Chapter Text
Izuku was getting really tired of being in enclosed spaces where there was no way to tell the time.
He tried to be as patient as possible, he really did, but this was getting ridiculous. They hadn’t left their new room ever since Noose had taken them for that sort-of-tour. At least she came back every now and then with food and water, grumbling all the way about being “assigned babysitter”, but even she wouldn’t respond to him every time he asked how long they’d been in there.
At least now they had beds and could actually stay clean.
Oddly enough, though, Izuku’s biggest concern wasn’t being away from home, or wondering what was going to happen to them, especially after being singled out from the rest of the captives. It was boredom.
“Oh my god, nerd, there’s literally nothing you can do with that goddamn radio, so stop messing around with it! Isn’t there anything better you can do?” Kacchan snapped at him, making Izuku look up from what he was doing.
“I’m just curious about how it works, Kacchan,” Izuku said. “And no, there really isn’t anything else to do.” Kacchan huffed in response.
“Stop making so much damn noise, then. It’s annoying.”
“I think some noise is at least a little better than complete silence, though,” Izuku said lightly, going back to where he was attempting to put the device back together. He still wasn’t completely sure how he’d managed to take it apart in the first place.
“You’re really being a little shit now, huh?” Kacchan sneered, stomping over to where Izuku was tinkering on his bed. “Just find something else to do!”
“Like what, Kacchan?”
“Like your creepy stalker analysis stuff! God, this is probably the only time I’ll ever wish you had your stalker notebooks, at least you always did that semi-quietly—Deku?”
But Izuku wasn’t listening anymore. How could he have forgotten? How could he forget one of his favorite hobbies? He could have been putting it to good use! Even if he couldn’t write anything down, he could have been making mental notes about the people he’s encountered so far because that information could help them fight back or escape one day, and—
“Oi, shitty Deku, that wasn’t an invitation to immediately start mumbling!”
“Sorry, Kacchan,” Izuku said on instinct, snapping out of his thoughts. “You’re right, though. I could analyze the villains’ quirks, and we can use that to our advantage, since they don’t know that I can even do that.” He paused. “I don’t want to just leave this radio half-disassembled, though.”
Kacchan’s palms ignited. “Are you kidding me—”
“What the hell is going on with you now?” A deadpan voice interrupted. Both kids’ heads whipped around to the door, which was now open, where Noose was leaning against the frame. She looked supremely unimpressed.
“What the hell do you want?” Kacchan fired back. Noose just sighed.
“Right. Both of you gotta come with me, the Boss wants to see you.” Izuku didn’t miss the way she tensed up when she mentioned the Boss. Izuku wondered just what kind of person they were about to meet. “Hey, Broccoli, did you take apart that radio?” Noose suddenly asked. Izuku spluttered. Broccoli?!
This time, when they went inside the elevator, Noose pressed the button for the lowest floor, just one below theirs. Izuku opened his mouth to give voice to the same question he’d been asking every time Noose visited.
“Save your breath, kid,” Noose said. Izuku’s mouth clicked shut, defeated. Why couldn’t he know something as simple as the amount of time they’ve been in the—“You’ve been in the room for five days. The Doctor mentioned he wanted the two of you separate from the rest of the group you came here with, but didn’t tell us anything else, so no one really knew what to do with you. The only reason you’re out of the room right now is because we’re about to find out what the Boss and Doctor want with you.” Oh. Well, five days wasn’t all that bad in the grand scheme of things, he supposed, but he really was starting to get restless.
The elevator slowed to a stop, and the doors opened. Izuku was instantly put on edge. When he glanced at his two companions, it seemed he wasn’t the only one.
“God, this place is creepy,” Noose said, glaring out at the hall, which was low-lit with one of the overhead lights dying out now and again. It looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie.
“What, like you haven’t been here before,” Kacchan sneered, but Izuku noticed him subtly flexing his hands, a tell that he was nervous.
“Watch your tone,” Noose returned halfheartedly. “I’m little more than a foot soldier to them right now. This whole floor is for the Boss and Doctor, as far as I know. People other than them only go down here when one or both of them specifically request them. Right now, that means the three of us.”
They stepped off the elevator, and followed Noose down the hall. The lights didn’t get any dimmer, but with all the sudden tension in the air, they might as well have. Many of the doors here were made of heavy-looking metal, with a small rectangular window that Izuku wasn’t tall enough to see through. Some of them didn’t even have a window.
They followed Noose all the way to the end, where there was a single door, larger than the others and made of dark wood, with a knocker that Noose grabbed. She hesitated for a single second, but seemed to steele herself and knocked three times.
In the next moment, it took everything Izuku had not to throw up.
A suffocating feeling of pure malice washed over them, so heavy and all-consuming that it wiped all other thought from Izuku’s mind. He slapped a hand over his mouth, curling in on himself under the overwhelming pressure. It was coming from inside that door, and he didn’t want to go inside, he wanted to run but he couldn’t, he wanted to scream but his mouth was glued shut—
And then all at once, it stopped. The feeling went away, as if it was never even there in the first place. It left all three of them in utter silence, only broken by the sound of their harsh breaths. None of them moved for fear of the aura of malice returning.
The door opened, and Noose couldn’t hide her flinch, being closest to it. Dr. Ujiko’s head poked out, taking them in before smiling widely. “Ah, you three,” he said, as if he expected anything else.
“Yes,” Noose ground out. “You asked to see us.”
“We did! Please, come in.” Dr. Ujiko opened the door wider, giving them room to enter. Noose turned back to the two of them, still frozen from what had just happened. Izuku couldn’t help but notice that even in the poor lighting, Noose’s face was deathly pale. He probably didn’t look much better, and a glance to Kacchan’s face told him he was in the same state.
“Let’s go, then,” Noose said. The words almost felt like a death sentence.
They all hesitated for a second longer before Noose turned and walked inside, leaving them to follow. Dr. Ujiko closed the door behind them.
The room they walked into was lit by a couple of lamps, scattered around. It was decorated with couches and armchairs, and looked almost…homey. There was a television in the far corner, turned off at the moment. Sitting facing them on one of the couches was a man wearing a crisp suit, with short, white hair and dark eyes that gleamed in the low light. This had to be the Boss who had asked to see them.
“Noose, Izuku, and Katsuki. What a pleasure to see you. Why don’t you sit down?” The man gestured to the long couch across from him. The moment he spoke, Izuku just knew that this man was where the wave of malice had originated from. There was a certain weight to his words that he’d never heard from anyone else before.
All three of them sat down, and Dr. Ujiko stood behind the Boss. For one tense second, nobody spoke.
“I assume,” the Boss began lightly, “that you’re wondering why I called you here. Not only that, but in the case of the children, why I wanted you to be separate from the other subjects.”
“Yes, sir,” Noose responded stiffly.
“I don’t think there’s any need for all this tension, really,” he continued. “But I won’t beat around the bush if you really hate being in my presence so much.”
“T-that’s not it—” Izuku started.
“No?” the man interjected. “Then why don’t all of you relax?”
None of them answered.
“I guess that really is the reason, then.” He sighed. “Very well—”
“Sir—” Noose blurted.
“Did I say you could interrupt, Noose?” The Boss looked up sharply, pinning them with a calculating gaze that had them all freezing again. “I think I would like an apology. I am a busy man, after all. I can’t have my time being wasted.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I won’t interrupt again.”
“Good,” the man leaned back, apparently satisfied. Izuku didn’t lower his guard for a second. This man was dangerous. “Now, as I was going to say, my name is All For One, but I would prefer to be called Sensei. Especially by you little ones.” He nodded towards Izuku and Kacchan. “I called you here to discuss what is going to happen from now on. This includes little Izuku and Katsuki’s futures, as I only want what’s best for them.”
Kacchan scoffed, and then promptly went pale.
“Something to say, Katuki?” Sensei turned his full attention to him.
“I-If you—” Kacchan cleared his throat, before steeling himself and sitting up straight to look the man in the eyes, despite the fact that he was clearly sweating with nerves. “If you really wanted what’s best for us, you would have let us go. You would let us go now.” In the silence that followed, Izuku couldn’t help but admire his best friend. He really was the bravest person he knew.
“Really,” Sensei said. Kacchan nodded firmly. “I see that you are severely misguided. You are a child. You can’t possibly know what will benefit you the most for the future, especially since I know for a fact that growing up in the environment you were in before—both out of the Labs and in them—would have only damaged you further. I, on the other hand, am in charge of an entire organization that spans further than any of you know, and can successfully maintain it. I’m not in charge for nothing, and if I make a decision for you, it is for a beneficial reason.” The aura of malice was starting to seep back out, and Izuku could see Kacchan beginning to tremble, no matter how hard he was trying to hide it. “You are in no position to question me. If I say something, it goes. Otherwise,” the suffocating feeling of danger flared suddenly, and Izuku gasped in fear, “you aren’t going to like what happens.” And just like the first time, the pressure was gone as quickly as it had come. “Do you understand, Katsuki?”
Kacchan’s breathing was audibly shaky, and even though his fists were clenched painfully tight and he was trembling, he still kept eye contact with Sensei the entire time.
“I asked you a question. Do you understand, Katsuki? ”
“Yes,” Kacchan ground out through clenched teeth.
“Yes, Sensei.” All For One insisted.
“Yes, Sensei .”
“Good.” Kacchan slumped back into the couch, shutting his eyes tight and looking more defeated than Izuku had ever seen him. “Now, I really would like no more interruptions. This is getting to be quite tedious, and you children aren’t making it easy for me.” And why did that make Izuku suddenly feel slightly…guilty? “When the two of you are older and more mature, I would like for you to officially join our ranks, and there is a mission I would like you to complete. For now, I won’t say what it is, because you are too young to possibly understand. However, you are not too young to start preparing for it, and for your future here. What this means is that you’re going to start training with people that I appoint for that specific purpose.”
“Weren’t we already trained at the Labs, though?” Izuku slapped a hand over his mouth as soon as the words left it, tensing up even further than he thought possible, and he waited for the verbal lashing that would surely follow.
But Sensei just hummed in thought. He turned to Dr. Ujiko. “Doctor?”
“I suppose you were trained at the Labs, in a way,” the Doctor started speaking immediately, as if he had been waiting to be called on. “But all of that was more like testing how far your quirks could be pushed. Training the quirk itself wasn’t the intended purpose, but what you went through could be interpreted as such, since it did strengthen it at least slightly. What Sensei is talking about now is that you are going to be specifically trained with the express purpose of strengthening your quirks, bodies, and minds.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Sensei said. “This training is going to start soon, possibly even tomorrow, if everything runs smoothly. I will discuss everything in more detail with Noose, here.” He nodded at her, and she stilled as his eyes met hers for a brief moment. “It was nice to meet all three of you in person, however…troublesome some of you may have been.” Izuku saw Kacchan grit his teeth at his side. “Noose, if you could kindly escort the children back to their room and come back, that would be much appreciated.”
“Yes, Sensei.”
“Thank you. Doctor, show them out.”
They ended up leaving the room with much less fanfare than when they had entered.
There was a tense silence that hung over the three of them as they quickly walked back down the dim hall, and it weighed heavily on them until they had stepped into the elevator again and the doors had closed.
“Holy fuck , that man was creepy,” Noose said with feeling. Izuku could only nod. “I’m almost jealous that you little shits don’t have to go back.”
“Yeah, well it would’ve been great to not be here at all.” Kacchan snapped. He was still pale and sweaty.
“Spare me the lecture, I don’t want to hear it today.”
Izuku had never been happier to see the white hallway that housed their room (read: prison). It may be seemingly completely bereft of any inhabitants except for them, but at least it was well lit and devoid of any too-powerful-and-horrifyingly-dangerous villains.
Noose opened the door to their room and ushered them inside before making to leave, but then stopped, eyes taking in the little half-assembled radio Izuku had been working on what now seemed like a small eternity ago. “Hey, Broccoli, you did that yourself, right?” She asked, pointing to it. If he was any less shaken about All For One, Izuku would’ve protested the nickname, but as it was, he nodded, confused as to why she was asking. She hummed thoughtfully, but didn’t say anything else about it before moving on. “Well, you both know I don’t have time to stay and chat. All For One doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you should keep waiting.” Izuku noticed her shudder. “It’s the usual deal. I’ll come back later with food, and I’ll tell you what you need to know then.”
“Watch what you say to him,” Kacchan warned, surprising Izuku, and Noose too, by the looks of it. “He’s fucking powerful, that’s for damn sure.”
“I think I got that bit before we even walked through the door,” Noose bit out. “See you later.”
With that, she walked off, letting the door shut and lock behind her. Izuku took a moment to listen to her fading footsteps before turning to his best friend. “Kacchan? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Kacchan responded, turning away and climbing into his bed. “I’m going to fucking sleep. Don’t wake me up unless it’s actually important.”
Not even a single insult. That worried him more than words could properly express. Izuku himself was shaken up by their encounter with Sensei, but it must’ve hit Kacchan ten times worse. He’d taken the brunt of the man’s ire.
With nowhere else for his worry to go, and unwilling to bother his friend when he was clearly trying to recover, Izuku turned back to the little radio, and resumed his attempt to put it back together. Maybe he’d even be able to pull himself back together along with it.
It was (what Izuku guessed were) several hours until he heard the telltale thumping of Noose’s boots coming back in his direction. He stopped what he was doing—the radio was almost completely reassembled, he’d finally figured out how to do it—and lifted his head, waiting for the door to open. By now, Kacchan had woken up (he wondered if he’d ever even fallen asleep) and was idly entertaining himself by making small firecracker-sized bursts from his hands and staring into them with furrowed brows.
He didn’t even stop producing them when the door finally opened, but he did look up, so that was something, Izuku supposed. Noose walked in bearing two small packaged salads and water bottles, which she handed out to them without a word. Kacchan stopped making explosions just long enough to receive it and put it to the side before resuming. Noose sighed.
And then she sat down on the floor right in the middle of the room.
“Uh,” Izuku said smartly.
“I’m exhausted, give me a break,” Noose said. Izuku shrugged. That was fair enough, he decided. She did have to go back and deal with Sensei again. Anyone would probably get mentally drained from being near him for longer than a few minutes.
Kacchan didn’t say anything, and just glared at Noose expectantly. She met his gaze, considering him for a second. “I have a question for you, before I delve into anything else,” she said to him.
“What,” Kacchan said flatly.
“Why’d you give me that warning before I left? I mean, I already knew, so it didn’t really help any, but as far as I knew you hated my guts and wouldn’t say anything to help me even if it cost you your life.”
Kacchan sneered at her. “Don’t fucking flatter yourself. I hate you like almost no one else. I’d blast your ugly face off if I had the chance. The only reason I opened my mouth is because even I know getting killed by Fancy Man would be worse than any fate I’d wish on you.”
Noose paused. “Still, that’s more than I expected from you.”
“The fuck does that mean, Rope Bitch?!”
“That’s more like it.”
Izuku decided to interject before his friend could properly blow his top. “Noose, what’s going to happen now?”
“Right, time to get to business,” she sighed. “The plan is that the both of you are gonna be trained separately. Your needs are most likely different, so it’d be most effective if you were handled by two separate teams. Those teams each consist of a couple people who work here that were assigned to take turns teaching you how to fight and use your powers properly. Every day, you’re gonna spend anywhere from an hour to several in a sparring room depending on who’s stuck with you that day. Each team also has a leader, who’s supposed to monitor and test your overall growth. This is gonna be an ongoing thing for…oh, the next couple years.”
Izuku’s heart fell down to his feet. He knew, somewhere deep down, that he and Kacchan were going to be stuck with the villains for a long time, but to hear it said out loud like that…
“So you’re saying I get to kick villain ass?” Kacchan smirked.
“I’d say it’s going to go the other way round, but believe what you want,” Noose shrugged.
“Who’s in charge of which team?” Izuku asked. If he’s going to get routinely beat up for the next who-knows-how-long, he’d rather go into it knowing as much as possible.
“Panic Attack is in charge of you,” she said. Izuku froze, hands clenching around the radio part he’d been fiddling with. Before he could collect himself, she continued, “And someone named Snapdragon is in charge of Mr. Explodo over here.” Kacchan punctuated her statement with a threatening pop of his hands. “I have no idea who Snapdragon is, but I’ve heard rumors that they’re Panic Attack’s partner in crime. That’s literally all I know about them, never even seen them in all the time I’ve known Panic Attack, who I work with constantly, which is kind of the reason why I have my doubts about the two being partners.”
“Oh,” Izuku breathed, still trying to digest the fact that he was going to be seeing much more of Panic Attack from now on.
“If it makes you feel better, I still have to check in on you two constantly to make sure you’re not being, like, beat to death or whatever.” Noose told him. It didn’t make him feel better in the slightest. “In any case, the two of you start tomorrow at noon. I’ll be by to drop off something to eat in the morning, but you’re getting picked up for training by Snapdragon. Do either of you have questions?”
“Yeah, can we go the hell home?” Kacchan tried. Noose sighed harshly and stood up, making her way back to the door.
“You know what? I’m gonna be brutally honest with you right now.” She said, turning to face them again. “I’m not keeping you here willingly. I didn’t take you from that park because I wanted to. You’d be surprised to know how many of us working here only do it for the money.”
“What?” Izuku said. “But couldn’t you just find a job somewhere else? Aren’t there other ways besides turning to villainy?” Noose laughed bitterly.
“Sometimes, there really is no other option. That being said, I don’t actually like keeping you kids here. I have morals. Sure, I’ll kidnap people if it pays well, but children is a different story. I hated that job. I still hate this. Being in contact with you so often just rubs salt in the wound.”
“I didn’t ask for your fucking sob story,” Kacchan snarled.
“You’re right, you didn’t,” Noose snapped back. “But I did want you to know that I’m not doing this of my own free will. I don’t have the power to let you go. Otherwise, I probably would have.” That shut Kacchan up. Izuku didn’t know what to say either. How are you supposed to respond when your kidnapper says she wants to set you free but can’t she was never actually in control?
“Then why can’t you ask your superiors to let us leave?” Izuku asked after a period of silence.
“Did you attend the same meeting with Sensei that I did earlier today? Did you hear him talking about your literal future? Do you think he’s gonna want to let you go, kid?” Noose sighed. She’d been doing that a lot. “He and the Doctor are the ones that wanted you here. Not my own direct superiors.”
“Oh,” Izuku said dejectedly. Noose opened the door and stepped out.
“The most I can feasibly do is lighten the load a bit. At least, that’s the most I can do unless or until my rank rises. But that’s going to take a long while.”
“You better hurry it up, then, Rope Bitch,” Kacchan said.
“What the hell did I just say, Blasty? I’m leaving. See you in the morning.” The door closed behind her with a quiet click that was quickly becoming far too familiar for Izuku’s taste.
“…I guess she…isn’t as bad as we thought?” Izuku said. Kacchan scoffed.
“Maybe she didn’t want to nab us, which, by the way, could have been a lie, but she still did it. Don’t be stupid enough to forget that, Deku.”
“I don’t think I can forget, Kacchan,” Izuku said quietly. His friend didn’t grace him with a response, instead digging into the salad Noose had given him.
Izuku turned to his own, thinking for a second before deciding to finally finish putting the radio back together instead. He’d lost his appetite, anyway.
The next day, a while after she had given them breakfast (consisting of an apple and small package of cereal each) Noose snuck Izuku the batteries he needed to power the now-reassembled radio. She departed with little more than a “So you don’t go insane with nothing to do in there”, giving Izuku no chance to thank her.
It didn’t take long after that for the two kids to hear an unfamiliar set of footsteps approaching the room. They glanced at each other, and Izuku felt a grim understanding pass between them.
The door clicked and then swung open, where instead of a woman with ropes for hair, there stood a tall man with long, pale green hair braided over his shoulder. A variety of different small, colorful flowers were woven into it. He looked down at them with his hands clasped behind his back, observing them with magenta eyes for a moment before he made a noise of understanding.
“So you’re the two children I’ve heard so much about,” he said. His voice was soft, but still projected clearly. It was almost…melodious. “I see. My name is Snapdragon.” He paused here, as if he expected them to introduce themselves in turn.
The only thing he got were icy glares, which were punctuated by the crackling of Kacchan’s quirk.
“I suppose you already know why I’m here, then,” he continued, seemingly unbothered. “In that case, shall I introduce you to your first day of training?”