Chapter Text
Kirishima couldn’t sleep. It was difficult when the last time he had seen Mina had been of her losing consciousness and disappearing before his eyes, taken by the League’s warper. The villains had gotten a lucky hit on her, and she went down hard. Kirishima couldn’t even do anything to stop it, as Kurogiri himself quickly warped away with the rest of the League that had been brought into the skirmish.
He and Mina had been with Katsuki, not even as heroes. It was just a walk through the streets, going to the nearby convenience store to grab some chips and other quick snacks for the squad’s movie night that would be happening the next night.
It wasn’t happening anymore, that much was clear.
Katsuki had been livid when the fight was over, his shirt singed and spotty from new burns, but it was nothing compared to the devastation Kirishima felt over Mina’s disappearance. She had been between the two guys, looping her arms with them - Katsuki had only just started allowing it even if his face went tomato-red every time the squad was publicly affectionate with him - and she had been her usual, bubbly self, before the villains had ambushed them.
The two guys had spent over an hour searching for Mina before they had to return to the school, well past curfew. They were given a bit of leniency when they told security what had happened. They gave their statements, Katsuki was snappish and barely contained his ever-simmering fury, and Kirishima himself had been berating himself internally the entire time, knowing he should have done something to protect Mina. He should have stopped her from being taken.
He couldn’t sleep, thoughts of Mina spiralling in his head. He couldn’t understand why they had taken her, and not the trio. Why had they attacked in the first place? What was their goal? Why had they taken Mina?
He and Katsuki were put under house arrest, at least until Mina had been rescued, which infuriated both of them. Despite the protests, and the accompanying protests of Hanta and Denki, they fell upon deaf ears. Until it was figured out why they had kidnapped Mina, the school wanted to protect as many students as they could, which meant the two that had been with her last were not to leave school grounds.
Not that that had ever stopped Kirishima before. He and Katsuki, as well as Hanta and Denki, took to the streets every day for the next week, searching for their girlfriend. They always started at the scene of the skirmish, and slowly but surely expanded the perimeter. Even with the police tape cordoning the area off, the four guys kept up their search, hoping to find any sort of clue the police and other pro-heroes had overlooked. They had to find her.
A week had passed, and still no sign of the League’s whereabouts nor a trace of where they could have taken Mina. The pro-heroes were growing antsy, even Aizawa-sensei was looking worse than ever, and looking bad was his typical appearance. His eyes always kept roaming back to Mina’s desk, still empty, and Kirishima saw their teacher’s lips thin ever so slightly. The class couldn’t concentrate, either. They were all tense and stressed, worrying for their friend and classmate, but none had it worse than the squad.
Katsuki was a bomb ready to go off any second, snappish and even rougher around the edges, almost reverting to the first week of school with his negativity. Hanta was tense, and his smiles were forceful, strained the longer he tried to keep his cool. Denki was high-strung, which was unfortunate for everyone anywhere near him since his stress manifested in electrical shoot-offs that was worse than carpet shocks. His hair was also untameable at this point, the electricity causing his hair to stand on end that not even gel could manage it.
Kirishima was doing his best. Really, he was. But he, like Katsuki - or maybe his partner had rubbed off on him in some aspects - he became snappish and quick to anger. However, unlike his partner, he was not quick to lash out. Instead, he retreated from the others, blaming himself the longer Mina was gone.
He sat on his bed, unbothered by the lack of light in the room as the sun had long since dipped over the horizon. He was ready for another sleepless night when his phone lit up with a message. He almost ignored it as he glanced at the device, only to do a double take at the name displayed.
[FROM: Queenie] SOS SOS SOS
[File attached]
Kirishima stared at the message, before he dived for his phone to look at the attachment. He almost couldn’t unlock the phone with how badly his hands shook, already heading out of his room and down the stairs, jumping off as quickly as he could. He found the attachment to be a screenshot of the maps app, showing a location a couple train stops away from the school. It looked like part of the industrial zone, or possibly close to eateries. He saw a few different restaurants in the screenshot near to where the central dot was located.
Kirishima did not waste time thinking. He barely thought of the possibility of a trap, nor did he think to tell the squad. If he were honest with himself, he had thought Mina had sent the message and file to their group chat, and hadn’t looked closely at the message or the previous conversations to realize it had been sent to him alone. He had thought the others would be close behind. He hadn’t even thought to change out of his night clothes.
Slipping out of school grounds was surprisingly easy. He had done it before, and while it was likely cameras would have caught him, he would deal with the fallout once he brought Mina back, safe and sound. He just knew he had to hurry.
He ran to the nearest train station, relieved that the trains kept going at all hours since they were self-driving for the nighttime folk, and soon enough he was able to get on and head closer and closer to the area where the screenshot located Mina. He even put the area on his own maps, and found it was an old bar, long since closed down and boarded up. It reminded him of the time the League had kidnapped Katsuki and their main base of operations had also been some kind of bar or club.
The ride to the correct area was near torture for Kirishima. His legs bounced as if he were trying to mimic Iida’s speed. He almost barrelled through the doors the moment they reached the correct station, and he was off like a shot.
He quickly reached the correct area, where a lot of buildings had long since gone out of business, along with the bar that held Mina and the League. Or maybe the League wasn’t even there, but that was where Mina was, and that was all that mattered to Kirishima.
Still, he wasn’t completely stupid. The moment he saw the bar facade, he took things a bit slow, thought over the options he had. He couldn’t go in, guns blazing so to speak, so he decided he would do his best being sneaky. He could be sneaky.
It was eerie how quiet everything was around him.
Kirishima made his way slowly and carefully to the front door, having been unable to find any side doors anywhere. That was probably the reason the bar had been closed down. Fire hazard.
He shook his head to focus, and stepped through, relieved to know the door was unlocked. It was probably because of the League, or Mina had melted the lock in her escape, or because of squatters. He wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t complaining.
Inside the building, it was deathly silent, except… something pricked his ears. It was impossible to tell what it was from a distance. It was too quiet, too far away, but it gave Kirishima a direction. His skin prickled with his quirk, apprehension and anticipation mixing uncomfortably in his stomach.
As he approached the indistinct sound, Kirishima slowly began to figure out what it was. Harsh breathing, small gasps like someone had just ran a few marathons back to back and was desperate for air, but also trying desperately to be quiet. His own breathing picked up at the sound and he made his way even more quickly towards the sound.
“Mina…!” He said once he reached where the breathing was coming from, and he slumped his shoulders in relief when he recognized the wild mess of pink hair.
She was facing away from him, curled up against the far wall of what may have been an office or coat room, and Kirishima could see how she struggled to catch her breath, how she stilled like a statue when he called out to her.
She twisted around the exact same time he hurried to her side, kneeling beside her to check for any grievous wounds or injuries. Her civvie outfit was rumpled and had small holes littering the edges, her shirt sleeves almost burnt away - perhaps melted would be a better description - and her shoes… She didn’t have her shoes.
“Are you okay, Mina? Come on, we have to-” Kirishima wrapped an arm around Mina, to help her get to her feet, when she finally made a move.
“Get… Away!” She shout-whispered, her eyes impossibly wide and frantically looking around.
“Wha? What are you saying? Come on, we need to go. You’re safe,” Kirishima shook his head and tried to put an arm around Mina once more, but she pushed him away, shaking her head so violently her hair fanned out around her head like a pink halo.
“Get… No, you… It’s a trap!” She rasped, and that was when Kirishima saw the cuffs around Mina’s wrists.
“So good of you to join us,” a voice appeared behind the teens, at the open door, and Kirishima barely had time to twist around before he was pushed off-balance, seeing a girl’s manic grin before it faded in black smoke. “All the needed pieces are here.”
Kirishima fell forward, and he quickly duck-and-rolled back to his feet, his quirk bristling over his arms in preparation for a fight. He had no idea where he was now, but the first face he saw was Dabi’s lazy smile, and he paled a bit.
Dabi flicked a wrist and blue flames encircled his fist, licking up his arm, before he shot out the fire directly at Kirishima, who dodged out of the way while hardening his skin to avoid the heat as best he could.
However, the focus being on one villain hadn’t been what Kirishima should have been doing when another body tackled him from the side, and he fell, struggling to get up, but one body became three and they dogpiled him until he couldn’t move, even with his skin hardened and sharp at all angles.
“Please don’t burn the place down again, we just got the ash out from the last time,” the same voice as before said, and through the bodies holding him down, Kirishima could see the figure of Shigaraki stepping through the black teleporting fog, holding Mina by the neck, his pinky raised. Toga was behind them, playing with a knife.
“Just trying to distract the kid,” Dabi replied with a shrug, before he turned to Kirishima and the people on top of him. “Let him up.”
The people pulled away from him but did not actually let him up.
“Drop the quirk, kid,” Dabi ordered casually, gesturing to Mina and Shigaraki. “You know he’s not one to bluff.”
Mina shook, her whole body shook like she was freezing cold, or terrified, her impossibly wide eyes staring only at Kirishima. Shigaraki wiggled his pinky finger, threatening to bring it closer to her neck, and that was all Kirishima needed as a threat to de-activate his quirk, his skin becoming soft and squishy.
Immediately, his hands were brought painfully behind his back, and he was now allowed to stand up, rather roughly by the treatment.
“So glad of you to join us,” Shigaraki said casually, stepping forward with Mina, who followed as willingly as she could in the circumstances. Her hands were bound together in front of her, and given the look of them, Kirishima was pretty sure they were quirk-suppressing cuffs. “I’m sure you’re wondering what we need you for, hm?”
Kirishima rolled his eyes and glared at the villain. He was scared, but he wasn’t all that scared for himself, and he would not let it show how scared he was for his girlfriend.
Shigaraki barely noticed. “All we need from you two is to stay exactly where we put you, and let us catch our prey.”
“Your little boyfriend, Katsuki!” Toga said with manic glee, spinning her knife between fingers like a pro. It would have been impressive if it weren’t for the fact she was a villain. “And this time, we have an offer he can’t refuse.”
Kirishima narrowed his eyes at her, before glancing at Mina. She was paler than before, her eyes now on the floor before her.
“Hopefully your contacts are less confusing than the little pink squirter’s here,” Dabi commented as he approached Kirishima, easily swiping the phone from his shorts pockets.
He bared his teeth and tried snapping at Dabi. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that!”
“Uh oh! I think you hit a nerve,” Toga teased in a singsong voice. “Little Kirishima doesn’t like you insulting his girlfriend!”
“Oh shut up,” Mina scoffed, but her voice was a bit shaky due to the fear of Shigaraki.
“Enough.” Shigaraki spoke before Toga could say anything else, taking the phone from Dabi.
It was easy to unlock Kirishima’s phone, something he knew Katsuki hated, and he was beginning to understand why. He normally had it unlocked so he wouldn’t need to remind his partners his passcode or anything, because they often used his phone for better pictures to send to the group chat later.
“This time, you won’t be a bother and take him away. Really, a win-win, in my opinion,” Shigaraki commented as he let go of Mina to approach Kirishima. “But first, let’s let Bakugou know exactly why he can’t refuse this time.”
“Smile, Eijirou!” Toga was suddenly right beside him, squishing the side of her face to his, with her knife on the other side so he couldn’t move away. He heard his phone give a click of the camera setting, and he wasn’t sure what to do.
“Take them to the back, keep a guard up until we have what we need,” Shigaraki ordered the person behind Kirishima, who began pulling him backwards. Mina was forced to follow, being grabbed by Toga.
“Oh, wait, what about a cutesy couple of the cuties for Katsuki?” Toga paused, looking back at Shigaraki. “It’ll be enough to get him down here without trying anything. And if it doesn’t get his ass in gear, maybe we just get the other two.”
Kirishima’s quirk activated on instinct, and the hands let go of him with pained shouts. “Don’t you dare!” He cried, taking a swing at Toga, only to stutter in the act of rushing her when the girl used Mina as a shield. He was quick enough to stop his quirk from hurting her, but still slammed heavily into her, crashing them to the ground. Mina grabbed his nightshirt tightly as they fell, and the two groaned from the collision.
“Well, that was stupid, huh?” Dabi said as he grabbed Kirishima by the scruff of his neck, his hand burning the moment he touched him, and Kirishima grunted in pain. “Wanna try that again, kid?”
Kirishima kept his mouth shut, wincing as the heat got hotter on his neck, worse than Todoroki’s flames or Katsuki's explosions.
He was dragged elsewhere, with Toga and Mina following behind, before he was put in cuffs that also suppressed his quirk like Mina. They were then thrown into a small room and left alone.
“Are you okay, Ei?” Mina asked, scrambling to her knees and crawling over to him, helping him to sit up. His hands were cuffed behind him, unlike her.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Mina,” he didn’t answer her question, guilt stirring in his guts as he realized his mistakes - so many mistakes, he was an idiot - that led to this situation.
“No, nope, don’t start this,” Mina shook her head, lifting Kirishima’s head to look her in the face. “I’m not taking an apology until we are out of this, okay? Now, are you okay, Eijirou?”
He sighed. “I will be once we’re out of this mess…” He answered honestly, leaning against his girlfriend. He hoped Katsuki would be smarter and save them, and not be blackmailed into joining the League like the villains were hoping he would be. He’d never be able to forgive himself if they succeeded.