A/N: Hello everyone. It's been a while here, hasn't it? Almost three years since I announced I was discontinuing this story.
I can't say that I am changing my mind about not finishing this story, but I recently have been in a little bit of a writing phase. That combined with rereading my old stories made me want to try my hand at seeing if I could get another chapter for this story.
It's weird looking back at my beginning of writing fanfictions. My old style was sloppy and I never properly incorporated scene changes. My style still is sloppy at times, but I'd like to think it's better now.
Looking back, there's still a lot I would change in this old work, but I simply don't have the time or motivation to revise all of it.
As is, I have no clue where I wanted to go with this or what I hoped to achieve with it.
Regardless, I do hope you enjoy this chapter. Maybe I'll change my mind and try to get this thing finished some day.
Everything hurt. Which was strange, because he could have sworn he could not feel anything. Quite the conundrum, in his opinion.
"Aww, he looks so cute all bleedy and burnt!"
Izuku forced his eyes open, and immediately wished he had kept them shut. Even the dim lighting of the bar hurt his eyes. Just something else to add to the extensive list of what was ailing him.
"He's awake!"
Toga, the crazy blonde girl, squealed in excitement.
"Took him long enough."
Izuku shifted his gaze to the speaker. Dabi, the one who scorched him right after he threw a marbled Bakugo back to safety. Izuku promised himself to get some kind of revenge for that.
The teen tried to move, but found himself restrained.
Several thick leather straps help his limbs and chest firmly into the chair he was seated in. So much as squirming against the binds reminded him how much of his body was broken, burned, or otherwise out of commission.
Even Stain's training had never left him in such a delicate state.
"You look like you could use a drink."
Compress, the one that had initially kidnapped Bakugo, approached the captive and held a glass of water to his lips.
Against his better judgement, the boy accepted the small gesture of kindness and gulped the liquid as fast as he could.
"He looks pretty bad. I've seen worse!"
Twice, the eccentric…nevermind, they were all eccentric…multiple personalitied man, notably changed tones between the conflicting sentences.
"So…what's your plans for me?"
"He speaks." Magne said with a scowl. "Kinda liked him better when he was out cold."
"Ah, the infamous Midoriya. I've heard much about you."
Izuku turned to a screen on the far wall of the bar. There was no face to be seen, just a display reading "sound only".
"So here's the deal, kid."
Tomura appeared from behind the captive, clearly having been there the whole time.
"We were aiming for that loudmouth you know. Bakugo, I think. But just like always, you had to interfere. But we can still leverage this."
The blue haired man with cracked lips and rough skin leaned in close to the boy, making sure to get within his personal space.
"Why don't ya join us? I know you and I had some…disputes…in the past, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. See, if you join our ranks, you'll be free from the scum that looks down on you for being Stain's apprentice. You won't need to worry about keeping that nasty side of yourself under control. Hell, you'd be free to let it out any time you want."
Izuku watched cautiously as Shigaraki extended his hand towards Izuku's tied hand, making a small show of keeping his pinky finger away to gesture the promise not to use Decay should the boy accept.
"You think it'll be that easy? You've attacked me and my classmates twice, held me hostage in the mall, and just now damn near killed me. I've also been a pain in your ass as well. Can either of us really believe that you and I will be able to get along with as little as a handshake?"
Tomura chuckled, as if he expected an answer similar to the one Izuku proposed.
"No, I don't actually. But here's the thing. I have total control over whether or not you die right now. Sure, it'd be better for us if a student that UA was willing to trust joined the villains, but it'd also hurt their reputation if news got out that Japan's top hero school was unable to save a student. The only difference I see in these options is whether or not Kurogiri has a pile of ashes to clean up."
Izuku thought over the declaration. He hated to admit it, but between the binds holding him to the chair and his terrible physical state, there was nothing he could do if Tomura decided to kill him.
"I'll…I'll have to think it over," Izuku replied, doing his best to sound genuine in his offer.
"Acceptable. But don't take too long."
"Hey Yaomomo, how's it going?"
The long haired girl turned away from the window and faced Kaminari, who had entered her hospital room with Jiro, Mina, Iida and strangely enough, Bakugo in tow.
"Hello everyone. I'm doing better now, if only a little."
She observed the classmates that had visited her, as well as the few others that slowly joined. It was clear that something was going to happen. As much as she lacked proper social skills due to her nigh royal upbringing, even she could sense something was amidst.
"We overheard you tell All Might and the detective that you had managed to attach a tracker to a Nomu while most of us were busy trying to stay alive," Kirishima stated from further back, but pushing himself towards the front.
"We were wondering if you could make us another receiver."
Todoroki, who had also pushed towards the front, looked at her hopefully and almost expectantly.
"You plan on going after him yourself," Momo stated. It should have been clearer from the start that they would plan something like a rescue. "But the heroes have to be preparing already. Shouldn't we leave it to the professionals?"
Yaoyorozu turned to Iida. She knew that he would be the voice of reason, such as he had been so many times before.
"Yaoyorozu…" The class president turned away, obviously ashamed of what he was about to say. "Tensei was a professional, and he was paralyzed by Stain. The professionals didn't save me when…They weren't there when I ran into Stain in Hosu. Midoriya was though. He saved me in Hosu. He saved Kota at the camp. He saved Bakugo from being taken. He jumped into the fray at the USJ to help Aizawa. He even trained a handful of us after knowing us for only a few days. And after he's done all of that for all of us, we're supposed to just leave him and hope?"
"Please, Yaomomo…" Uraraka begged, looking like she would cry if told no.
Yaoyorozu looked from classmate to classmate, her face pleading for someone to voice a concern or give her a reason not to oblige.
But no one did.
The girl sighed heavily, and the glimmer of her quirk on her left hand gave way to a small device.
"This as much as I can do. I'm sorry, but if any of you are going, I can't join."
Todoroki slowly approached her bed and gently took the offered device.
"Thank you, that's all we ask of you."
It had been a few hours since most of the class convened in Yaoyorozu's room, which also marked roughly two days since Midoriya was taken from them.
Iida and Todoroki stood outside the hospital having been asked to leave once visiting hours were over.
"We're really doing this, aren't we?"
Uraraka approached the two with both determination and traces of fear in her eyes. But she stood strong, believing in what their mission was.
"Yes."
Iida and Todoroki replied in unison, equally set in their ways.
"So…what's the first step?"
"We find disguises, clearly."
All three were graced by the presences of Bakugo and Kirishima.
"Bakugo, are you sure you want to join in?"
Iida noticed a flare in the blonde's eyes, which was accompanied by clenching fists and grating teeth.
"That damned nerd has always been in my way. No matter how hard I try to get away from him, it's like he's always there."
Kirishima, gently placed a hand on Bakugo's shoulder, which was slapped away with less force than anyone would have expected.
"I want to be the number one hero, but…fuck…if I refuse to help someone in need, how can I call myself a hero at all?" The boy nearly screamed the last sentence, obviously conflicted.
"It took a fucking kidnapping for me to realize that. I was probably the last one of us to consider actually doing something instead of waiting. What kind of hero takes that long to realize that? But don't get this twisted, I'm not doing this for him, or for any of you. I'm doing this for me."
"And, naturally, you'd need someone with enough experience dealing with Bakugo to keep him in line," Kirishima added, doing his best to steer the focus away from his classmate's turmoil.
The other three shared looks amongst themselves, but silently accepted that the two would be joining as well.
"Don't worry about anyone telling the teachers. Of course everyone else was against the idea, but I think they agreed that something needed to be done."
"Well, let's get a move on. He's not going to save himself this time," Todoroki stated, fully aware that every second wasted was a second they could have spent getting their friend back.
The group began to leave, but were caught off guard by a short woman that had been standing just out of sight. She exuded sadness, and her tired looking frame shook like a leaf as she approached the five teens. One of them recognized her immediately, and the rest had a suspicion as to who she was despite never meeting her.
"I overhead you. I heard everything."
"Mrs. Midoriya, I presume?" Iida questioned with caution. "We...we were just talking nonsense. We want to go get him, but doing so woul-"
"I want to join," the woman demanded, shocking the teen out of his formal attitude.
"Mrs. Midoriya, everything will be fine. The heroes are looking as we speak, and he'll be back soon." Kirishima softly placed a reassuring hand on the woman's shoulder. The woman just looked him in the eyes, desperation and grief leaking through the tears that escaped.
"I can't keep doing this! Time and time again I have to sit at home as he gets beat to a pulp and comes home pretending everything is fine! But it's not! Every day I have to hope that nothing bad happens to him! Every time your class comes under attack is a chance that he won't come home! I already lost him once, and I can't lose him again!"
The woman was understandably hysterical as her sobs threatened to cut off her ability to speak.
"If you don't let me come with you, I'll tell the teachers what you're planning to do."
The cashier scanned the several cans of hair dye, packages of contact lenses, and random assortment of clothing. It was evident by his expressions that this was not something he had expected to deal with an hour and a half before midnight.
But any questions were left unasked as Iida paid the bill despite the woman's requests that she be the one to pay and grabbed the bags of purchased goods.
A short while later, the six found a public restroom station and divided the disguises among themselves. Mere minutes later, they reconvened outside with new hair colors and different eye shades.
"Guys!" Uraraka screamed with a point at a gigantic screen on a building. Being questioned live was Aizawa, Vlad King, and Nezu.
"We can fully admit that we were unprepared for this attack. After everything we did to prevent another incident, it happened nonetheless. To all the families of our students at our school, we apologize deeply, and will keep adding as many countermeasures as possible to hopefully prevent another such occurrence."
The three facility members bowed in shame to the interviewers and were floored by the many questions that were pressed their ways.
"This is the third time UA has been attacked this year. Very rarely has anyone so much as attempted to trespass on UA property until now. Can you promise the students and their families that this will not become a new normal for anyone attending there?"
"Truthfully, no." Nezu replied. "It pains me to admit, but the most we can offer is the promise that we are doing everything in our power to find Midoriya while adding fortifications to the school grounds."
"What about off school grounds? The villains have proven that they're more than willing to attack students away from school. Do you have any plans to deal with that issue?"
"At the moment, we are considering possible means to prevent that very issue. However, there lies some conflicts regarding privacy, not to mention there's only so much heroes can do at once." It was Vlad King who responded, doing his best to minimize the severity of his admittance to the question.
"I never thought I'd see the day that UA was made to look like the bad guys," Uraraka muttered over her distress of seeing how her teacher and principal were being interrogated.
Inko watched the interview with much less sympathy. The teachers had failed to protect her son so many times, and she just could not convince herself to believe that they would be able to follow through any more.
"Come on. We're getting close," Iida urged. The tracker, which also had a built in GPS, displayed the shortest path to find where the Nomu was.
"I don't want to bring down the mood further, but what do we do if the Nomu and Midoriya are being held in different locations?" Todoroki questioned, only recently considering the possibility that they were nowhere near their friend.
"We blow up every building nearby until we find that damned nerd," Bakugo replied with a scowl. Inko nodded in agreement.
"Time's up kid. It's been a day since I gave you the proposition." Shigaraki pulled a chair, this one without any bindings, in front of the captive and sat down. "You in? Or do we need to kill you?"
Izuku and Tomura stared at each other the best they could with the hand covering the latter's face.
"Do you have any burn ointment?"
Tomura huffed at the question. Why would the kid just not answer yes or no?
"After all, aren't you supposed to take care of your own?"
All eyes suddenly fell on him.
"Wait, you're serious?" Spinner asked. There was a clear excitement in his voice, undoubtedly because Stain's apprentice accepted the offer to join the League.
"I guess. You…you were right, Shigaraki. No matter how hard I try, society will never accept me as a hero. They wouldn't even sugarcoat it for a six year old boy that was quirkless. Why would it be any different for the same boy that was trained by the Hero Killer?"
Izuku tried to sound as morose as he could. He put all the pain he could dig up from his years of torment into his voice and clearly succeeded.
"This feels like it was almost too easy."
Izuku and Shigaraki turned towards Compress. While his facial expressions were unreadable behind his mask, Izuku could see the doubt in his body language.
"Master, doesn't one of the newer Nomu have a healing quirk?"
"Yes indeed," the chilling voice answered from the blank screen. "Shall I send it your way?"
Tomura replied with an affirmative, but no Nomu appeared.
"Just remember Midoriya, I do not take kindly to betrayal. I do not believe someone like you would turn on their own beliefs so quickly. But Tomura is willing to trust you, so I shall follow his lead."
A spasming grey circle materialized in the bar. Something that was clearly another Nomu walked through the substance that looked like it was struggling just to exist and approached the boy.
This one was much smaller than the ones from the USJ and Hosu. Instead of a sickly black skin tone, this one was a pale green shade. Two dead yet frantic eyes fell on the boy and an oversized hand unkindly closed on the boy's head.
The League watched as his burns, bruises, cuts and more disappeared in short time. Not half a minute later, the hand retracted from the prisoner who looked as good as new.
Just as quickly as it appeared, the Nomu walked back through the strange portal and vanished. The portal itself closed, leaving no sign that anything had changed except for the healed prisoner.
Izuku sighed as all the pain that had been coursing through him nonstop finally stopped. His eyes fluttered a little, but decided to stay open.
"Twice, untie him."
"Sure thing, boss. Not a chance!" Despite the insubordination from his contradictory replies, the man in the gray and black suit cautiously approached the boy and unbuckled the straps. Strap by strap, Izuku could feel his mobility return until he was fully free to stand up.
The boy rubbed his wrists and sighed. "So, what's our move?"