Chapter Text
The two men, he now realised as his father fell through the ceiling with his nemesis, look at him with two separate expressions of surprise, having said that out loud he covered his mouth with a gasp. Pain and surprise warring through him.
“Uh, I’ll” he stammered out, it still really hurt to even look or think that All-might was in the room, so he shied away, “I’ll just leave you too it. Uh good luck!” He wasn’t quite sure who he was talking too as both men were still frozen watching him walk away, their eyes following him.
Until All-Might shouted? To someone? About him? It was hard even to listen to him talk, and his words were blurred in his ears. Izuku didn’t know who he was talking to but the next thing he remembered as the walls shook as All-might and All for One started to fight again was a yellow blur.
Then he saw darkness. His fathers enraged shouts echoing around the walls.
(x)
He woke up in a hospital bed, beeping and IV lines included. Nothing hurt, and he could feel the low hum of energy around him. It was quiet, in the room. It was peaceful, a nicer kind of quiet then the vault.
His skin pulled around his neck, a breath of easy air entered his lungs as for the first time in forever. The skin when the collar had rested was irritated and he felt a heavy bandage on the back of his neck. Grateful that they had not wrapped something around his neck.
Rubbing the gauze, the looked around, looking at his arm in wonder, it wasn’t even tied to the bed and no other restraints were keeping him there. He sat up slowly, preparing to pull the IV line out with his quirk.
“Think of a string, think of a string,”
It came out, and with a curse from Izuku, it dropped to the floor. Now the real issue would be the heart monitor. If he took it off it would beep, and he really didn’t want that happening. Considering his options and deciding to just pull it off and run. Making his mad dash to the door as the beeping became even more obnoxious as it failed to detect a heart rate.
Smashing through the door, he barely made it a couple of running steps before he collapses on the floor. Shaking legs tried to get him to stand up, but his vision started to spot, and a pulsing headache pounded against his eyes. When he did eventually stand, he was leaning heavily against the wall.
Walking was not working for him in the way he wanted to, and several nurses and strangely dressed people – who he assumed were heroes – rounded the corner from his room. Seeing him standing there, and him being unable to move fast enough, meant that he was quickly taken back onto the bed.
Struggling did nothing but gave him a mild sedative, and a warning to not stress his body further than it already had been. A tall, narrow, bean-like man and a short, old, grumpy, bunce-like man kept him company for the majority of his stay there. They were supervising. Making sure that he stayed put and didn’t run off.
They were there when nurses took him to the toilet, and they were there when he ate. A couple of others came and went, once when his quirk was going wild a tired looking man with dark eyes and a dark lighted quirk came in. He stayed with him for a couple of hours a day for the next few days after his attempted escape.
Letting his quirk settle, helping him through it. And erasing it when it went out of control. He was a nice man, far nicer than the green-hair one who looked at him with suspicion and anger.
He tried to ask them about it once, he never asked again.
The nice man, Aizawa he said to call him, told him the basics when he asked. Helped him, told him about his job as a teacher and hero. As well as his partner who ran a radio show, and when Izuku told him that he had never listened to a radio show before he brought him in a portable little one. He listened to Present Mic’s radio every day. Even when the mean men told him to turn it off.
Aizawa was good with helping him with control, so he didn’t have to use suppressors, he didn’t like going back to powerlessness that the suppressors. Learning what most four-year-olds do, and controlling it was vital. The man was nice, the blond man who always accompanied him was also nice. Loud, but nice. He also realised when he was listening back to a section of Present Mic’s radio when the man was in the room.
“Hey there that’s a funky little radio you’re listening too! Shou got me the same one. Its good isn’t it!” The long-haired blond man said, his voice had always struck Izuku as familiar, but he had never figured out where. “You will think I’m going to be terribly vain after this, but I always listen back to my show on it before bed. Shou hates it.”
Izuku’s eyes widened, as it all clicked. The man had even called him a ‘little listener’ before and he never figured.
“OMG YOUR PRESENT MIC! YOUR ONE OF MY FAVORITE HEROES!”
“From what Shou told me, lil listener, I’m one of the only Heroes you know. But I am flattered.” His eyes narrowed with thought, “what about All-Might? He saved you, didn’t he?”
Wincing in pain, as a throbbing migraine shot through his mind. He shook his head to try and chase the pain away, “I think my dad conditioned me to hate him. I don’t like thinking about him, when I do my brain hurts. It is getting better the longer I’m away from Dad but it still hurts to think about.”
“Conditioned? A child? Shou did you hear that!”
“Yes, thank you Mic I am standing right here and we are in a hospital so I can hear a lot. How’s the head, I can call a nurse for some pain meds.” Shaking his head Izuku breathed in a deep sigh he looked up at the man who seemed to be holding onto a coffee for dear life a thread of tension making his grip on the cup tight, “all right then ready for some more exercises, also I’m giving you this notebook full of the ones we’ve been through because me and Mic aren’t going to be free for the next couple of weeks. The commission gave us a mission that’s going to take us to the other side of the city, and we won’t be able to do the commute. Do those daily and I think you’ll have great control. Probably better than the hell spawn I call students. Right so lift this,”
The notebook was full of amazing things, Izuku loved learning, and it felt special to learn about how to control his quirk. His own quirk.
“Bye!” Yamada waved him off as Aizawa hesitated in the room.
“See ya kid, I’ll know if you slack off. Next time hopefully we’ll meet each other at an actual quirk control site.” Waving off in a lazy way he went out the room. A sense of sadness seeped into him, melancholy at a feeling that he wouldn’t be seeing them for a long time.
The mean men came back when they had left, they even tried to take the radio but that was quickly given back to him when started having a panic attack. When he asked about Aizawa and Yamada, he was told that not every Pro-Hero has enough time and energy too watch him. Scolded he didn’t ask again.
He was getting bored and antsy; he didn’t know why he was still in the hospital and what was wrong with him. But he never got the confidence to ask. He kept on with his control practice, and for the four days after Aizawa had left he had to admit that his control had gotten a lot better.
The mean men stayed in shifts, going off to visit a Toshinori who was also in the hospital. Every time he tried to ask about it, he got a glare. The men weren’t very nice. They didn’t try to talk to him very much and when they did, he got the distinct impression that they were interrogating him about something. As if now that Aizawa and Yamada had gone they had free reign to interrogate him.
Until a man in a funny hat and large coat came, he felt the pull in the man’s mind when Izuku lied. All the questions were ones that he wanted to answer, apart from a couple of tester questions when he realised when the quirk pulled at the man’s mind when he lied. Other then that he answered every question he knew the answer to.
“Were you aware of your mother’s death? You have been with your father for the last 6 years and in that time, your mother went missing and her body was recovered. Do you know about any other family that would take you in?”
Izuku was fairly sure he was shaking; his hands were bad again. The nurses said that they would only shake if he was strained or stressed. The lasting effects of being electrocuted so many times.
Nodding, but changing his mind and saying, “My mum’s parents disowned her when she married, d-dad, I think they might be dead as well. But I’m not sure. She was an only child. My dad” the truth man interrupted him, “don’t worry, that’s fine. I’m sorry for your loss. I’ll discuss with you and the heroes who saved you for options for living. I’m sure we can ensure something we can work out that is good for you. You’ve been through a lot haven’t you. Right, ok”
They hadn’t been talking for more when 30 minutes when men in suits came in. Looking scary and with dark sunglasses. They had suppression cuffs, and a commission signed document saying that they are taking custody of Izuku. Not that he had even been discharged from hospital yet, his shaking hands and him constantly needing suppressor because his quirk is new.
Tsukauchi, the detective who was friends with Aizawa, tried to argue against this. But he was just a police officer. The nurses also had a bit at them, they had grown close to Izuku while he was in their care.
The only people who didn’t try and stop them were the mean men, and when they had stepped aside without even looking at the document. It was obvious they had called the commission there. Tsukauchi got moved out the way when he asked if “he wouldn’t want this. Sasaki, you know this isn’t what Yagi would want.” The man snapped back when the suited people started to advance on Izuku.
Pulling him out of the bed and slapping the cuffs on him – they were suppressors, they dragged him away on weak legs. Turning around to beseech the nice detective, he was him arguing with other people in suits as well as the man now identified as Sasaki. But the tugging pulled him around as he was marched out of the building. His wild bucking did nothing at dislodging the grip on his arms.
His shaky hands and legs were weak against suit wearing muscles men.
They marched him through the hospital, doctors and nurses looking like they wanted to step in but the looks of the commission agents held them back. The nurses that looked after him the only ones making any noise, he was still rather weak and being thrown in a black van, with men in anti-riot gear sitting on either side of him did not do the best things to his weak limbs. They also had guns. Big ones.
The ride to the big skyscraper was a quiet, tense one. No one talked, and when Izuku tried to ask questions, he got a sharp slap from one of the people in a suit. The blow rocked him to the side, his lip split, and he could feel a bruise forming on his cheek.
“No talking, speak when spoken too.”
The atmosphere rocketed into painful after that. Painful like his cheek and lip. His hands and fingers ached and shook, but he couldn’t stop wringing them around each other. Biting his lip, bloodying it up more, to stop himself from crying. It wasn’t very successful, and the second slap didn’t help the situation.
They finally pulled up after 30 minutes of tense silence and he was pulled out again. His legs bucking when he finally stood up. Another muscle-bound person grabbed his other arm and he was almost dragged between the two people. The large doors looming in the distance, dwarfing the people standing in front of them.
A young, blond, red-winged man stood at the entrance, welcoming them in. His face and posture tense, but he was welcoming. Making an effort to talk to and include Izuku, as if he knew about the no speak until spoken to order. The tension in his face increased when he noticed how shaky his legs were, and how tremors wracked his hands. A rage passed through the man, his wings stilling and a cold acceptance grace his face. It went in seconds and, Izuku thought it was lucky, no one else but him noticed it.
“Hawks will be one of your trainers, and I will be your handler.” The women who slapped him said. Izuku wasn’t quite sure he knew what a ‘Handler’ was, but he didn’t want another split lip. So, he kept quiet.
“Your father was a stain on society, we will be making sure that you do not follow in his footsteps. Get changed and get ready. We will be testing your quirk at 1500 hours. These are for quirk suppression,” she grabbed his wrist and brandished a hand over the cuffs there, turned them around his hand and putting some pills on his palm, “take these now, and you’ll be given the drug that reverses the effects at training. This is protection for everyone else, stealing quirks is something we will be looking into later. But for now we will be seeing how much that man's training has stained you. For now, it makes you a threat. Hawks show him to his room.”
The man, Hawks, made his way to the elevator and looking back when he noticed he wasn’t being followed subtly gesturing for him to follow, swallowing the pills down dry he winced. Moving slowly and trying to put power back into his legs so they wouldn’t buckle. Looking around at the other people who accompanied him.
The woman started going the other way when she noticed his movements and the men holding guns behind him started going off when Izuku was at the elevator. Hawks caught his arm when his legs buckled again. Shooting the man, a grateful look, he was confused at the almost sorrowful look on his face.
He wasn’t used to this many people, he had been held in the vault for months, and was isolated for years. Wringing his hands in the blue hospital gown in discomfort. Almost leaning against Hawks as his aching fingers twirled, again and again.
Izuku did not quite know how effective the test will be as his legs kept on buckling and his hands, with the added stress of the day, started to ache more than normal. Hawks, who dropped all pleasant pretences when the elevator doors closed brushed his hair back, and rubbed his eyes, sighing.
Being faced with a mirror as the door closed was a frightful experience. He and never known bruises to form so quickly, nor for them to go such a colourful spectrum. Covering half his face, blood splattered from his split lip, really painted a picture.
Not only that but his eyes were lined with bags and dark circles, and his cheekbones were much more pronounced than he remembered it being. He looked like a sickly Victorian child who was dunked in a bucket of white paint and was splattered with blood. The white hair gave his pallor of a complexion a ghostly glow. He kept on catching Hawks’ eye in the mirror but could never hold it for long.
“Sorry about them, they like collecting quirks they feel would be good for heroics. I’m sorry you got involved. If you want, when we are alone, you can call me Keigo. Your,” he paused in thought, “Izuku right?” He nodded as the elevator pinged, “I would like that Keigo, thank you. I don’t- never mind I’m sure everything’s going to be fine. They want me for heroics, it has to be fine.”
The mirror parted and a large room revealed itself, decorated lightly and with elegant tall plants in the corners. White with grey accents, it looks like how Izuku felt.
“Like I said, chick, they like collecting quirks, and you having a latent manifested quirk, makes you all the more unique. I used to train with someone who had a fire quirk they developed when young, he died. Anyway, chick what I’m trying to say is that they see a shiny new quirk, and they take it.”
He ignored the way that phrase made him feel. The hero commission weren’t like his father, were they? He nodded, suddenly self-conscious as the lady at the desk coughed at them. They were standing outside the elevator, Keigo gave a friendly laugh and placed his hand on Izuku’s back to guide him. It was also placed in a good position to be able to catch him when his legs buckled.
“This way chick. Hopefully, all the clothes fit. Don’t be late, they don't think heroes in training should be late. Also, dab some hot water on that cut, it’ll help curb infection. I’ll send a healing kit when you're done with the quirk test,”
Izuku almost missed the low, “you’ll need it” as he left, but he chose to ignore it in favour of surveying his new suite. It was almost exactly like the vault. But with giant windows, stretching wide across the far wall. Overlooking the city.
It was like the foyer but with green and gold accents threaded through the build and furniture. It even had a Genkan, with house slippers! So far it was much better than the vault where his father kept him.
Going further into the suite he heard a click behind him and was relieved to see that the door didn’t blend into the wall. Knowing better than to test if it was locked, he continued exploring.
He already knew they wouldn’t trust him. The implication that he was just like his father was the only thing of note that he had gotten from the slap lady.
Not even looking at the door, he made his way out from the living room area, desk, sofas and TV all dark and fitting together aesthetically, into a door on the far side of the room. There were two, the exact same, he guessed one was a bathing room, and the other was a bedroom. Both were large and well furnished, again with gold, green and white accents.
Looking back at the locked front door, he didn’t even try to unlock it, the cuffs and chemicals that suppress quirks were sending waves of nausea through him. The cuffs on his wrists were stronger than what he was used to and the pilled he had been given were sitting heavy on his stomach.
He started getting changed. He was already so tired.
Hopefully being a hero was worth being a prisoner again.
(X)
Yagi Toshinori woke up slowly, groaning as his stomach shot pain throughout his body. Trying to sit up a large, familiar hand fell upon his shoulder. And a soft voice filled his head, it was comforting.
"Stay still, you are not fully healed from surgery, Recovery girl can only do so much."
Settling down again he opened his eyes and met the eyes of his sidekick. He blinked away the blur of tears and looked at his face, dark circles bruised the underside of his eyes and he looked tired. But the relieved smile on his face relaxed Yagi more than any comforting word or gesture. Croaking out a small noise, Nighteye grabbed him a glass of water and waited until he was ready to speak again.
"How long have I been out?" he managed finally, his throat still rough with misuse but understandable.
"Weeks. You were in a medically induced coma because that man took out half of your digestive organs. You are lucky to be alive." A dark concerned frown graced his face, "I think it is time to consider retirement. And to find a successor, no one will begrudge you your rest." His sidekick, ever the believer of brevity. He let out a small sigh, looking into his hopeful, grateful face. He couldn't let this hope grow, he would stay pillar, the world was not stable enough for him to step down.
But the door swung open and the short man who came in snorted out a, "well maybe Endeavour," saving him for a moment to let him gather his thoughts as the three men laughed. "Tsukauchi should be coming soon. I've let him know you're awake and he said he was coming. Sounded like a stick was up his ass thought mind you. Sounded pissy, you didn't get into any arguments with him did you, Sasaki? I know you two don't always see eye to eye, hehe."
"I don't have a - *sigh* the only argument we had was a week ago. Not my fault, you were there Gran." A weighted look went between the two, heavy enough that even All-Might noticed. But he had to ignore that now, and see what his friend did now, knowing that Sasaki was rather harsh with Tsukauchi whenever they tried to work together. A heroic purest Sir Nighteye was, the police often made his investigations go slower, and that was often the subject of his rants whenever the detective was brought up.
Deciding to go the same brief route as his side-kick Yagi went straight to the heart of the issue, "Sasaki. I am the pillar of peace, if I were to fall then society would fall into chaos." The words falling out of his mouth, starting at his side-kick's opened mouths stare, seemingly intercepting whatever he was going to say.
He blinked at him, seeming to re-boot in confusion, his eye-brows started to scrunch like they only did when he was confused by a particular case that didn't go his way.
"You must have not heard me when I said that your stomach is basically gone. You have one lung, and a number of other injuries. You are going to kill yourself and society will fall. You cann-"
The door, having swung shut after Gran Torino came in, shot open banging against the far wall. Three men stood there, dark-haired, blond, and a hat hurried in. The man in the hat, nodded at the people in the room, "Hope you are feeling alright Toshinori. Sorry to do this while you are still recovering but this is quite important."
"Where is he?" The long dark-haired man said harsh, and looking at All-Mights two friends, "Sasaki, I was just informed that I will no longer be needed to teach that boy how to control his quirk because it is being taken care of. Mind telling me who is looking after him now?"
"Civilians aren't allowed here, you are not welcome."
"Here is my licence, Sir Nighteye. Now, where is that boy? I know you know. Tsukauchi told me about how you let his get taken away while still recovering. Did he go to another hospital? Is he recovering from obvious trauma?"
All-Might's face went blank, thinking hard through the medicine and coming back to focus with alarming speed. "What boy, Nighteye? The one we saved? Where is he now, I had hoped to talk to him."
"That boy was All for One's son, I assure you wouldn't have wanted to talk to such a child. I saw it fit to let the commission know what we had found. He is with good hands now, and might actually be a benefit for society now."
Only Yamada Hizashi noticed the cold rage on his boyfriends face at the blatant villainization of the boy, the way that some of his hair started to float upwards and the beginning of red to creep into his iris's. The rage reflected in his voice when he spoke.
"That boy, his name was Izuku, was a traumatised child who had the shakes from being tortured. The leftover pain and effects of continuous electrical shocks meant that his hands shook. But apparently, he trained himself to cook with the shakes because if he messed up cooking he would be punished. He told me of just some of the procedures he went through just to gain a quirk, never mind that his father .was able to give him one. A father who, mind you, kept him in a vault after years of torture. Sir Nighteye how can you call yourself a hero."
The number one hero nodded at the man whose only focus was on his sidekick. And was that pro-hero present mic behind him?
"He is right Sasaki, you know the history of One for All, you know who the original holder was. Can you truly not see the similarities between the two. Considered quirkless, tortured by the person who should be raising them, and then thrown in a vault. I- and you gave him to the commission." It was something he never expected from his friend, he knew the man who was so focused on the future often disregarded the present, only focusing on how to better the future, he did not expect this, he needed time to think. "Get out of my sight. Sasaki, I will not ask again. Gran you too, I cannot look at you right now."
Pressing the button to call the nurse, his wound was starting to badly hurt from all the talking and he was drained with the interaction. The blond haired man, who definitely was Present Mic took hold of the dark-haired man's arm, slowly trying to get him out of the room. A part of Toshinori appreciated it, a part of him wanted the young man to stay he was a rather intimidating figure and was good at arguing for the boy.
Beseechingly Nighteye, grabbed onto All-Might when Gran began to speak.
"Toshi, his father killed Nana. You are truly naive to believe that that boy will be a part of society. You know how hard it is for children of villains to re-enter society, let alone one that old."
All might opened his mouth to respond but Aizawa beat him to it.
"So are we using the sins of the father to condemn the child? My father was a villain. Yet here I am, hero licence and everything, don't let your hateful views hit you on the way out. Tsukauchi, contact me if you find anything."
"Yeah, the little listener loved heroes. I can now see why he called you the mean men, I hope you know you are never being invited on my radio show. All-Might you may be allowed, let me know when your available."
When the two young pro's left the room the argument continued in full force. Yet nothing could be done until Yagi was able to move again, the more time the boy would spend with the commission the more likely they won't let him free again. All-Might has spoken to Hawks enough times to realise this.
However, nothing he would do would help anything. Izuku didn't know anyone remembered him. Didn't know anyone cared. All he knew was the commission, his handler, his trainers, and Hawks.
In his dark inpersonal room, stripped of anything but harsh colours and basic furniture. In the dark oppressive training rooms, cold and painful, his hands shaking still and the beatings they called trainings were harsh and long. He thought he was only his father's son. The weeks of training started to blur together, punishment for his fathers crimes. He knew they were turning him into a weapon, but what other choice did he have. They were never letting him go.
Hawks was the only solace, but even he was kept at arm's length. The commission seemed to be rather versed in controlling children. Izuku just hoped it would be worthy of becoming a hero.