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“Alright, let's get out of here.” Uda speaks up suddenly, releasing a breath sharply like he was in pain. His skin slowly stretched and melted until he was a completely different person. Silky black hair tied neatly in a low bun, wider frame, sharper facial features. The only thing that didn’t change was the color of his eyes.
Katsuki is untied from the chair and lifted onto his feet. Uda keeps one hand firmly gripped on his shoulder, and slowly Katsuki feels his own skin melt in a light buzzing sensation. Uda must have changed his appearance.
He’s led outside. The sun is high in the sky as they walk, nearly the same place it had been when he was taken, just a day later. They walk for nearly three hours before reaching a normal looking neighborhood. Uda stops them at a normal looking house. A soft tan house with a dull blue door. Uda unlocks the door, pushing it open wide.
“Go on in. Welcome home,” He smiles cruelly as he says it and it makes chills race up his spine. He walks into the house, his limbs stiff. It isn’t decorated very much, a handful of pictures here and there, all of random landscapes. No family photos, awards, or anything that would suggest other kids live here. Like it was a horrible secret, which it almost definitely was
It seems like an open layout. Kitchen, dining room, and living room all in the same large open area. On either side is a hallway with five doors on the far wall that leads to another open room in the back. Back there are showers and bathrooms. In between the boys and girls doors is a long hall he couldn’t see the end of.
“Lots of rooms.” He says as they go back into the living area. Uda nods simply.
“Yes, I needed lots of space to hold enough of you.” He says. The comment sits uncomfortably in Katsuki’s chest. Were there actually nine other kids here? There was no way was there? A hero would have stopped him a long time ago if so many kids were going missing. At most there could be one or two more… right?
Uda sits Katsuki down in the living area. It had a seat facing a large couch, large enough to fit 8 or 9 adults comfortably. In between the seats is a low coffee table, but even with the cozy coloring and design it felt a lot like an interrogation room. If the area could be considered a room without walls boxing it away.
“While you are here you will follow my rules. You understand that, yes?” He starts. Katsuki pauses before nodding. He was liking this less and less.
“The rules are pretty straightforward. You will have the list posted on the inside of your bedroom door. The only ones you need to know right off the bat are 1 and 5. Rule 1 is to address me as either ‘sir’, ‘Uda-san’, or ‘father’. Rule 5 is that you will be assigned a number sequence, and you will respond and refer to yourself as that sequence number, nothing else.” He raises an eyebrow as if to say ‘okay?’.
“Whatever.” Katsuki mumbles, clasping his hands tightly in his lap. Uda grabs his wrist with dangerous precision. He presses it onto the table firmly and tuts in a disappointed tone. The motion throws Katsuki forward in his seat.
“You will speak to me with respect. Your quirk is centered around your hands, yes?” He takes out a thin sheet of metal, similar in shape to a ruler. He raises it up and smacks the flat edge onto the back of his hand. Pain blossoms at the contact and his skin turns red.
“So, try again. Do you understand?” He says, smiling wide. Katsuki just stares at him, tears springing up in his eyes. He doesn’t understand what is going on. His hand is hit again, he lets out a squeak of pain.
“Faster, I don’t have time to wait for you.”
“I understand! I understand, I understand!” He yelps out, trying to pull his hand away but the grip is too tight.
“I understand, what?” He’s hit again, harsher.
“I understand, sir!” His hand is released. He flings himself back, cradling his throbbing hand to his chest. A red line the size of a ruler is indented into his skin. No cuts and no blood, but it would bruise. Katsuki could tell.
“See? That wasn’t so hard,” tears drip down Katsuki’s cheeks, he watches as Uda stands up and begins walking towards the front door, “You will learn quickly here. Now, the others should be ready to meet you.”
Uda leaves Katsuki sitting on the couch, curled up into a ball around his hand. He snaps and Katsuki feels his skin reform again, the front door shuts with a ‘click!’ as he leaves. It’s silent for a long time. He just sits there shaking a little. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t know where he can and can’t go. He can’t read the rules if he doesn’t know which rooms he’s allowed into. He doesn’t want to be hit again.
His mom would hit him sometimes. Not in the same way, not at all. It was all teasing shoves and light punches when he did something funny. This hurt and it lasted. He wonders what his mom would think of this. He hopes she would hate it as much as he does. He hopes she wouldn’t be upset with how weak he had acted, how quickly he had given in.
“Hey, kid.” A small voice cuts through the room. Katsuki turns towards the sound. He sees two heads peeking out from the hallway on the right. Two boys, both older than him.
“Come here, your rooms on the boy's side.” The taller one says. The shorter one beckons him closer with his hand. Katsuki just looks for a moment.
“Who are you?” He asks. They pause before answering. The shorter one looks uncomfortable, but the older one’s expression stays blank.
“I’m 01-PL1. This is 02-PL3.” The taller one answers swiftly. The titles roll off of his tongue easily. Like he has been calling himself that his whole life.
“Thats a lot of numbers. Totally a mouthful.” Katsuki says, the shorter one laughs a little. He steadily feels less shaky, but not by that much.
“Yeah, you can just call us 01 and 02. The second part only matters to ol’ Uda-san.” The shorter one, 02, says. Katsuki walks over to them slowly. Just in case they jumped him or something.
They walk two doors down before stopping. The door they stop at doesn’t have a label like the first two, which said 01-PL1 and 02-PL3 respectively. He wonders if his door will get a label once he’s assigned those stupid numbers.
“This room's yours. It’s got all the basics. Bed, desk, drawer, wardrobe. Nothing fancy but it works fine.” 01 says without opening the door.
“Okay. The rules are in there right?” He says and the boys nod.
“Yep. But you can worry about that later. The girls’ll want to meet you before you get all situated.” 02 bounces a little on the balls of his feet.
“The girls?”
“Yeah, we used to be an even number, two boys, two girls, but now it's all thrown off.” The group walks back to the living area where, sure enough, two girls are sitting at the dining table.
“Heya!” One of them says, she’s the shortest of them all, not including Katsuki.
“Nice to meet you.” The other says. Now that they’re all together Katsuki can see they are all wearing the same thing. A warm-gray sweatsuit with a pale yellow shirt underneath. There also is a patch on the sleeve with something written on them. Their number sequences, if Katsuki had to guess.
“Hi.” He says.
“Have you introduced yourselves properly?” The second girl says to the boys, they pause.
“...not really.” 02 says sheepishly.
“Of course. Hello kid. I am 03-PL2. Which means I was the third person to… come here and my Power Level is 3. Power Levels are described on the rule list in your room. I’m 15 years old. I am the group's primary cook and I lead study sessions if needed.” Katsuki gets a good look at her. She has a sturdy build and her hair is made of metal wires, mostly silver-looking but some copper. It went down to her waist and seemed unevenly cut. Her eyes were sharp and gray.
“Me next!” The other girl cuts in,” I’m 04-PL4. I am the youngest at 12 years old. I fold the laundry and do the dishes usually.” This one is much thinner and her skin has a blue tint to it. Her hair is snow white and cut short in a bob around her ears. Her eyes were a deep midnight purple.
“I’m 01, and I’m 16 years old. I lead the workouts and other physical activities. We obviously can’t go get real Physical Education so I’m the fill in for that I guess.” 01 speaks up. He had a very muscular build and neat black hair with a few stripes of green throughout. His eyes were hazel.
“Im 02, and I’m 14! I’m the resident medic and I’m also in charge of cleaning the gym equipment.” The last person finishes. He has a lean build and unruly auburn hair. It is also remarkably curly and his eyes were a pale green.
“Um, I’m Bakugou Katsuki,” They all flinch minutely and glance at the walls before turning to him again, “I’m 8 years old. I help my dad cook sometimes and I’m a unit ahead in school right now… or I was a unit ahead? Um, I set the table too, I guess.” He feels a lot less confident as he introduces himself. Usually it was so easy to just flaunt his quirk and get endless amounts of compliments from the kids at school. He has a feeling how powerful his quirk is doesn’t matter to these kids.
“Awesome. Word to the wise, call yourself 05. You're the fifth kid so that will be the beginning of your sequence, and he doesn’t like us using our names.” 02 says with a smile and a finger on his lips like he’s telling him to keep a secret. The tension in his eyes somewhat ruins the image.
“Do you guys still know your actual names?” The room goes quiet. They all look at each other awkwardly. 03 gets close and places a hand on his shoulder.
“Look, kid, we all remember pieces of what we used to be, but that doesn’t mean much here. You're totally welcome to call yourself that in your head, we all did in the beginning, but it's going to get you into trouble if you say it out loud. I get that this is really… confusing, and I’m really sorry about that. If you have any questions pull either me or 01 aside, okay?” Her gray eyes soften as she talks.
Katsuki nods a little, but pulls out of her grasp. He isn’t a baby, he doesn’t need her to treat him like some scared little kid. He isn’t Deku….
“Will… Will I get to see my friends? Like ever? He can’t keep us inside all the time. People have to go outside sometimes.” 01 starts leading 02 and 04 towards the kitchen island.
“Look, kid–” 03 starts.
“Don’t call me kid. I’m not a baby.” She looks startled before smiling fondly. He hates it.
“Alright, how about Sparky? You seem like you got some spunk. Feisty little ki–sorry.” She ruffles his hair a little. His head is pushed down a bit as she laughs.
“Whatever.” He mumbles, pushing her hand away.
“Alright, alright. Now, uh,” Her expression crumbles, “We don’t leave this house. There’s an outside space for working out that we use sometimes but we don’t leave the house. Ever. Uda-san’s too clever for something that risky.”
“Oh”
“Sorry, Sparky.” They sit in silence for a little while. The rest of the kids seem to go off to their rooms, but 03 stays with him. Not saying anything. Not asking any questions. Just sitting with him at the table.
“It’s getting late, and Uda-san’s going to be back soon. Do you want to go look at your room?” Katsuki nods. She walks him to his door and smiles as she opens it for him. Inside is a mostly gray-scale room.
“I know it's pretty plain but after your evaluation it gets more color. I don’t know why, but that man never really made any sense. I’ve learned to roll with it.” 03 doesn’t walk into the room with him, but does look around a bit.
“Whats the evaluation?” He asks.
“Right, basically you just have to use your quirk to the extreme for a certain amount of time and he decides how sustainable it is for him to use. That’s how you get your Power Level and your official number sequence. The color is just some sort of weird mind trick I think. Prize-shaped stimulus.” She shrugs a bit.
The front door opens and she pales at record speed. She shuts his door quickly but silently and runs. Katsuki hopes she makes it in time. He doesn’t know what will happen if she doesn’t, but he doesn’t really want to. It was bad enough when he just forgot to say ‘sir’.
He looks around his room some more. There's a window on the far wall with a desk positioned right underneath it. A laptop is placed on top of it as well as a few sheets of lined paper and a pencil.
To the right of it is a twin sized bed with soft gray blankets and a classic white pillow. At the foot of the bed is a chest with a change of sheets. The left wall has a wardrobe and a dresser. When he looks inside there's a few pairs of the sweatsuit, t-shirts, and pajamas. There were also two sets of shoes. Tennis shoes and slides for inside as well as socks. Everything is perfectly in his size. He tries not to think about what that means.
He ignores the fresh clothes and sits on the bed stiffly. He hugs his arms tightly, looking at his freshly bruised hand. He breathes in shakily, trying to keep himself from panicking.
‘My name is Bakugou Katsuki. This is totally not a horrible situation at all. The heroes will find me… eventually.’