Shouta fucked up.
He knows he fucked up, there's no changing that now.
And wasn't that just the story of his life at this point? He'd fucked up yet again, and now he was paying for it.
But at least his students are safe.
Their plan had been simple; bring Amichan to a police station, drop her off outside, and then once an officer or hero had retrieved her and they knew she was safe, disappear so they could all regroup.
He'd only come along to ensure that everything went to plan; that the students taking Amichan there didn't run into any trouble.
Tsuyu's the one who'd volunteered to carry Amichan, and to be the one who would drop her off near the station. She was fast, and would be able to hop off the moment Amichan is spotted. Fumikage had insisted on being there since he and Dark Shadow would be essential if they needed a quicker getaway. The last student coming along was Hitoshi—he'd specifically wanted to tag along since Shouta was going, though his quirk would be just as useful if they needed it.
The rest of Shouta's students had wanted to come too, but too many of them out and about would draw attention, and it'd be easier for only a handful of them to make their escape rather than the whole lot of them. It was safer for them to remain at the hideout.
Momo, especially, was too weak to be partaking in any missions, least of all a potential high-stakes chase.
Shouta would have preferred to keep all of his students out of danger, but he also knows that those he's bringing are smart and capable—all of them are, but he digresses. They've handled situations much more dangerous than simply returning a lost child to the authorities.
Now, it hadn't been easy convincing Amichan that she would be better off with the police; that they would be able to contact her parents, while Shouta and his kids weren't able to.
She had eventually agreed to go, albeit reluctantly.
He knows they only have one shot in getting her there without risking a tantrum that could get them all caught. Plus, they didn't want to further traumatize her.
Not wanting to take any chances, Shouta had scouted ahead to make sure the coast was clear before he would risk sending Tsuyu out into the open. There was still a decent amount of sunlight at this time of day—sometime around four in the afternoon, he thinks—so he did his best to steer clear of the light cast by the setting sun.
Not clear enough, as it turned out.
Shouta freezes when a voice he unfortunately recognizes shouts "There he is!", and before he can retreat all eyes are turned on him.
Fuck, he thinks.
They'd planned for something like this happening, of course, so Shouta spares a moment to signal his students to fall back—he knew they would see him, even if he couldn't see them—before he takes off in the opposite direction from their hideout.
He can't risk leading the authorities straight back to his kids.
Either way, he... doesn't make it very far.
Before Shouta can so much as blink he's being tackled to the ground by a wall of metal and muscle. A cry of pain rips its way up his throat when he hits the pavement hard.
Though the wind's been knocked out of him, Shouta's already twisting and clawing at his assailant before they could get a proper hold, but his claws scrape uselessly across their all-metal hero costume.
And Shouta recognizes that damned costume, too. Just like he'd recognized his voice.
He'd... forgotten. He forgot all of who was still active in this time.
Specifically, he'd forgotten that Iida Tensei hadn't yet been paralyzed from the waist down.
Shouta can't see Tensei's—no, Ingenium's expression beyond his helmet, but he idly wonders if the man recognizes him, too.
Either way, Shouta grapples with Ingenium on the ground, both of them trying to get the upper hand. Shouta, specifically, was just trying to get to his feet so he could get the hell out of here. And he wasn't afraid to fight dirty.
He just has to be careful not to overly injure or kill the man. Tensei was a good hero—a good person.
So good, that he would never expect Shouta to do something like slip a knife up into a particular weak spot in his armor; any of them would do, but Shouta had a clear shot at the ribs under Ingenium's armpit. Doing that would end this fight almost instantly.
Shouta doesn't do that, because he doesn't want to cause Ingenium any serious harm.
But he does want to get away.
His jaws snap at the open air, just missing one of Ingenium's gloved hands as he persistently tried to get a pair of cuffs on him. Shouta sure as hell wasn't going to let him do that.
At the same time he was trying to get Ingenium wrapped up in his capture weapon, but it was difficult at close range and Shouta would really like to conserve his most useful limited resource. It's not like he was getting a new one any time soon.
Ingenium seemed to realize what Shouta was up to though, and he was making it really fucking difficult to get away.
As Shouta slams his elbow into that weak spot under Ingenium's armpit though he feels almost glad that poor Iida Tenya had died along with Aoyama and Manual, because he knows his student would have hated to see his beloved brother attacking his sensei. The past Tenya—the one who was still alive—is another reason Shouta is attempting to pull his punches. Just a little bit.
It'll be difficult as hell, but he remembers enough about how Ingenium fights that he could probably get away from him... hopefully before he entirely tires himself out.
But then the shadows of the nearest alleyway flicker ominously, and Shouta's heart drops.
Dark Shadow.
Those damn kids were going to get themselves caught along with him...!
Shouta comes to another realization at that same moment; another, more terrifying realization. Because if Ingenium got the chance, he would go after Shouta's kids, too. Even if Shouta runs, and even more so if he was incapacitated too soon, then it would be all too easy for Ingenium to chase them down with his quirk.
Immediately, Shouta decides he won't let that happen.
If he had to choose between himself or his kids getting captured... he'd choose their freedom over his own in a heartbeat.
But Shouta knows, he knows, that his damned loyal kids would refuse to leave without him—they'd refuse to see him captured if there was something they could do about it.
None of them would willingly choose to leave him behind.
But they had to.
Again.
Shoving Ingenium off of himself, Shouta whirls in the complete opposite direction of the flickering shadows—he couldn't risk giving their position away—and he barks; "GO!"
Just as quick, Ingenium was shoving his head into the pavement, and the two of them were back to scrambling for the upper hand.
Shouta can only hope that his students have listened to him.
Tsuyu had to keep Amichan safe, so she couldn't interfere. While Hitoshi's quirk could probably stop Ingenium—if he managed to get a response, that is—there were too many witnesses, and Shouta could hear backup arriving to come help Ingenium any second now. Fumikage himself along with Dark Shadow needed to stay back to provide cover for their two classmates.
Essentially, none of them could help Shouta without getting themselves caught in the process.
All Shouta can do is provide them a chance to escape.
It's not like he was going to go quietly either way. No, he puts up one hell of a fight... but there was only so much he could do. Erasure stops Ingenium from using his quirk, sure, but the man was still a muscular pro-hero in his prime. Shouta was extremely outmatched; he was tired, and hungry, and worn down from running on nothing but fumes for so very, very long.
As soon as a few officers from the nearby station jump into the fight, it's all over.
They slap a pair of quirk-suppressant cuffs on him, arms pinned uncomfortably behind his back, and Shouta feels all the fight drain from his body; along with his claws and fangs, which retract back into himself, leaving him defenseless.
He does still try to buy his students a little more time, but it's futile. He grunts as he's pressed face-down into the ground.
"Where's the kid?!" an officer shouts at him, and, dammit, Shouta would answer if they'd quit shoving his damn face into the pavement! As it is, all he's able to get out is another pained grunt.
"We can take it from here, Ingenium. Thank you for your help in apprehending this villain."
"Don't mention it," Ingenium responds. He gets up off of Shouta now that the 'villain' had been caught, and beyond the officers yelling in his ear Shouta could hear other officers and even bystanders congratulating the hero.
Another thing he hadn't missed about the past.
When Shouta turns his head to the side so he could breathe—all he really achieves is scraping his cheek against the rough pavement—he manages to catch a glimpse of Ingenium standing to the side above him. He'd taken his helmet off at some point, and he seemed to be staring at Shouta with a... perplexed frown. Like Shouta was a puzzle that wasn't making sense.
Shouta's entire viewpoint shifts then as he's hauled to his feet, and it's only once he's upright that Shouta realizes how much the fight had drained him. He stumbles, head hung low as he's physically dragged over to the police station.
He tries to ignore all the cameras pointed at him as they lead him away.
It's strange being on this side of the law for once.
Since he has been caught, Shouta tries to remain mostly pliant and agreeable; it was illogical to fight back when he had no chance of escaping. Plus, he's sore from his tussle with Ingenium, and really all he wants to do is curl up in whatever cell they toss him in so he can sleep for at least a month.
All that gets thrown out the window when they drag him into a nondescript booking room and begin to strip him.
Now, Shouta is well aware of the typical procedures done when a villain gets taken in—knows they had to be searched to make sure they weren't armed, both for their own safety and for the safety of the officers involved.
But knowing that means nothing when he's the one being disarmed.
His eyes snap wide open in wild panic, and even despite the cuffs suppressing his more... animalistic features, he still bares his teeth and snarls in warning.
The man pulling Shouta's boot off pauses.
"Don't resist," Shouta's told, and logically he knows he should listen.
But the logical part of his mind is no longer in control.
When one of the officers reaches to yank off Shouta's ragged capture weapon and to pull the zipper on his jumpsuit down, Shouta impulsively jerks forward to make him stop.
He sinks his blunt teeth into the man's hand, and blood fills his mouth.
The room descends into chaos in the next instant.
There's screaming, and someone squeezing his jaw to try and make him let go, but Shouta merely growls and bites down harder.
He would not allow himself to be made weak. Not again.
Not. Again.
He kicks, and growls, and gnashes his teeth on the poor officer's hand, the rush of adrenaline from his panic giving him a new burst of energy.
But then there's a sharp jab in his back, followed by an explosion of pain that has Shouta's whole body thrashing uncontrollably; he convulses, eyes rolling back in his head as he fights to regain control of his body.
It only lasts for a few seconds, but to Shouta it feels like an eternity.
As soon as it's over the officers are easily able to pry his jaws open, releasing the injured officer's hand and leaving Shouta to pant for breath against the floor.
What the fuck was that?
He felt as though he'd just run a marathon, or as if he'd been hit... by...
Kaminari's quirk.
...Oh.
They'd fucking tased him.
The man he'd bit is lead away—presumably to the medical station—and Shouta is left with the two remaining officers.
Despite barely hanging onto consciousness by the barest of threads, Shouta bares his teeth when they reach to start stripping him again. They both freeze.
"...Better grab a muzzle, Yoshida," one of them says to the other.
Shouta's heart skips a beat.
"D-don't..." he wheezes, but neither of them listen to him.
Though he snaps at their fingers when they go to grab his head, the one doing the grabbing had slipped on heavy-duty gloves that Shouta was unable to bite through.
He tries to turn his head away, tries to stop this from happening, but they hold him steady.
Shouta lets out a cracked sob as the black metal muzzle fits over the lower half of his face and the straps tighten, locking him in.
He was completely defenseless now.
It still takes both of them to keep him down, with Shouta writhing ineffectively as they manage to strip him of his tool-belt and boots, and they fully unzip his jumpsuit.
"What's this?" one says then, and Shouta panics anew when they grab his necklace—the one with his and Hizashi's wedding bands.
"No—" he hisses into the muzzle, jerking back, but they're easily able to pull the chain up over his head.
His chest feels cold in the rings' absence... Empty.
He hasn't been without them in... he's never been without those rings. Not since he'd collected Hizashi's damaged ring from his—his...
Shouta watches numbly as the rings and chain get tossed into a box along with everything else. Carelessly, as if they didn't matter. As if they meant nothing.
The muffled, wounded noise he makes is ignored.
They have to disconnect the cuffs from each other to get his jumpsuit, stolen shirt, and under-armor off, but with the quirk-suppressant cuffs still firmly wrapped around his wrists there's not much Shouta can do other than struggle and whine as they keep his arms held back at awkward angles.
It hurts.
He's scared.
Their grips on him are much too rough, not allowing him even the slightest chance of wriggling loose.
Eventually, Shouta just goes limp as they pull his under-armor up over his head, leaving him exposed other than his boxers, which they blessedly let him keep.
There's a pause above him.
"...'Rabid dog', huh?" One of them—Yoshida?—remarks. "Sounds about right."
The words have Shouta's blood running cold.
Rabid dog.
He knows immediately what they mean, knows exactly what they're seeing painted across his upper back; the jagged lines of the kanji carved there, leaving nothing to the imagination for how he'd struggled. Two words. Just two.
Rabid dog.
Because that's what he is.
That's how people view him.
Nothing more than a rabid dog waiting to be put down.
Shock washes over him, and things get... a bit fuzzy after that for Shouta.
He thinks they might be talking to each other—talking to him?—but he can't make out the words anymore. He doesn't want to.
They take away all of the weapons he'd had hidden under his jumpsuit, even going so far as to pry off his prosthetic leg and the crutches he'd had strapped to his forearms, leaving him fully reliant on them to get anywhere. It leaves him feeling even more powerless than before, if that were possible.
He's redressed in plain prison clothes—a light grey shirt, light grey pants, and socks—which he immediately hates. He wishes they would have just given him his jumpsuit back, even if it was absolutely filthy and full of holes.
Then, they reattach the cuffs, though this time in front of him rather than behind.
Shouta really can't find it within himself to feel grateful for that.
He watches as they place the rest of his things in that same box, and he refuses to look away even as they drag him over to a table because this could be the last time he ever got to see his belongings. His capture weapon and tools and wedding rings, things he's kept with him throughout all of the hell he and his kids went through, were now being taken away from him.
He feels their loss like a physical presence.
Honestly, Shouta barely even feels like himself without them.
Eyes still locked on the box across the room, Shouta absentmindedly leans towards it like it's drawing him closer, and he grunts when one officer grabs his arm and yanks him further away.
That officer holds him in place while the other inks Shouta's fingers and takes his prints—he'd had the same thing done when he first got his hero license, but it felt entirely different this time. Now, he feels like a criminal rather than a hero.
When they're done they haul him up to his feet by his armpits, and Shouta can only hope that now, finally, they would dump him in a holding cell and just leave him the hell alone.
But they don't, because really, when does anything ever go right for Shouta?
Instead, they drag him right past the holding cells and into what must be an interrogation room, if the single table in the middle and the chairs were anything to go by.
Considering he can't really walk on his own, the two officers carelessly drop him into one of the chairs and yank his hands forward to chain him to the table. They even attach additional restraints to both of his ankles, keeping him rooted to the chair.
Shouta stares blankly at his hands, not even bothering to test his restraints.
He already knows he won't be getting out of them.
He thinks he hears the officers that brought him in here leaving, muttering something about waiting here at him, but he doesn't pay them any mind.
All he can think is that he's happy none of his students were here in his place, and he hopes they all made it back to the hideout in one piece...
They'll be upset, he knows. Those that weren't there to see him be arrested will probably panic.
He hopes they don't try to come rescue him though, despite how much he wants to get out. How much he wants to be anywhere but here. And he knows that each and every one of his students would want to break him out, no matter the cost.
Just like the last time he was captured and held hostage.
Not this time, though. It was simply too dangerous.
The consequences of his actions... had finally caught up to him, and he was powerless to claw his away out.
Even if it meant Shouta would rot away in a cell... he just wants his students to be safe. He wants them to remain together; alive. That's all he wants... was it really so much to ask? Yes, his students could be stubborn, reckless, but this time the risks far outweighed the potential reward of having him back with them. He hopes they see that.
He hopes he's taught them enough that they can survive without him.
He's jolted out of his thoughts when the door to the interrogation room clicks, swinging open to reveal—
Shouta's eyes widen.
Oh.