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Katsuki woke in darkness.
Just like everyday in this hell hole he had been squirreled away in. The secret base of operation hidden away if the bigger and more villain lair secret base of operation was not so secret anymore. Not that it mattered, All for One was already Emperor of the Northern Isle. They didn’t need a secret base of operation.
So it was less a secret base of operation, and more zoo of rare finds, for All for One to peruse as he liked. Not a real actual cool animal zoo, but a petting zoo. Small fluffy creatures who had their large teeth and claws filed down so not to hurt the people doing the petting.
Katsuki did sometimes feel like a fluffy dog with how All for One liked to stroke his hair. Would stroke Izuku’s too.
Everyday he would wake in darkness, endure whatever All for One wanted with him for that day, and then go sit at the camera feed. Or cook or look after Yoichi.
If he managed to endure the dog treatment from All for One, then he could see Izuku. If not, All for One was not a kind man. He did not do kind things out of the kindness of his heart. It was obvious from his retrieval of his son.
The last thing he remembered from the day he was captured was roaring at the large figure that held Izuku up, his freakishly large hands dominating the top of the nerds skull, and then nothing. It was a blur. The man’s voice, which in hindsight Katsuki couldn’t remember, had sent sparks of rage and longing through his body. It had been subtly relaxing in the worse way. Katsuki wasn’t sure if it was a quirk or his subconscious. That was what scarred him the most.
He woke in darkness every day. Until he was taken to where he was wanted. The cell he was being kept in didn’t have any windows or light bulbs and froze at night. They didn’t want him producing the nitro-glycerine in his hands – even if he could no longer ignite it. His hands were no longer supernovas in waiting, just incredibly sweaty – and sweet smelling.
His eye socket ached whenever he stepped into the light just outside his room, the phantom pain of his eye trying to adjust with nothing to actually adjust.
Or maybe he was just sick of watching the blank face of Kirishima stare back at him from the corridor, or the kitchen, or wherever Izuku’s psycho sperm doner wanted him. If he was being paraded in front of camera’s again for UA to see, for HSPC to see the effect of the war they were currently in a stalemate at.
They paraded Katsuki like a prize horse, and then shoved him into his tiny ass room.
Expecting him to just continue after they carved his eye out on national TV as a warning to UA, as a warning to HSPC.
He got his revenge by taking Izuku away, taking him away. All for One knew just seeing him with the man would cause All Might such wretched guilt that he didn’t need to keep Shigaraki around as an heir anymore.
Directly after he carved his eye out, standing triumphant over his form. Declaring his victory over UA, and the symbols of peace and the heroes. All for One calmly placed his hand on his head, it was so kind and gentle. Coaxing his head up, with a quick check on the injury before walking up to Tomura and punching his hand through his chest. Pulling his heart out.
“A gift for you All Might, the heart of the last of the scion for your pathetic predecessor. It will be the last you get of once was connected to One for All. May Tenko’s blood keep you warm in the lonely nights without Izuku Midoriya.”
Before the body hit the ground, his blood spurting out of his chest. Katsuki caught sight of his face. Twisted in a mockery of triumph. Eyes closed and face deceptively pleased. It looked like he had an epiphany. And then he hit the floor. His head tilting away from where Katsuki sat huddled over, and the illusion of the martyr was gone. Echoing in its finality like a dying heartbeat, echoing like the thump of his heart splatting into the ground in front of him.
The blood from the organ slashing onto the ground, a flick – which Katsuki’s eyes followed as the tiny detail caught his eye suddenly, to his now relaxed hand. A red pupil stared back at him. His eye turned to him staining redder and redder in the growing bloody puddle. Moving his own remaining eye from one red pupil to two, All for One summoned him with a flick. His red stained knees lifted him off the floor, and with footprints slowly hidden, he stumbled over.
A gentle hand resting gently on his cheek, mixing together his blood and Tomura’s as he warped them out. His one eye blacking out as the lights shined above.
There was no one strong enough to go against him, and he knew that.
Especially not with Eri running around. Especially not healed. The height of his power, and the only person who would have been able to stop him were locked in a cage, or had to carry around an oxygen tank and looked like a walking skull.
Wanted to rub it in with the removal of Tomura, with the show he allowed the man to put on with Katsuki. Really wanted to rub it in All Might’s face that he had everything, that there is nothing stopping him from taking everything.
Katsuki wasn’t an optimist, wasn’t a pessimist either. He was a realist, and he did not have faith in the resistance that formed against All for One.
They still paraded him around like a prize horse, a reminded of what he could, would and will do to people. It was never Izuku, All for One didn’t want to show a hint that Izuku was still alive. Let the enemy think All for One had taken him apart for the quirk. Let them think he was dead and gone and was insulted and undignified in his last moments. Let All Might think the worst. Let the heroes think the worst.
Inko would never go to the heroes to tell them that All for One was her husband, he was banking on that. It was another reason why Katsuki was being used as the show pony. His parents would take the threat for what it was. His mother and All for One used to play games night together, she knew how he worked.
A reminder that he could be merciful, that he would protect his enemy. That he would hurt them until they surrender. Which he had very early told Katsuki what he wanted him to do. Surrender to him.
Expecting him to cook and behave. To act like one of the orphans All for One picked up and manipulated and twisted and broke into one of his little killing machines, into one of his toy soldiers. ‘Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir.’ Their personal attachments turned against them, their family – any family remaining, remained no longer. Ochako’s parents weren’t in construction, Kirishima’s mother never existed.
They wanted him to be like them, like he hadn’t grown up with Izuku, with Hisashi, Uncle Sashi. Like he hadn’t seen the monster of Ashido and Iida lurking in the background.
Katsuki didn’t think Hisashi All for One would turn him into a Nomu, not with his and Deku’s relationship, and not because Katsuki sometimes got the impression All for One saw him like some sort of semi-rabid dog or cat that he could tell all his friends at the country club that he managed to tame. Or that he liked him as a symbol to show around.
Katsuki could also remember the times he and Deku would curl up on the man’s chest, when they were really little, and sleep.
The warmth of fire breath, in his chest, heating him up. Katsuki’s arm twisting on Deku’s back. Large hand on his back, holding him close. The deepening breaths, sleep calling him closer. The deep beat of an old heart. No dreams, just comfort.
Katsuki wasn’t sure he wanted the affection, had seen what his love meant for the people he loved, this half-baked version he could barely stand it. Could see in Yoichi’s eyes when Katsuki had to look after him when sick. His sickness went beyond his body’s frailty. Went beyond that. Even when he call’s Katsuki by a name that he vaguely remembers from his family tree, Katsuki was never surprised at his reactions to all forms of attention and care. Not from Katsuki, how he traces the knotted scar on his face with such wonder in his ill haze. The drugs and dizziness separating him from this time, to far in the past. All for One had photos of 9 people lined the walls of his office. Katsuki, an older far more warn version was the second image just after the image of Yoichi. The scarring even was the same.
It was an endless cycle of All for One treating him like part of his family, and then letting his lackies beat him black and blue when he refused one thing or another. An extreme in treatment, love like his brother and Deku and then punishment in the harshest of degree’s. All for One didn’t have the same reluctance to see him harmed permanently like he had with Deku. Katsuki was him, was All for One. Izuku was Yoichi, was One for All. He liked the mimicry. Even if he liked using him to control Yoichi more. That thought was always in the back of his mind.
Hisashi admired his cruelty in how he dealt with things that threatened what Katsuki considered his. And now he considered Katsuki as his.
He considered Yoichi his, has done for centuries. Katsuki had an impression in his mind of the man Izuku called first. Strong willed and stubborn, moral. The man he saw through the camera feeds was not that impression. When he had first seen him, he had thought it was a different person (not that he ever even knew the man). How he shied away from All for One, and Izuku.
Spiralling into himself.
Watching the cameras was the same, and Katsuki could see the same reactions start to develop in Deku as in Yoichi. Touched starved touch adverse. Longing to be held so desperately yet hating when someone – anyone touched him more than a hand on his head.
Katsuki hated it. So deeply, he hated everything about this. Hated how he would never be able to touch his nerd again. They would never hug, never just lie together sides pressed together. Izuku would never lie on top of him listening to his heartbeat again. All because of that slimy, obsessed villain creep.
Yoichi and Izuku tried to make positive memories with touch. Tried to hug and be tactile, but it never worked, would send Yoichi into a spiral. Was starting to effect Izuku in the same way. He would just shut down for a couple hours if it was too much.
He did that whenever All for One came for a visit too.
Izuku loved touch, Katsuki could not understand how he did it. He would lay his head on Ochako’s lap, his feet on some extra’s lap. Always someone with their hand in his hair, or holding his hand, or something. Katsuki normally watching from the top of his phone, or over a book from some corner. His squad used to try with that, but again he was always on the side watching on.
Izuku was the only person it felt easy with.
Katsuki would watch, with his head pillowed in his crossed arms. His one eye the only thing peeking up from his arms, watching. Watching Izuku fall into a spiral. He was doing it now, in the cage he had been forced into. Spending most of his time sitting in the cage eyes focused on nothing and just staring. Blinking only very rarely.
It was worse, now that Yoichi was sick. No one was looking after him like Katsuki was looking after Yoichi. He wasn’t eating. No one was giving him his food, in a punishment that happened because All for One thought he was going on a hunger strike.
Still there Katsuki was, watching. One duty he constantly requested.
The door, steel, metal, or something hard and resistant to lots of things, not that he could summon anything that would even manage to dent it - not anymore, opened suddenly. The squeaking sound that you would expect from a door like that silent. The barest hiss on the floor was the noise that accompanied it openening.
Katsuki didn’t look to see who had come get him today, it was always the same person.
“He’s coming out today.” Kirishima stated simply. “All for One requested you make Katsudon. He also requests that you stop talking to Yoichi about the man he mistakes you for.” Katsuki closed his eyes, shutting away the view of the catatonic Izuku, and the sleeping form of his uncle. His hands felt heavy with sweat. Even if he did have his full quirk, Kirishima wasn’t the same boy who came into UA. Not some bumbling heroics student. His instinct and relexes for when a villain was near were still sharp as ever.
“Whose taking Deku the food, Yoichi ain’t well enough for that, and no he fucking didn’t he likes Yoichi thinking he didn’t kill the second. He likes the power it gives him, if you don’t see that your stupider then I thought.”
“We will, All for One deemed it time.” He stood aside the door ignoring the rest of his comment – letting it effect a mountain by blowing wind on it, his movements precise and so unlike the Chad persona he was putting on at UA. Nothing like the boy Katsuki thought was one of his closest friends. His movements had purpose, had a command within. “Stop calling him Deku. It irritates All for One.”
“Stop lying. You sack of shit, didn’t think power play was one of your kinks.”
“Get up.”
His lips curled. The only hint of the anger that was bubbling underneath his skin. Katsuki rose from his seat. Stepping out in front of Kirishima, he hated having his back to the boy. Katsuki hated everything about this. He wished All for One would send Uraraka, at least she held some familiarity, some aspect of her character wasn’t fake. “He was there when we first called each other Deku and Kacchan, and you, you traitorous bastard, you think you can tell me what to do.” He could, Katsuki could do nothing but obey – but it felt nice to spark off at someone. Shoving his finger into the boy’s chest.
“You would think Hisashi would have told me not to call him that, but he hasn’t, so shove that shit up your arse. Get me parsley. Deku likes parsley in his Katsudon. And then go give Mina a kiss for me you shit faced moron.”
Anticipating the attack, the blow that was meant to disorient him only clipped his ear, the hard stone like fist carving a divot in his ear as it passed. Turning to face him the sharp looking rocks that he called fists were already driving forward.
Katsuki skipped to the side, once again missing the second strike. The wall behind him shuddering under the force. His face was twisted menacingly, matching the angry grin on Katsuki’s face. “Don’t say her name. Stop talking. Just fucking listen to me!”
Darting forward Katsuki glanced a blow on Kirishima’s ribs before jumping back. His grin widened a laugh echoed through the hallway, and it was but a second to realise it was coming from him.
“Mina, Mina, Mina. She loved you, you know. I bet she died miserably, and in pain and screaming for you to save her and it is all your fault.”
It wasn’t just laughter, Katsuki noted as he felt his cheeks dampen.
Barrelling forward, once again missing Katsuki, Kirishima shouted loudly. Swearing and insulting him in equal measure echoing off and melding into a melody with Katsuki’s laughter. Katsuki, still better – still quicker, danced around him. Not doing damage against the solid rock of his body, but enough to piss him off enough.
His anger was a living thing, boiling under his skin, his laughter was turning rougher and harder. More a scream, or a cry. A pained noise coming from a pained beast.
He felt a large pool, just behind him – so large that if he fell in he would be swallowed immediately never to be seen again. It opened up inside him wide and powerful. Not the power or the heat that he would have described his quirk, just there quietly in the back. A comfort, warmth and the hint of green. The barest hint of orange electricity sparking lightly in his hands as he dipped slowly into the wide pool.
There were 9 people in front of him, the barest of embers standing there, and he knew he did not have the true power. The wide greatness as a tenth user, a parasite leeching off the power of one member. Clear in the fog. Yet it was there, and it could not be taken.
And so his hands sparked in the memory of the true power he used to have.
Katsuki could have pretended he missed it, almost did. His memory of facing that man with Izuku – burning with such great power. The ocean he had access to when he dreamed deep enough to remember, an ocean to the pond he now sunk into.
‘its for you now, you are the hope’
‘my blood runs through you and with the scion power of One for All falls into your hands get the user free’
‘save us’
‘protect him’
‘don’t fuck it up kid’
‘don’t get too comfortable All for One hates as brightly as he loves’
‘Tenko was a good boy, I am sorry for the things he has done to you. I am sorry he is dead too, deserving maybe – but he was twisted’
‘my boy, young Bakugou, stay strong for Izuku, stay strong for yourself, even if you cannot reach me awake you have me here.’
There were whispers in his mind. The fading impressions of old people long since resigned to the ground. He was not alone. All Might was there with him. For him.
Kirishima missed it too, his anger was burning away the strategic mind that he was just now showing. It was nice to see that he cared. Cared enough to get angry, past that hard rock exterior there was some flash of emotion that now and then revealed itself to the world. Katsuki was living for it.
With half remembered lessons with All Might whispered in his ear as he dodged and laid careful blow after blow with fists getting bloodier and bloodier.
Then Katsuki heard Izuku. Calling out to him. A ripple in the pond.
Kacchan? Are you there?
A hardened fist filled his vision, and Katsuki only just had the time – and the mental capacity after hearing Izuku’s voice, to turn his head to the side slightly. The power behind the fist threw him to the floor, his face burning and Katsuki felt like his cheek bone had cracked down the middle, the cool floor burned lightly on the impact zone.
He pushed up slightly, sounds buzzing as his hand drifted to his face. The few blinks where he was dazed hand on his cheek he lay until Kirishima loomed over him. Carding his hand through his hair, pulling his hand away from the wound. Pressing the side of the impact onto the floor and increasing the pressure on his cheek when a pained gasp left Katsuki’s lips. Writhing weakly to get out of the hold, his hands opening and closing instinctually.
Embarrassing, this was what they saw him. The good little doggy All for One took as a charity case. The mangy stray that made friends with his pedigree at the puppy park, taking it home and feeding it scraps from the table.
His large hand pressing his head flush against the floor as he settled on his back, his legs locking into Katsuki’s own settling his knees by his hips.
“I never liked you,” I guess there really is no one there, “don’t you ever say” Kacchan’s probably dead now. “Sensei is always right” at least he didn’t turn him into a Nomu. “n’t even listening.”
The two voices curling around his head cut off as his head slammed back into the floor. Banishing the miserable mumble and filling his head with angry hissing as Kirishima’s large hand squeezed his wrists, pulling his shoulders taught. Then the pressure lightened.
“Eijiro, I asked you to take him to the kitchen. Why do I find you two like this? Is this what I asked of you?”
Scrambling up Kirishima stood to his side. Katsuki could see his legs, just in front of him. Would turn his head and see his face – see some emotion on his face. The fear, or anger, or something that made him look like the boy Katsuki used to know. But he didn’t, Katsuki stayed still for a few moments. The misery in his head echoing around. At least he wasn’t a Nomu.
“I am sorry Sensei. I let my rage get the better of me, he bated me and I fell for it. You know who he gets, I do apologise he’s being stubborn.”
Sighing Katsuki slowly peeled himself off the floor, prodding his cheek lightly. Getting on his hands and knees when a large – far larger then Kirishima’s teenage frame, hovered in front of him. Hands slowly guided his face forward, forcing him to look into eyes that flashed like his own. Like blood spilled on a white sheet.
Keeping his wince to a minimum when his finger prodded his cheek much less gentle then his own did. Until the numbing came.
“There we go, if you would stop trying to pick a fight with everyone you see then this will heal within the day.” The fingers that had been wiping his cheek, grew harsh. “Stop with these petty rebellions.” His own harsh red eyes met the bloodred ones, glaring back. “Ok Katsuki, how about this. If you manage to behave for a week, I will let you see Izuku. His uncle is not going to be better for a while and he’ll get lonely. Do you think you can do that? That does mean no insulting Eijiro, you used to be friends, why not try again hmm?”
Looking to the side, Kirishima was still in a low bow. Face blank. Katsuki nodded. “Fine. Whatever, I’ll deal with Shitty Hair.”
“I know it must be hard, dealing with people you see as traitors. Good boy. Off you go.” He turned back towards Kirishima, “and you, stop ordering him around. He’s our honoured guest, I don’t appreciate you making up lies like that. Do stop that, Kat is right, he does know me far better than you do.”
Slinking forward, hearing Kirishima follow him Katsuki hated everything.
“Oh and Katsuki.” He stopped, turning his head to show he was listening. The man knew this was his way of showing respect. “Don’t even think of using that vestige of One for All again. We’ll chat later, after you have looked after Izuku. Don’t want to keep you away from your screens.”
He nodded, because that was all he could do. The nine figures in his mind sunk under the ripples in the pool until it fell still. Turning on his heel as he heard Kirishima’s steps. Katsudon first, think about One for All later.
Katsuki could last for a week.
He was already living day by day.