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"Geez. He really is the headache I'll never be rid of." Katsuki heard a voice groan, in the back of his groggy consciousness.
What was happening?
"Mm. You sure you can handle the brat?" Another voice drawled, sounding exhausted.
Who..where these people?
"Positive." The first assured, sounding somewhat amused. "Go take a nap, hot stuff, and tell the others to, too. You lot earned it, and I don't wanna deal with any of you grumpy."
....where the hell was he?
Another noncommittal sound from the second person, and then the sound of a heavy metal door being slammed shut hard enough to startle him awake.
He blinked his eyes open, ignoring the spots that danced in them, and met a face that was..somehow familiar. He was frankly still too disorientated to place how, and maybe that should throw him off, but he really doesn't care. He's familiar enough with the song and dance of kidnapping; he'd get himself out of here in no time.
(it's not like anyone else was going to do it.)
"Oh, that's no good." The other person in the room commented, voice a mix of soft and annoyed. "Mustard gave you the good stuff, huh? Here." A straw was pressed to his lips, and he must have been out for a while, because he was so thirsty that not even his years of experience and paranoia stopped him from drinking.
The light touch made him very aware of something else as well, though- something he should have noticed a lot sooner, disorientated or not.
He was restrained, and he was restrained well. His hands were covered with some sort of weirdly-cold mittens that took away his quirk as well as the finger dexterity that he would need to undo his restraints, and they were- duct taped?- to his arms anyway. From what he could tell- and he had the experience to be well versed- the restraints themselves were well done, and done a dozen times over just as well every time. He could barely struggle at all without cutting off circulation to his arms or legs or chest, though that of course didn't stop him from trying, and, to top it all off, there was a quirk inhibiting collar around his neck.
fucking great.
He glared up at the other occupant of the room, who's figure was still hazy. He contemplated spitting the drink- what was it? defiantly not water- into their face, but ultimately was too thirsty to follow through.
The asshole laughed. "Yeah, I know. The others thought it was excessive too." the green- green?- blob admitted, something almost bashful in his tone. "But, ya know, I insisted. Afterall, I know you, Kacchan, and you've always been too awesome to just let some randos kidnap you. These randos wouldn't have been any different."
The voice was annoyingly familiar, now, and he could swear it was on the tip of his tongue. They pulled the drink away as he finished it, and he growled in the back of his throat. they giggled.
" 'da uck rrr you?" He slurred, glaring, spotty vision finally starting to clear.
"Three guesses." The voice sighed, leaning back a little expectantly, and it finally clicked.
"Deku?!" He roared- or, well, tried to roar, but his voice was still hoarse, and in the end it came out as more of a hiss.
(what the fuck even was his life?)
"Intuitive." Deku said, sounding decidedly unimpressed. "geez, I dyed my hair back just to help you and it still took you that long. Seems like you're slipping, kacchan." He teased, and it should sound malevolent or angry, but it seems almost...good natured. What?
"What?" He says allowed, because he's still groggy, and he's never had much of a filter anyway. Deku ignores him, face settling into an annoyed pout.
"Gosh, what am I supposed to do with you now, huh?" The nerd bemoaned, not even looking at Katsuki, and the blonde's blood boiled. Suddenly, he was all too aware of how Deku almost towered over him, as he was forced to sit. "Tomura wants you to join us, but you won't. I tried to tell him that, but he seemed convinced that if we waited and fucked with you long enough you'd come around, and I couldn't find a way to explain that just it working on him when he was eight and traumatized did not mean it would work on Bakugo-Fucking-Katsuki. Or at least, couldn't find a way that he wouldn't murder me for."
"What?" Katsuki repeated, head spinning a bit, but he managed to catch the important bits. "Tomura? Like Shigaraki?" He asked, confused. Deku gave him a paitent look, like you would look at a gradeschooler as they tried to figure out what 2+2 was, and he felt like he was plunged into ice water as his foggy brain cleared enough for him to remember.
the summer training camp. The League's attack. His failure to avoid capture.
He snarled, struggling against the restraints again, and Deku was still looking at him like that.
"Yeah." Deku said, when Katsuki's struggle started to die down again. "Like Shigaraki. And now the LoV has you, and I'm stuck on what to do." Deku continued, almost casually, humming thoughtfully. "You can't escape- Sensei's used a quirk on you, he can teleport you to him at pretty much any time. The heroes can't save you, cause they can't fight Sensei. Same reason I couldn't let you keep that bug one of your smarter classmates somehow slipped onto you. We both know there's no chance you'll be a villain, or even pretend to be one. Wouldn't be a point anyway, you're a shit liar. If you don't join Tomura's emo band, though, he'll either try to torture and brainwash you, or just hand you over to the good doctor to get Nomu-fied."
"...Nomu-fied?" Katsuki asked reluctantly. He didn't want to ask for shit- not from the nerd, and especially not from a villain- but he didn't want to be left in the dark even more.
He didn't comment on Deku's comment about his refusal to play villain, however authentically. The nerd was right, loathe to admit it.
"Yeah." Deku nodded, his expression dropping into something almost...mournful. "Nomu-fied. Turned into a Nomu." Deku fell silent, seeming to debate something, before letting out a heavy sigh. "At least you'd be in familiar company. I didn't piece it out until I saw the one with the giant red wings."
To anyone else, it would seem like a non-sequiter, but Katsuki knows exactly what Deku was implying, though he really wished he didn't, as his blood turned to ice in his veins.
"No." He chocked back, absolutely not fighting tears, fuck you very much. "Fuck no."
(There was a reason Katsuki was so good in kidnapping situations, and it was only partially because of his quirk. There was a reason Deku was good too, knew how good Katsuki was, and it was entirely because of the Mufastafa Missing Children's Case that loomed over their heads as growing up.)
"I wouldn't joke about something like that." Deku said, offended somehow. Katsuki growled again, straining as for forward against his restraints as he could.
"You wouldn't join the goddamned league of villains either, shitty Deku, and yet here we are."
Deku looked a little cowed at the point, but ultimately just shrugged. "I didn't really have much of a choice, Kacchan. I'm not strong like you, I had to cave eventually." His finger twitched abruptly, and he curled it into a fist. "Besides, I'm sneaky enough to work with what I've got. Now we just need to work something out for you."
Well that sounded like bullshit, but Deku was right about one thing- his damn tragic backstory or whatever wasn't Katsuki's fucking problem right now.
"Any ideas?" He challenged, half to test the waters and half because his brain still wasn't working well enough to form his own.
"Hm." Deku slid a knuckle between his teeth, stopping himself from muttering. Oh, so now the nerd stopped his annoying ass habit, the one time it could actually be kind of useful. Great. "It's....a person orientated quirk. It finds someone matching a mental profile the user has of their targets appearance, and when it finds a match it teleports them to the user." The greenette finally mused aloud, something sparking in his eyes. "If we alter your appearance enough, make you unrecognizable to the quirk, then you might be safe from it. It's our best bet."
"...what do you have in mind?" Katsuki pressed, definitely not nervous.
(Ok, maybe a little nervous. He had a bad feeling.)
"Well, the easiest thing would be to shave your head. Hair is a very important part of how someone sees you. But to be safe...I'd...hm yeah there's no good way to phrase this. I'd honestly recommend maiming you. A little." He proposed.
"What the fuck?" Katsuki demanded, but Izuku was already waving his hands.
"Hear me out, hear me out!" He insisted. "We don't know if the detection is appearance based or attribute based; if it's appearance based then shaving you would be fine, because it would change your appearance, but if it doesn't scan you and instead scans your physiology, it would still register you as a blonde. I'm...It's too big of a risk. You'd have to fundamentally alter yourself."
"..wouldn't the collar do that?" Katsuki proposed, a little reluctantly. "I'm so bloody disorientated because I'm not running on my usual adrenaline high to counteract my quirk. That's a pretty big change, if the scan's like you think."
"..eh. Technically." Deku conceded, but still shook his head. "But he knows we can cancel your quirk. If it didn't work when he tried to summon you, he'd probably just imagine you again but quirkless- he familiar enough with what people's bodies are like when they've been stripped of a quirk, it'd be an almost too easy adjustment to make. It'd save you a moment of time at most." He sighed again, looking at the ceiling. "Not to mention that in that plan, you'd have to escape quirkless. Fast enough to get to UA before he chases you down- it's entirely probable that he's got you pinged with Mandalay's quirk."
"Mandalay? Is she a hero mole or some shit?" Katsuki demanded, very much surprised at the thought. Deku shakes his head.
"No. Her quirk got stolen." He corrects. He must see Katsuki's face fall a little, because he adds "She's..not a Nomu. Just quirkless. Last I checked, she's currently at a hero hospital."
Katsuki's should definitely press that further, but his brain is still pretty fucky, and there's another question at the top of his mind.
"Didn't you say a minute ago that the Heroes couldn't handle this Sensei guy?" Katsuki frowned. The idea seemed absurd, he honestly kinda wanted to laugh- and he would have, if anyone but Deku said it. Deku, who's faith in heroes was naively absolute and unwavering, who worshiped All Might like a god. Deku, who would never undersell any hero, much less all of them, and if he thinks the heroes can't do shit, Katsuki's just gonna have to roll with it. "Why would I lead him straight to UA?"
"You..wouldn't. He would just know you were there. He sees you as a pet project of Tomura, so if you run off then it's a failure of Tomura to contain you, and thus the man-child's responsibility to retrieve you. But if heroes attack sensei's base, it's a failure of Sensei to protect Tomura, and he'll meet the threat with interest." Deku explains, frowning a little. "Does that..make sense?"
"I guess. But why would he even monitor me, if I'm hand-job's responsibility?" He pointed out.
"You're a test, of sorts. He wants to see how Shigaraki treats a...hostage..." Deku trailed off, with dawning horror. "fuck."
"What?" Katsuki demanded, instantly alert, going as far as to look around for a threat that probably wasn't there. Deku bounced nervously on his feet.
"He'll know the moment you're injured." Deku revealed, scowling, like he'd just lost an Ebay bet to limited addition All Might merch. "Search will ping your injury as a new weakness. We'd have to injure you, cover our asses when Tomura storms in, wait for him to leave, and then maim you." He revealed.
"You aren't going to maim me!" Katsuki reasserted. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
Deku shrugged, seeming entirely too level headed. "Doesn't matter. The real question, Kacchan, is do you have any better ideas?"
Katsuki opened his mouth, then let it hang open, then closed it. He...Really didn't.
Shit. Shit.
"Thought so." Deku said, trapped between smug and disappointed, and Katsuki can only offer a wordless snarl. "Hm..if it were me, I'd cut off the top knuckle of a pinky finger. It'd be enough to trick the quirk as I understand it, but wouldn't really affect me in my day to day life, especially if I wear gloves to avoid questions. You though...I can't see you letting me anywhere near your hands with a knife, given it's potential...interference with Explosion. And it'd honestly be dumb of me to give you control of your hands, lest you try anything hasty." He muses aloud.
"Guess there's something like a brain in that damn skull of yours after-all, fuckin psychopath." Katsuki curses, understandably opposed to the situation, but he goes ignored.
"Mhm" Deku hums, tapping a finger as he thinks for a moment and then shaking his head with a strained smile that Katsuki does not trust at all. "...Damn. The only real other option I can think of is a toe, which sucks, because that'll absolutely impair your ability to escape, and probably get infected. It's not like these floors get cleaned often." Deku posits. Katsuki objects, again, and Deku ignores him, again, seeming to put a surprising amount of thought into it before sighing. "Or...maybe an ear? You're loosing your hearing anyway, but, honestly you couldn't pay me to get that close to your teeth, especially when you're so angry, and a lost ear could be a hit to your marketablility and probably can't be compensated with something like hearing aids, plus it's an overly obvious weakness in a fight and you'd probably kill someone for pitying you or something prideful and petty like that and..,.ah, yeah, the toe is the lesser of two evils here, far as I ca tell. And...Not to be the bearer of morbidly poetic irony, but your pinky toe is your least important toe."
Katsuki goes as pale as a sheet, realizing that Deku was dead fucking serious what the fuck, and Deku let out a little unhinged giggle that doesn't help.
"Yeah. That's fair." The greenette allowed, pulling a knife from nowhere and staring at it considerately. "But I'm being as honest and practical as I can here, Kacchan. Your options are legit torture until you're either Nomu-fied or brainwashed into being a villain, the collapse of hero society, finding a way to kill yourself, and loosing a toe. They're shit prospects, I'll admit, but I can't sacrifice you or hero society, so you're loosing that stupid toe. the only question is whether or not you're too much of a sniveling weak coward to help me save your ass." Deku laid out and ah, there's that disgustingly familiar passion and determination.
It wasn't a common expression, but it was one he'd long since learned not to fight.
So he sighed, and grit his teeth, glared up at the expectant boy and said, with as much meaning as he possibly could, "Fuck. you. And give me something to make sure I don't bite my damn tongue off."
"Hm." Deku hummed, shaking his head. "Maybe later. This parts gotta look authentic."
And, without further ado, Deku winked, grinned something evil, bent down to Katauki's bare feet, and snapped his left pinky toe at an angle so unnatural Katsuki almost vomited.
He heard Deku snicker and whisper "Calm down, it's not like you'll have it much longer anyway,crybaby", and then he passed out.