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Eri’s head is tucked under his chin. Without her horn it’s a bit easier to hold her like this, but that blank space on her forehead just sends a twist of heady guilt down his spine.
“It’s okay,” he whispers, barely a breath aloud, “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”
She whimpers slightly in his arms and he holds her tighter. The room they’re in pulses light oddly and it tends to give her headaches. The real purpose is to suppress his quirk (and her’s, when she had one). A soft buzzy hum fills the air at all times.
Izuku doesn’t know where the rest of his class is, doesn’t know where All Might is or his mom. All for One hasn’t come to gloat about any of them since Kaminari’s leg got blown up in a raid.
The blessing that incident was the last bad thing is a relief, though there’s a tumbly dark pit of fear that keeps him up at night, that his friends are dead or worse and that ignorance isn’t bliss at all.
He sits up, maneuvering Eri with ease. One for All may be pressed against his bones, unable to be grasped through the fog and film All for One’s set up, but Izuku’s still strong, still does his exercises as much as he can on the little food he gets.
It’s important, because today they’re going to escape.
His fingers trace the words into Eri’s temple, smooth, unpracticed looking strokes that still cause his hand to tremble. The cameras can’t catch him, can’t notify All for One or one of his goons that something’s off.
Because Izuku had a dream.
The second One for All user, shadow and fog slipping away.
You’ve gotten yourself in the same predicament.
Less of a whisper and more of a thrum in the back of his head.
How do you think we escaped?
We, as in; the first and he? Or we, as in; he and the third? Izuku can’t ask, mouth trapped in the same dream-smoke as always, though he’s more uncovered, freer.
It’s time for my quirk, I think.
Izuku woke like normal (except, the smile on his lips and plan in his heart).
“Eri,” he says to the girl in his lap, “It’s almost time for lunch.”
She tenses, but it’s imperceptible. Too used to being still, for waiting for an escape. Izuku bites down his sneer and covers it with a smile.
Lunch is their one chance as it’s the only meal the door is opened. Kurogiri and All for One are busy this time of day and send in someone. The cameras would dissuade usually, but Izuku has a trick up his sleeve.
He hitches Eri onto his back when he stands, her hands curling around his neck in a familiar manner. She may not be able to help in battle like with Overhaul, but the strong thump thump of her heart against his back lights fire in his nerves. She’s depending on him.
Eri doesn’t deserve captivity. Not again.
He saved her once. He’ll save her again, even if it takes everything from him.
Izuku steps closer to the door, bouncing Eri lightly and babbling about some fairytale. Neither of them pay attention to the words tumbling out. The play started the moment he stood up and now the two have to play their parts to perfection.
A sharp rap at the door doesn’t startle him, exactly, but with how tense he is, Izuku ends up jumping anyway.
“Back up! Food incoming!” A man shouts from the other side.
“Got it!” Izuku calls back, taking a small half step hop backwards.
It’s enough.
The door slides open.
Izuku’s chest is tight, his hands shaking, palms sweating. His throat is completely dry, head pounding as he stares down the guard.
Nothing much. Not a nomu, just a regular villain. Mutant quirk, probably. Lobster in looks, claws dangerous.
Eri hunches forward, elbows digging into his back.
He digs the ball of his foot onto the concrete.
The bursts forward.
The guard tries to slash at him with a lobster claw, but Izuku is too quick, he ducks under, arm secure around Eri’s back, and launches a kick towards the soft underside of the guard’s arm. He yelps, food tray sliding across the ground. Izuku is quick to regroup, darting over and snatching it, slamming it over the man’s head, once, twice, three times and he’s out.
Izuku gasps a few breaths before letting the tray drop to the ground with a clatter.
They only have a few minutes.
“Ready?” He asks.
“Ready, Deku,” Eri replies, nails digging into his shoulders through the thin t-shirt he’s wearing. He only gives her a slight nod before bounding off, leaping over the guard’s prone form.
Three steps out of the room and the buzz of One for All seeps back out into his skin like a hug. He can’t stop the wide, malicious grin at the feel.
Klaxons start a cacophony in the hall and Izuku tenses. Eri yelps and burrows the side of her head into his. A glance around shows a darkened hallway that’s dusty and probably disused. Izuku darts over, sliding behind a shelf.
A few guards charge through, but still no nomu or the big guy himself. Izuku’s shoulders relax. None of them look the two children’s way.
Once it’s clear he looks back at Eri. Her face is pale, eyes screwed shut and she’s biting her lip. Izuku reaches back, petting her hair.
“It’s going to be okay.”
She nods, but the stress around her face doesn’t ease.
“I’m about to use that new quirk, okay? Don’t move too much or say anything. I promise it won’t be long.”
Eri nods, her hands gripping tighter around his neck.
He peers around the corner.
Nobody.
There are cameras but with a flick of his fingers his new quirk activates.
Chameleon.
Similar to Asui- Tsuyu’s quirk, it allows him to blend in with the surroundings. Too much movement will ruin the illusion, so he’ll have to stay very still. Izuku dives for the corner he sees ahead, crouching and bracing Eri with his whips. It’s nice to finally be able to use his quirks, out of that dreaded room.
He stays low to the ground, darting only when there’s a break in the cameras. Otherwise he’s slow, hand over hand, whips unmoving from where they tie Eri to him. All he can hear from her are soft breaths, her heart a thudding crescendo that must match his own.
A few guards pass close enough to touch and Izuku’s knees wobble, hand coming to cover his mouth. From his peripheral he feels Eri do the same.
A gun sweeps over his head, almost clipping him.
Izuku can take them, he knows he can, but if he tries to fight, Eri will be in danger, especially if they release the nomu.
All for One doesn’t need Eri.
Not like he needs Izuku.
He scowls as the last of the guards pass, darting down a camera-less hallway. The thing he isn’t telling Eri is that he has no idea where the exit is. Like her, he was brought in unconscious. Izuku has only ever seen the inside of that one cell and the outside hallway the one time he tried to escape before Eri was dropped in.
The longer they linger here, the more chances of getting caught.
Izuku grits his teeth and rolls under a desk. There’s a computer on it.
Maybe one with a map of whatever facility they’re in.
He peeks up, looking around. Desk calendar, pen cup, mundane things that seem sickeningly out of place. Izuku swallows, reaching to bump the mouse.The computer monitor lights up.
Password Enter.
“Fuck,” Izuku hisses through his teeth. He can hear Eri gulp near his ear.
Delicately he lifts up the keyboard.
Jackpot.
He sighs heavily, inputting the mish-mash of letters and numbers that were on the post-it note stuck under the keyboard. When they got out of here, Izuku was going to have to do something for Aizawa-sensei for that tip.
The desktop screen isn’t too helpful, so Izuku keeps one eye on the door, the other on the files he’s rapidly clicking through.
Until he finds it.
‘Fire Safety Map’
His smile isn’t missed by Eri, who perks up to look at the screen as well.
There’s an exit around five corridors down. Not the closest one, but that one is in the middle of the facility. Far too dangerous to try to crawl through.
He exits, locking the computer again and crawling back to the ground, redoing the whips holding Eri to his back.
“Almost there,” he whispers, grasping her ankle in what he hopes she takes as comfort.
She nods against his back and he reactivates the chameleon quirk.
The clock is ticking.
He darts out of the office, keeping low and to the walls. One hallway down, empty, thankfully. The second hallway only has one woman who he painfully slides past, one centimeter at a time. His joints burn from locking so often, chest pounding from the force of his heartbeat.
A whip has to tuck Eri’s hair back when it starts to fall.
Izuku doesn’t want to hope, but they might be home free.
That’s when the klaxons stop.
Izuku knows what this means.
Been through it before.
“The nomu is coming,” he spits, splaying himself to the wall like that will do anything against a beast with enhanced senses like smell.
Eri whimpers and he snarls, throwing off the chameleon quirk and letting himself float. The air vents are too small for people or he’d shove himself up there. Now it’s a race, not a stealth mission.
Bouncing off the wall with One for All powered in his bare foot, he ricochets down the hallway, floating keeping him from gaining friction.
A snarling wail sounds behind him and the sound of a wall being smacked down to dust, Izuku angels himself towards another corner, bouncing off it as well. One more hallway till the outside and it’ll be easy to escape the nomu then.
Hopefully.
This hallway is a straight shot, the emergency exit sign gleaming at the end. He can taste freedom on his lips. He's so close.
And then a hand on his ankle.
Izuku is thrown to the side violently. Screaming in surprise, he manages to turn so the brunt of the landing hits him instead of Eri. She grunts, encased almost fully in black whip, but stays silent otherwise.
Izuku stumbles to his feet, facing his enemy. The nomu, of course. It’s a hulking beast, brain exposed, slimy lips pulled back around dark gums and sharpened teeth. It’s muscles bulge more than the one at the USJ, thick veins and scar tissue making up the majority of the beast’s arms.
The most worrying thing are the two antlers that protrude from the sides of it’s head. Jagged, unlike any animal or human antlers he’s seen. The spark with a strange red lightning and Izuku takes two unsteady padded steps back, holding onto Eri with one arm.
The door lays meters behind him, the nomu mere steps in front.
The ceiling, however…
Izuku cracks the concrete, the bones of his feet ringing and singing as he pours One for All into them. The nomu crouches but Izuku was aiming higher, shooting straight into the air. He flips with a little added float and kicks off the ceiling tiles, breaking them, and shooting back towards the door.
Lumbering heavy steps of the nomu rattle the hallway, but Izuku balls himself closer, reaching out to the door with black whip and jerking he and Eri out of the door to the shrill siren of the fire alarm.
The air is bitingly cold on his face, snowflakes biting his face and blinding his eyes. The smell of crisp snow and grass would be enough to make him cry, but.
But he can’t stop.
He flies higher and higher, paying no attention behind himself, floating so high the air buffets him backward.
The nomu screeches from the ground and Izuku lets loose a hysterical laugh. Eri giggles too, an airy light sound that makes him feel as if he could float, Shimura’s quirk or not.
A sharp squeal cuts off the levity and Izuku dodges to the side, glancing toward the noise.
Another nomu, this one with wings. Nothing like the ones the nomu that picked him up in Hosu had, but giant feathery grey ones, reminiscent of a pigeon. Those kinds of wings...especially on such a large body should limit the maneuverability.
Izuku flies higher, scowl forming on his face.
“Sorry, Eri, we’re almost there.”
She smiles against his neck and his heart achieves a buoyancy.
“I trust you, Deku.”
Well, he can’t lose here now.
He flicks out another thick strand of black whip, it writhing against his arm in anger. Izuku drops toward the nomu, dodging it’s grasping talons at the last moment and letting the whip string itself along the creature’s neck. He flies away faster, the noose tightening and the nomu choking.
Izuku angles upward, then falls, building One for All’s strength in his leg and cracking the nomu’s skull, arm still wound around the whip choking the creature. He lashes out with another kick, upping the percentage until his bones scream and rattle, the nomu crashing down, neck cracking in the whip’s hold.
Dead.
He pants, black whip uneasy against his flesh.
“Is it...gone?” Eri asks, uncertain.
The nomu lay against the ground, head almost ripped from its body.
“Yeah,” Izuku laughs, on the side of crazed, “Yeah it’s gone.”
The air is freezing, adrenaline dropping from his body and leaving him shivering. Eri feels no better, subtly shaking against his back.
The nomu on the ground is still walking around, so Izuku floats down only a bit more, trying to scope the area. Nothing but forest and mountains from all sides. If they don’t find shelter quickly, freezing will become the real problem.
“Come on, Eri, let’s go find somewhere warm,” he says to her, patting her shoulder.
“And why do that, when there’s a perfectly warm bunker beneath you?”
The words send a sharp shock through Izuku’s system and he whips around, black whip waving at the ready.
“All for One,” he snarls, One for All crackling like lightning over his skin, the sharp ozone smell grounding him.
The white haired man smiles, a long horn poking out of his forehead. Freckles are sprinkled on the upper bridge of his nose. His dark red eyes gleam cruelly from across the way.
“Now, now, we both know that’s not the name you know me by,” All for One chuckles.
“Is that-?” Eri breathes over his shoulder. Without looking, Izuku knows she’s zeroed in on the horn.
Izuku growls a little, black whip drawing her tighter to him.
“Yeah, that’s your quirk.” There’s no sense lying, not when it’s so patently obvious. Ever since she woke up on the concrete floor of their room, she’s known she was quirkless.
She gasps, ducking closer to him.
“Like she didn’t think it was a curse,” All for One says, his smug smile ticking up further, “It was a mutually beneficial favor.”
“It wasn’t a curse!” Izuku spits, “It was her’s, it was a blessing!” His fists are held so tight that his nails are starting to draw blood.
“Oh?” All for One says, tilting his head, “Is it about her being quirkless? I know you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, I can always-”
“Shut up!” It bursts from his chest, violent and vengeful, “Shut up!”
His whole body shakes, teeth grit so hard they feel on the verge of cracking. Anger, hot and swarming, fills every pore.
All for One frowns, looking almost disappointed, “I know it’s a sore spot, but do try and maintain some sort of decorum.”
“You kidnapped us,” Izuku says incredulously, “You stole Eri’s quirk? What exactly do you think we owe you?”
“I think you owe me my actual name, for one,” All for One says, a tiny grin creeping at the edges of his lips.
Izuku bares his teeth, “I’ll call you HIsashi when I’m dead, much less anything else.”
“I can’t believe Inko raised you to be so rude.”
“Don’t talk about her!”
“Please,” sighs the man, obviously exasperated, “You’re making this so much harder than it needs to be. Just do what you’re told and go back to the base.”
“No,” Izuku flies backward, only to be followed, “Why don’t you leave me alone?”
“I’m your father, of course I can’t leave you alone.” All for One practically snarls.
Eri jolts up, “No.”
“No?” He barks a laugh.
“No,” She says, determined, “You aren’t! Aizawa said- dads are- dads are people who keep you safe and listen to you! You aren’t, you aren’t listening to either of us!”
He actually looks taken aback. Izuku uses the chance to drop, deactivating float and going into a delirious free-fall that punches his breath away before reactivating it at the last moment. Eri makes a tiny noise of pain and he apologizes, hitting the ground and diving into the treeline.
Activating chameleon, he lay flat on the ground, Eri untangled from black whip and under him. No All for One. No noise. He hesitantly crawls up a tree, floating to the mid branches.
Izuku holds Eri tight, curled up in the branches of the tree. He’s under no illusions that he’s gotten away, but All for One let them go this time. He can’t go to his friends like this, not when they might be in danger. None of the heroes are strong enough to protect Eri if All for One decided to go back after her.
He presses wet eyes into her hair and she gives him an awkward pat.
“We’ll be okay, won’t we?”
“Yeah,” he almost chokes on the word, “Yeah we will be.”
Even if he has to die, Eri will be alright.
He swears it.