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In the terrifying situation Izuku had found himself in, there was only one fact he knew for sure.
The road was bumpy.
And okay, that might not sound like a lot, barely enough to be called a fact, but it meant something. Meant they’d travelled far out of the urban city he lived in, somewhere where the roads were unkept with no one around to maintain them.
Izuku ran through the list of provinces he could be in, combining the possibility of the timeframe of the journey to give his best estimate. It was very likely wrong, but in this situation, he wanted anything to keep his mind off what was happening to him.
Quirk trafficking. Or rather, quirkless trafficking. A quirkless body, perfect for experiments, perfect for the baseline read that was so hard to find in the age of quirks. Izuku had heard of the stories and the rumours. Monsters in the middle of the night, coming to take away quirkless kids to do their nefarious deeds. And maybe only then would they be worth something, because quirkless kids could never reach the same heights as their quirked peers.
He’d heard the rumours, but he’d never believed them. It was hard to argue against now. Masked men had grabbed him, pulled him into the back of an unmarked van before Izuku could even blink. Schoolbag tore off his shoulders and thrown to the ground, anything that could have used his GPS to track him left behind. His arms and feet were bound together with duct tape, rough canvas shoved into his mouth and taped over. Thick hands had shoved him down, pushed him into something hard and small, knees pressed to his chest and head curled inwards before it had been locked with two small, but certain, clicks.
Izuku had tried to fight, but there wasn’t much one small stringy kid could do against several fully grown adults when locked inside a trunk. He’d fought enough to win several bruises across his arms and face, bruises which still ached painfully with every breath.
He’d been handed over at some point, shifted around in the box until his legs scraped raw and his neck went stiff, and then chucked into somewhere else, a somewhere that had begun to move as well.
A car boot.
And that was where Izuku found himself now, locked inside a trunk, held inside a car boot, counting the names of Japanese provinces because if he ever stopped distracting himself he might just break down entirely and out of the nothing he knew, he knew he couldn’t let himself lose focus. Couldn’t give in to the fear. He had to remain aware in case they slipped up, in case they gave him a chance to flee. Everyone made mistakes. Izuku just had to be ready for theirs.
The car hit something and the entire chest jumped upwards, Izuku’s head slamming against solid wood. A pained moan escaped past the gag. Would he get a concussion from that…? It really hurt, red hot pain aching against his skull.
The car moved again, the once-bumpy ground becoming smoother. Okay then. Think logically. They must have come off of something rural onto something more concrete, something with enough of a ledge it left the car bouncing.
Did that mean they were heading back into a city? If so that meant more eyes, more people, less chance for them to hide.
Hope bubbled up inside his chest. Someone would find him. He knew it. He could feel it.
Please someone find me.
There were noises outside. Car horns blaring.
Someone else?
The car suddenly picked up speed, the trunk slamming into the side of the boot. Izuku blinked the stars out of his eyes from the sudden impact. Ow.
There must be someone, otherwise they wouldn’t driving so erratically. They were scared!
A new sound started. The most joyous sound in the world for a kid in Izuku’s position.
A siren.
Izuku’s heart leapt.
They were being chased. By the police. Maybe there were even heroes.
Heroes, coming to save him. Even the thought of it was... incredible. A single light of hope in the darkness.
He would be saved, no matter what the kids at school said, no matter what all the bullies with quirks would say as they pushed him around.
He was going to be saved.
Suddenly, the car entered a spiral. The trunk spun round and round, hitting against the sides each time.
Something happened below him, a very soft sound. An almost unbearable pop.
And then they were flying. Izuku’s hands no longer touched the chest, his stomach flipping in the air. He wanted to vomit.
Something cracked, the sound of metal scouring in two. An incredibly loud noise wrenched through the air. Izuku’s hand moved to try to cover his ears, held back by the tape. All he could do was bury his head between his knees and hope for the noise to stop.
And then, he began to fall. Izuku pressed up against the roof of the trunk, unable to stop his inevitable descent.
The car… it must have hit something. He could tell, he was no longer in the car boot anymore. He would have hit against it by now. No, he was in the open air. Well, his trunk was.
So close. And yet stopped by the thick barrier of wood. The wood was dragging him down, making him unable to do anything to make the fall less damaging.
The rightmost corner hit first, a massive splash echoing around him.
Wait. A splash?
Oh no.
Izuku had landed in water. He’d landed in water, trapped inside a tiny wooden box that would drag him down into the depths.
He couldn’t see anything, the box locking out any and all light, but he could feel cold liquid trickling in around his feet.
The box had stopped falling, but it hadn’t come to rest.
No, it was now slowly sinking, water lapping over Izuku’s trapped body.
If someone didn’t find him, he was going to drown.
Izuku pushed against the sides, back straining against the lid. Whatever they’d used to clasp it down, it was strong. Strong enough that Izuku couldn’t break it, couldn’t do anything to snap the thick clasps trapping him down.
And yet he tried again and again and again, legs kicking out and pounding against the wood with the fear of death flowing through each blow.
The water was freezing cold, coming up to his waist. He could just about breathe, but with his head twisted over, the water was nibbling at his nose. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to breathe anymore, and then his time would be really running out. Izuku sucked in fresh air, head pressed as far up as he could go.
The wave covered over his nose. Precious little air remained in his lungs, all the air he could get just through his nose. The sides of the box pressed down, dragging him down, further and further.
It was so cold, so dark. He was shivering violently, unable to stop the tremors. A deep pressure on his chest, wanting to escape.
But he couldn’t. That was the last of his air. The only thing he had left, all inside his chest. There was only water against his lips now, water bubbling up into his nose.
He swivelled his wrists, tape biting deep into his flesh. He wanted out, he wanted home, he wanted Mum. But no matter how hard he pulled, no matter how hard he kicked, he couldn’t get out.
The pressure was eating away at him, his lungs yearning for more. A black hole, infinite in size, contained within his chest. He couldn’t hold it. He had to -
He had to breathe.
He sucked in. All that came was water. Ice cold water, shooting down his lungs and filling his airways.
No oxygen. None left at all.
He panicked, trying to breathe in, trying to get anything to fill his hungry lungs.
But all there was was water.
Spots danced in front of his eyes.
Panic overwhelmed him.
There were no thoughts left. Only the need to survive.
He couldn’t -
He couldn’t breathe.
He was going to die.
Something shifted. A movement in the sway.
Metal clicking.
Hands wrapping around him.
His head broke water. Water burst out of his nose and he coughed, mouth seizing around the material still trapped inside his mouth. Something tore the tape off, yanked the material out. Izuku breathed out for real this time, gasping for air.
Air. Precious air.
How…? How had he gotten out?
Izuku wrestled his eyes open. His whole body felt so tired, all he wanted to do was drift away to sleep. And yet he knew that was a bad idea, as cold as he was, all that might do was kill him. He had to stay awake.
The first thing he saw was a large shoulder, a shoulder over which Izuku was balanced against as whoever it was swam towards the shore. He could feel the muscle ripple underneath him as they moved, thick strides sending ripples flowing far out from them.
Izuku’s eyes moved over the scene. A bridge high above, a car buried half-deep in bushes at the edge of the water.
Oh.
They’d crashed, falling off the bridge in their haste to get away and Izuku had flown free, flown right into the water.
If someone hadn’t seen him… if someone hadn’t grabbed him out, he would have been dead. Dead, already buried in a casket of their choosing, that tiny wooden trunk.
More coughs overtook him, water cascading out of his lungs.
The arm around him moved, and Izuku found himself flat against dirt and sand. Oh. They’d hit the shore already. He hadn’t even noticed.
He coughed more, chest writhing with the instinctive need to get all the water out. His hands flexed against the tape. The man that had saved him loomed overhead, a knife glinting in his hand.
Izuku didn’t recognise him. Didn’t recognise the black garb he wore as belonging to either hero or policeman.
Oh no.
Was this one of the people that had taken him?
Izuku shuffled back in fear, shying away from the blade of the knife.
“Hey, it’s okay,” The man said sharply. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Izuku looked at the blade then back to the man, telling him just how sure he was of that statement.
“I’m just going to get the tape off of you, alright?” The man said, slowly and clearly.
He moved forward, each movement telegraphed. Izuku froze up. He wanted to trust him, wanted to believe the man was here to help him, but fear ate at his heart.
He squeezed his eyes shut, wanting this awful, terrifying situation to come to an end. He was alive, but at what cost?
The sound of the blade whipped through the air. The rip of tape tearing.
And Izuku’s ankles came free.
He opened his eyes. The man was picking at the tape, unfeeling it from Izuku’s blue-tinged skin.
“I can do your hands too if you would let me,” he offered, eyes staring out of a mess of black hair.
Izuku swallowed, and then twisted around. He had to turn his back to the man to give him access to the hands, and the instant the man left his sight, Izuku’s heart jumped in his chest.
Anything could happen. He could stab him in the back, he could kill him right here, he could -
Slice the knife through the tape, leaving his hands to relax.
Izuku calmed his frantic breaths, flexing his fingers as he turned back around.
He could barely feel them, so blue they were almost purple, but he was free. Leftover bits of tape stuck to his wrists, but they no longer had a hold on him anymore.
He was free.
Cold to the bone, shivering so hard his teeth were chattering and his lungs felt rough from the forced expulsion of water but he was free.
“Who - who are you?” Izuku forced out through numb lips.
“Eraserhead,” the man said. “Don’t worry, you’re in good hands now.”
Eraserhead? Eraserhead had come to save him? He was worth Eraserhead’s attention? A pro hero?
This couldn’t be real. No way.
Eraserhead’s attention moved past him, gaze drifting up the river bank.
He stood up and waved. Izuku wondered what was happening, but his question was quickly answered by the medical team appearing into view.
They went to work around Izuku immediately, wrapping a blanket around his shivering shoulders and moving him up onto a cart.
They started to move the trolley and before Izuku could second guess himself, he reached out.
“Wait!” He called to Eraserhead. His fingers were shaking, but he couldn’t stop them now. “Please don’t leave.”
For a second he thought Eraserhead hadn’t heard him, expression carefully blank, before Eraserhead moved over, taking his place beside Izuku still laid out on the bed.
Izuku’s fingers gripped onto Eraserhead’s sleeve as they moved.
Safe. He was safe now. A pro hero by his side and the pro hero was Eraserhead. It couldn’t get much better than this moment. He wasn’t lost anymore, wasn’t stuck in the darkness of a car boot.
Warmth was slowly beginning to bleed through the blanket just as hope spread through his heart.
He was okay. He was going to go see his mum again, and he was going to be okay.
Fear had no hold on Izuku’s heart any longer.