He wasn't a negotiator. No matter the context or definition you gave the word, it wasn't something that could be used to describe him at all. He was direct and cold and closed off, all barriers that had been carefully put in place in order to keep himself as safe as possible from the hell that emotional attachment could be. In most cases, it worked as intended, though he suspected that in certain, very specific situations, it could backfire. The one class he'd been failing back at U.A. had been 'Crisis Management'—it wasn't a class as much as it was a preparation course for getting their licenses, but well— because of how he acted during the simulations of hostage situations. In his defense, designating a fourteen-year-old as the negotiator of a possibly deadly situation was just counterproductive, not to mention irresponsible. Police negotiators were trained for those things and there was no way that he or any of his classmates would ever have to do such a job out in the field. He wasn't meant to know what to do and he couldn't be blamed for not wanting to negotiate with a madman, no matter what Miss Midnight said. Considering the course didn't even count as a subject, in the end, Shoto had just kinda let it pass without much worry.

Right now, looking around, he half wished he'd have one of his more social classmates by his side. Because he was definitely the most level-headed person in the car at the moment, but he didn't know how to deal with any of the things unraveling at the time.

The phone had just chimed a little and Spinner had read aloud the first five words of the message before the car abruptly stopped with enough force to send all of them tumbling forward in their seats—the crash taught them all to wear their seatbelts, but it was still rough.

The messages were cold and direct, not unlike something Shoto might have written himself under different circumstances. Spinner read them in a surprisingly steady voice but the phone ended up in everyone's hands regardless, just in case. The three little text messages read as follows:

9:34 - Midoriya Izuku is still alive, but we are unaware as to how long this will remain the truth.

9:35 - We are your only realistic shot at getting him back. Be at the pinned location in thirty minutes to commence negotiations. If you call this number, the deal is off.

9:35 - ? [ Location ]

That's it. Short, authoritative, demanding, and with a time limit. How were they supposed to react? Had they been on the phone with this person, then maybe something could have been done but the instructions forbade that. This was an order, not a suggestion.

How would a trained professional deal with something like that? How would his teachers or his classmates handle such a thing? How would a normal, centered person take all this in? Not like there was one such person in the car at the moment, mind you.

Toga was seething, eyes narrowed and voice low in pitch as she offered to cut whoever had taken Midoriya. Spinner and Touya were analyzing the texts for everything they were worth to try and decide if Curious was on the other end of the line. They couldn't handle another trap, Shoto thought as his shoulder ached. Plans and theories and threats floated around the small space of the car but Shoto found his attention drifting. Because while his most focused side wanted to join in and discuss things, the side of him he most disliked centered on the other silent member of the party.

To give the man credit, Stain was a lot more… still, than Shoto anticipated him to be. The car wasn't speeding down the highway towards their new mystery location, and the steering wheel was still attached to the rest of the vehicle despite how pale the man's knuckles were. But Shoto wasn't fooled. He could perfectly feel the electricity building up in the air and the most basic of instincts told him to back away before this man reached his breaking point. It wasn't just the fact that he knew what the Hero Killer was like when truly angered, though the memory was still rather fresh. No, it was something that went deeper. Older. Much more familiar.

"So, are we going?" Shoto asked his elder, confirming that there was no sane person in the car after all. Red eyes locked with his own on the rearview mirror and there was a brief moment of silence. Barriers in place and heartbeat stable, Shoto looked back evenly with an ease that surprised him. Since when was red less horrifying than blue?

"We have to go," Toga hissed, nodding at Stain.

"What if it's a trap?" Touya tried to say.

"If? It has to be, right? Who else would reach out to us like this about Midoriya?" Spinner sounded a lot more thoughtful than usual.

"We don't have time for this, though!"

"We need a plan, you lunatic. We're not jumping in blind."

"What other option is there?"

The bang of Stain's fist hitting the wheel was so absurdly loud and sudden that they were all shocked into silence. A second later the man got another two hits in for good measure as if hitting an inanimate object would do anything to clear his mind. More familiar behavior that Shoto cared little for.

"You want a plan?" Stain hissed dangerously, shoulders shaking, "You're all wounded, some of you can't even stand on your own, our one guarantee of real hero assistance double-crossed us, whoever this Curious woman is she's just toying with us, and we have no idea where Izuku even is yet."

As words kept on coming, Stain's voice got louder and louder. His aura darkened and the air inside the crappy car became hard to breathe. The glare was aimed at them all equally. It was pure rage and God knows what else and some of Shoto's muscles tensed in horrible anticipation. But there was no attack, no movement.

"I'm going to this place and I'm either getting Izuku back or killing every fucking thing that gets in my way, you lot included. So either shut up or get the hell out of the car. How's that for a plan?"

Now, how would an average person react to that? He could almost imagine Midoriya stuttering an attempt at easing the tension between his mentor and the others. The green-haired teen would probably be able to pull that off, Shoto reasoned. No matter how murderous or inhuman Stain came off as, Midoriya always found a way to interpret it positively for the rest of them. Not only that, but the Hero Killer seemed to become an entirely different creature when it came to the quirkless boy. It was a bizarre dynamic that seemed to catch everyone as off guard as Shoto had felt the first time he noticed. And sure, it was odd because of the people involved and because of their lifestyle and because of another million things, but the weirdest thing was the sheer simplicity of it all. To Shoto, it was something that he knew should feel familiar and known, but it didn't.

It'd messed him up from the very beginning. He remembered what talking to Midoriya that first time had been like, how much anger and confusion he'd felt upon seeing how determined this other kid was when, really, rescuing a serial killer made no sense. But what had actually flooded through him that day was frustration. Pure, unblinded frustration at the fact that he'd seen first hand what the Hero Killer was capable of when it came to Midoriya Izuku. Where others wouldn't bat an eye at the loss of a pawn, Stain had shown a level of concern that Shoto had never seen before, ever. He had three siblings, a mother, and a father, and yet he'd never seen such genuine concern. It was wrong, wasn't it? It had to be. So he'd asked, but then Midoriya had compared Stain to Endeavor of all people and Shoto's emotions had spiked again because it was nothing like that and he didn't know which situation was more messed up. At moments like this, several weeks later, Shoto became subtly aware of the fact that he hadn't come down from that spike just yet.

Shoto blinked, forcing down emotions with practiced brutality. Frost formed at his fingertips and the cold grounded him enough to think straight again.

"What was the address?" His words seemed to break the spell. Toga read the address aloud, then showed the map to Stain briefly. The phone was hooked up to the car and so she just left the map open while Stain drove.

"Get ready." Stain told them as he put the car back in gear and drove off. Twenty Five minutes was not enough time to gear up, but they did their best. Spinner loaded up and made sure the rifle was working, even though he'd done that at least twice in the last two hours. Toga, usually more reserved about certain things, just outwardly asked for blood and Dabi relented because he 'owed her for the staples'. It was almost normal, in a really fractured way.

The location wasn't that far away, which meant they'd either gotten really lucky or they were being watched by some unknown group yet again. Unless this was still Curious, in which case then they never stopped getting tracked. Shoto wasn't sure which option was most disheartening. They drove down some alleys and up unto a collection of small warehouse structures that looked about ready to crumble. Slowly the car advanced over the rough terrain, bouncing around enough for one of them to hiss in pain. Somehow, that last stretch of the road felt like the worst one of the entire trek, all eyes shifting from one side to another in search of movement. There was a wall at the end of the road and Stain stopped the car once he had nowhere else to go. He kept the engine running, just in case, but Shoto had a feeling that none of them expected to make a grand escape at this point. They were all tired and wounded, and running just didn't seem like a viable option anymore.

The first figure appeared in front of them rather openly, not a hint of hesitation in their stance. The phone started ringing right about when the second figure materialized behind the car and Toga picked up as fast as lightning.

"Step out of the vehicle, Hero Killer. All of you." The voice on the other end of the line was male and cold, in a way. Touya rolled his eyes and Toga scoffed, but neither talked without Stain's cue.

"And why would we do that, exactly?"

"My boss is waiting for you further ahead, but we require you to come to us."

"You can tell your boss I'm done being dragged around."

"Sorry, but that's not an option. We will take you to a safe location."

"Safe location, my ass," Spinner murmured. He steadied his aim on the figure at the front. Whoever it was, they did not flinch.

"We would very much prefer it if you didn't take out our men. They are simply there to assure the safety of the rendezvous point."

"Lovely," Touya mumbled.

"We don't require your security detail." Stain said, glaring at one of the men.

"I understand you and your team are very capable, but I had to take precautions considering you have the… tendency to get found by undesired third parties."

"You prick, who t–" Spinner looked about ready to fight the guy on the phone, but Stain raised a hand to keep him silent. Stain exhaled slowly and Shoto swallowed.

"What do you want from us? You can at least tell me that." Stain's voice was gruff and reminded Shoto of a groaning structure teetering on the edge of collapse. He wouldn't admit it, but it was honestly a tad terrifying.

"We just want to make sure that your car isn't bein–"

"Don't test me. You know what I meant."

To the unknown man's credit, there was a brief pause of consideration on his end.

"Both of our immediate agendas align, Hero Killer. This would be exclusively a business transaction born out of a need on both sides, with both our benefit in mind."

That familiar sense of dread started clawing at Shoto's throat. He recognized the tense shoulders and excessively deep breathing and he knew all too well what came afterward. He wasn't normally afraid of the Hero Killer, but Midoriya was gone and his shoulder ached right where the knife had hit him back in Hosu. He braced for the impact, for the shattered phone and the screaming and the cursing and the bloated ego, and then Stain muted their end of the line and Shoto's hand froze over and–

"This may very well be a trap," Stain said eventually, voice far more controlled than before. Shoto frowned, feeling absolutely disoriented. When expecting an explosion, silence can shock you just as badly.

"Last chance." The older man finished, giving everyone a very open invitation, an honest offer if his eyes showed his real intentions, to jump ship. Everyone seemed just as taken back as he felt, though he doubted it was for the same reasons.

"What?" Shoto asked dumbly. Stain didn't turn to face them directly, but he did adjust the rearview mirror to at least make eye contact.

"Last time I trusted someone with a deal I got arrested. That was fine because my role as messenger of my philosophy entails direct danger for me, but… You entrusted yourself to my work and you accepted those same risks and I fully expect you to live up to that. But this is different. This is no mission for the Hero Killer as a figure. And you are not obligated to do it."

Silence, brief but powerful. There was an odd mix of disbelief and tiredness on everyone's faces and Shoto's entire body felt like lead. This was just… wrong. Was that the word?

"You're going, aren't you?" Toga asked.

"I am." Was the resolute response.

'They both get to decide their own paths in life. They deserve that much.' The phrase rang inside his head and Shoto half thought he was lurching forward and into another unwanted spike of emotion. This wasn't right. Or fair? Maybe that was the word he was looking for. He clenched his teeth with enough strength to crack his jaw, though only Touya and Stain himself seemed to notice. This conversation didn't belong in this car, at that moment, with these individuals. It was too much and Shoto didn't think he could handle it at the moment. Almost as a reflex, he reached for the cursed scar over his eye.

"I'm going with you." Spinner was the one to break the silence.

"This could be a suicide mission." Stain replied eventually, eyes sliding towards the mutant.

"Aren't all of them?" Touya asked, earning a scoff.

"This isn't up for debate." Toga said tersely, knife dangerously spinning in between her fingers with a level of dexterity that hid how injured she was after the crash. "I'm going too."

Red met mismatched grey and blue and Shoto exhaled. When had his life turned so harshly? When had these decisions become a normal, expected thing from him? When had he started caring about kids with green hair, when had he started appreciating the way others simply called him by his first name rather than his cursed last name? And when, oh when, had red gotten so much more understanding than blue?

"I think Midoriya would do the same for us."

Something flashed behind red irises, something that Shoto decided not to analyze if only to keep his own emotions in check.

"If he's in, I'm in." Touya shrugged one shoulder. Stain turned his head just enough to look at the ragtag bunch of strays piled up in the car with him, honest looks meeting his own. He took a moment to just process the image, nodding to himself and then exhaling deeply. Abruptly a weird chuckle escaped his lips and he rubbed the space between his eyes with an odd expression.

"You're all fucking hopeless." The man murmured, unmuting the call. As fast as it had come, the weird emotion on his face dissipated.

"Fine. We'll go meet your boss."

"Excellent. Please–"

"You better know that the last person that tried to play me for a fool got stabbed in the side."

A pause, some murmured words too quiet to make out.

"If you could please hand the phone over to one of my men. Leave it on."

The call ended and they all let out a collective sigh. It wasn't a relief, not by a long shot, but at least it felt like progress. At last, they seemed to be moving somewhere, though they had yet to see if it was just towards an endless void.

The two men outside the car nodded at Stain and then pointed to one of the little paths that led behind one of the derelict buildings. Stain, however, waited for everyone to be ready before he started moving. Touya jumped out of the car and stretched as much as he dared, his back popping loudly. He then bowed mockingly at Spinner, hand offered.

"Alright, Green Boi. Let's go."

"Fucking… Green Boy?" Spinner attempted to get out of the car on his own, but his bad leg made him stumble.

"Boi. With an i." Touya wrapped Spinner's arm around his shoulders with an almost cheeky smile. Spinner rolled his eyes and grunted something, but didn't push the other man away. Once again, their warped normality attempted to peek through the haze of stress and horror that enveloped them. The word 'nostalgia' crossed Shoto's mind, but the teen didn't have any memories worthy of conjuring up at the moment. At least not any memories that were any older than two months.

He didn't ask and she didn't offer, but Toga swiftly placed his good arm over her shoulder and placed a gentle hand on his hip, smile small but there. The two men from before didn't guide them, instead going straight for the car and popping the hood. They rounded the building, walked down a small path, and found a plain, but very spacious car awaiting them with three men standing around. One of them, a young man with horns, stepped up to Stain and asked for the phone, which the Hero Killer handed over after only the briefest of pauses. The man nodded and then walked behind the car, revving up a motorcycle and leaving without another word. There was a brief pause amongst them, all eyes scanning around to try and find any hint of an issue. The place was barren except for the vehicle and the two remaining guys standing outside it.

"Stay sharp," Toga whispered at him, narrowing her eyes at the two strangers. One was dressed in all black with a mask covering the lower half of his face, and the other one wore a white cloak and a bizarre, elongated mask that covered all of his face. They both seemed to be carrying guns, and while Shoto was aware of the disadvantage those weapons had on close quarters he wasn't stupid enough to let his guard down.

"If you will, please." The man in white nodded at them, voice still recognizable enough to place him as the voice over the phone just moments prior. The other guy opened the doors of the car and Shoto caught sight of the interior; the seats were placed in the same way as they would be in the back of a limousine, forcing all occupants to face one another at all moments. It looked fancy and clean and there seemed to be one more person already inside. It was… definitely not what he'd expected. And he suspected it wasn't what Stain had been expecting either if his brief hesitation was anything to go by. But he shook it off easily, stepping into the car and gesturing for the others to follow.

They all piled into the car one after another, Spinner sitting closest to the door with Touya's help. The one stranger in the back of the car with them wore a mask just like the guy outside the car, though this one was gold and red, and he watched them all in silence, small eyes flicking from one person to another. Stain placed himself between the new man and his team, probably fully aware that he was the only person amongst them that could put up a real fight if things went south—a very real probability considering their recent luck. Knowing that they could handle no more twists of fate, no one truly relaxed in their seat, backs tense and muscles slightly flexed. The stranger gave them all one more thorough look before addressing Stain directly.

"I apologize for the meeting place and time, I was forced to act much sooner than planned."

Formal, cold, almost uninterested. Immediately he struck Shoto as the businessman type, not unlike the people that tended to visit Endeavor to discuss things like image and merchandise. The difference between them and this stranger was even more obvious when you took into account that this man looked well-rested and clean while they looked like they'd been dragged through the sewers.

"Where is my student?" Stain asked flatly. Behind him, Toga's eyes flashed.

"Straight to the point, huh?" The other man asked.

Instead of replying, Stain narrowed his eyes. The other man didn't look offended, reaching into his pocket and pulling out something that looked like papers. He placed them on the seat between Stain and himself, visibly avoiding any direct contact with the other man. He wore white gloves, Shoto noticed, which seemed like an odd choice; wouldn't they get obviously dirty almost immediately? Stain reached for the small stack of papers and turned them around, eyeing them with sharp red irises.

Izuku wasn't there, and so no one noticed the perfectly hidden emotion that threatened to take over the Hero Killer. They did, however, notice the way his shoulders tensed. Toga held out her hand to see the papers herself, surprising Shoto slightly by how controlled she was all of a sudden, but Stain didn't hand them over right away.

"Those are from a few hours ago. And we're keeping an eye on him." The stranger said, eyeing the other man very carefully. Stain's jaw clenched. He kept one of the papers in his hand and gave the rest to Toga, who immediately trembled. It was odd, watching her just kinda observe the pages with wide eyes, silent. They were usually all so loud, so talkative and abrasive, he just… didn't like it. But then the pages got to him and he understood; photos of Midoriya, not unlike the one they'd gotten before, though he somehow looked worse in a few of them. They all seemed to have been taken rather quickly, barely any difference in position from one to the other.

"I'm sure we can come to an agreement that leaves both parties satisfied?" The man asked, gloved hand poised in a welcoming gesture. Stain's frame shook briefly, and then the man sighed.

"What do you want?"

Behind the bird-like mask, yellow eyes flashed with bored satisfaction.