Chapter 50: There Is Only One Thing Worse Than A Rapist. Boom. *Gasp* A Child.

It was time.

Izuku looked at his text messages and put the address Dabi sent him into his phone's GPS before tearing back the covers, quickly changing into the clothes that Eraser brought him a while ago, and sneaking out of the window as quietly as he could.

Being so far up was different now…scarier. If he missed his footing even just a bit there wouldn't be a second chance. That would be it.

Huh, was this how normal people felt? Scared of accidentally dying and everything just disappearing? Crazy how just a few days ago this was all that he wanted and now he was terrified of failing.

No. He couldn't allow himself to think like that.

He made it down to the ground relatively unscathed. Scaling a building and jumping down to the hard ground was not the most comfortable after almost dying and having to rely on regular bodily healing and the quirks of others to get better. He missed his reset after dying.

As he snuck down to the street and onto a bus, his body screamed at him. Everything hurt, the areas around his stitches were sore, and he was messed up from not training for a few days. His body wasn't used to this anymore, but he wasn't going to let some silly thing like that stop him.

It didn't take too terribly long to get to where he was going, but it took long enough for Eraser to apparently check on his empty room and blow his phone up.

Izuku thought ahead and turned off his location before he left along with blocking any tracing that could be done through his phone. He silenced the pro's texts and did Mic's and Hitoshi's just to be safe before getting off the bus and making his way to where his GPS led him.

It was dark out. I mean, obviously, it was eleven-forty-five, but where he was didn't have any streetlights, or at least ones that worked, there were no cars either, so Izuku had to rely on his night vison to see where he was going.

When he finally arrived, somehow, he wasn't surprised. The League seemed to really like their bars even though he wasn't entirely sure that Shigaraki was old enough to drink. He guessed that underage drinking was child's play compared to trying to kill the Symbol of Peace and kidnapping children, but whatever.

He sent a text to Dabi's number letting him know that he was here, and it wasn't long before a familiar scarred face poked out of the back door.

"You're early." He said unimpressively as he looked the boy up and down.

"I like to think that I'm punctual. Anyways, I just want to get this over with, show me where the girl is."

The villain nodded before leaning back inside, looking around, and then quickly pulling Izuku through the door by the collar of his shirt.

He dragged him to a dark room off of the hallway where they weren't so easily seen and closed the door behind them.

"Alright, if this is an ambush, can we please just get on with it. I'm really tired and-"

"Will you shut up?" Dabi aggressively whispered as he crept around the room, peaking through windows and making sure they were in the clear.

Izuku put his hands up in surrender and waited patiently for the guy to be done.

Dabi walked past Izuku and flicked on the light switch before turning to him with furrowed brows. "What do you mean ambush? Did you think that I lied to you and was just trying to kill you?" Izuku shrugged in affirmation to which the villain gaped. "I would-you really thought I would do that?"

"You are a villain…"

"I-" Dabi let out a breath and visibly relaxed his shoulders before turning back to look at Izuku. "I wouldn't do that. Believe it or not, I actually kind of like you."

"Of course you do…" Izuku sighed earning a pointed look from his partner. "Don't give me that look."

"Anyway, the girl is hidden in a room a few halls down. It's locked and guarded, but I can distract the guards if you can pick the lock and get in."

"And you're sure this isn't an ambush?"

"YES, I'M SURE!"

"Okay, okay," Izuku chuckled quietly before peeking out of the door and checking that the hallway was still empty. "Alright, let's do this." The two of them snuck their way through the building and were met with practically no problems which put Izuku's instincts at unease. "Kinda weird for a villain hideout to be so unguarded."

"Our numbers were severely decimated after Kamino Ward. Plus, no one knows about this place, so no one's worried about raids."

"Huh, ironic." Dabi looked back and matched Izuku's smirk before the two of them continued down to where they were going.

As they got closer, the number of people around grew, which made sense Izuku guessed. If they were using this girl like Dabi said, then she was very valuable to them.

They snuck around and avoided being seen by at least ten people before they ducked into an empty room in order to take a breath. They sat in the dark and quietly closed the door so that no one would accidentally walk in before they turned on the light and were met with Himiko Toga staring right back at them.

She immediately pounced on Izuku and sent the two of them to the ground, her straddling him and pressing down on his sore chest making him wheeze. "Whatcha two doing?" She asked innocently as Izuku looked to Dabi for help and was met with a shrug and sent a glare at the guy.

"Toga, how did you catch us?" He asked walking around to meet her eyes.

"I followed you, silly. You've been acting suspicious all day and I thought it'd be fun to see what you were up to. And I'm glad I did~" The girl leaned down and brought her face just centimeters away from Izuku's before she was yanked off and thrown to the other side of the room. "Hey! No fair Dabi!"

"For once, can you keep your hands to yourself? We're kinda in the middle of something important."

Toga stood up and gave Dabi her signature pout as she brushed herself off. "And what might that be?"

Dabi helped Izuku to his feet and the two shot a look at each other silently debating whether or not they should tell her, before Dabi sighed. "Remember that girl that Overhaul is using?"

"Yep!"

"Well, we're going to save her."

"Oh…sounds fun! Can I help?" The girl bounced on the balls of her feet and slowly got closer and closer to Izuku who looked at Dabi who, in turn, glared at her.

"Why would you want to do that?"

The girl shrugged lightly, "Things have been boring ever since the Master was arrested and I've been looking for something fun to do for days!" Her eyes seemed to visibly light up as she examined Izuku over and licked her lips.

Izuku rolled his eyes and turned to Dabi. It would be a risk to allow her to help, but they were also only two people up against two villain organizations. Plus he knew her best and would know if it was safe to trust her, if just for a while.

Dabi sighed and turned to Toga. "Can you control yourself?"

Toga let out a huff and took a step back, crossing her arms. "Yes."

"Then sure, we can use all the help we can get."

The girl clapped her hands together and she jumped up in joy. "Yay! I get to work with Dabi and Izuku…I bet you're just as excited to work with me as I am to work with you right?" She leaned forward and Izuku sighed as he pushed her face back.

"Not exactly, but I appreciate your help."

It wasn't the nicest thing, but it was apparently enough for her because she cheered at his words to which both boys shushed her and reminded her that this was a serious and very dangerous mission.

"So, what can I do?" Toga asked as the three of them peered out of the room.

"You're going to help Dabi take out the Shie Hisaaki members while I get into the room and grab the girl."

"Okay, sounds fun!"

"Toga…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Important mission, I get it."

"Alright, then let's do this."

Dabi and Toga snuck out of the room and made their way to the end of the hallway where two men stood guard at a door. Each attacked one and while they were busy, Izuku snuck over to the door and easily opened it much to his surprise.

He went into the room and shut the door quietly, trying to make his presence as unknown as possible before turning around and being met with a pair of wide red eyes.

It was a bedroom. The walls were grey and dirty but covered by pink sheets that attempted to make the room seem brighter. There was a large doll house on the left wall surrounded by various toys and games sat on a pink area rug. On the back wall was a long bookshelf and two plush pink chairs. And in the middle of the right wall was a queen-sized bed with a small pale child on it.

She was tiny, way smaller than she was supposed to be, and ghostly pale. She was dressed in a dirty white gown and wore bandages that covered the entirety of her arms, legs, and what he could see of her neck. She had silver hair that was so long it spilled onto the sheets she was sitting on and had a few strands that fell in front of her face, but those strands couldn't block the large ruby eyes that stared back at him with curiosity.

The girl was frozen, her hands hovering over two dolls that she must've been playing with when he came in, and she didn't deviate her gaze from Izuku.

"Um…hi." He said quietly, trying to look as unintimidating and harmless as possible.

The girl waved at him mechanically but didn't say a word.

He took a step forward, stopped and threw his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender when the girl flinched, and then took another step when she seemed to relax. "My uh, my name is Izuku. What's your name?"

He didn't let his eyes leave hers and gave her a small smile in an attempt to entice her to trust him even though she had literally just met him. Honestly, he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know a thing about kids, he had gotten lucky with Kota, and it was foolish of him to think that he would be able to save this girl so easily-

"E-Eri."

"What?"

"M-my name…is Eri." Her voice was so quiet that Izuku had to strain himself to hear what she was saying, but when he did, he couldn't help but tear up at the sound.

Her voice…it was so soft, so…broken.

No. He had to help her.

"Hi Eri, it's nice to meet you."

"Are you here to take me again? They just did a treatment on me and if you do too much then he has to fix me and then he gets annoyed, and I-I don't want him to get annoyed."

Izuku had made it to the bed and knelt down so that he was on the same level as she was. He furrowed his brows at her comment and looked at her curiously, "What are you talking about? Who is 'he'?"

"Chisaki. He gets mad if he has to put me back together too much."

"Chisaki…you mean Overhaul?" Izuku asked the girl.

She seemed to think about it for a moment before her expression lit up, "I think so, I've heard people refer to him as that name before, so maybe he has two. People with two names must be special…" She whispered to herself before looking back at Izuku with those big eyes. "Do you have two names?"

He could feel his heart break at this child. She was so young, so innocent, so pure, and they…they were monsters for using her like this. "I-yeah. I do actually."

"Really?" She gasped in awe, "Can you tell me what your second one is? I bet it's pretty just like your first one."

"Um," Izuku choked up slightly as he felt tears burn at his eyes but just smiled through it and let out a soft laugh, "Some people call me Serpentine."

"S…Ser…"

"Serpentine. It's okay if you can't say it, it's kind of hard to say sometimes."

"Then can I call you I-Izuku?"

"Sure."

"Okay! So, Izuku, what are you doing here? People don't usually come in here unless it's for my treatment."

Izuku furrowed his brows at the girl, "Treatment? Are you sick?"

She nodded softly before looking away from the boy. "Chisaki says that I'm very sick and that my sickness hurts people. That's why he does my treatment, he says that he uses it to cure other people of their sickness."

"And what exactly is this sickness?"

Eri pouted slightly before looking back up at Izuku, "I don't know. He told me one time, but I don't know what it means."

"Well, maybe I do. Can you tell me what he told you?"

She nodded again and brought her knees up to her chest. "He said that the world was full of this sickness called quirks and that he was working to cure everyone of it."

"Quirks…"

"What is that?"

"Oh, uh…" Izuku didn't really know what to say. He had never met someone who didn't know what a quirk was. "Hmm, I guess you could say that a quirk is kinda like a superpower."

"What's a superpower?"

"A superpower is something that a person has that isn't normal. Like some people are really strong and can lift thousands of pounds and some can run really fast. Some can make explosions or heal other people. Does that make sense?"

The girl nodded intently before looking back up at Izuku, her eyes significantly brighter than they were when he first saw her. "Do you have a superpower?"

Izuku sighed, "I did…"

"What happened? Did you lose it?"

"Not exactly. I was in a fight with a very bad man, and he stole it from me."

The girl pouted again and pulled at the covers beneath her. "I'm sorry. What was your superpower?"

"I could…um, it's kind of hard to explain."

"That's okay. So, can I ask why you're here again?"

"Oh!" Izuku blushed slightly at the realization that he had gotten on a tangent and shuttered out a breath. "Well, Chisaki is also a very bad man and me and a couple of my friends heard that he was hurting you…so we uh, came to save you."

"Save me?"

Izuku nodded and gave her a soft smile, "Is…is that okay?"

She was quiet for a moment. Izuku could feel his anxiety grow the longer she was silent. What if she didn't want to be saved? He couldn't exactly force her to leave with him and even if he did, what was he going to do with her? What if-

"Yes." His spiraling thoughts were cut off by her soft voice and the feeling of her way too light body crashing into his. She wrapped her small arms around his neck and Izuku sat there frozen for a moment before he wrapped his own arms around her and picked her up.

"Alright. Now, I'm going to need you to hold on very tight. Leaving isn't going to be easy, but luckily my friends are very powerful and can help protect us, okay?"

Eri nodded into his neck and tightened her grip on him.

It was honestly very easy to hold her. She weighed light as a feather, but even if she didn't, he hadn't lost all of his muscle mass in the hospital. Plus, the adrenaline racing through his veins mixed with his unwavering determination made him feel invincible even with the little voice in the back of his head reminding him that he wasn't anymore.

He could do this…he had to do this.

He tightened his hold on the girl and braced to face whatever was waiting them on the other side of this room.