only got wider, he took a breath and looked up, trying to look like he was gathering his thoughts. He was but he was also starting to take an inventory of the room, he needed to figure out what kind of place he was in and what he might be able to get into his hands. He still had to try to escape, though it was looking less likely he might be able to find something that could help.
"Most of the scars, the injuries came from my fight with..my classmate whose quick allowed him to manipulate both fire and ice, though he only ever really seemed to use the ice half." He kept some discipline, Todorokis name may have been shared during the broadcast or she may have it from other paths but he wasn't going to give her anything that she might be able to use against the others if he could help it.
"He only used part of his quirk, and the reason was because of..certain problems in the past. I kept using my quirk to push back against him and try to force him to use his quirk at its full potential. It worked..though it ended up destroying the arena and doing quite a bit of damage to my arm. The damage you see on my hand, the scarring and broken bones are mostly from that. AS well as some of the other odd twists and scars you see running up the side." Ok, a few useful things, one is that he hadn't been imagining things the room he was in was large and cold, not like a freezer but colder than would seem reasonable. It might have been for Togas benefit but she was in a sweater and he thought he saw her sort of hunch in on herself a couple of times, meaning that the room is this cold for a reason, and the reason isn't for her comfort. Also he noticed what looked like large drawers built into the walls, though he wasn't fully sure what was behind them he now had a clearer idea. The fact that his eyes had adjusted better to the dark was also incredibly helpful.
She still seemed interested too, her eyes glinting with as she watched him, he still wasn't fully sure why this was so intriguing to her but it kept her from trying to cut him up and he remembered that it was always important to try to distract the villain if you needed to find a way to escape them. He cleared his throat, "For the second one, well I guess you were technically there for that. You saw the aftermath." He still remembered that night, the chaos the fear, the pain, not to mention his worry for Kacchan and for Kouta, the fact that he saved Kouta was still the silver lining of that whole event. He noticed Himiko looked a lot more intent now, her hands on her blushing cheeks with an eager, almost hungry smile.
"One of the villains that came with you, big with incredible strength and missing an eye, Muscular. He found a small child and was intent on hilling him. I couldn't let that happen and your friend didn't take no for an answer. I tried to throw myself between him and the boy, and ended up having to use my power to a nearly overwhelming degree. Hence my damaged arm and legs." He didn't tell her how badly the arm had been injured, there was no reason to give Himiko any information against him.
Himiko actually spoke then, "I remember him, Dabi didn't like him very much. Too impatient, he said that he was childish and foolish. And apparently that was right, it was too bad though, I bet his blood might have been very interesting." Izuku swallowed, not wanting to think about those words because they would make him consider his own situation in new and horrifying ways. He faltered as he suddenly did, forcing himself to keep speaking as he kept stealing glances around the room.
"But I had to go beyond my normal degree of strength and I managed to badly injure the arm." He left out the fact that any new injuries could paralyze it. He knew she might be able to infer that idea from the brace and the stiffness and damage to the arm. However he didn't want her knowing that, especially if she was going to be using her knife to probe his arm further, it wasn't impossible that she might try making the cuts needed to completely paralyze him.
Toga gave him an almost lovesick grin, a kind of warped fascination dancing behind her golden eyes as she smiled, her catlike teeth glittering. "So..all of those injuries, everything that happened to you, you did those to yourself?" Her tone was odd, there was a somewhat unnerving intensity in it but he couldn't be sure about the rest, it seemed like a mix of an almost sing-song tone with something else, something that made him feel disturbed, she sounded so weirdly cheerful even happy at the idea of his injuries being self-inflicted.
As he looked at her he felt sharp pain working in his guts. This was a bit of an embarrassing thing to have to ask her..but then a thought formed. "Toga-chan, could you please let me down..just long enough to..well use the bathroom?" He felt awkward asking the question and he wasn't sure if she would let him down but if she did he had an idea that might let him get out. He just needed a few minutes alone with some movement, he could dig out the quirk stopper dart and at that point he would be able to escape, or at least wouldn't be completely at Himikos mercy.
Himiko for her part seemed to be pondering it, her head tilted left and right as she thought about it, playing idly with her butterfly knife. She paused as the blade seemed to slip, leaving a gash on her finger, she looked down and started licking at it, enthusiastically sucking at the blood. She then spoke, "Hmm…sure I guess I would really hate to have to deal with the mess just keeping you locked up." Izuku wasn't sure if he should be relieved or worried that she almost didn't seem to care, that either meant that he couldn't escape or that she didn't seem to think of it as a possibility. She came over and undid his bindings, first torso, then legs, then arms, she paused to caress his right arm again.
She spoke in the same cheerful almost singsong voice as she helped him stand, "Just remember, Izuku-kun, I'm trusting you to be a good boy here. If you try to run away or lie to me I would feel very hurt and then I'd have to make sure to fix it so you can't lie about those things any more." She still smiled sweetly as she played with her blade, Izuku didn't bother to ask what she was threatening specifically, both because he didn't want to know and because he was motivated by genuine need. She had an arm on his shoulder and lead him towards what he assumed was the bathroom.
His gait was stiff and jerky, his legs were about as sore as his arms, he didn't know with certainty how long he had been restrained but he would guess over a day at this point. His limbs felt locked, leaden and sore, he was in pain but he had to move. Once he got to the door he opened it and went in, noticing something odd. For one thing the bathroom down here didn't have a lock, this may have been from Himikos adjustments or that way originally. It was also warmer in here than it was in the main area, that alone was welcome he could feel heat slowly flooding into his limbs. He closed his eyes to think. Alright, he would do what he came in to do, but he did have an escape plan. The area where Himiko had shown him being shot with a quirk stopping dart was still somewhat bleeding. If he could get his fingers into the wound he would be able to dig out the dart. It would hurt, but it would also hopefully after a few moments return One for All. At that point he would be able to at least try to get out. He would have an edge on both strength and speed, and even if he couldn't get out he assumed he'd be able to at least overpower Himiko.
He sighed, he was both grateful and frustrated that his left arm had been the one shot. On the one hand he was glad he wouldn't be digging around any further in his right arm. Himikos stabbings aside the right arm was heavily injured he would have been very afraid of exacerbating the already extensive damage to his right arm. That being said, his right hand was partially mangled, and his fine motor control was acceptable but some of the fingers were a bit..gnarled. Mostly he was afraid of being able to work them into a small wound properly, but he had no real options.
He felt and probed, he found it, a hole that was still somewhat oozing. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes, he was used to pain. He was used to pain, he had to keep telling himself this because this was going to hurt. He took a deep breath, wishing he had something to bite down on, jamming his fingers into the wound, forcing it open wider as he tried to work the fingers in to dig out the dart. He began breathing raggedly, trying to keep from screaming as he widened the wound. He just needed to dig it out, that was all. His face was wet with his tears and he felt in the wound, he wasn't sure how deep it is, he had never done this before.
He dug his fingers in, blood flowed only slightly slower than his tears as his fingers dug in, trying to find the dart that was keeping him from using his quirk. No, no, he couldn't find it, he had to reach deeper. How deep was it, he was already breathing harder and then suddenly his fingers hit a nerve, muscles contracted. Tried to stop the scream, tried and failed. He was frantic now and tried to force his leg to hold the door shut, tried and failed, he could barely move his legs, they were jerky and unsteady and his arms pain was making it too hard to focus.
The door was kicked in with an enraged looking Toga. It was odd but she was actually almost less scary than when she was smiling. She glared at him and grabbing him by the hair, slamming his head into the sink, she put her knife to his throat, he let out a pained whimper, barely able to think. She looked at his arm and let out an angry growl. She leaned in close, hot coppery breath on his face as she looked over him, pulling on him roughly. She wasn't strong but he was dazed, weak and sore.
"Izuku…why were you screaming in here? Why did you reinjure yourself? Don't you know that I'm the only one allowed to hurt you?! Don't you understand that I am the only one that is allowed to make you bleed? Maybe I wasn't being thorough enough, this time I promise to make sure to be very thorough if you seem to need to take matters into your own hands."
She dragged him back to his 'perch' and refastened his bindings, none too gently. He tried to struggle but the bite of the blade near his throat made him reconsider. He still couldn't call up his quirk, he was dazed, the world seemed weirdly out of focus as he looked down, muttering to himself.
"D..dart.."
Himiko kept working and she paused, looking at him and giggled, "Oohh, the dart! THAT must have been why you were doing that to your arm! Silly Izuku, I moved it. I didn't want to risk it getting knocked loose while I worked, you might have tried to escape before I could finish. Or you might have tried to crush my little throat, and then I wouldn't be able to finish." She smiled again before she paused. "Ohh, but your wound is oozing, that could make your blood go bad and give you an infection and that's too hard to match. We're going to need to fix it…oh I know."
She grabbed the metal faceguard from his costume, Izuku could barely move his head, the only thing keeping him from passing out completely was a mixture of fear, adrenaline and the vague knowledge that he needed to not let himself rest right now if he was concussed. He thought he smelled some kind of chemical and heard the sound of a fire of some sort. A few minutes later he saw Himiko using some sort of heavy leather gloves to hold his glowing facemask.
"There we go, now to cauterize the wound." She said in a peppy sing-song voice, pressing it to his cut he shrieked as blood and flesh boiled and sizzled, screaming as the wound was burned shut, tears flowing. She paused, considering something then walked around to his right side, running her finger up his arm and suddenly stabbing deeply with her knife and twisting. "Have to make sure you match…." As the blood began to flow out Izuku privately begged anyone or anything listening to save him or take him away from this. He couldn't fight, couldn't move, he tried to do what All Might had told him and keep a smile as this happened. That smile that was also burned onto his left arm and with another shriek of heated metal on his flesh the right side as well as his tears flowed and body convulsed as he cried out in pain.
She moved back and began working her blade into his left arm, carving down the side. He cried out in pain and tried to force himself free, to do anything as he sobbed. Himiko for her part hummed a tune from a familiar show as she started to carve and flay her way down his arm. Smiling as she leaned in, watching his blood bubble and ooze up from his wounds. He felt her breath against the injuries, heard her breathing, seeming to grow heavier as she worked.
He almost wished his mind would break, something, anything to free him from this. Instead he felt a new sensation, something small, wet…he forced himself to look and saw she was licking, even sucking at some of the injuries. She noticed him looking and smiled up at him, and what bothered him more was that this smile wasn't sadistic, it wasn't angry, it was…loving. She smiled at him and spoke giddily,
"Oh my Darling Izuku, I'm going to make all of you match, every scar, every drop of blood, every tattered scrap of flesh. You are going to be so wonderful!" She actually bit into his shoulder suddenly and began sucking. Izukus eyes bugged out as he tried to struggle but only managed to tear at his flesh, her bite grip was apparently very strong. What disturbed him more was the moan she gave out when she was doing this. He started to feel violated as this went on, trying to get her off him, get her away. She eventually stopped and slowly licked the blood from her face and teeth, smiling ecstatically at him.
"You taste almost as good as I imagined. We're going to have a lot of fun Izuku-kun, I promise."