Summary: Izuku learns just how cruel Overhaul can be when she learns just what he does to Eri, and just how far-reaching his influence was. In the process, she learns more about herself and becomes another unwilling pawn in the Yakuza's drive to become the next underworld king.


Chapter 6: Apathy

As she expected, their brief moment of peace ended when Overhaul walked in, not even bothering to knock first. The appearance of the man caused both girls to shiver in fear, more so Eri as she tried to hide in Izuku's chest, with the older girl holding onto her, scared that she might disappear. "You finished your food." Overhaul stated, looking at the empty plates and cups on the table.

"We did," Izuku replied, holding Eri a little tighter as the man nodded before he turned on his heel and walked out.

"Good, let's go, we have a busy schedule to keep today." Overhaul didn't turn back to see if they listened, not needing to do it as Midoriya reluctantly got to her feet, Eri still in her arms as she walked out of their room, the door being closed behind them as they followed after Overhaul.

"Midoriya-san, I see that the two of you have gotten along nicely, haven't you?" Overhaul inquired, as he hadn't seen the both of them in the 3 days she had been there, leaving all the responsibility of caring for his child to Midoriya, and while she would be concerned that a father would just vanish like he does, in his case she wished he never came back.

"We have." Izuku kept her response short, but it didn't seem to phase the man who nodded his head, half listening as he thought about who knew what else.

"That's good. All my past attempts to find someone to look after her that she liked sadly failed, it seems that outsourcing it was the right call." She had heard, first from the woman that brought their first meal to them, how the men he used to assign her wouldn't be able to hold the girl without her crying, and second from their guard who made sure they didn't attempt to leave the room, and how the last person that he assigned to watch Eri had been…taken care of in the wake of her last near successful escape attempt.

"Still, this is your first time seeing it, so I expect you to handle it like an adult." Overhaul's words left her with a seeking feeling in her chest.

"See what?"

"Eri's a cursed child, far more than all the others out there," Midoriya had to bite her tongue to not refute him on that, both his views on quirks and his horrible views on Eri, the girl in question trying to hide her face even deeper in her chest as she whimpered. "However, there is a silver lining of sorts when it comes to her." He finally led them to another door, which looked like all the others down here, making it clear this was a design choice to confuse intruders.

Chrono, who had been with them the entire time, but was as silent as a mouse, opened the door to the room. Inside, it was as sterile as she had come to expect but what was different about this room was the presence of the chair in the centre, the same kind one would find in a hospital which patients would sit in as they're examined. No, Izuku was incorrect as when the light was turned on, she saw that the chair had restrained built into it, restraints that looked used with how worn they were, making it clear that this was less for making someone feel better and more for ensuring they didn't move as you made them feel worse. Along with a table next to it which had numerous medical tools placed on it

"And I intend to make full use of it." Overhaul finished as Chrono stepped forward, his intentions clear as Izuku held onto Eri tighter, not willing to let them put her into whatever the chair was for, she'll sooner place herself into it than allow them to do it to her blessing. However, Overhaul's gaze made it clear that her resistance would only bring them both pain so with a heavy heart, and a apologetic look towards the little girl, she unenthusiastically handed her over to Chrono.

As Chrono removed the fresh bandages that Izuku had applied to Eri after her bath, Overhaul's gaze remained on her, watching her like a lab rat about to be taken from its cage for whatever experiment he wished to use her for. "Also, for the sake of my curiosity, you'll be examined as well, you are the first quirkless person I've had the chance to look over younger than 40." Her eyes widened there, what did he mean by that? Did he cut them up to examine them? Why would he need to do that? Quirkless were the default for almost all of human history, there were countless books, videos and other information about them, about her.

She wasn't given any more time to think about it as Eri, with her scarred arms visible, was placed into the chair and strapped down. Chrono came to her side, his reasoning made clear when she saw Overhaul pick up his first tool, a scalpel and begin cutting into her without any anaesthetic, her cries and whimpers forcing her to jump at Overhaul, consequences be damned but she never got close as from his hood, something shot out and pricked Izuku in the back, dropping her to the floor where she found she couldn't move, no-she could but it was extremely slow, cold comfort as she yelled for them to stop but to no avail as the man merely paused to look at the way as if she was a petulant child before he went back to it.

Izuku didn't know how much time passed, it felt like hours, but it could have only been minutes, all that she knew was that Chrono kept stabbing her with that weird hair of his which kept her down, kept her useless. But she wasn't the one suffering right now, Eri was, she was in a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. All while Chrono and Overhaul carried out a conversation as if their screams and cries were silent. By the time it ended, Eri was a bloody mess, as Overhaul harvested the last of her body, leaving her looking less like a little girl and more like a used cadaver from some medical school.

"She still alive boss?" Chrono asked, Izuku's eyes widening as she looked her way, her heart breaking when she noticed her little chest was moving, that it was still.

"No, she just expired." Izuku started to tear up as she was faced with the truth, only barely hearing Overhaul add. "Give me a second to correct that." She looked without thinking, saw the man remove one of his gloves, and reached for Eri's corpse. With but a touch, she was restored to how she was before they started, the girl taking a deep, surprised breath as a life filled her once more, only for that to be replaced with dread and terror as she realized what had happened, the girl having the same look on her face Izuku would have after a particularly bad time with Kacchan and his bullying. She only got that look when it became an occurring thing, did…did this happen before? How many times had this monster killed her?

Uncaring for both their terror, the man unstrapped Eri from the chair and placed her down on wobbly feet, no doubt mentally and physically exhausted after that nightmarish experience as the man turned to the side where he had placed the harvested flesh and bone into neat, sterile red containers, while the blood he collected was stored in 3 bags. Seeing his ill-gotten loot, the man nodded his head. "Looks like altering her meals was a good thing, we managed to get a little more blood this time around before she bit the bullet." He seemed happy with that, Izuku not knowing what he planned to do with it as he turned to her and Chrono, the map forcing her up as she was still unable to move.

"Now, it's your turn, Midoriya-san." She was soon strapped to the same chair, the man reaching for fresh tools while Eri, poor exhausted and terrified Eri was held back this time, her look breaking her already strained heart as she looked like she believed she was the cause of this, that she as what Overhaul said she was.


"That was a rather productive session." Overhaul noted as the two walked down the halls back to Midoriya and Eri's room. The two girls were too exhausted from the hell they had been put through to walk on their power and were instead being carried by two of his goons, Izuku thrown over one shoulder like a sake of flour.

"So it would seem, shall I get started on the project?" Chrono asked, not giving away details as to what he was planning or why they needed to extract so much from the two that they died.

"Yeah, but make sure to test Midoriya-san's blood first, I want to see what we can learn from it." Overhaul replied as they reached the room and opened the door, letting the two goons walk in and dump them on the bed.

"As you wish, Overhaul." With that, Chrono walked away to begin his task as Overhaul looked over the two.

"You'll get your lunch at the normal time, try to rest till then." He said as he walked out, the door closing behind them with a click as the lock was engaged. Even if it was wide open, Izuku didn't have the energy to try to leave, her body and mind pushed far past their limits as she lay on the bed, a sweaty mess as she tried to comprehend it. she knew that she should look horrible, Overhaul hadn't been keen to hold back as like with Eri, he harvested all that he wished, her blood, her bone, muscles, even spinal fluid. She looked at her body, the parts visible through the kimono, now dirty, but instead of seeing scarred flesh, it was the same as before.

Ready for another session, one that like the first, would leave next to no proof. No proof of the blood loss, the missing tissue, or the numerous cuts. Nothing of the fact he ever tore into her like a rapid beast that thought itself a doctor. All of it was too much as she felt her consciousness fade, but she soldiered on before she wasn't the only one suffering, not even close as she crawled over the bed to Eri, the girl crying her little heart out. "Eri."

"I'm sorry-" Eri started to babble out an apology but Izuku wouldn't let her as she got to her, taking her crying body into her warm arms, letting her latch onto her like a baby koala.

"You have nothing to be sorry about." Despite how weak she was, her words carried a strength to them that Eri couldn't help but notice. "This was, is and will never be your fault, never forget that," Izuku told her, she refused to let her ever entertain the idea she was to blame for any of this, not so long as she lived-no, even if she died, she'll return as a ghost and make sure she never forgot.

"But…But he only brought you here because…because of me." Eri teared up as Izuku combed a hand through her messy hair, she'll need to help the girl wash it later but that wasn't important.

"No." She started as she moved back a little, looking deep into Eri's scared, hurt and haunted red eyes. "He brought me here, he hurts us because he's a bad man, and bad people don't need reasons to act, they do what they want…just because they can." She breathed out, thinking back on all the times she was bullied, all the times Kac-Bakugo went out of his way to make her day miserable. She had never wronged him, she had done her best to be in his corner, to help him be the best hero he could be…but it was never enough.

"Do you want to draw, like we did yesterday?" Izuku asked, trying to change the subject as she gestured to the little table in the corner, one that had paper and crayons all over it. Burying her head into her chest while still shaking, Eri nodded as Izuku forced herself to move her arms strained as she carried Eri over, plopping into the chair that nearly buckled under their combined weight as she picked up some fresh paper and handed Eri one of the crayons before the two get started. They would spend the rest of the day doing just that, drawing and colouring in whatever came to mind. A green tiger, a blue pig, a yellow ocean and a blue bench-it didn't matter as Izuku did her best to help Eri cope, to help her be the child she deserved to be.


"Boss?" Chrono asked as Overhaul looked over the results from the rapid test the man had conducted, as he was ordered.

"It's just as I hoped. She's truly quirkless, clean of the disease that has infected society." Overhaul stated, a dark glint in his eyes as he looked over the results and saw there was no sign of the quirk gene in Midoriya's body, from her blood, bone, spine or muscles.

"Which means she can be used as a good baseline for how well the bullets do their job," Chrono replied before they could only use results from older people, but as most of their intended targets were younger than that.

"Yes, but theirs is something else." Chrono rose an eyebrow. "Compared to the results from all the other quirkless I've examined, hers are mutated."

"Mutated? She seemed healthy to me." Chrono said, but Overhaul didn't see it fit to tell him any more details at the moment, instead, he waved him off.

"Get some of the blood we have from the grunts, I want to test something." He ordered the man as his gaze never left the screen that displayed the results, with Chrono moving to carry out his instructions as he went to the back of the lab to collect some of the blood samples they had from the grunts.

This, unfortunately, become the norm for the girls as over the following weeks, they fell into a pattern. Overhaul would harvest what he called 'research material' from them one day, and allow them much-needed rest the next. They never saw the sun or sky anymore, but Izuku was sure that 3 months passed for them, over 3 months since she was kidnapped. There was hope a month in, as an error by one of the guards allowed them to make a break for an exit, only for them to run right into a pro, a local one by the name of Lady Mystery if she was correct. She explained the short of it to her and begged that she help them out and she smiled as she told them she would.

Izuku thought they were safe, Izuku thought the nightmare was over.

She was wrong.

Lady Mystery returned them to the front door of the complex she had been kept, being greeted by Chrono who led them inside. She nearly lost her lunch when she was sat in a reception area and spoke with Overhaul, with the…with Overhaul giving her some bogus story about how they were his daughter and cousin respectively, that they both suffered from mental issues that meant they were prone to crazy storied and hurting themselves. Izuku couldn't believe her ears, it was lies-all of it yet Lady Mystery brought it, she looked them both in their eyes, and saw that they needed a hero.

And left them. She took the clear bribe from the small one and walked right out the door.

Their punishment for trying to escape didn't hurt nearly as much as the knowledge that Overhaul had even pros in his pocket, ready to look the other way for him. As he tore their arms off and left them screaming in pain on the floor, Izuku found that it hurt more to know that she couldn't trust the pros to save them, to save Eri.

In the aftermath, she resigned herself to their fate, her hope that help will one day come gone. Izuku spent the rest of the days doing her best to keep herself together, even as she felt like she tearing at the seams. So she focused on distracting Eri and herself from the hell they lived in as she would play small games with her, talk about her mother and family trips, about nature and animals, foods and anything that came to mind. Eri wasn't the best with her words, no more than any other child her age so Izuku gave her the same solution her mother did when she noticed her daughter seemed to have all sorts of ideas bursting out of her, a crayon and paper.

Out of all their activities, Eri gravitated towards drawing more than anything else, but while other kids would draw innocent things, or in her case, All Might and other heroes, Eri drew what she saw in her nightmares, and while they looked different, they all shared the same thing. The plague masks.


"It seems we found another golden goose, Chrono." Overhaul smiled under his mask as he watched the latest batch of test subjects being carted off, all of them looking like they put on over 100kg of muscle in the last few minutes, leaving the cloak-haired Yakuza confused as to what had happened to them as he hadn't been present when Overhaul started his latest experiment.

"How so?" He asked the man as he handed him a clipboard which contained the results of 45 different tests, each done to compare how their quirk-suppressing drug could match up the blood of those exposed to it, to the blood of a quirkless person.

"I've run 30 different tests on 15 different people, and they all show similar results after being exposed to our new product, but not one is close to Midoriya-san's." Overhaul explained as the assistant looked over it and saw that each time, they tried to match the results to Midoriya's blood, there was always the same difference-one that involved the mutation that picked up in their first test of her blood.

"Doesn't that just mean the formula needs improvements? We've only worked on it for the last 7 months." He asked the man, who shook his head, chuckling as if he found it funny, or perhaps whatever he believed to be the case was something he was pleased with.

"No, I compared them to the older quirkless samples and they are a match, so I asked myself what was different about her?" Overhaul replied as Chrono realised what he meant.

"The mutation."

Overhaul nodded at that before he continued. "Yes, I thought it was minor, a small thing considering that she's healthy and normal in just about every way, but turns out it's not." He gave him another clipboard, one which seemed to solely contain results from tests the man run with Midoriya's samples of blood, bone, muscle, and even spinal fluid.

"I exposed her cells to minor pathogens, viruses and the like, to test what their reaction will be." Chrono's eye raised when he saw the results of all 18 tests. "They fought it off." For a seemingly normal girl, this was unexpected but he could see why the young master was pleased with this if they could find a way to artificially recreate this, they could market it as an immune booster. However, Overhaul had much bigger plans than that as he turned to his assistant, the last of the test subjects taken away to be monitored or placed into cold storage if they died in the meantime.

"I went from there and found that her cells show a remarkable resilience to harmful intruders, even drugs." His eye seemed to take on a glint to them, a smile no doubt on his face ."Drugs like trigger." Chrono's own eyes widen underneath his mask as he realized what his master saw in this, why those yakuza 'volunteers' seemed hulked out.

"Trigger? But isn't that a quirk booster?" They had been selling the stuff for almost a year now, starting shortly after Overhaul took control of the Shie Hassaikai as a means to gather funds and influence for their quirk deleter project.

"Not all strains, I used the strain we're developing based on the Caribbean variant, it focuses more as a quick-acting steroid than a quirk booster but it has many more adverse side effects." Chrono spared a glance to the empty room they had been overlooking, now empty but he supposed that would explain why those men looked bulked up on what should have been a quirk boaster. However, he also knew that the drug was extremely addictive and that it deteriorated the muscles and brain after multiple doses. A fact made worse by its addictive nature, and stood a good chance the drug could kill you. Frankly, he would be surprised if 4 of the 12 that Overhaul had injected with the stuff would be able to form sentences in a week.

"And her cells withstood it?" He asked his master, who nodded.

"Without issue, and I've run the rest 4 times now, no failures over 48 hours." Chrono felt like this girl was full of surprises, as 4 doses of the stuff with no apparent damage to the body? That was unheard of. But as he looked over the results, he found that, unlike others, where the effects seemed to last around an hour, her cells retained their augmented performance and appearance for over 3. Looking back on his master, he could see that the man was ecstatic, as giddy as a child in a candy store, giving Chrono the sense that he had done more tests with her cells after he discovered this apparent miracle of science and biology.

The only question was what that was. If his earlier theory about them selling a product made from her cells as an immune booster wasn't completely wrong, perhaps he planned to sell it as a side with trigger, as a means to limit its effects on the users to get better results and keep them alive longer. No, that might be too much as they'll either need to take the immune booster first, else they'll run the risk of their diminished sense of reasoning preventing them from taking that second step, or they'll need to-He realized that his master was thinking of.

Seeing that his assistant and right-hand man had caught on, Overhaul spoke up. "I also found that it reacts that if added before the final product is finalised, it creates a much stronger version of Trigger. One that seems to boast all physical attributes from strength to healing." He held up the finished product in question, one that wasn't the standard green but a deep red.

"Now, all I have to do is stabilize the product since as it stands, it's unfortunately too unstable to be used." Overhaul didn't seem to mind that he may have killed a dozen of his people, but they could be replaced and if they needed more, there was a thriving market where they could acquire test subjects.

"Are you saying that-"

"If Eri can give us a way to suppress and destroy quirks, wouldn't it be beneficial to have a means to boast clients, or create enforcers immune to quirk suppression?" He asked Chrono, who smiled underneath his mask-same as his master as this was a game changer. Suped-up Yakuza would be able to take back lost territory and build them back up to the glory days while ensuring villains and heroes alike wouldn't be able to challenge, not when they hold a monopoly on a drug that destroys and restores quirks.

Placing the soon-to-be-surpassed trigger, Overhaul mused over the prototype he held in his hands, gazing into its crimson depths that held the same promise for his plans as the quirk deleters. "You know, they use the venom of poisonous animals to help treat illness…so why not use this new venom to do the same for hero society?" Yes, that would be a good name for it, now he had work to do to ensure it would be something they could sell. However, his good mood was ruined when one of his men, a more trusted one as they wore a plague mask, came in.

"What is it?" Overhaul asked him, his good mood gone as he glared at the man who shivered as he bowed to him avoiding eye contact.

"Excuse me, sir, but there is an issue that might require your attention." The Eight Bullet member reported to him as Overhaul hummed at that, hoping that this wasn't a waste of time.

"What?"

"It involves Eri, sir. There's been an incident." The man replied as the two followed after him.


Of all the things he was expecting to see, Overhaul wasn't expecting to approach Eri and Midoriya's room and see them along with several others yelling at each other. The girl grasped Eri close to her while the man she was yelling at had some glass shards still on him. "And here I was expecting the two of you to behave. Especially after the little incident with the hero." Both flinched at the reminder as he reached to remove his glove. "Now I have to punish the both of you." He didn't stop as he marched for them but Midoriya quickly placed Eri down, behind her as she faced the man head-on.

"But she did-" Overhaul wasn't in the mood to listen to whatever excuses she had, but he did pause as she got in his way, shaking like a leaf and appearing like even a mere push would send her crashing down, despite that, she still stood before him, head held high. It would be impressive if he wasn't annoyed.

"Are you talking back to me now?" He asked her, the Yakuza no-name she was arguing with showed him the proper respect as he bowed to the man.

"Yes!" He rose a brow at that. Recalling that she seemed to develop a backbone at the weirdest times. "Eri didn't do anything wrong! We were just drawing when he run in and surprised us!" She pointed to the man, as she finished the sentence, her face red from anger as he turned his gaze to the man, seeing him flinch.

"Is that right?" He asked him, with the man quickly raising and fervently denying the accusation.

"It's a lie, boss. I was merely coming in to hand them their dinner." He gestured to the food, which had fallen from the tray he must have been carrying and now was just a mess on the floor by the floor, the sight of which getting his hives to act up as he held back the urge to get someone to clean up the filth. However, while he looked sure of him, Midoriya was just as sure as she put in with no manners.

"That's not true! He barged in and scared us, Eri can't be held responsible for how she acted, she's only a child!" She moved the girl in question more behind her, shielding her from both his gaze and the glare levelled at the two of them from the grunt who yelled back, momentarily forgetting his place as well.

"She threw a glass at me; she could have taken an eye out!" He gestured to the shards still on his person, but it didn't seem like either was about to back down, which was only making him more annoyed as he entertained the thought of just disassembling the both of them and putting them back together, perhaps they'll serve as enough of a wake-up call for them.

"Enough!" Lucky for both of them, Chrono cut their foolishness off before it would have cost them more than this situation always would. At his demand, but shut their mouths and glared at each other, a sight that was damn near comical as the no-one was at least 1.9m tall, far larger and older than the 15-year-old he was arguing with like an idiot, yet here he was. Seeing the silence between them, the clocked-haired man turned to their boss. "Overhaul?"

"Call Nemoto," He ordered the man, getting the grunt to shiver again while Midoriya appeared confused, which made sense as she had only really met Chrono as even Mimic was just the one introduction. However, the reaction from the no-one was telling.

'Whose Nemoto?' Izuku asked herself but didn't voice as she waited along with the rest of this stranger to arrive. It wasn't too long later that he did and as he came to expect, he was dressed in a similar style to Overhaul, only he wore a full black outfit and hat.

"You summoned me, Overhaul?" The man, going by his voice, asked as he bowed to the bomber jacket-wearing criminal.

"Yes, there seems to have been a dispute here, but as you can imagine, both sides claim they're right." He gestured to the both of them as the man turned to them, his plague mask covering his whole face much like Chrono's, leaving nothing for her to judge him by.

"I understand. Girl," His head turned to her. "What is your name?" Izuku would have answered, no point lying when Overhaul already knew all that he wished to about her, but before she could she found herself under a strange voice that compelled her to speak.

"Midoriya Izuku." She clapped her hands over her mouth, confused as to what just happened and why she did that.

"And what is your name?" Nemoto turned his attention to the other one, who looked extremely nervous about this.

"Madarame Choji." He too looked like that was forced out of him, was that Nemoto's quirk? That he could force others to answer his questions? If Overhaul called him here, it couldn't just be that the answers they gave were the truth, did that mean he could extract just the truth from people? Before she could think about it more, the man in the dark cloak turned back to her.

"Midoriya-san, what happened here?" He asked her, and just like before, the words formed in her mouth without her consent as she answered.

"Eri and I were drawing in our room, but then Madarame-san barged in and scared the both of us because we're used to either Overhaul quietly opening the door, or someone else knocking first." She replied as both Overhaul and Chrono spared the now openly sweating man a glance, seeing that his story was false.

"And then what happened?" Nemoto continued.

'I can't stop, his quirk must be a truth extractor type, most likely activated when he asks a question' Midoriya filed that away for later. "Eri, scared, threw the closest thing to her at him, in this case, that was my glass from lunch that hadn't been collected yet." Which was strange if of itself as they normally were given an hour to eat before the plates and such were collected, regardless of if they had finished.

"Interesting, very interesting." Nemoto nodded his head, no doubt this was enough for them but he turned to Madarame. "Madarame-san, what happened here?" The man looked like he wanted to bolt from there, pale and sweaty as if he was about to face the gallows but he had no choice in the issue, he answered.

"I wanted to scare the little brat." A flame of anger burst to life in her chest when she heard that, all this because he wanted to be a bully.

"Do you mean Eri-san?" Nemoto questioned further.

"No, Midoriya." Why did he want to do that, Izuku thought she hadn't done anything that big while here.

"And why is that?" It seemed that Nemoto had a similar question.

"She's been giving the other guys lip, demanding increased portions and certain ingredients in the food for Eri, it was annoying so I thought to scare her so that she would know her place." That…was it? Because she wanted Eri to have more balanced meals? All this because he had to work a little harder? He met her eyes for a moment, and at that moment, he saw pools of acid staring back at him, pools of madness and anger glaring back at him as she knew at that moment she wouldn't lose any sleep if he died right now.

"That's enough, Nemoto, I've heard enough." Overhaul stopped his man, who bowed before he stepped back, taking a place close to Chrono as Overhaul looked her way. "Midoriya-san, it seems that I owe you an apology, you were telling the truth." She wasn't the one he needed to apologise to, it was Eri that was frightened by this clown, but the man didn't seem to care as he turned to the other, his irritation clear for them all as he took some steps toward him.

"As for you, I believe I'm made it clear how I dislike interruptions and this whole debacle drew me away from my work, all because you felt like you needed to stroke your insignificant ego." He admonished the man, he was in such a good mood too, eagerly awaiting the results of their first venom tests.

"I'm sorry bo-!" The man didn't have time to even realise he was dead as one moment, he was begging for his life, the next, he was a bloody mess across the wall with only his legs still intact, legs that fall as Eri screamed at the death before her while Izuku, while stunned at how callous Overhaul was even to his men, found that…she didn't care all that much about the murder itself.

"Save your excuses for the devil, I don't have the time or patience for it." Overhaul didn't change his posture as he reach out again, this time grabbing into Izuku, blowing her leg to pieces as she fell to the floor, screaming in pain at the sudden and brutal loss of her limb.

"Izu!" Eri started to cry as she tried to think of something to do, but once she realized she couldn't do anything, she turned back to Overhaul. "You said she was right!"

"I did, but I don't recall giving her permission to raise her voice at me. A few minutes like this should be sufficient to remind her of that." Overhaul replied as he took out a handkerchief and wiped the few blood spatter off of him, making a note to take a long hot bath after this. However, while he had only intended to let Izuku suffer for a couple of minutes, he noted that she wasn't fading at the same rate anyone else would he reminded him of when he tore her arms off, while Eri had the standard reaction of screams, pain, shock and finally death is around a minute or so, she hadn't seen that far gone.

So he took the chance to observe while he called for a clean-up crew, and for the 10 minutes he took for them arrive-which he made another mental note to remind them of why he liked this clean and how they needed to arrive quickly-he and the rest of them watched as she stubbornly held onto life, having ceased her screaming after around 3 minutes but she was still lucid and conscious past the 5-minute mark, trading soft words with Eri as she tried to smile at the girl, interesting. By the time the clean-up crew arrived, and promptly apologised for their tardiness and started to clean, Izuku was still hanging on but Overhaul had things to do so he repaired the damage to her and had both locked back into their room.

Izuku was exhausted once more, neither had been taken for…that today, but losing a limb like that still took almost all her strength to withstand. She nearly collapsed but leaned against the wall to support herself, only vaguely hearing Eri through her deep, tired breaths as she looked at her, her sweaty face taking in the teary one of Eri as the girl cried her little heart out, apologising. "I'm sorry, I'm, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it, I should have been quiet and did not-" She silenced the girl when she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her, not caring for the fact the left sleeve of her kimono had blood stains.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Eri. Even Overhaul seems to agree." Izuku spoke from her heart, with not a hint of weakness in her words and their meaning.

"But he killed him! He hurt you!" Oh, yes he did, but while she had her issues about how she didn't feel nearly as much for the fact she just witnessed a murder, she kept her focus on Eri.

"Remember what I told you, bad people do bad things because they can. Madarame…" She paused, both before she wished to take a long nap, and because she didn't have much to say about it that wouldn't be straight lies. "We aren't at fault for what happened to him. He was the one that broke the rules…we didn't kill him." She decided against trying to speak of his humanity and focused on the general stuff as Eri cried into her shoulder.

"But Kai hurt you because you defended me, he wouldn't have done it if I wasn-" Izuku pulled away at that, her finger silencing the girl.

"Eri, please little one, don't finish that sentence…" She breathed out, her eyes started to tear up as well as she stared at her little angel, at this innocent light that she wished so badly to help make out of this horrid place. Moving some of her hair out of her face so that she can see all of her, Izuku spoke. "You're a gift, a precious person that I want to protect. Someone I'm oh so lucky to have in my life." Izuku smiled at her, looking much like her mother would when she smiled at her after a nightmare or a bad day.

"…I'm not, I'm a curse, even Mama said I was…" Eri looked down but Izuku wasn't having it as she gently raised her head and gave her a little kiss on the forehead.

"She wasn't a very good mama then, if you like, I can show you what I good mama is like." If she was honest with herself, she didn't know where this was coming from, as she knew what she saying and what its implications would carry. This wouldn't be something she could just give up down the line, even post any possible rescue,

But at the same time, as she looked into Eri's wide, ruby eyes, she found that she was fine with that, that this wouldn't be a burden but a blessing. "How?" She smiled at the question, her heart set.

"By becoming your mother.


Note: No joke, the torture/human experimentation parts were hard to write, not because I couldn't but because they lowered my mood. Lucky for me, I just took breaks and watched a little of Skip to Loafer as that show just wholesomeness all the time.