Chapter Text
Waking up he vaguely realized how the chill damp air kept goosebumps on his arms and how much his head pounded like someone had smashed a baseball bat into his temple. He then felt the burn in his arms that only came after intense quirk overuse. He was on a cold stone floor. The room was damp and silent and he couldn’t move his arms. He squinted his eyes open and slowly registered the small poorly lit room he was in.
The walls were old deformed cracked concrete decayed with a film of slime. And the ground was wet and uneven and pressed uncomfortably on his face as he laid there. He turned his head to understand the rest of the area. While everything within the room was slimy damp and old, the opening was sleek and disturbingly clean. Parallel bars under a lock.
Katsuki was inside a prison cell.
He froze with the realization and rushed up to stand, everything blurring in disoriented motion. He kicked at the ground and yelled, prepared to destroy the opening. He stumbles forward with the heavy realization that his hands were trapped in an unfortunately familiar device, Quirk Cuffs, a large and stiff brick of steel confining both of his arms.
He snarled and lifted them with frustration and swung them back. The entire metal cuffs must have been 30 to 40 pounds of added weight. His brain was filled with disorientation but he was awake and he refused to stay there a moment longer. He stood sturdy and swung. The clang of the cuffs against the metal bars rang with a bouncing echo.
“H-hey.” A small voice spoke so softly it could have been a mouse. Even so the voice bounced along the hallway beyond the cell bars.
“Who the hells there?!” Katsuki snapped, his hoarse voice cracked and burned at the sudden use.
“Nobody, I was just wondering… you filled the survivor's cell, you must be really important.
Katsuki paused, the detail of the ruined room suddenly seemed much more significant, he coughs then asked, “Who d’ya mean survivor?”
“The only one who got away. He never said his name but he acted like a hero… Do you know him?”
Katsuki wondered if he should say, concluding the benefit of telling someone his best guess who may be attempting to trick him into giving information he decided to play ignorant, “That's pretty obscure for me to figure out if you don’t even have his name, I don’t even know what this place is.”
“Ah, I’m not sure either but I would recommend not causing a fuss. They may put you in the ring and that's... uhm well you won’t like it.” The small voice shook with fear at the mention of the ring.
“Yeah?” Katsuki felt a little irritated by the voice bothering him with useless facts.
“No one likes it. They… uh they break you.”
…
Katsuki listened to the voice tremble worsening. It must have been something they were personally familiar with. He couldn’t quite believe the words, but he was still determined he wouldn’t allow them to try without a fight. He lifted his trapped hands again and slammed the heavy weights into the bars. The loud clang disturbed the silence as some other voices murmured with fear and surprise.
He glared at the bars. They bent only a little. So he lifted up his arms again and attacked the annoyingly shiny metal.
“HEY!” The voice boomed and bounced around the cell, filled with complete fire. Quickly came into sight was a beefy figure irritated but grinning madly. “You have a death wish don't you kid?”
“Don’t give yourself so much credit you couldn’t kill me no matter how hard you tried, “ Katsuki scoffed, grinning back just as wildly. The man seemed to hunger at the idea to test that and started to reach for the lock.
Of couse this guard wasn’t completely idiotic, even with his arms restrained nothing would stop Katsuki pulverizing the man into a chunk of meat if he let the door open. The big man took a step back and pressed something on his wrist, “You don’t have any control hero, in this place you’re a lab rat with an expiration date; you’ll die of starvation in just a few days without me lifting a finger. Just like your little friend.” The man chuckled and pointed to the back of his neck. Was he talking about the mark?
“Where the hell is DEKU?”
The man halted his monologue.
“Boss didn’t need him anymore.”
Katsuki stilled at those words. The beefy guard backed away as two people in masked hazmat suits came wordlessly into view.
Don’t need him anymore?
Last he saw Izuku he was bleeding on the ground and nearly dead. Did they finish him off? Or did they just leave him? He can’t just be dead. He still has One For All.
Katsuki had just barely healed things between them, Izuku can’t just be gone. He and Izuku were going to…
The man, smug and satisfied, backed off. The echo of his footsteps being the only sign he was still in ear shot.
This wasn’t adding up. Katsukis brain scrambled as the one of the people in a hazmat suit lifted a machine towards him. It buzzed to life and a smokey vapor escaped from it filling the cell. The smell came as the foggy mixture filled the room, it was sweet smelling almost sickeningly so.
Katsuki, still standing, murderously glared at them, “If he died I’ll kill every last one of you! Y’ HEAR ME! I’LL KILL YOU ALL.”
Katsuki heard the footsteps pause only for a moment before moving on and fading.
The foggy vapor seemed to throw off Katsuki’s strength and focus and he started to stumble. Of course he stubbornly fought the looming drowsiness, he jolted forward snarling and slammed his cuffs on solid last time against the bars and the two hazmat people jumped back with fear. Katsuki harshly chuckled, satisfied by the reaction as the sweet smelling vapor overtook him. He chuckled until he hit the ground, completely passed out.
Waking to the sound of crying wasn’t what he expected. Katsuki heard the noise and turned towards it. He tried to understand the noise in the darkness but the sound was insistent on remaining as quiet as possible. He slowly opened his eyes feeling disoriented and confused, it was still dark and damp but he was able to focus enough on the voice to turn towards it.
His voice weezed out with a dry croak, “hey, you ok?”
The voice hesitated in its crying and the scratch of feet on the old dirty concrete floor came closer.
“Are you like me?” The voice was small, young, and shivered like a kitten in a snow storm.
Katsuki tried to move towards the voice but his head was pounding and the center of gravity within him swayed in an unpredictable dance. He stumbled down into the floor, coarse and sharp digging scratches into his forearms and elbows.
“Don’t play around kid, whadya mean?” Katsuki insisted as gently as he could manage.
“They never let me talk to the fighters unless they’re special like me, I can switch people, Sensei needs to have my quirk. He must want yours too”
Katsuki sighs, “Nah, I’m nothing special, just a blasting quirk.”
He rolled up to his feet only to thump his head on a low hanging ceiling. He grunts angrily and bites back a string of curses by growling at the rocky overhang. That won’t help his head much but he refused time to cry over it. He slowly felt around the space he was in. The quirk cuffs still locked over his hands but the light tapping against the textures of the ceiling and walls gave him a good idea.
“The boy before, he said something like that, nothing special, he was nice.”
“You know his name?”
“...It's better not t-to ask, c-cause they all get hurt or disappear.” The voice trembled more and strained sobs.
Katsuki didn’t falter with his blind search towards the kid, but the confession sat like a stone in his gut. This couldn’t be much past primary school years but to be this isolated.
“How long have you been with Sensei?”
“What do you mean? He’s always taken care of me.”
Katsuki’s throat tightened unbearably.
“Oh looks like they’re ready for you.” The kids mumbled disheartened.
Katsuki heard scuffing feet backing away, “Oi kid WAIT.” He moved quicker trying to find the kid swinging his hands through the dark.
“See you later, okay? I'll be watching, so do your best.”
“KID COME BACK.” Katsuki demanded
The sound of creaking and the small bleed of light peaked in the room exposing the space he was trapped in. It was just like the cell he woke up in not too long ago. It was more spacious and the door he was wandering towards was big and metal with a slot for a small window. It was open and must have been where the boy was talking to him. He growled and turned to the light source.
Another door opening on its own. Noise was coming from the otherside of the door, distant muffled cheers and screams. Katsuki made no move to go near the door, refusing to play any game that he was being set up to be a pawn in. He was not expecting the sight of Dabi waltzing into view. That taunting casually confident glare coming into view.
“You have 10 seconds before I fill that room with fire, brat. So unless you want a fighting chance...” He wandered out of sight. Katsuki looked down at his hands. They were no longer contained in the quirk suppressing cuffs but the sight of a pair of thick bracelets strapped to his wrists and an experimental test of his quirk let him know he still didn’t have unrestricted access quite yet. He huffed and trailed after Dabi.
The light of the room was blinding, the air was heavy with humidity and the smell of stale blood and sweat. The space was round and empty, surprisingly spacious and dirtied with suspicious dark stains and large gashes that had endured whatever cleaning was done. The round space was encased in glass and a few other doors that varied in size and lights at the ceiling. Behind the glass was an unlit audience much like an actor looking out to their silhouetted viewers while performing on a stage.
“Oi kid don’t look at them.’ Dabi called he was lacking his dark coat insead exposing that torn tragedy he called a shirt showing off the many intense scars that covered his body.
“I’m supposed to fight you huh? Seems simple enough.” Katsuki demanded falling into a prepared fighter's stance and Dabi just silently smirked.
The other doors creaked open slowly exposing the feet of some unfortunately familiar creatures. Katsuki’s eyes widened and realization of what was going to happen came to light. His raised fists dropped in shock of what was to come.
“Nah kid, I’m here in case they try to kill you.”
As the doors opened completely Katsuki took a step back, his body beginning to tremble. A wide wild smile naturally graced his face in an attempt to hide his fear.
The rules of the ring became more clear. There were no fair fights in the ring. There was no mercy or reasoning or combat. The purpose wasn’t to fight an opponent.
There were three towering with grey and purple dead skin and bulging eyes staring at him unblinking like vultures with decaying meat, hunched and walking in like zombies, their brains vulgarly exposed.
The ring was a hunt of rabid dogs and their defenseless chew toy caged in with them. To fight over him and tear him apart until he was desperate enough to expose his powers to give him some small fighting chance.
Dabi pointed at Katsuki with his grin darkening into something maniacal and thrilled he laughed hysterically then stopped and gave the command to awaiting creatures, “Nomu’s go fetch.”
Waking up he realized the soft fabrics hugging him. He smelled clean cotton and a faint scent of cleaning supplies. His body was weak and the slightest shifting stabbed his chest. The awareness of his own body shoved a literal reality in his throat. In his mouth a large tube was forcing him to breathe. He coughed at the unfamiliar feeling and stirred slowly with glazed exhausted eyes as he looked to his surroundings.
White walls. Monotonous beeping.
He croaked and his eyes shot wide open in panic. He was being forced back to life wasn’t he? Sensei was torturing him with his lab coat minions yet again. The room was white and held no respite in his disorienting wake. He needed to get OUT. Taking account of his body there were multiple tubes pushed into his body burrowed in his skin.
Testing, probing, poking, taunting. He couldn’t bear it again. He’d been broken enough, let him die in peace.
His panic became worse. With sight overwhelmed seeing everything and consuming nothing. All he could understand was the danger and promise of torment.
With hands unbound he shot his hands to the tubes pulling at them with shaking hands and eyes darting around the room. He gagged at the pull of the tube down his throat.
Unfamiliar hands entered his perimeter and he screamed. Guttural. Vicious. Terrified. Unable to manage words.
The hands backed off and he grabbed the tube that slithered down his throat. He hesitated, the very touch sent an unnatural sense of realization to the presence of how far it went. Still the feeling while jarring didn’t stop him. He wrenched it out and his body lurched forward gagging instinctively. He curled forward trying to calm the retching and panting slightly.
No time. There was no time.
He jumped from the bed going for the door only finding clarity in escape. The movement stirred a heavy pain in him that dropped him to the ground clutching his chest tightly. Unsafe, everything was unsafe. With the pain throbbing his entire chest he forced himself up only to feel a large hand grab his arm.
He screamed and pulled, throwing his hands behind him trying to free himself from his captor.
“Izuku!”
And like that he faltered. He looked up to the eyes of Aizawa pained but steady. He was gripping Izuku’s shoulders trying to keep him steady.
“Mr. Aizawa?” Izuku asked hesitantly. The response relaxed his teacher and he dropped his grip on the confused boy's shoulders.
“Hey problem child.” He sighed relieved, “please get back in your bed okay, you're going to tear open your chest If you move around any more.”
Izuku looked down over his body, he was shirtless but heavily bandaged over his torso. He winced at trying to move.
“Easy kid, here. Aizawa stood up slowly and grunting then offered a hand towards Izuku. Izuku hesitated, the room white but had a few simple yellow flowers in a vase next to his bed and just beyond it a window with blue sky and white feathered clouds.
The urge to feel the petals of the flower and open the window as evidence of this reality pushed him forward. He took his teacher's hand stumbling over weakly at the way his injury stung at motion. Aizawa was quick to catch him and move him carefully back to the bed sheets.
The bed was soft, Izuku ran his fingers up and down the fabric feeling the textures. It was different. Soft. He breathed in and out shakily, deciding a small reassuring smile would gloss over the previous panic.
However Aizawa was absolutely not fooled, he sent him a small chastising glare even as he gently adjusted him back into the bed. “I’ll need to call in the doctor to be sure you haven’t ripped anything.”
Izuku bowed his head ashamedly, “…Sorry sir.”
“Don’t stress too hard over it Midoriya you couldn’t have known,” His teacher sighed again as if he’d spent a few too many nights up later than ideal.
Izuku reached out to the flowers at the bedside and touched the smooth and cool and frail petals. The touch felt grounding and pulled him into a small sense of relief.
Not much later Aizawa returned with a doctor and proceeded with a check on his injury as Aizawa gave him a recapture of the past event that got him the injury’s.
“Do you recall what happened to you, Izuku?”
Izuku dropped his head and pinched slowly at his lip with his thumb and index finger, “I… was shot, but where…”
Izuku’s eyes widened, “Everyone EVERYONE! T-they we’re under the building! No nono are they-?”
“Everyone was pulled out of the rubble, many of them are injured but they’re all alive.” Aizawa interrupted, “Do you remember the kid you helped?”
“…I think so? He was with the man who shot me, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.” His teacher paused and sighed as if burdened with harsh information, “Izuku I need to ask you something very important. The boy's quirk is a very particular process to do with memory. Via direct contact he can wipe the existing presence of a person within about 10 feet of wherever he’s been and from whoever he’s met, this includes photos, signatures, friends, family and schools even the child himself can’t remember who. Because of Your previous situation this should make sense, correct?” Izuku quietly nodded, “From the classmates I’ve asked, no one can recall, so I need to know and hear it from your mouth.”
Izuku swallowed his nerves.
“You wrote on your arm with blood, Midoriya, your own blood.”
It shook Izuku’s teacher so much that Eraserhead sat at the end of the bed and rubbed at his scruffy chin, sighing before continuing.
“Midoriya, who is Kacchan?”