A/N: I know I said I was gonna be waiting a while to upload this chapter but I couldn't help myself lol

Also here's an updated link to my discord server for people who might have questions on my fics. I'll update the link with every chapter from now on.

https/discord.gg/gKdGPdx7

youll have to add the / after https. Sorry, the site wont let me put the link completely together

"Regular speech,"

"Flashback speech,"

'Inner dialogue,'

'Phone Text Chat'

Flashes of an intense surgical light beamed into Izuku's eyes. His vision swam, and he screamed as something stabbed into him; his vision blurred, and he caught sight of a vaguely familiar man with a bald head, a bushy mustache, and goggles.

The man looked down at Izuku and frowned, "Awake, are we? You're quite resilient, but that's to be expected after all you're—"

Whatever he was about to say, Izuku didn't hear it because his vision blurred again, and he fell unconscious.

Izuku looked up at his mother as they walked along the street hand in hand. She smiled down at him, her smile as bright as the sun, making his chest feel fuzzy. She looked back up to watch where they were going, her hand squeezing his gently as they walked. Birds chirped in the early summer morning, and he had to do a funny little half skip/half walk to keep up with her long legs.

He looked all around the neighborhood. It had been a while since they'd walked around like this, but Kacchan had been mean to him yesterday, so he wanted to walk around with his mommy. Kacchan was really cool, but he loved his mommy a whole lot, and it was fun just being out with her. It made him feel like a grown-up.

A flash of something gold between a loose fence board caught Izuku's eye, and he looked to see what it was. When he turned his head, he saw the prettiest girl he had ever seen. It was just for a fraction of a second, but he saw her sitting on the edge of a Japanese-style back porch, her bandaged legs swinging as she smiled sadly at the ground. Her hands fidgeted with a dirty white dress, and her arms that were just as bandaged as her legs fidgeted as she gazed down at a little red flower.

Before she was out of sight, the girl looked up through the gap in the fence, meeting Izuku's gaze. The smile that crossed her face was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. His heart stuttered when she waved at him, and he caught sight of the little fangs sticking out from behind her lips.

Just as quickly as she had come, she was gone. Izuku and his mother continued forward. He craned his neck back, wanting nothing more than to see the girl again, but his mother was in a rush, and she didn't hear his plea to go back and ask the girl for her name.

He silently cheered in his head as he realized the girl lived right next door as they hurried into their house. Maybe she had moved in recently. But why did she have all those bandages over her arms and legs? Would she want to play with him? What was her name? Did she like All Might? What was her favorite color?

The rest of the day was a blur for him, and Izuku lay awake in his bed, surrounded by all of his All Might posters and bedsheets, which always helped lull him into blissful sleep. But tonight, no matter how much he stared at the posters of his favorite hero, he just couldn't bring himself to doze off. His mind trailed to that pretty girl with the blonde hair and fangs.

Izuku threw his covers to the side and went into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water. The cold tile of the floor made him shiver as he grabbed his favorite All Might cup. He grunted as he scooted a chair over so that he could reach the sink. He narrowly pulled himself up onto the seat and poured a cold glass of water.

The water washed down his throat, and he sighed in happiness. His parched throat finally felt a bit of relief. He silently stared out the kitchen window, looking at the girl's house from the window.

Izuku could see the side of a shed between the fence boards on this side of the house. It was a medium-sized garden shed with faded white paint and a black roof. He could see a small hole in the side of the shed. A board had been pushed out, and the nails scrapped paint away from the other board it had been pushed into.

Just as he was about to place his cup in the sink to go back to bed, Izuku saw something stick out of the hole in the shed. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

It was a hand. A small, delicate hand trying in vain to pull its occupant out of the impossibly tiny hole.

Izuku jumped down from the chair and went to run to his mommy's room when a quote from All Might filled his head.

"It's a hero's job to save a person with a smile!"

Izuku bounced in place, looking from his mommy's room to the front door. He knew he should tell his mommy what he'd seen, but he also didn't want to tell her and then have her go over and find out he hadn't seen correctly.

He bit his lip lightly, ran to their front door, pulled on his red sneakers, and opened the door as quietly as possible. The night air of spring was moist and cold. Moisture clung to his All Might t-shirt, and Izuku shivered as he hurried over to the gap in the fence he had been looking through.

It was just wide enough for him to slide through. He wiggled lightly as he passed between the fence boards and gasped lightly when his neck scraped painfully against the rough wood. His neck stung, and tears prickled at his eyes, but he wiped them away. He didn't want to look like a wimp to whoever needed help!

"Hello?"

Izuku jerked at the whisper. The voice was so small and quiet that he thought maybe it had been a figment of his imagination. He waited to hear it again, but nothing came. After a few seconds, he went over to the shed and peeked through the hole in the side.

He couldn't see anything for a second except complete pitch-black darkness. As the clouds overhead moved away from the moon, the hole was cast into dim light, and his eyes adjusted.

He yelped when he realized he was staring back into another set of eyes. They were thin slits like a cat's, the sockets around the eyes were heavy and black. He fell back onto his butt, staring into the hole on the side of the shed at whoever or whatever had startled him.

"Who're you?"

Izuku blinked and then realized something: his face lit up, and a smile spread across his face as he caught sight of blonde hair. "You're the girl from earlier!" Izuku shot over to the hole and smiled wide at her, "I'm Izuku! What's your name? Do you like All Might? What's your favorite color? What about your favorite food? What about—"

The girl whined and poked her hand out, "Can you help me out of here first? It's wet and cold."

"O-Oh, right!" Izuku grabbed hold of the board next to the loose one and tugged, "Y-you might h-have to push from… your end."

He grunted as the board started to wiggle. The girl pushed from her end, but she seemed far weaker than him, so the progress was slow. Finally, after a few minutes of him pulling and her pushing, they were able to free the plank.

Izuku slid the board aside and stepped back so the girl could crawl out.

Her hand scrapped against the ground, her nails were short and bitten to the quick, her arms were bandaged, and a thin layer of dust dulled the lustrous blonde hair on her head. He watched her as she stood to her feet and patted away dust from her once-white dress, but the gesture seemed wasted because the dress seemed to have faded to gray. She was a few inches taller than him.

His breath hitched in his throat when she opened her eyes, and they focused on him. They were slitted like a cat's, just like he'd seen earlier, but as the moon's light hit them, they flashed like a nocturnal animal's.

Izuku fidgeted and looked away from the girl. He had never talked to one, not for long anyway.

"I-I'm Izuku."

The girl cocked her head, her messily cut straight bangs fell just lightly into her eyes, and she looked him over, "You're the boy from earlier. I'm Himiko."

He beamed at her and bounced in place, "T-that's a pretty name!"

The girl blushed and looked down at the ground, her foot nervously fidgeted in the dirt, "T-Thank you."

Both of them stood there for a moment, and neither was able to look at the other for their own reasons. Izuku had never talked with a girl longer than ten minutes, except for his mommy, but he felt like that didn't really count.

"U-Um, why were you in that shed?" Izuku looked at the girl sheepishly, his hands fidgeting with the hem of his All Might t-shirt.

The girl, Himiko's face turned downcast; she laced her fingers together and pressed her thumbs together as her face fell into a sad pout, "My… daddy locked me in there."

Izuku blanched, his eyes going wide and his heart hurting for some reason. He hadn't seen his father in so long that he didn't even remember what he looked like, and his mommy didn't have any pictures other than ones of himself and her. he didn't know what a father should be like, but he felt like they shouldn't do what Himiko's father had.

He could see the girl shivering in the night's cool, damp air, and he decided without much hesitation that he wanted to help her. Izuku took the girl by the hand and pulled her toward the opening in the fence he had come through, "come on, we need to go tell my mommy!"

"No!" The girl planted her feet in the ground, her entire body shaking as she pulled back, grabbing her wrist to try and pull herself free. She was pulling so hard it was like she was some kind of cornered animal, "please don't! T-They'll punish me even more! I don't want to be tied up in there again! I don't want Daddy to beat me any harder than he already does! Please… please don't tell— *hic* please don't— *hic* I don't wanna—"

Izuku hugged the girl, his arms shaking and tears spilling over his cheeks as he squeezed her. "Don't cry! P-Please don't cry. I won't tell, I promise, just please don't cry."

The slightly taller girl hiccuped and shuddered, her arms wrapping around Izuku as she just sobbed. Her entire body trembled, and her gasping breaths came out in shaky puffs.

Izuku patted the girl's head, his face set into a shaky but warm smile as his own tears ran down freely, "I-It's okay. I-I'm here. I'm r-right here."

Izuku opened his eyes. His head pounded, and when he tried to sit up, all he could feel was searing pain all over his body.

When he looked down, he was surprised to find that his body wasn't broken anymore, his right arm wasn't shattered, and none of his muscles were torn anymore. He was wearing a thin hospital shirt with similarly thin pants. He could see an angry bruise that splotched his chest purple and yellow beneath the hospital shirt.

He tried to sit up again; this time, he managed to sit himself up against a cool cement wall, but his entire body screamed in protest at the small gesture.

"So, you're awake?"

Izuku's head shot to the side, and he found Shigaraki standing behind a wall of glass. A metal frame was set into the glass with an equally sturdy-looking door; in his hands, he held a tray of food; one of his fingers was lifted off the tray so that his quirk wouldn't decay the object.

Izuku snarled and backed further against the wall, supporting him.

"Don't act like that. You're treating me like I'm the only killer in the room… but we both know that isn't true, not anymore." He leered at Izuku, his grin insane with happiness and mockery.

A chill ran up Izuku's spine, and he remembered what he'd done to the muscle fiber villain just before he passed out. Vomit sprayed out of his mouth in bitter, acidic waves that splattered against the floor of what he could only assume was a holding cell.

Shigaraki stepped forward and sat in a chair in front of the glass wall. "Yeah, that's about how I expected you to react. But try to get ahold of yourself. I won't be able to help you if you're a nervous and horrified wreck."

Izuku's throat burned, his entire body felt like it was cold as ice, as hot as the most intense flame, and his heart felt like it would explode any second. He clutched his chest, his breaths coming out in ragged, uneven gasps, "I-I k-k-killed…"

He couldn't breathe any more; his throat was constricting, and he was suffocating. He clawed at his throat with his fingernails, but all that managed to do was open raw and angry cuts along the skin as he felt himself about to asphyxiate.

"God damnit!" Shigaraki rushed over to the door, fumbling with the keys on a ring. He threw the door open, slammed the tray of food down on the ground, and rushed over to Izuku, "Hey! Breathe, asshole! Focus on something else! You're having a panic attack!"

The villain's hands hovered over Izuku, his gaze confused and angry. He was looking all over Izuku's body as if he were trying to find the thing choking the boy, but all at once, he seemed to think of something.

"You just gonna kick the bucket and leave that girlfriend of yours with us?"

Izuku's heart stilled, his choked breathing stopped, and he glared up at the man, "What?"

Shigaraki smiled cruelly at that, "I said, are you gonna just die and leave your girlfriend with us?"

"I'll… kill you."

The smile on the villain's face spread even wider at Izuku's words, "Ah, that's more like it. Act like the merciless bastard you are. You killed Muscular cause you wanted to, right? It doesn't matter the circumstances; he got in your way, did something you didn't like, and you killed him for it. Didn't that feel good?"

"You're… a fucking psychopath." Izuku tried to fill himself with the familiar buzz of One for All, but after he was met with nothing but cold hollow emptiness, his blood froze, "Wh— why can't I—"

Shigaraki crouched down to Izuku's eye level and cocked his head, "You just tried to activate that quirk of yours, didn't you? Well, don't bother; we've got a nice robust supply of quirk suppressants, and your veins are pumped full of 'em. Although it has been a while since your last dose, you won't be—"

Izuku slammed a fist into Shigaraki's face, glaring at him, "You think I need a quirk to beat your ass?! You're dead wro—"

A kick to the side sent him to the ground, clutching his ribs in intense pain; another kick sent electricity buzzing through his entire body. Shigaraki straightened himself and sighed, "That's on me for assuming an idiot like you would ever get the picture so easily. Let me spell it out for you. I have your girlfriend in another cell exactly like this one. Aside from a few minor burns, she's fine, but that won't be the case if you keep being difficult."

Izuku clutched his side where he had been kicked. He glared up at the villain, taking in painful, gasping breaths, but he said nothing.

"Good boy. Now, eat your damn food." Shigaraki stepped away from Izuku, left the cell, and closed the door to the cell behind himself.

Izuku watched the villain with a hateful glare as he curled into a ball, clutching his ribs. He didn't reach for the food; he just glared at it.

"It's not poisoned if that's what you're thinking, although I will tell you it has more quirk suppressants in it. But if you want to see that girlfriend of yours before the day is over, you'll eat it and do as I say."

Izuku glared down at the food.

He picked up the fork.

And then took a bite.

Shigaraki smirked, "That's a good puppy. I would have preferred to use the carrot, but the stick works just as well. Now finish up your kibble, and I'll take you to see the little kitten."

Izuku felt humiliated. A vein throbbed on his head, and he wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of this bastard. But all he could do was as he was told. He wanted, no, needed to see Himiko.

That dream he'd had was still rattling around in his head despite his current situation, and he needed to see her so that his frayed nerves would settle. He didn't know where these dreams were coming from, but he was sure they were far more than just that.

He finished the food and threw the tray at the glass, "there, I did what you wanted. Now take me to Himiko!"

Shigaraki stood from the chair and opened the cell door, his finger curling in a come-here motion. "Come on, puppy."

Izuku grit his teeth, wanting nothing more than to slug the asshole again, but he just pushed himself to his hands and knees. His body would barely respond, but he somehow managed to stand on shaky legs.

'Himiko, Himiko, Himiko.' Izuku took one step forward, focusing his entire being on just walking. He needed to see her, needed to make sure she was okay. He slowly made his way out of the cell, propping himself up with the glass wall.

Shigaraki seemed to either take pity on him or just decided he didn't want to take an entire hour to walk where they needed to go. He slung Izuku's arm over his shoulder and walked him down the hall. The hum of fluorescent lights stung his eyes, and he winced with every step.

They passed through a series of doors that Shigaraki had to unlock. It seemed like the halls went on forever, but finally, they came upon another cell. This one looked the exact same as Izuku's, but instead of a single chair in front of the glass cell wall, there was a table pressed up against it.

"Himiko!" Izuku threw himself away from the villain and barely managed to hold himself up against the glass.

She was in the cell, huddled in on herself. She looked like a cornered animal, just like she had in his dream, but at his voice, she shot up to her feet and rushed over to him. Her hand pressed into the glass in the same spot his was, and she smiled at him. Her eyes shimmered with tears: "Izu! You're alright."

Izuku let hot tears spill over his face as he laughed at her insult. His eyes roamed over her. He was enraged to see bandages peaking out from behind her shirt, but otherwise, she seemed fine, "as alright as I can be."

"B-But, how? Your arms and legs were either broken or had severely torn muscles. How are you walking around like it's nothing?"

Shigaraki cleared his throat. Himiko glared at him, a terrifying snarl crossing her face, "Is that really the sort of reaction you should have to me? I was the one who asked the doctor to fix up Izuku here. He would've needed to have his right arm amputated if not for my intervention."

Izuku grimaced. He vaguely remembered waking up for a second and seeing a doctor working on him, but he had chalked it up to delirium. The thought that the League had doctors so good they could fix such extensive wounds was scary. But he couldn't worry about that right now. Himiko was right here with him, and she was alright. That alone was worth more than anything in the world to him.

His fingers curled against the glass, and he looked at her with a pained expression. "I love you."

She smiled, and it was so much like the version of herself from his dream it hurt his chest in a completely different way from his wounds, "I love you too, dummy."

Shigaraki groaned and sat heavily in a chair, "you two are so insufferably in love. It makes me gag."

Both Izuku and Himiko snarled at the man, and for once, they were both on the same wavelength. They wanted to murder this man.

Instead of looking even slightly disgruntled by the looks he was getting, Shigaraki just cocked his head to the side, smirking, "There's that bloodthirsty attitude I liked in both of you."

"What's your plan here?" Himiko glowered, her face scrunched and her fangs bared, making her look like a very pissed-off cat, "hold us captive and try to convince us to turn on all our friends and family? Cause I can tell you this: that isn't going to work. Not on me and not on Izu."

Shigaraki just stared at them for a second and then sat up a bit, "you think? Because from what I've seen and had researched, you don't exactly have a good relationship with your family, Himiko. And you, Izuku, you might have had a lucky break meeting All Might and getting his quirk from him, but do you think that would've been the case if you'd never met him? Or if you hadn't measured up to whatever standard he judged you by?"

Izuku winced at the mention of All Might and One for All.

"That's right, I know about One for All. Did you think mentioning Sensei back at the mall wouldn't clue me in? Only a handful of people would know his real name, and the only reason a kid like you would know is if you were All Might's little protege. After that, it was just a matter of bribing some officials for some of your quirk records, but then again, I'd gotten all that info long before knowing just how involved with All Might you really are."

A chill went up Izuku's spine. Just how much did Shigaraki know about him? How much did he know about Himiko? If he knew just how close Izuku was with All Might, why was he even trying this? He couldn't think Izuku would turn on the one man who had given Izuku the chance to chase his dream.

Izuku shook his head, "I don't get this. Why even take us then if you know just how involved I am with All Might? You can't seriously think I would ever turn on him."

Shigaraki stared at both of them. For once, he didn't have some insane grin or witty retort. He just frowned at them both and said something that made them both freeze. "You really think so? After everything the both of you have been through in this society that All Might helped create?"

Izuku stilled, "Are you seriously saying that after being the one to put us through most of that shit?"

He shook his head, "I'm not talking about recently, although your girlfriend's life only started to improve fairly recently. I'm talking about ostracization, violence, and people not caring about how you've suffered." Shigaraki stood up from his chair and went over to Himiko's cell door, "I'm gonna let lover-boy in there with you, then I'm gonna lock the door. I've gotta get some stuff to prove my point; get all your mushy crap out while I'm gone."

Izuku was shoved into the cell against Himiko, and when her arms wrapped around him, his legs finally gave out. Himiko held him against herself, her arms shook, and she hugged him tightly, "I'm… so glad you're okay, Izu. I haven't seen you in days."

He jerked and looked at her, "W-what? What do you mean days?"

Shigaraki locked the door and went back the way they had come from, but he turned to give Izuku a look. "Ah, did I not mention? It's been a week since we brought you both here. Your recovery took a while, and honestly, you probably won't be back in full health for another few days. Now you both sit there like a good puppy and kitty."

Izuku glared after the man as he left their section of the cells. Himiko wrapped her arms around Izuku's middle, making his ribs scream in pain.

"S-Sorry! I forgot!" Himiko pulled back a bit from him and looked him over worriedly, "You're really okay, right? They didn't do anything to you?"

"No, but he made me take quirk suppressants. He wouldn't have let me come see you if I didn't, so I won't be able to use One for All to get us out of here."

Her hands held his face in a firm yet caring grip. She stared into his eyes, her gaze soft and loving, "that's not what I meant, idiot. You… you killed someone, Izu. You can't be alright."

His stomach seemed to drop down to his feet, and he stumbled again, but this time, Himiko was the one to stabilize him, "I— h-he tried to kill me and Kota. I couldn't— couldn't think straight. I was just so angry. I thought… I don't know that someone would stop me before I—"

Izuku hung his head, clenching his fist so hard that the nails dug into his palm. Small rivulets of blood dripped from between his fingers and pattered softly to the gray cement floor.

"Izu, I understand. I saw the state you were in. If that guy pushed you that far, he was either going to kill you or Kota; you didn't have any other choice."

He had her stumble him over to the bed in the room so he could sit down, "that's not entirely true; if I had just surrendered from the beginning, maybe he would've taken me and left Kota alone. Judging from his personality, he would've been pissed off I didn't fight, but he probably only would've beaten me up. He seemed like the kind of guy who just wanted a fight… and I gave it to him." Izuku hung his head and scowled down at the ground, "I'm such an idiot."

"Izu," her hands tugged his head up so that he was forced to look up into her eyes. They were shadowed and just lightly obscured by her messy bangs, "people like that guy would kill anyone to get his way; he would've killed Kota to get the same reaction out of you. I know you must be torn up about it, but there was no other way you could've handled that if you wanted to get Kota out safely."

Tears prickled Izuku's eyes, and he finally broke down. Himiko wrapped her arms around his head and pressed him against her stomach. He shook and trembled as her fingers ran through his hair. His tears stained the already dirty clothes she had been wearing weeks ago during the training camp, and he could feel her trembling just as much as he was.

They were both scared and didn't know what would happen, but they were together. If he had had a choice, he would've preferred to be the only one taken, but he was at least happy that she wasn't here on her own.

"We need to find a way out of here," Izuku whispered, his arms trembling as he hugged her around the middle.

She leaned down slightly, her mouth brushing against his ear, her voice barely audible, "I've been watching them come and go, but only Shigaraki and some fat, bald doctor with a huge mustache have been coming down here. The doctor has just been going back and forth straight to you, Shigaraki has been trying to convince me to work for him, but he's just been spouting the same bullshit about wanting to get even with society. I don't get how he's going to convince us of anything, not when he's been attacking us and our friends and family ever since we met him. I've only seen the keys on him, so we'll have to get them from him somehow."

Izuku sighed and hunched his shoulders, "I don't know how we're going to do that, not when I can't even use One for All. Without it, I'm just… useless."

Himiko's lips slammed into his, and Izuku's eyes went wide. She kissed him fervently, her lips moving over his in a gentle but insistent rhythm.

His entire body was buzzing as she pulled back and smiled at him, "Don't say you're useless, idiot. And don't think I didn't see that bruise on Shigaraki's face; you punched him good, didn't you? Could someone who's useless do that?"

Izuku laughed, "That was because I lost my temper. Punching our captor in the face can't be useful."

She hummed lightly, her hands running through his hair, grinning at him, "Well, it shows you won't be easy, at the very least."

They both just stayed there together, Izuku enjoying the feeling of her hands running through his hair and Himiko smiling comfortingly down at him. But good things can't last forever, and Shigaraki chose that moment to walk back into the room. He had a laptop in his hand, and he looked annoyed that they were still clinging so close to one another.

Shigaraki scowled irritably, and his tired eyes simmered with annoyance, "I thought I said to get all that crap out while I was gone. Whatever, you, greenie, get over here. I'm showing you something first."

He really didn't want to leave Himiko, not now that he had been reunited with her. He didn't want to go back to that cell all alone again, but Izuku knew the feeling must have been ten times worse for her. She had been here for a week without being able to see him; for him, it had been almost instant, but he could feel her desperation. Her arms shook as Shigaraki told him to leave the cell, her fingers curled almost painfully in his hair, and her eyes were wild and angry.

"No."

Shigaraki's glare turned up a degree, "what was that?"

Izuku put a calming hand on Himiko's, smiled up at her, and then glared at the villain, "I said no. I won't leave Himiko, not after I've been away from her for so long."

"Listen, I'm sure you have a very honest and open relationship with your girlfriend there, but I doubt you want her to hear half the stuff I'm about to—"

"That doesn't matter to me. I doubt there's anything you could say that I wouldn't want Himiko to hear, and besides," Izuku could feel Himiko's body trembling, but he knew it wasn't fear. It was withdrawal, "she hasn't had any blood in a week. No, even longer than that; she hasn't had any blood since we'd arrived at the training camp. She needs blood. Now."

Shigaraki just watched Izuku, his irritation seeming to mount as he scratched furiously at his neck. Deep blood furrows opened along his skin, and he snarled irritably down at the ground, but then, all at once, he just dropped his hand down to his side and nodded, "Fine. You want to do this in front of the girl; do whatever you want, but don't regret it later."

He sat down in the chair on the other side of the glass and motioned for them to come over. He placed the laptop in his hand on the table and booted it up. The screen lit the villain's face, making the bags under his eyes far deeper and the blood seeping from his neck glisten.

Himiko swallowed, and he looked up at her from his position on the bed. "Himiko."

Her head jerked down, and her eyes met his in a silent conversation, "No."

Izuku nodded and inclined his head. He pulled the collar of the hospital shirt to the side and exposed his scarred shoulder to her. He could practically see her salivating at the sight, but she just shook her head even harder.

"I can't, you're hurt!"

He looked up at her and grimaced. Izuku stood shakily to his feet, wrapped his arms around her, and whispered in her ear, "What's a little more pain if it'll help you? We don't have the luxury of you not being at one hundred percent; you've got to be strong for both of us, at least until we find a way to get out of here."

Her hands trailed up along the scar on his lower back, traced the bruise along the curve of his spine, and gripped the side of his head and bicep. She pulled his head to the side, and the fingers wrapped around his arm tightened, "I'm sorry."

Her teeth sank into the flesh of his shoulder, and his entire body jerked. Her teeth pierced the tense muscles of his shoulder, and for once, it didn't give him even an ounce of arousal; it was just pure waves of shocking electric pain. He grit his teeth and suppressed painful tears that threatened to spill over his cheeks.

The sick thing was that he was savoring the feeling. It didn't feel pleasurable at all, and that somehow felt even better. It was like the pain was turning a release valve in him, slowly alleviating all the pressure he had felt after everything that had happened. He was just as addicted to her as she was to him, and he knew that was wrong.

All the while, Shigaraki just stared unblinkingly.

Himiko drank greedily. Her fingers dug painfully into his bicep, and his mind started to feel fuzzy. The dawning horror of his actions just before he had blacked out fell away; his fear of their current situation went with it, and all he could feel was her.

Her teeth in his neck, her hands on him, and her throat bobbing as she gulped his blood down.

Everything was just secondary to her.

"Ahem."

Izuku and Himiko shot apart.

Shigaraki just stared at them, "You two really are fucked up, aren't you?"

They stared at him indignantly, blood dripping down Himiko's chin and Izuku's face bright red.

His eyes focused on Izuku, "You know I didn't think much of you when I first saw you during our invasion at the U.S.J., but when I went for your girlfriend, you tried outright to kill me with your quirk," Shigaraki stared at them, his hands clasped as he turned his eyes between them, "that really piqued my interest in you, so I had you looked into, and I've gotta say, you have a pretty bleak past. It didn't take much to pull government documents about your quirk or lack thereof."

Izuku's blood ran cold, 'how did he get ahold of documents like that?'

Shigaraki giggled, "I see you're confused. Well, don't be. It's very easy to either bribe, blackmail or threaten government workers who have access to that kind of information. So, while I didn't fully know who you were after we met, I didn't know why you were registered as quirkless for so long in the official documents, but I figured it out after what you said back at the mall."

'What's the point of telling me all this? Why even bother? And more importantly, what is he planning to do about One for All? All Might never told me any of All for One's goals aside from wanting to rule over Japan, but would he want to take One for All from me, too?'

"Oh, don't make that face. I might be a monster, but I'm a civilized one… well, so long as you don't piss me off, that is," Shigaraki scratched at his neck and watched as they both stared at him in horror, "your quirkless past aside, I've got to say I'm surprised you didn't end up a criminal. All of your school records are pretty impressive, you were consistently the top of your class; at least until you started getting beat up by that kid with the explosion quirk anyway. Of course, after the first few years of junior high, teachers stopped reporting any incidents like that, but I have a feeling it didn't stop; they just figured the explosion kid had a brighter future than some quirkless loser. So they stopped reporting it, but he kept beating you up. Is that about right?"

Izuku stayed silent, but the villain wasn't wrong. Actually, he was entirely right. A few years after Izuku had gotten fed up with Kacchan constantly hitting and belittling him, he went to their homeroom teacher, but that didn't help.

He could still remember what the teacher had said.

"Bakugo keeps hitting you?"

Izuku had been relieved that he had finally said something, but that quickly changed.

"So what?" The teacher shook his head, "you'll just have to grit your teeth and bear with it, Midorikawa. He's got a great quirk, and that'll get him far. Heck, I'd even say he could probably get into U.A. Do you really want to ruin that for him by making unnecessary trouble?"

The fact that the teacher didn't even remember Izuku's last name had stung, but the look of annoyed dismissal had hurt even more. And, of course, Kacchan beating him up after having heard about Izuku going to a teacher had made it all the worse.

Shigaraki's smile fell, and for the first time since Izuku had met the man, he looked genuinely sympathetic, "I also looked into when you and your girlfriend first started to associate with one another. I had to see how you'd poached a potential league member after all, and I've got to say what I found on a security camera in some back alley she'd been slinking in really caught my interest."

Shigaraki opened the laptop he'd brought in and turned the screen to izuki. At first, he was confused, but once Shigaraki hit the play button, he saw a familiar alley. A girl with bright blonde hair, a school uniform, and what looked like a knife in her hand crouched in front of a dumpster whose lid was ajar. After a few seconds, something slammed into the dumpster, and the girl shot across the alley to stare at the container, her knife at the ready as she approached.

She kicked the dumpster, and Izuku could hear her faint voice from the laptop's speakers, "Someone in there? I'm warning you now: if you jump at me, I'll stab ya a little bit!"

Izuku suppressed a chuckle. He had almost forgotten that Himiko had said that upon their reunion, but he couldn't really blame her; she had been on the run at the time. His state, when Himiko finally hauled him out of the dumpster, wiped the ghost of a smile off of his face and made him remember how low he had felt back then.

'Was I really that small and pale?'

Shigaraki closed the laptop and stared at him evenly, "obviously, your life was bad enough that you'd attempt to kill yourself. Back then, life didn't seem to be worth living for you, did it?"

Izuku glared at him, "so what? Are you going to laugh about it and call me pathetic? Well, go ahead; it's not anything I haven't heard before."

Himiko's hand tightened around Izuku's, and she frowned sadly at him.

"I'd be a hypocrite if I did that," Shigaraki didn't move, not even an inch, as he stared into Izuku's eyes, "I've been that low before. I've felt so lost and hurt that I just wanted to end it all. Almost every person the so-called 'heroes' call villains have. Hell, even your girlfriend had a terrible childhood, and that was because of her quirk. In this society, being born with the 'wrong' quirk can be just as damning as being born without one."

Izuku swallowed heavily, "why are you telling me this? Why are you even bothering? Why kidnap us? I don't get it."

"I've told you before… I want both of you to join us, and I want to tear down this society by its roots, starting with All Might."

A/N: Okay, I knew I said I would take a while to write the next chapter, but I just couldn't help myself. I know Shigaraki finding footage from the first time Izuku and Himiko met again is really far-fetched, but cut me some slack. I thought it would be a great way of showing the kind of pull Shigaraki has because of his connection to All for One. Plus, this is my fanfic, so I'll be as heavy-handed as I want to lol.

I hope the latter half of the story wasn't out of place. It was one of my prewritten scenes, and I had to change a bit around since it didn't quite match up with how this chapter came out, but I tried to change as much as I could and fit it together.

I hope you enjoyed!!!