Work Text:
“So Bakugou Katsuki, will you join the league of villains?” The laugh Shigaraki received in response to his question was so expected and predictable, it bordered on cliché. Izuku couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he sauntered around in the shadows, slowly unbuttoning the vest.
“You think I’d join your shitty little villain group? I’m going to be number one!” Bakugou screamed, pulling tightly against his binds. All the league seemed too preoccupied with their little capture to notice Izuku’s displeasure. They’d attacked a school field trip and one come back with one of the two targets. Izuku laid the vest over one of the chairs and slid off his gloves, setting them neatly in the counter.
“Your temper, your quirk, don’t you think you’d be a little more suited to be a villain than a hero, kid?” Dabi began, like somehow his unhinged smile was going to be the selling point. Izuku turned around as he unbuttoned his shirt, listening as Shigaraki and Dabi continue their losing endeavor. When his shirt was off, he grabbed a knife from his pocket, cutting off the bottom of the button up.
“With us, no one would try and limit that power of yours.” Shigaraki temped while Izuku kicked off his shoes.
“We saw how they chained you up like an animal at the sports festival.” Dabi cut in. Clearly trying to tag team Bakugou into submission. Izuku pulled of his socks, stuff them into the shoes. The cold and sticky bar floor was a shock against his now bare feet. His toes wiggled against the grime, trying to get used to it.
“You mean like how you have me chained up right now, you fucking idiots?” Bakugou screeched, gesturing as best as he could to the chains around his hands and torso. Izuku tipped his metaphorical hat to the teens counter point. He picked up the knife again, pressing the tip against his chest before dragging it to the other side. His eyes twitched for a few moments as he tried to hold back the pain from showing on his face. His naked chest was littered with bruises he’d been letting himself get during spars, for several weeks.
“If you join us, you’ll never be chained again.” From Izuku viewpoint, he could see how Bakugou rolled his eyes, clearly not believing Shigaraki. Izuku pulled off his belt and brought it to his mouth, biting onto it. As soon as he had a good bite, he made four spaced out cuts on the top of his dominant right arm. A shaky and quick inhale later, he switched hands and made two more cuts. He’d hit at least two previous scars from when he’d cut himself before and it only added to his pain. He dropped the belt by his discarded shoes and shook out one of his wobbly legs as the pain in his body tried to find an escape.
“I’ll never join you. Nothing you can say will ever convince me.” Toga, Spinner, and Twice stepped a little closer, trying to intimidate their unwavering guest. Izuku stripped off his pants, leaving him in only a pair of dirty boxers than made him want to gag at. Before the blood dirtied his hands, he grabbed the ripped off piece of his button up and tied it into a gag, hit spit instantly soaking into it.
“If you won’t join us willingly, maybe we’ll have to give you a little but of an incentive.” Shigaraki threatened, holding one of his hands out towards Bakugou, all five fingers outstretched, ready to make contact with anything he chose.
Izuku knew Shigaraki wasn’t going to actually hurt Bakugou. He was far too valuable to them to actually hurt. Not finding his threats to be at all entertaining, Izuku left his clothes and walked into one of the back storage rooms.
He heard a loud knock reverberate through the bar and a booming voice say that a pizza was there for delivery as he kneeled in the corner of the room, locking his wrists in a pair of handcuffs around a metal pipe. The position was uncomfortable, and his knees almost instantly began to protest, but he didn’t move.
The entire bar filled with noise all at once. Walls shook, glass broke, and people screamed in every direction. Dozens of feet charging in and heroes screaming their catchphrases began giving Izuku a headache, but he tried to control the utter annoyance that he felt.
When the sound stopped, Izuku’s whole body clenched with anticipation. A guttural unearthly scream pierced the air only second later followed by an unfollowable orchestra of chaotic sounds. The door to the storage room burst inwards, splinters of wood hitting against Izuku’s body making him curl in on himself as best as he could with his arms cuffed away from him.
A mindless Nomu began to manifest in the door opening, grey sludge right along side it. Thankfully, the creature ran towards all the noise, not sparing a single glance into Izuku’s direction. The fighting lasted for a few minutes before an angry scream from All Might and then a retreat.
As soon as Izuku heard the retreat, he focused on all his negative emotions, forcing his eyes to well up with tears that he didn’t stop. He rubbed his face, legs, and anything else he could against the dirty wall and floor, trying to look at helpless as possible. Hot tears spilled down his cheeks, making the skin under his eyes swell up slightly.
When the first police officer in raid gear jumped into the room, a weapon raised, instantly trained on Izuku, he let out a loud wail through his gag, fighting against his handcuffs to hide himself as best as he could.
“Chief! Get in here, we need a medic!” The police officer looked around the small room once, deeming it to be safe before lowering his weapon. Suddenly men were all in the room, a medic was shining a light in Izuku’s eyes and someone with bolt cutter was cutting the handcuffs off him. He continued to cry, letting himself fall limp against the ground as the people around him cared for him. Even when they took his gag off, he refused to answer any of the questions they called around him. Their voices all talking at once would have been over stimulating to anyone, let alone someone who was probably kidnapped.
The pulled him out, carrying him to an ambulance, and fleeing with him away from the battle that was taking place a few hundred feet away. It was easy for the paramedics to find things wrong with him. He’d been starving himself for days and hadn’t had more than a few ounces of water a day since Shigaraki mentioned the plan to kidnap one of the students.
As they drove away from the fight, Izuku let out a private joyous laugh in his own head. When he joined the league, he always knew they were going to fail. It was never in his grand scheme to fail with them.
He’d been a victim for the entire beginning of his life, it wasn’t hard to make himself look like one again.
They wrapped him in blankets and put an IV in him immediately, cleaning the cuts on his chest, arms, and anymore made by the splinters of wood. At the hospital they did x-rays, nurses whispered about fractures and signs of remodeling. When the finally put him into a room, a small TV was in the corner, the fight with Sensei and All Might played on repeat. All Might stood victorious, Bakugou escaped, and the leagues faces were broadcast for the world to see.
They were idiots.
“Hello, my name is Detective Tsukaunchi. I’m here to ask you a few questions.” The detective walked into the room and Izuku played his terrified part. It wasn’t until after detective was sitting next to him that he leaned away and nodded for him to continue.
“I- I heard Kacchan. I want-t Kacchan. Where is Kacchan?” He stuttered out, fists clutching the blanket in his lap. His eyes were tightly shut and his bottom lip trembled. “Is Kacchan okay?”
“Who is Kacchan?”
“Bakugou Katsuki. He’s Kacchan. Is Kacchan okay?” Izuku felt the calculating eyes on him.
“Why don’t we start with your name.” Izuku opened his eyes and saw the detective leaning in slightly, pen at the ready.
“I’m Deku.” He whispered. Instantly the detective cocked his head to the side, calculating eyes turned intrigued.
“I should tell you that I have a truth quirk. It means I can tell is anything anyone says is incorrect. Deku isn’t your name.” Izuku stared for a few seconds, recalculating his plan. He didn’t plan on a truth quirk, but that was okay. He’d only speak in undeniable facts.
He could do that.
“Deku is what everyone calls me. Midoriya Izuku is my real name.”
“Midoriya, can you tell me how you ended up at that bar?”
“They said they liked my notebooks.” Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga, Sensei, it was all something they’d commented on before. His analyses were his whole position in the league.
“What kind of notebooks?”
“I like to analyze quirks. They liked my hero analyses.” Izuku rubbed his bandaged arms nervously as he pretended to recall a memory, drawing attention to his injuries.
“How did you get your injuries, Midoriya?”
“Toga likes blood and Dabi always hits the hardest. Shigaraki said they’d kill me when I wasn’t useful anymore. They said I was a villain now. Am I a villain, Mr. Tsukaunchi?” He looked at the detective with the most heartbroken face he could, letting tears well up in his eyes.
Of course, he left out the parts where Shigaraki threatened to kill everyone in a 10ft radius from him 5 times a day, Dabi was often his sparing partner because he didn’t hold back, and Toga had a blood quirk.
“They were wrong. They forced you to do something, that doesn’t make you a villain. You’re safe now.” The detective soothed. He seemed sincere, and if he was dealing with a normal person, Izuku was positive the person would have been properly placated.
“I want to see Kacchan.” Izuku muttered again, turning his head away from the detective.
“How did the league find out about your notebooks?” He refused to answer anymore questions. “How long had you been with them? Where are your parents?” After a few moments of silence, the detective sighed, standing up. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.” He left the room, pulling out a cell phone and Izuku tried his hardest to listen to the call.
“-clearly traumatized- won’t answer- Kacchan- notebooks- Don’t know- bring him-” Izuku would have smiled if he wasn’t paranoid about people watching him. He was going to get back he wanted.
20 minutes later, the detective walked back in and gestured for someone else. In walked a disheveled tired man and behind him, Bakugou Katsuki.
“DEKU!” Bakugou shouted, running over to the bed and launching himself on top of Izuku. For a moment he wasn’t sure if he was going to be hugged or choked, but then Bakugou was being harshly ripped off of him and suspended in the air. “LET ME GO!” He screamed, writhing against the, what looked like a scarf.
Scarf?
“You’re Eraserhead!” Izuku acknowledged, forcing wonder into his voice. Izuku remembered him from the USJ footage. Eraserhead: Ability to turn off quirks within eyesight and wields a capture scarf.
“Settle down, Bakugou.” Eraserhead barked, quirk flaring. It was amazing, to have an in-person demonstration, but Izuku couldn’t watch for too long, knowing he had to stick to his plan.
“Kacchan!” Izuku whined, holding his arms out. Bakugou was set down and instantly at his side, arms wrapped fully around him, burying Izuku's face into his neck.
“The detective has a truth quirk.” He whispered before breaking out into a relieved sob. He tried to match the intensity of the hug, but the IV in his arms didn’t allow it.
“You stupid nerd! Where were you!?” Bakugou buried his face further into his dirty and matted hair. “Copy that. Eraserdick is perceptive, watch out.” Bakugou whispered back into his ear. Izuku pulled back, rubbing his face on the plastic feeling hospital gown which only succeeded in making him look more miserable.
“Shigaraki said he want to see what I was writing in my notebook. I thought- I thought he had a cool quirk. Then he took me to the bar! They were mean and they wanted me to help them take down heroes. They looked at my notes and they used them to do bad things.” Izuku cried to Bakugou, knowing the two adults were taking notes on everything he said. “I didn’t want to be there, Kacchan. Shigaraki said that no one was allowed to leave the league. Is he going to come back for me?”
“Of course not, Shitty Deku! I’m not gonna let him hurt you.” Bakugou grabbed onto him once more and Izuku felt the tiny puff of air coming from Bakugou’s nose as he tried not to laugh.
“Do you have an analysis quirk?” Eraserhead asked, stepping slightly closer to the bed.
“Deku is quirkless, but he’s been obsessed with heroes since he could talk. You won’t find anyone who can pick apart a quirk better than him.” Bakugou turned around to face the adults, and Izuku could only see the side of a feral grin. “Deku’s the reason I can fly.”
“Would you be able to give us a quirk analysis on the members of the league?” The detective asked, straightening up with his epiphany.
“You’re not going to put a bigger target on his back! You really think the league isn’t going to come after him already?” Bakugou gripped onto Izuku protectively and Izuku didn’t bother to hide the smile blocked by the other’s shoulder.
“We’ll figure something out to keep Midoriya safe.”
There they were, the magic words.
Three days later, a freshly showered and clean Izuku was being led on UA’s campus. Flanked by Eraserhead and Bakugou. The decision was that until the League of Villains were apprehended, Izuku would be kept at UA, under the protection of pre heroes. Once they’d found out that Inko Midoriya had been missing since Izuku was 13, they hadn’t needed much more convincing. Officially, Izuku was be acting as a teacher’s assistant to Eraserhead until they were able to properly assess his intelligence and get him caught up on the work he’d missed in his last year of middle school.
Privately, Bakugou and Izuku both rolled their eyes at the thought of him being behind in anything, but they played their parts. For all anyone knew, the last time the general public had seen either Izuku or Inko Midoriya, it had been when Izuku was 13, in his second year of Middle School, on the day that Bakugou Katsuki had been attacked by the Sludge Villain.
With his injuries healed, he’d written down pages worth of information about the league. Their plans that he’d, ‘overheard’, their quirks, names, anything he thought the detective could use to capture them. Izuku didn’t care if they got captured or killed, they weren’t any use to him anymore.
In the game of chess, some pieces had to be sacrificed in order to win, and Shigaraki was nothing more than a pawn at best. Izuku was already doing what no other villain had, he was entering the UA campus, living amongst next generation of heroes, all while they never suspected a thing.
With Bakugou’s arm wrapped around his shoulders, Izuku was guided towards the freshly built dorms where he and all of 1-A would be living for the foreseeable future. Eraserhead walked in first, prepping the class for Izuku’s arrival.
“I’m going to be number one, Deku.” Bakugou told him, like a promise and a prayer all in one and Izuku had to stop himself from biting his lip in glee. He did wonder how long it would take for someone to ever ask Bakugou what he was going to be the number one of.
“Whatever it takes, Kacchan.” Izuku whispered back.