Chapter Text
It has officially been four months since Izuku has been staying in Vikkarda with the League of Villains.
He can't say that he doesn't miss home, that he doesn't miss his mom, or Kacchan, or his videogames, or his notebooks,
But here is better. Or atleast it's been better to Izuku than Okkodia ever was. Here, he's free. He can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants!
Well, except go outside the base without supervision. And even then, Shigaraki doesn't bring him out much. Only once a week to go get his blood drawn, and then a couple times to go get supplies. But other than that, he pretty much can do whatever he wants.
Sure, he does have to deal with his blood being drawn, that always made him super light-headed, and then also those stupid injections that Kurogiri likes to give him— he apparently wasn't supposed to remember anything about it happening, but he started being able to remember the incidents after a few weeks of getting the injections, but other than that, too, staying in this place was fun.
Fun. Was this really the first time Izuku had having fun in his life? Was being kidnapped fun? Was being held hostage and being used for his own blood, fun?
Pretty much, yeah!
And here he has friends. At home, he didn't have friends. Here, he has Toga, and Dabi, and Spinner— who didn't come around often but when he did, he played video games with Shigaraki and Izuku, and then a woman who had recently joined the League, named Magne, she was nice and a real gossip, Izuku liked hearing about her stories. She unfortunately didn't live at the base either, so she was also not around much. And then of course, Tomura.
Yes, Tomura. Izuku had started calling him by his first name instead of Shigaraki. Tomura said he could.
For the last two months, Izuku and Tomura have been spending even more time together. Shigaraki had been training Izuku. And it's been overall good for the both of them.
Tomura gets some exercise, opposed to him sitting in his room, playing games all day, and Izuku gets some muscles, and a good way to defend himself if need-be.
He's helped clean up their base a bit, too. They've been getting some good money from Overhaul. really good. They have actual food now, furniture, gear, etc. Of course, all of it was good to Vikkardian standards, which basically meant anything that worked well and was easy to repair.
And Izuku could respect that. Infact, he did respect that. Because if he were to be honest, he misjudged Vikkarda a lot.
Sure, it was dangerous, you might get killed or mugged or scammed, but the people were themselves.
And even Izuku, throught the last few months that he's stayed here, has found himself a hobby.
Constructing bombs.
Okay, maybe it wasn't a hobby quite yet. He hadn't constructed a bomb, and even if he did, it would most likely be a Hand Grenade. At most.
But Izuku had the idea one day, when he saw Shigaraki used his quirk, swore a lot, and then said something about wishing that his quirk was long range rather than being touch based, so that he could disintegrate things from a distance.
And as if a light bulb actually appeared above Izuku's head and lit up, he got an idea.
A bomb. That's like, a bomb, right? But one that worked molecule-by-molecule.. like a chain reaction. Almost like that, pouring acetone on Styrofoam experiment that Izuku did in science class once.
Maybe a type of acid could work that way. But it would have to be really strong acid— inside of a container that could hold it without being disintegrated. Or maybe he could create his own acid by separating two different compounds in two different types of capsules inside of the explosive shell, and when it gets thrown, the capsules break open and it explodes..
Or maybe there was some sort of quirked compound Izuku could use to make a stronger reaction than acid, or a wider range of disintegration.
But Izuku didn't quite know enough about chemistry to figure this out yet. And that was the problem, because he didn't have access to any books.
How was he supposed to learn how to make bombs, if he didn't know how to make bombs? Did that make any sense? Probably not. Well, the moral of the story is, Izuku needs to get his grubby little paws on some damn books.
Metaphorical paws, of course. He had regular hands. Paws would be cool though.
Sure, he still needed materials, and experience, and equipment, but he could find all that on the way. No biggie. The most important factor was knowledge and there therefore, books.
And so, ever since Izuku had that epiphany, he's been begging Tomura to bring him out to the markets to buy some books.
Toga had mentioned that there's a blueprint shop not too far from them, that also sold instructional books for weapons, machines, the works. And Izuku really wants to go!
The only problem, is Tomura. As mentioned earlier, Izuku's not allowed to leave the base without supervision, however, Tomura will not bring him anywhere, because he's an annoying man child that stews in his room doing nothing all day.
But Izuku will convince him. Eventually. Maybe.
A few more days passed— four, to be exact, and not yet has Izuku been able to convince Tomura to bring him out to the store.
And Izuku's patience has run out.
And so he's decided that he's just gonna sneak out. Just for a bit, Tomura would probably never even know he left. Just for a bit.
It wouldn't even be that hard, really, he stays in his room most hours of the day, and Tomura rarely happened to go in there to check on him, so they probably wouldn't even notice at all. Izuku would just have to be quick.
Yeah, be quick. He'll have to limit his time to one— no, two hours. Two hours is good. No more than two hours, no matter how many books they have there to look at!
Izuku slipped his shoes on and tied them.
Maybe they'll have notebooks too. Izuku's been trying to get his original notebooks back from Tomura, but he keeps avoiding the subject.
Izuku pulled on a hoodie.
The only thing Izuku really knows, is that the notebooks aren't in Tomura's possession anymore. So Shigaraki must have given them to someone else. Which was a huge bummer, but atleast Izuku doesn't have to worry about bugging Tomura about them anymore.
But either way, it wasn't much use to him anymore. What would he even need a hero notebook for? He lives in Vikkarda. Heroes don't even come down here.
But either way, if heroes really cared about him they'd have saved him by now. He's nothing to them. So they should be nothing to him, either. There's nothing left to admire.
Izuku grabbed his old yellow backpack— that he had gotten back from Shigaraki, because, how he put it, "it's just a stupid backpack, we have no use for it. I guess you can store the shit you collect down here in this thing". However, Izuku didn't remember it being empty when they took it, it was still nice to have, to carry stuff in.
He stuffed some cash in the pocket that would be pressed against his back. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about pick-pocketers. If he wanted to buy books, he would need cash.
Luckily, Overhaul has started compensating Izuku for his blood separately, and not just paying the whole of the League. That means he has money to spend.
Izuku hadn't spent any of it yet, other than asking Tomura for some of his snacks, and bribing him with money. Izuku's gained a liking for energy drinks.
So luckily, Izuku has quite enough money to spend on books and supplies.
"Where are you going?"
Izuku's heart stopped in his chest, and he startled as he heard the familiar voice from behind him.
He slowly turned to face her— Toga, who was standing in the doorway of Izuku's room. How hadn't he heard her open his door? He must have either been lost in thought, or she used her super-special ninja skills to sneak up on him.
"Oh! H- Hi, Toga! How's it going? I- I was just—"
"Sneaking out?" She interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow questioningly.
Izuku paused.
"Uhm.. yeah. Sneaking out. P- please don't tell the others! I- I can go and buy you some snacks if you'd like? Oh— shoot.. but I don't know where to buy snacks.. crap," Izuku rambled, pacing back and forth. He gritted his teeth in frustration, looking like he was about to tear up our of embarrassment.
"Do you even know where the store I told you about, even is? Or atleast what it's called?" Toga asked, an unimpressed look on her face.
Izuku paused once again. Then he spoke.
"No," was his simple answer.
"Then how do you expect to get there?" Toga asked again.
"I- I don't know, okay? I don't know! I just—" Izuku groaned.
"I just wanna get out! I wanna go and see things— and I want to learn how to make hand grenades!" Izuku paused, getting on his knees and begging to her. "I haven't even told you anything about that, so ignore I said that, I don't have time to explain my logic, but—"
"Or, I could just tell you what it's called," she said, rolling her eyes.
Izuku's head snapped upward, looking up at her in shock.
"What?"
"What?" Toga asked back.
"I— you would do that?" His eyes lit up with excitement.
"Sure, I guess. Just don't tell the others guys that I told you. The place is called, The Rabbit Hole. It's owned by a chick named Hatsume. You have to go through a more dangerous territory to get there, so if you want you can borrow one of my knives to keep you safe. But you can't lose it, okay? It's my favorite," She said, disconnecting one of her knives from her thigh holsters and handing it to Izuku.
The blade still had a cover on it, which would be nice. Izuku in his everlasting clumsiness would probably end up hurting himself with it if it didn't.
Izuku sighed in relief.
"Thanks.. I— I really appreciate it, Toga. Please don't tell anyone I'm gone, okay? I'll be back in two hours, tops." Izuku put his knife into the front pocket of his backpack.
"If you tell on me, then I'll tell on you, and the fact that you agreed to help me in the first place!" He threatened, not very threateningly.
Toga looked at him, unimpressed.
"..Right. well, usually the easiest way to sneak out soule be through your window," she said, gesturing to the window in his room.
"But, I see that it.. still has bars on it."
"Yep," Izuku said, sighing.
"That's okay, I'll help you another way. Follow me," she said, walking out the doorway.
Izuku followed her, but not before looking back at his room.
He smiled. It really was starting to feel like home. The guys helped him move furniture from the sides of the street into his room. He had, so far, a desk, night stand, a ratty old recliner chair, as well as a rug, and a lamp. They didn't have anywhere for him to plug in the lamp, but it was a nice decoration. It sat on his desk. Nothing too fancy, he didn't have that much space in his room for stuff, but it helped it feel a bit more homey.
He also had started collecting little trinkets and items he finds outside the base on his way to and back from Overhaul's lab. One time he found a whole box of pre-quirk era manga on the side of the road. Who would just get rid of that?
But then again, one time he found a nude magazine on the ground next to a used condom. Yikes. He didn't bring that home.
Izuku and Toga made their way to the end of the hall, to which Toga turned to the right, and walked behind the bar.
"This door leads to the outside, but it's locked. Tomura-kun put the two-way lock on after you started talking about wanting to leave. Luckily, all the League members have a key, including me," she explained, digging into her pocket and pulling out a brass key.
She inserted the key, twisting the knob. The door popped open, revealing a not-so interesting view, which consisted of the brick exterior wall of the building next to theirs.
"This is the building's back door, so.." she trailed off, pursing her lips in boredom.
"Alright, well.. uh.." Izuku looked out into the alley.
"I'm off then, I suppose."
"You have two hours. And don't lose my knife," she reminded him.
"You promised."
"Of course," Izuku replied with a nod.
"Thank you."
Toga nodded, yanking Izuku's hood over his head, and turned back and watched as Izuku walked out. The door closed behind him.
He had successfully snuck out. Now, the hardest part was done.
Well, the hardest part of being sneaky. The hardest part of this whole operation would be actually finding the place.
Izuku exited the alleyway and started walking down the road, the same one that he and Tomura went down usually to get to Overhaul's place. Izuku figured that other than this way, he wouldn't know where to go, so this would be his best bet. Either way, he was getting closer to the center of Vikkarda.
The place was starting to get more and more crowded. Not just with buildings, but with people, too. From what Shigaraki had described to him recently— he was entering the shopping district.
Izuku smiled to himself. He was going the right way.
The whole place was shaded and getting darker and darker the further into the area that he got. Like it was a giant alley way. Shopping stalls and citizens alike crowded the streets.
Most of the stalls looked as if they were constructed by pieces of scrap wood or metal and tarps.
The people looked scary.
But nice.
People were smiling and joking around— there was a group of teenagers, probably around eighteen, running around the stalls.
Izuku couldn't help but peek into their conversation.
"And then we went to the arcade— and she held my hand bro we— she said that I was better at the pinball machine than any of the other people she's gone to the arcade with," one teen said.
Another snorted.
"You're whipped."
"Usually I would punch you for saying that, but since I am infact so fucking whipped, I can't help but be in a good mood."
Izuku smiled to himself. Again, there was just something about seeing.. humanity down here. Izuku can't believe that just months ago, he thought these people were heartless, evil monsters.
Not that it was his fault for thinking that, per se', the High Council seemed pretty adamant that everyone was "aware" of how Vikkardians acted.
And then they proceeded in giving their trusting Okkodian citizens completely wrong information.
What a great Council.
Izuku had matured past thinking these people were scary by nature— but they definitely had the opportunity to be if they wanted. Everyone was layered in leather and mild protective gear that it looked like they wore every day. Everyone atleast had one weapon on them— more than what Izuku could see with his eyes, probably, if these people had any sense (and they did,) they definitely had more weapons hidden on them away from prying eyes.
Body modifications seemed like a common part of Vikkardian culture— the vast majority of people had tattoos up their arms, and piercings on various parts of their body.
How did they not get those damaged or yanked during fights, Izuku thought. They must have some kind of unstated ground rule to not yank eachother's piercings while tussling. Izuku could respect that.
Not only was the average person modified, but Izuku has seen more people with Mutation quirks here, than in the span of his entire previous life up in Okkodia.
He didn't even know this many Mutations existed.
Izuku decided that he should probably ask for directions. He didn't know where to go, and wandering further could get him lost. Well, more lost than he already was— he probably should have payed more attention to all the turns and twists he was taking, but he didn't.
Well, that seemed more like a problem for future Izuku.
Either way, he decided to walk up to a tall boy, who had six arms, silver hair and a mask over the bottom half of his face. A mutant, but he looked nice. Most of them did.
"Excuse me?" Izuku poked his shoulder.
The man— boy? Man? Izuku couldn't quite tell his age, turned around to look at Izuku.
"Yes?"
"I- I'm looking for a shop called The Rabbit Hole, uhmm, a girl named Mei Hatsume owns it? Do you happen to know where that might be?" Izuku asked, looking up at him hopefully.
"No, sorry. I've never heard of it.. I've heard of Hatsume herself, but I don't know where her shop is," he answered, nodding once.
"Alright.. thank you," Izuku said with a sigh, walking away.
Izuku wandered for probably around ten more minutes, before he realized, once again, that he definitely wouldn't be able to find this shop by just wandering around.
So he looked around and picked a random person to ask.
He walked up to a tall man, he looked to be in his late-twenties to early-thirties, he had naturally grey, short hair, bright yellow eyes and tan skin. He had two full sleeves of tattoos that crawled a bit up onto his neck.
Izuku may have just been subconsciously biased to talking to this guy, because he's honestly really hot. But can you blame Izuku? Really?
"Uhm.. excuse me?" Izuku said, poking the man's shoulder from behind.
The man turned, slimming his eyes at Izuku.
"What do you want, brat? Can't you see I'm busy?"
Izuku, infact, couldn't see how he was being busy, because he wasn't really doing anything. Just.. standing there. Like an NPC.
Did Izuku really just say NPC? God, he's really been picking up on Shigaraki's loser—I mean gamer, lingo.
"Uhm.. sorry to bother you, I- I was just wondering if you happened to know where—"
And then Izuku was yanked backwards by the loop on his backpack, and something cold and metal was pressed up against the front of his throat.
Someone— someone strong was restraining him from behind, an arm around his ribcage. Izuku still had his backpack on, so atleast he had that going for him.
Izuku gasped in air, to replace that which was promptly knocked out of him when they grabbed him.
The man infront of him chucked.
"Nice knife, kiddo. Where'd you get it?" The guy behind him said. He had a raspy voice.
Izuku's eyes widened. This guy had snaked Toga's knife out of his backpack and is not using it to threaten Izuku.
The fucking nerve of this guy.
"What's a runt like you doing in a place like this?" The white haired guy spoke.
"I— I was just— trying to find a shop, I wanted to— to ask for directions," Izuku stuttered out.
He felt paralyzed with fear, however, in a contradicting statement, he was shaking so hard that if his mother were here, she'd probably insist that he was probably having a seizure and that they needed to go to the hospital.
"These streets aren't safe for ya, kiddo. You should know that. Where're your parents?" He said directly into Izuku's ear, chuckling.
Izuku felt oddly whoosy after he spoke. That's when he noticed that there was purple smoke coming out from inside the man's mouth. That must be his quirk.
"Let.. me go," Izuku said quietly. He was trying to make sure his throat didn't move too much— he didn't wanna risk getting any closer to the blade.
"Not gonna happen, kid, y'know I can smell your quirk. Or, lack there of," the white haired man laughed at Izuku, taking another step closer.
Izuku's eyes widened, and his body went stiff. What? This guy can smell quirks?
Izuku tried not to be amazed. But that was a really awesome quirk to have. Of course, it wasn't exactly making life go in Izuku's favor right now— Izuku internally cursed the at sky for giving such a mean person such a cool quirk.
"And I happen to know that people're sellin' brats like you for quite a lot these days, ever since that Overhaul started poking around with quirkless blood," he continued, picking at his cuticles.
"..Yunoki, knock 'em out."
That was the last thing that the man said, before he was punched in the skull, and sent to the ground by the mere force of it.
Izuku turned his head to look at the man that punched him— accidentally slicing a skin-deep wound in his neck in the process. Izuku winced, feeling a drop of blood run down his sternum.
The perpetrator had black hair, that was long down to his shoulders. He had stubble, and wore an intentionally unassuming black jumpsuit, paired with a grey scarf, and a yellow belt. He had a pair of oddly shaped yellow goggles over his eyes.
Eraserhead.
This guy was Eraserhead! Oh my God—Izuku is freaking out right now.
Eraserhead, despite not being known much by the general public, is Izuku's second favorite hero.
Even though he.. wasn't supposed to like heroes anymore.
Izuku has done a lot of thinking lately. And it has come to absolutely zero conclusion.
On one hand, Izuku loves heroes. He always has. They've done so much good for Okkodia and it's citizens.
On the other hand, Okkodia is not a just, nor fair place. They kick out people with Mutation quirks, or any quirks that they deem dangerous, which isn't okay! Because these are real people, who didn't even choose to be born with said quirk!
Shigaraki has explained that dilemma passionately to Izuku more than just a few times during the span of the few months Izuku has been in Vikkarda.
But on a third hand— yes, a third hand, heroes were a lower rank than the High Council— meaning that, they didn't really have any control over what the High Council does.
On a fourth hand, why would heroes choose to work for such a corrupt organization, if they didn't agree with it?
On a fifth hand, heroes still do their job to save people, whether or not the person they work for isn't the best person. They still save lives every day from villains.
So, it was really a moral dilemma.
Either way, Eraserhead is, or was, depending on which was morally right as of now, Izuku's second favorite hero.
Izuku had always liked analyzing heroes— and analyzing mainstream heroes like All Might got boring quickly, since to analysts like Izuku, all that information was practically out in the open.
But for underground heroes like Eraserhead— their information is much harder to come by.
From his quirkless fighting style, to the fact that his quirk was to literally take other people's quirks and make them fight quirkless too, it was extremely cool to see a hero fight with no natural advantage— a quirk, against someone else who's had their natural advantage taken away as well.
It almost made Izuku feel like he could be a hero too.
But, he couldn't now, so no need to dwell on it.
Just as the man— Yunoki, apparently, as he had been called by his partner earlier, activated his quirk, the purple smoke surrounded them in less than a second.
Eraserhead activated his quirk, making his hair float. He deactivated the man's quirk, and his capture weapon wrapped around the man's torso, yanking him away from Izuku before anything else could happen.
It was almost a miracle that the knife, of which was still nearly pressed against Izuku's throat, didn't do any more damage than had already been done by Izuku's own actions. He only had the cut that he had caused himself, which was dripping blood down onto his hoodie.
Eraserhead kneed the man in the gut, making him curl in on himself with a loud gasp, probably trying to replace the air that had been promptly knocked out of him.
The hero kicked him onto the ground, leaving him there. Yunoki didn't end up trying to get up.
Izuku found it odd that nobody else around them was even reacting to the fight. They were all just minding their own business.
Eraserhead, who hadn't even broken a sweat during all that, turned to Izuku.
"You alright, kid?"
He paused for a moment, an increasingly puzzled look on his face as he looked Izuku up and down.
And then his eyes widened.
"Hey— You're the missing kid!" He shouted.
Izuku's heart stopped in his chest. He took a step backwards. And then another, and then another.
Before he knew it, he was full-on sprinting the opposite direction.
"Hey! Fuck— kid! Come back here! Midoriya Izuku— mnf!" Eraserhead tried to run after him, but he kept bumping into people.
"Come back! Do you even know how worried people are about you-?!"
Izuku was running. He was running and he wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop. He couldn't let himself get caught. He didn't want to go back to Okkodia. Just keep putting one foot infront of the other, and move forward.
This is what he was training for. This is the situation he's been preparing for. He has to keep running.
Izuku had an advantage here. He was small, and quick, and he was able to move fast through crowds of people without even barely bumping into anyone.
Eraserhead, though he had many strengths, was six feet tall and muscular. This fact made it harder for him to move through crowds. Izuku knew damn well that his usual style was either jumping roof to roof— which wasn't an option right now, or, patrolling at night time, when there was less people. But that also wasn't an option right now, because you can't exactly change the time of day.
Then he saw a big group of people.
If he could just run through them— he would be sure to lose Eraserhead for sure. He could get away, he could blend into the crowd-
Izuku felt a hand on the front of his shirt, and before he could react, he was yanked sideways into an alleyway.