As he fell through the darkness Shouto kept his eyes on the villain. It was almost like being under the effects of Uraraka's quirk, a weightlessness that made it hard to tell which way was up and where he was falling to, but the only thing that mattered was that Dabi -- Touya? Dabi, for now -- was in front of him. Those blue eyes looked back at him, full of shock and anger and other emotions he couldn't name. They were so familiar now that he realized where he knew them from.
"Touya!" he called. Dabi didn't answer him.
Suddenly the darkness receded and they were being dumped back into reality. Shouto landed hard on a polished wooden floor, falling briefly to his hands and knees, then reared back hurriedly into a sitting position. Dabi had landed splay-legged in front of him, one hand behind himself to hold him upright, the other poised in the air between them as though prepared to defend himself. They stared at each other, each waiting for the other to act, speak, do something. In then end though, it wasn't either of them that broke the silence.
"What the hell Dabi?" said a woman's voice, scratchy and low as though from a lot of angry yelling. "He wasn't one of our targets!"
Dabi's head whipped around to face the source of the noise, and Shouto turned too. They had landed in the corner of a bar room, an empty booth to one side and the rest of the bar to other. Scattered all around the room were more villains. Tomura Shigaraki and the warp villain were there at the bar, along with Toga, Mr. Compress and the man in the black and gray bodysuit. There was also someone with a lizard-like mutation quirk, and the woman who had spoken, neither of which Shouto recognized.
"I didn't bring him!" Dabi protested loudly. "He jumped in after me!"
"Everyone hold on a moment!" began the man in the bodysuit in a low voice, then abruptly switched to a higher, more excited tone. "Let's get him!"
Several of the villains tensed and began to ready themselves to follow the second instruction rather than the first, and Shouto knew he didn't have much time. He placed his right hand on the floor and sent a path of ice shooting for the villains, then once it was far enough away it split off and spread into a semicircle separating Shouto and Dabi from the rest of the room. From there the ice grew upward, creating a thick frozen wall, sealing the two of them in together.
"Touya!" Shouto repeated, turned back to Dabi as soon as they were alone.
"What are you talking about?" Dabi snapped, starting to get his feet under him. "Who's Touya?"
"You're Touya!" Shouto insisted, also starting to get up, but not taking his eyes off Dabi. "My oldest brother! We thought you were dead!"
"Touya is dead!" Dabi said sharply, then shook himself. "I mean, I don't know who that is! I'm not your stupid brother!"
"You are!" Shouto yelled. "He was the only one I ever knew who could make blue flames so easily! I thought he burned himself up, but those scars-"
"My scars are none of your damn business!" Dabi retorted, standing up and pointing an accusatory finger at Shouto. "I ain't no hero's kid!"
"You and I both know Endeavor's no hero!" Shouto said, stumbling as he stood, the mud on his shoes making him slip on the smooth floor. "What did he do to you? He told us you'd died! How did you get here?"
"I'm here because I want to be here," Dabi said evasively. "I'm not who you think I am, so don't go mouthing off to the others!"
There was a faint crack, and Shouto glanced at the ice wall to see vague shapes bearing down on it from the other side. Their time was limited. Dabi clearly didn't want to admit he was Touya, and Shouto could guess why; these thugs he'd fallen in with would likely kill him if they knew he had any connection to a Top Ten Hero. But why would he have joined up with the League of Villains in the first place? Because he agreed with their goals? They didn't seem to have any goals besides killing heroes and hero students as far as Shouto knew. Perhaps he thought they would help him kill Endeavor?
"You don't need them!" Shouto told him urgently. "My friends and I already have a plan to take down Endeavor! Nezu is helping us! You don't have to kill him!"
"I don't know what kinda fantasy you've bought into," Dabi scoffed, "but heroes don't turn on other heroes. You're fooling yourself if you think you can take down the Number Two by playing by the rules!"
"Nezu implemented the dorms to get me out of his house!" Shouto argued. "When we exposed Endeavor for fraud he didn't punish us! He sent someone to collect information from Mom!"
Dabi flinched at the mention of their mother, and Shouto's heart leaped. Whatever Dabi felt toward his siblings, however little he cared for Shouto, their mother was still a soft spot for him.
"Mom misses you Touya!" Shouto decided to press his advantage. "She can't even talk about you, what happened makes her so sad! Please just-"
With a terrible crash the ice wall broke apart, spraying loose chunks across their little corner of the room. Before Shouto could see who had made it through suddenly Dabi was in front of him, grabbing him by the collar and slamming him into the far wall. Shouto coughed when Dabi put a forearm against his throat, and even though Dabi was skinny no amount of shoving could remove it. The two of them stared at each other, nose to nose, too focused to acknowledge the other villains.
"Play along," Dabi hissed, low and quiet.
Not daring to move too much, Shouto gave his head a small, shaky jerk up and down.
"Are you alright Dabi?" asked the warp villain.
"I'm fine," Dabi said gruffly. "The kid just wanted to talk."
A knife appeared in Shouto's field of vision, passing before his eyes only to press against his unmarked cheek, not yet firm enough to break the skin.
"You were on the kill list," giggled Toga. "I can cut you!"
"Hold on, Crazy," Dabi said, not taking his eyes off Shouto. "Shigaraki's gonna wanna hear this."
Toga grumbled but withdrew her knife.
"Well?" Shigaraki prompted impatiently. "What does he have to say? Don't keep us waiting."
"We didn't mean to take the kid," Dabi explained carefully. "He jumped after us on his own. He's here of his own free will."
"Yes," Shouto agreed. "I came here voluntarily."
"Well isn't that interesting," Shigaraki said, sounding genuinely intrigued. "We thought we'd picked out the perfect candidates to join our merry band of misfits. What does the class golden boy, son of the Number Two Hero, have to gain by coming here?"
"Anywhere is better than home," Shouto said honestly. Dabi's eyes widened a fraction, but otherwise his expression didn't change.
"Obviously a false hero like Endeavor would be impossible to live with!" shouted the lizard man loudly. "Anyone who can see what a fake he is would be disgusted to live in his house!"
"I don't know Shigaraki," said the woman with the deep voice, glancing at their leader dubiously. "You really buy that?"
"He certainly wasn't stage-fighting when he helped destroy my costume," Mr. Compress griped.
"I think he's lying hero scum with no place in our group!" said the man in the bodysuit. "Welcome to the club, newbie!"
"Quiet," snapped Shigaraki, one hand coming up to scratch at his neck. "This wasn't the plan but it could work to our advantage. Still, there is a risk. I'll have to think about this."
"Don't we get a say?" Toga pouted.
"We will all discuss this matter as a group," said the warp villain placatingly. "Perhaps tomorrow, once you have all rested from your perilous mission."
"What do we do with him until then?" Dabi wondered, looking away from Shouto for the first time to throw a glance at Shigaraki.
"Put him downstairs," Shigaraki instructed. "We have a guest room all made up. The accommodations may not be up to his standards, but if he's really serious about joining us he should make do, right?"
Not knowing how else to respond, Shouto nodded slowly.
"Good," Shigaraki said, sounding pleased. "Dabi, show him to his room."
Dabi lifted his forearm away from Shouto's throat and took him by arm, dragging him through the bar room and past the curious eyes of the villains. Through a door was a short hallway and then a staircase, which led to either the first floor or the basement of the building they were in. Shouto would guess basement by the lack of windows, both in the hallway off the staircase and in the room where Dabi threw him. He pushed Shouto through the door, then flicked a switch that illuminated the room by a single bare bulb and turned back to him.
"Stay," Dabi instructed, then shut the heavy wooden door in Shouto's face.
There was a click like a lock turning, and then footsteps as Dabi went back upstairs. Shouto went to the door and tried the handle, finding it locked. He could break through it of course, with ice or fire, but he held himself back. No matter how much he didn't want to be locked up down here, he wanted to deal with an angry League of Villains who knew he had no intention of joining them even less.
With a sigh Shouto turned to look at the room where he'd been stored. It looked, appropriately enough, like a storage room, with stacks of wooden crates and cardboard boxes along one wall. Along another wall was a bed, little more than a cot with a thin blanket. In the middle of the room was a chair, simple and wooden, which faced a small table in one corner with an old box television set on it. On top of the television was a camera, also pointed at the chair, and beside it was a pad of paper and a pen.
This room had clearly been meant to contain Hitoshi. The television was probably closed circuit, connected to another camera elsewhere in the building, so they could communicate with him without actually being in the same room and possibly falling victim to his quirk. Shouto wasn't sure if Hitoshi's quirk could work through a television screen, but judging by the pen and paper, the villains had prepared for that possibility too. The boxes and crates were empty, but the room clearly didn't have any kind of reinforcement. That was probably what Shigaraki had meant about the accommodations being lacking. They had not been intending to contain anyone with a physical quirk.
Shouto knew he could get out of here. All he had to do was place the blanket over the camera and wait a few hours, once everyone had let down their guard. Then he could break through the door and find an exit, and probably torch the place on the way out since none of them had quirks suited to dealing with unchecked fire and would likely have to abandon the hideout or get caught by the police when firefighters came. All he had to do was get outside and get someone to notice him, then heroes would be called and he would be whisked to a hospital and then back to his friends.
He couldn't think about that right now though.
Instead he sat on the cot and watched the door. He knew it was late, and it would likely be hours before anyone came to check on him, but he didn't think he could sleep. He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, both for the warmth it provided against the cold concrete of the room, and so that it could be thrown aside at a moment's notice and accidentally land covering the camera. He had to be ready when Dabi came back.
Even through the fog of sleep, Hizashi knew it had to be bad when he didn't get the call from Shouta.
Nezu called him, at half past midnight on the third day of the training camp, and told him to get to the hospital near the Pussycats' agency. He listed the outcome without describing the event, which was probably because he didn't yet know what had happened himself. Hizashi went over the
information in his head as he dressed hurriedly in the dark, putting on his hero uniform without bothering to gel his hair.
Of the forty students, fifteen were unconscious and in serious condition due to some kind of poisonous gas attack. Twelve were injured in some other way, ranging from minor cuts to bullet wounds. Another twelve were physically unharmed, but deeply shaken by what had happened.
One student was missing.
"Was it Izuku?" Hizashi whispered into the phone.
"No," Nezu told him. "It was Todoroki. From what I've gathered Midoriya was meant to be a target, but I don't know what happened to produce this outcome."
Hizashi breathed a shaky sigh and cursed himself for it. Now was no time to be playing favorites.
"This had nothing to do with Nighteye," Nezu told him firmly. "You didn't cause this. You couldn't have prevented it."
"Yes sir," Hizashi said, biting his lip against the tears that wanted to spill out.
"Pull yourself together," Nezu instructed, "and get to the hospital. If I know anything in the world I know you are needed there."
"Of course," Hizashi agreed. "I'll head there right away."
Of the six pro heroes that had been at the camp, four were unharmed and giving statements to the police. Pixie-Bob had taken a blow to the head, and Ragdoll was missing. A pool of blood had been found along with part of her headgear though, so she may have been injured when she was taken.
Three villains had been caught and arrested, but several others had escaped, vanishing without a trace due to the warp villain from the USJ attack. A hollow victory.
Hizashi broke several traffic laws on his way out of Musutafu and drove as fast as he dared along the highway. He arrived at the hospital in just under an hour. It was a small building, equipped mostly for modest parties of hikers and the infrequent needs of the few locals, and they were in no way prepared for twenty-seven injured students. As he entered he could see the waiting room had been set up as a triage center, and paramedics were working on a few of his students out here. He paused to see if Asui and Uraraka were alright, but they insisted they were fine and waved him on.
When he asked a few nurses if Eraserhead was still talking to the police they shook their heads and directed him upstairs to the rooms for patients who had been admitted. As he walked the long hallway he could see the names of his students marked on the whiteboards by the doors: several Class A students, but more from Class B, and most of both groups likely victims of the gas attack. Shinsou and Tokoyami had been given a room together, with Izuku in the last room on that floor alone, and Hizashi was just making a mental note to have Shinsou moved to Izuku's room when he spied Shouta pacing back and forth at the end of the hall.
"Eraser!" Hizashi called, mindful that their students might hear, but that consideration dropped as soon as his friend looked at him.
Shouta's eyes were wild when he turned to Hizashi, the whites clearly visible all the way around and shades of red bleeding into them. His quirk was halfway activated, fighting against his control and making his hair float strangely around his shoulders, as if he were underwater. He was almost
trembling with agitation, breath coming in shaky gasps. He looked at Hizashi as though barely recognizing him, and when Hizashi walked up to take his hands he found that they were shaking.
"Shouta," Hizashi said quietly, trying not to be overheard. "Tell me what's happening."
"I don't know," Shouta said gruffly. "Todoroki's gone, I don't know how or where, there were
only a few villains but Midoriya fought more than one, I'm going to kill them all-"
"No," Hizashi cut him off firmly. "What's happening now? We'll figure out what happened during
the attack later, and what comes next is a little ways off yet. What do we need to do right now?"
Shouta threw a look at the door to Hitoshi and Tokoyami's rooms. "Hitoshi's locked himself in the bathroom," he said, eyes still unnaturally wide. "I think he's having a panic attack but he won't talk. I think he might be afraid of using his quirk. Midoriya's catatonic, I can't get anything out of him either. Shouji said something about a villain that could turn people into marbles? That's why Tokoyami and Hitoshi were placed in the same room, the doctors aren't sure about the lingering effects."
"Alright," Hizashi sighed. "Divide and conquer. You go talk Shinsou through his panic attack and I'll try and get Izuku out of his head. I'll bring him to you when I'm done, he might be able to help Hitoshi-"
"I don't think I'll be much help with a panic attack," Shouta interrupted, shaking his head. His hair was still floating slightly. "I need to hit something. I need to fight. I need to-"
"We don't know where the villains are," Hizashi told him gently. "No one's going to deny you the chance to help with the rescue op, but your students need you-"
"You don't understand Hizashi!" Shouta shouted, throwing off Hizashi's grip and backing up a step. "They took one of my students! A kid under my care! They have to pay!"
"They will pay," Hizashi insisted, trying to step closer, but Shouta took an answering step back, defensive. "We will catch and arrest them. We'll get Todoroki back."
"That's not good enough!" Shouta yelled, hands going to clutch at his arms, holding himself together as if he expected to fly apart. "I can't think until I fix this! All I can see is-"
He choked, looking down. He didn't need to finish the sentence for Hizashi to know what he meant. Only one failure could make Shouta sound like that. A memory tugged at Hizashi's attention, of a late night in the dorm kitchen with Izuku. He wanted to shove it and all it implied to the furthest corner of his mind, but he knew what Shouta needed right now was to feel that he wasn't alone in his thoughts and fears.
"I told Midoriya a little bit about our school days," Hizashi said quietly, stepping into Shouta's personal space once more. Thankfully, Shouta let him. "You must have noticed the similarities, the way those three boys are. I . . . I told him about Shirakumo-"
Shouta flinched. Hizashi looked down.
"He said Shirakumo was like Todoroki," he pressed. "Apparently the kid's a flirt. Who knew."
Shouta snorted. Hizashi took his hands again, threading their fingers together. He looked down at their joined hands, Shouta's fingers thick and strong, his own long and clever.
"I can't help but think what if it's happening again," Shouta whispered. "What if it's happening
like last time and I can't stop it, any more now than I could then?"
"We will not let history repeat itself," Hizashi said solemnly. "If the villains took him alive they'll likely keep him alive. He's smart, he'll figure out how play for time. We have time to fix this."
Shouta took a deep, steadying breath, and his hair fell around his shoulders. Abruptly Hizashi became aware of how close they were, but he didn't let go of Shouta's hands.
"Go deal with Hitoshi," Hizashi instructed. "I'll handle Izuku. We'll meet in the middle and then we'll worry about next steps."
Shouta nodded grimly, then pulled away from Hizashi's grip. Hizashi thought his hands felt cold with the absence, but there was no time for that now. He had work to do.
Shouta still had adrenaline pumping through his body when he went back to Hitoshi's hospital room, but at least he had his quirk under control. Tokoyami was sitting up in bed, with Dark Shadow's head in his lap, stroking the creature like a cat. When Shouta went directly to the bathroom door and knocked, Dark Shadow got up to draw the curtain around the bed, giving them at least some semblance of privacy.
"Shinsou," Shouta called through the door. "I want you to knock twice on the door if you can hear me."
Silence followed for several second, and then two hesitant knocks came. They were from the lower half of the door, like Hitoshi was sitting, so Shouta sat also.
"Once for yes, twice for no," Shouta told him. "Are you hurt in any way the doctors didn't notice?" Two knocks.
"Good," Shouta said. "Are you hiding because you feel unsafe?"
One knock.
"Do you logically believe you're unsafe?" Shouta asked next. Two knocks.
"But the feeling is so strong you can't ignore it?" Shouta guessed. One knock.
"Do you know what a panic attack is?" Shouta wondered. One knock.
"Are you having a panic attack?"
One knock.
Shouta sighed and thought for a moment. Many things could cause a panic attack, both external and internal stimuli. With Hitoshi temporarily nonverbal it would be difficult to pinpoint the cause of his distress and alleviate it. A panic attack at its height wasn't often cured by logic, but reassuring him might stop him from spiralling and get him to accept more help.
"Are you afraid if you speak you're going to use your quirk on someone?" he tried. Two knocks.
"Is it because you think something else bad is going to happen?" he pressed.
A moment's hesitation, then two knocks. If Shouta had to hazard a guess, which he did, he would say that Hitoshi didn't think the negative consequence would be because of him talking, but something that would inevitably happen in between.
"I won't think any less of you if you cry," Shouta said. "There is no right or wrong way to handle what you just went through. Whatever you have to say about it, whatever you think you can't say, I'm here to listen."
Two knocks.
"I promise," Shouta insisted. Two knocks.
Shouta closed his eyes and rested his head against the door. His mind shied away from comparing what had happened tonight to anything else, the parallels too painful to contemplate. Still, what Hizashi said had helped him. He wasn't the only one desperate to believe this time could be different despite the similarities. History didn't have to repeat, but in order to change the future they had to learn from the past.
"When I was in school, a little older than you, a friend of mine got-" he couldn't say it, that wouldn't help, he couldn't bring himself to do it, "-hurt. There was a period of time after where I barely spoke to anyone either. All I could think about was how I might have stopped it, how I'd screwed up and allowed it. When my friends tried to comfort me I told them as much."
There was silence from beyond the door. Shouta hoped Hitoshi was listening. He hoped this was the right thing to say.
"I didn't realize it for a long time, but I was hurting them when I did that," Shouta told him. "They had all been there too, and they thought if I believed those things about myself, I must believe it about them as well. By blaming myself, I was blaming them too, because they were just like me."
Shouta glanced behind him, at the curtain hiding Tokoyami, at the wall between this room and where Midoriya was roomed alone. He hoped Hizashi was having more luck than him.
"The villains were here to abduct you," he said carefully, "but they were here for Midoriya too. They might even have been here for Todoroki. What you're thinking right now, what you're saying about yourself, I want you to imagine someone saying it to your friends. What would you say to that person?"
For a moment there was silence, and Shouta worried his speech hadn't worked, but then Hitoshi's voice came through the door.
"I'd tell them to go to hell," he said, voice a scratchy croak as though from crying.
"Do you think I would say it about Midoriya?" Shouta wondered. "Whatever you have to say, if he said it do you think I would be mad or blame him?"
"No," Hitoshi admitted.
"Then can you come out and talk to me?" Shouta inquired.
Another moment of silence, long and tense, followed. Then the lock on the bathroom door clicked, and Hitoshi pushed it open. He was on his feet, but he looked very shaky, and his eyes were red and puffy. Shouta stood to face him, then placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Can you talk now?" Shouta asked gently. "Or do you want to rest?"
Hitoshi swallowed, looking down. "He wasn't a target."
"What?" Shouta asked. The words had been so soft he thought he might have misheard them.
"Shouto wasn't a target," Hitoshi said louder. "Izuku told me, in the woods . . . he said that Shouto jumped after them and the portal closed behind him."
"Shouji told us," Shouta assured him. "We already-"
"They didn't want him alive!" Hitoshi hissed, looking up at Shouta with wet eyes, then immediately burying his face in his hands. "They were willing to kill anyone who got in their way and Shouto wasn't one of the ones they weren't going to hurt! What's to stop them from hurting him now?"
"His quirk," Shouta answered immediately. "His skill in combat and self defense. His good sense to play along and do what they want until he can get rescued. His connection to the Number Two Hero and value for both ransom and blackmail. We don't know what they wanted you for, so the wrong hostage might be better than none. Honestly, the likelihood that they'll kill him is extremely low."
Not quiet extremely low, but low enough that Shouta felt confident making the statement.
It was what Hitoshi needed to hear. He wiped his eyes and looked up, shaken but stalwart, then came out of the bathroom and closed the door behind himself. He let Shouta lead him to the bed and sat there, and agreed that he was alright enough to give a statement if Shouta could find a police officer.
"I don't know that I have anything valuable to say," Hitoshi said self-consciously. "I was a marble most of the time."
"You'd be surprised," Shouta told him. "Will you be alright while I'm gone?" Hitoshi hesitated, then nodded, looking down.
"Don't worry," Shouta instructed. "You did everything you could just to get through this. You can leave the rest to us."
Hitoshi didn't respond, but one corner of his mouth twitched upward into a shaky smile. *
Hizashi paused at Izuku's door to make sure Shouta went into Hitoshi's room. Shouta didn't seem to notice and went right it, but it made Hizashi feel better to know that his friend wasn't going to hesitate. The boys needed them right now. This was not the time to be lost in their own heads.
When he entered Izuku was sitting up in bed, staring straight ahead with eyes out of focus. His clothes were muddy and torn, bearing what looked like slash marks as though from a knife. There
was a smear of black down the left side of his face, like his eyeliner heart had been drawn on and then completely ruined by tears.
"'Lil listener?" Hizashi ventured.
Izuku didn't even blink, and gave no indication that he knew anyone was in the room with him. Hizashi sighed and snagged a chair that had been pushed into a corner, dragging it up to the bed and sitting beside Izuku.
"Hey kiddo," he tried again.
Again there was no response. Hizashi considered a moment, then reached out, placing one hand on Izuku's blanket-covered knee. Izuku jerked away like he'd been struck, then blinked at Hizashi a few times as though just now realizing he was there.
"Sensei?" he said uncertainly, like he wasn't entirely sure Hizashi was real.
Hizashi shot him a half-hearted finger gun. "In the flesh 'lil listener. How you holding up?"
"Fine," Izuku said automatically.
Hizashi raised an eyebrow.
"Not, not fine," Izuku admitted, looking down. "I'm not hurt. Don't worry about me. You should focus on finding Shouto-"
"You're important too," Hizashi reminded him. "Remember what I told you? You're worth saving."
"I'm already saved," Izuku said, shaking his head. His gaze was still somewhat distant and out of focus. "The villains wanted me, but they didn't get me. You should worry about-"
"I'm not just talking about your physical safety," Hizashi cut him off. "How's your head doing? You feel kinda fuzzy and distant? Like your body isn't real? You're in shock."
"Is it that important?" Izuku wondered. He sounded like he was genuinely asking. "I'm safe here. I was admitted to the hospital, so the doctors will make sure I'm OK-"
"Physically," Hizashi interrupted. "Mentally? There's only so much they can do here. Remember when we were in Hosu, and you said you wanted to save not someone's life, but their heart? Your heart's what I'm worried about right now."
"My heart's not as important as Shouto's life!" Izuku protested, the look in his eyes becoming more urgent, but no less distant.
"They're both important," Hizashi insisted. "You deserve to be saved too. You thinking you're less important than Todoroki? That's the mental block we talked about-"
"I'm over that," Izuku said, shaking his head in denial. "I know I'm worth saving. We'll deal with me after-"
"Is that why Nighteye thinks you'll go along with bending the rules about what kind of ops hero students are allowed to participate in?" Hizashi countered skeptically. "Have you and him been talking without me knowing? Without Nezu knowing?"
For the first time in their conversation Izuku's gaze sharpened. He looked at Hizashi as though
seeing him for the first time, and was alarmed by what he saw. Hizashi might have been imagining it, hoped he was imagining it, but Izuku looked almost scared.
"How do you know about that?" he asked in perfect confusion.
"You know I'm not as dumb as people think," Hizashi recalled pointedly. "I know a bad mentor when I see one. He just wants to use you, and make sure he can keep using you, I confirmed it myself. I was planning to take him down a peg before you got back from camp."
"You can't!" Izuku said, and now that was fear in his eyes. "This op, it's too important, and he's the only one who knows! You don't understand!"
"Wait wait wait," Hizashi held up both hands. "You mean to tell me you're already working together on a secret op? Outside of an internship, with no one else who knows?"
"It's important!" Izuku repeated. "We didn't tell you because we knew you wouldn't understand!"
"Yikes!" said Hizashi reflexively. "You have to know that's a huge red flag, right? This is why I decided I needed to monitor you!"
"Monitor?" Izuku echoed, affronted. "What am I, five?"
"Not like that," Hizashi said placatingly. "I just put a tracker on you. I needed to know I could find you if, say, you left camp with someone you thought you could trust but was actually up to no good."
Izuku opened and closed his mouth a few times, staring at Hizashi as though mortally offended. Finally, after apparently considering and discarding several things to say, he settled on a question.
"Where is it?" he demanded.
Hizashi paused, considering. This was definitely not an encouraging reaction to the measures he had taken. While he didn't regret them, Izuku having apparently been even more reckless with his own life than Hizashi had feared, he could understand Izuku's frustration. Still, if Izuku had this far to go still with realizing his own value, it was probably best that the tracker stay in place, and he not have the option to remove it.
While he hesitated though, Izuku was drawing his own conclusions.
"Are you serious?!" he shouted. "You put a tracking device on me and you're not even going to tell me where?!"
"Why do you want to know?" Hizashi challenged.
Izuku let out a frustrated noise and threw back the covers, nearly kicking Hizashi as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He jumped up and made for the door, not even bothering to put on slippers. His face was a storm of emotion, and fresh tears were running down his cheeks.
"Wait!" Hizashi called, rising from his chair to follow. "'Lil listener!"
Izuku was already out in the hall when Hizashi caught up with him. He put a hand on Izuku's shoulder, trying to stop him from walking away, but Izuku merely whirled on him with teeth bared and eyes flashing. Before either of them could say anything though, a deep voice boomed from the other end of the ward.
"Where is Shouto!" demanded Endeavor, striding purposefully down the hall towards them. He was wearing his hero uniform, his flames not at all dimmed for the hospital, and he looked positively murderous.
"Please," Hizashi said, stepping between Izuku and Endeavor and holding up both hands. "This is a hospital, can you please keep it-"
"No I will not keep it down!" Endeavor shouted, coming to a stop in front of Hizashi. "Where is my masterpiece? None of these damn nurses will tell me what happened to him!"
"He was abducted by the villains," Hizashi said bluntly. Endeavor struck him as someone in a mood to appreciate forthrightness. "We're tending to the other students right now, but we will get him-"
"WHAT!?" Endeavor exploded as soon as he'd processed what Hizashi had said, flames flaring up from his shoulders and out from his face. "You mean to tell me that some two-bit villain has my masterpiece? That these worthless pros allowed him to be stolen? If UA endangers him, after all the effort I put into creating him, there will be hell to pay!"
That struck Hizashi as a particularly draconian way to talk about one's child, but before he could decide how to respond, Izuku was giving both their feelings voice.
"Don't talk about Shouto like he's a thing!" Izuku screamed. "The villains didn't steal him, they kidnapped him, and I wouldn't blame him if he joined them after growing up with you!"
"Watch your mouth boy," Endeavor snapped. "You don't have the significance to speak to me."
"I understand your frustration, Todoroki-san," Hizashi said formally, placing a hand on Izuku's arm and squeezing, "but everyone at the camp has been through an ordeal, and I won't have you talking to one of my students that way."
Endeavor scoffed. "As though a quirkless child was equal in value to my masterpiece," he said dismissively. "You should focus your attention on the students who matter."
Izuku shrieked and tore out of Hizashi's grip, and Hizashi barely managed to lunge and catch him around the waist before he launched himself at Endeavor. Not wanting to risk a confrontation Hizashi threw Izuku over his shoulder and carried him, flailing, back into the hospital room. Izuku beat on Hizashi's shoulders with his fists as he was laid back down on the bed, but he did not try to get up as Hizashi backed away.
"Wait here," he instructed, then went back to the door.
Unfortunately, by the time he got outside Endeavor was already stomping off down the hall, leaving scorch marks on the tile behind him. Hizashi reached after him, then thought better of it and turned back to Izuku. When he looked back the boy was facing away from him, curled up in the fetal position in bed, breathing raggedly as though crying.
Hizashi took a deep breath, a sick feeling in his heart, and closed the door.