10 Chapter 10: What Am I Willing To Put Up With Today? Not Fucking This!

Izuku squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, trying to stave off the crushing feeling in his throat. He was having bad dreams lately, dreams about the way his mom and classmates would look at him when they knew. They wouldn't understand. They couldn't understand. But even knowing that was why they would hate him Izuku couldn't stand it. He knew his friends would think he was evil – but he wasn't! He was fighting for a future for everyone instead of a future for people with undeserved greatness.

That didn't make the nightmares any better.

That didn't keep him from waking up with in tears at the dead of night.

"Honey? Are you okay?"

Damnit.

"Y-yeah mom, sorry. I just fell out of bed."

There was a long stretch of silence where he could almost feel his mother nervously fidgeting just outside his bedroom door. He turned his head so he could see the faint outline of her shadow against the hallway light under the door and found an odd comfort in knowing she was there. Not seeing her face, not knowing what emotion she was regarding him with. Just simply knowing she stood so close by. An insurmountable gulf stretched between them. "Well . . . okay sweetheart. Try to go back to sleep," Inko said.

Then, softly, "have sweet dreams. I love you."

"I love you too, Mom," Izuku said. He rolled over onto his side, facing the wall instead of the door. "Sweet dreams to you too," he muttered as he listened to the sound of her footsteps leading away. He heard her door open and then it click shut behind her. If he strained his ears, he imagined he could hear her set her robe on the back of the door before she crawled into a bed too big for one person.

God, how small would this house feel with only one person? It was a tiny, cramped two bedroom apartment but it had never felt too small in all his life. He . . . he had to explain it to her. Izuku didn't want her to think her son was a villain for selfish reasons. She, of all people, couldn't think of him as evil. It would break her heart. It would break his heart too.

He would write her a note.

Izuku swung his legs out of bed and tip toed to his desk, flicking on the desk lap, finding a sheet of paper with minimal homework and a blue pen with All Might's head on the end. He held it so the hero wasn't looking at him as he scribbled his note. It was stupid and childish, yet still he didn't want the plastic eyes of the hero to watch him as he wrote.

He wasn't that close to his mom. He wished he was but there was no helping that now. Still, she had to understand. She had to know.

-Love, Izuku

He sighed as he set his pen down, then folded the letter into three parts. When . . . when she found out she would probably go to his room and wonder where she had gone wrong. Or the cops would come and find his letter, stashed carelessly under his pillow where even the densest detective would think to look. It could stay there until his hand had been well and truly played.

Izuku laid down again, and he picked up his phone.

Jirou was his most recent contact and he furrowed his brow. Talking to her was a stupid idea, but the thought was nice in and of itself. He couldn't tell her. She couldn't save him from himself. Izuku scrolled down with a flick of his thumb and picked 'Shigaraki' out of his contacts.

He wiped the tears out of the corners of his eyes before he tapped the blue phone icon next to the name.

XXX

Izuku had avoided her gaze so much through class that Kyouka almost thought he had changed his mind about the whole thing. She was sideways in her chair, angled so she could easily look at him without it being too obvious but from the way he was squirming he could tell. And he wasn't the only one who noticed her gaze.

"Hey, see something cute?" Mina asked as she leaned over her desk.

"Hardly," Kyouka elbowed her in the tit and Mina yelped indignantly. "He's not my type."

"He sure is mine," Mina laughed, "rrrrrrrr! Boys like Kirishima have their uses but skinny kids like that? Especially in his hero costume. Mama likes." Mina wriggled her eyebrows suggestively and Kyouka laughed.

"Stop! You're gonna get slobber on my desk. Besides, I thought you liked someone a little more . . . shocking?" Mina scoffed and shoved her.

"Hey! Don't!" Mina warned before her face lit up, "but did you ask him?"

"Not yet . . ." Kyouka made a face. She loved her friends, she really did. But Mina could be pretty shallow when it came to boys and Kyouka didn't want to see Denki's feelings getting hurt. She leaned forward and flicked one of Mina's horns before she whispered, "though, you do know he used to be a-"

"Nope!" Mina smacked her hand over Kyouka's lips. "Zip it, he's a guy so I don't care. It's not like I'm on the prowl for just a dick," Mina said. She poked at the side of Kyouka's cheek and stuck out her tongue. "Yeesh. Boys are boys and they're all pretty tasty. But seriously, what did he say about me! If you're holding out on me then I will ser-"

It took about half a second for Kyouka to zone out of Mina's gushing as she noticed Midoriya edge out of his seat and nervously approach their teacher. He was fiddling his hands and his eyes were downcast, but something about him drew the eye. He seemed even jumpier than usual, and Kyouka felt a strange compulsion to ask him if he wanted to talk now. But instead she just watched with her brow furrowed and her lips pressed together.

"E-excuse me please, b-but I was wondering if All Might was feeling better? He missed our last class after all so . . ."

Aizawa sighed and looked massively unimpressed. "He's well enough to teach basic heroics, Midoriya. Although I'm sure he would appreciate the concern he is a pro hero." Midoriya didn't seem to fan boy light up the way Kyouka had expected. He smiled weakly and bowed before he returned to his seat, and Kyouka wrinkled her brow as she heard the soft sound of fingers tapping over a phone screen again. He could have at least given her some indication about what was up with him.

"JIROU!" Kyouka jumped as Mina shouted in her ear with the help of a rolled up folder.

"What!?"

"You weren't listening to me at all, were you?" Mina pouted and she spread herself across Kyouka's desk like a disgruntled cat. Kyouka just shrugged. Her eyes trailed back to the corner of the room where Uraraka and Iida were both talking to Midoriya, clearly trying to cheer him up. Kyouka smiled faintly at the sight. She was right. They did both love him. "Come ON girl," Mina twirled one of her ear jacks to get her attention again and Kyouka turned scarlet.

"Don't touch those!" Kyouka hissed and Mina withdrew her hands quickly, her own face blushing inky black

"Sorry! I didn't realize those were – um. But seriously! If you talk to Kaminari then I can ask what a certain heiress thinks about yooouuu." She winked and leaned forward to whisper just as a shock of yellow hair poked up from behind her shoulder.

"Talk to me about what?"

Kyouka laughed at the look of pure horror that flashed across Mina's face before she scrabbled so she was sitting in Kyouka's desk with her arms neatly folded and one hip out. "Heeyyy Kaminari, didn't see you there," Mina said. Kyouka was positive she was blushing, Denki certainly was.

"Uh. Okay? Well, here I am, dude."

"You certainly are."

This was going nowhere real fast. Kyouka pushed her knee against her desk and tipped her chair until it was perched on the two back legs and she could look around Mina's round ass.

"Mina was saying she wanted one of those giant parfait for lunch but I have plans. I thought you might be up for joining her?" Kyouka said, getting both of them to shift their attention to her, "those are really way too much for one person."

"Oh, uh, yeah sure!" Denki rubbed one of his arms and looked away sheepishly. God, Mina owed her for that one. Denki did too. Now if either were actually going to speak . . . Kyouka watched them mildly until Mina slid one of her hands behind her back and made a shooing motion. Woah. Rude. It was HER desk Mina was planning on making her moves over.

"Cool. Rad. Now If you'll excuse me –" Kyouka shoved her hands against her desk and her chair scraped against the floor, " – I got stuff to take care of."

Well, that was one problem taken care of. Probably. Her two self-proclaimed BFFs were remarkably dim witted, though at least Mina seemed to know what she was doing. She should probably give Denki a heads up but then he would probably screw everything up.

And besides, problem number two needed her attention.

XXX

It was raining a little outside, and Kyouka was a little late since she had gone to grab her umbrella before walking up to the roof. She figured he would do the same, the rain was like pellets of ice so it was a surprise when she opened the door to the roof and saw a small figure already there.

Midoriya was waiting for her, sitting at the edge of the building with his forehead pressed against the rain-slicked chain link. Even from her distance, Kyouka could hear him texting away. She smiles faintly before she walked out, puddled water splashing around her feet as water bounced off the plastic over her head.

She stood behind him for a moment before she leaned over double. "What would you do if they confiscated that thing?" Kyouka asked, fully expecting him to yelp and get flustered.

Instead Midoriya shrugged one shoulder and said, "I'd probably get arrested to be honest."

". . . Haha?"

Kyouka tried to peek at who he was texting, but Midoriya closed the app before she could see anything. "U-um sorry Jirou, it's kind of personal," Midoriya said without looking up.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to pry." Kyouka sat down next to him, and she held her umbrella so it covered the both of him. Not that it did much for him, and in a matter of seconds her lower half was drenched as well. She was surprised to see that he had his gaudy yellow backpack on his lap, and was hunched protectively over it. She cocked her head before she poked at his cheek with one of her ear jacks. "What did you want to talk about?"

Midorya chewed on his lower lip for a second before he looked up at her. His eyes looked red, as though he had been crying but it was impossible to tell how recently – the rain had slicked his face too much to make out tear tracks. He didn't say anything, he just opened his mouth before he closed it again.

"There's a lot of things I w-wanted to say. N-no one else ever noticed th-that I don't like myself. I wanted to know how you could tell." He looked away from her again and he wrapped his arms around himself. "A-and you said you did too . . . it's a little hard to believe. You – you're so different than me, Jirou." He hunched a little closer to his backpack. "I wish I could ask you . . ."

Kyouka reached out to put her hand on his shoulder when an explosion ripped apart the front gate. For a moment, Kyouka was still, her mind provided her only with the image of Bakugou's stupid face. But no, that couldn't be him. Even he wasn't dense enough to destroy school property.

She bolted upright around as she dropped the umbrella, and it bounced wetly against the roof. Kyouka leaned over the fence, ignoring the pinching feeling against the front of her hips as she tried to get a good look at the front of the school. Thick gray smoke curled through the air, and even from the bad angle she could see rubble strewn across the lawn. "Holy fuck!" Kyouka got out just as the alarms started. What the fuck was going on!?

They had to get out of here, if someone was bombing the school then they were all in danger. Kyouka wheeled around and saw Midoriya still sitting against the fence, now with his eyes closed. For a second she could only stare at him before determination settled in her stomach. She grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet as she shouted over the sirens, "Midoriya! We have to get out of here, those are the evacuation alarms!"

Midoriya didn't move and Kyouka locked her jaws tight. No one knew they were up here! She had to get both of them to safety if he wasn't going to move. She had always fancied herself with a talent for being a rescue type hero, hadn't she?

"Come ON," She hissed as she turned around, only to stop dead. In the middle of the roof was a huge dark mass, swirling softly with purple on the edges. "What the fuck!?" She hissed, and she quickly moved so she was standing in front of Midoriya, one arm flung out protectively. A man stepped out, made of smoke and wearing a nice suit without the jacket. "Who the hell are you?" Kyouka demanded.

One of her ear jacks stretched, reaching for the ground. She could break the roof open and when they fell through she could grab Midoriya and RUN. This guy was no teacher, and he DEFINATLY wasn't a student.

But before she could reach the ground under her feet all the strength was drained out of her. It started in her fingers and toes, then peeled back like paper burning at the edges. The weakness spread through her limbs and head and slowly her body stopped moving. It felt like all her energy had been balled between her shoulders, right where she could feel five fingers pressing through her uniform.

"Sorry," Midoriya said weakly.

Kyouka felt like the world had dropped from under her, like she had been thrown into the deepest depths of the ocean and suddenly had to survive with the weight of the world pressing down on her.

Midoriya started walking forward, and her limbs felt like they were being dragged along as the energy in her back was pressed forward. She had never thought about it before, her body had always felt like 'herself', but now the entirety of 'her' was under his fingers, and the meat around her was just extra. She couldn't have stopped herself walking through the warp even as she yelled at her heels to dig in, collapse, do ANYTHING!

Out of the corner of her eye, Kyouka saw the door to the roof bang open right before she was brought into a creepy warehouse filled with medical equipment as Midoriya pushed her along, making her walk towards a man wearing a metal mask.

XXX

Two students had gone missing during the villain attack, both of them from the hero training class 1A. Apparently, the two of them had been up on the roof when the attack took place and it was assumed that they had been kidnapped. It had taken a while to even realize they were gone to begin with; the students Ashido Mina and Kaminari Denki had reported that Jirou Kyouka was missing immediately, but because of Midoriya Izuku's personal history it was entirely possible that he had left before the attack had the chance to begin. At least until Uraraka Ochako and Iida Tenya both came forward to report that Midoriya had gone up to the roof, same time as Jirou had.

It was decided that it would be best to assume they had been taken together, and interrogations began on the captured villains.

Katsuki fucking knew better.

Whenever Deku started acting weird it caught his attention – no matter what Deku did to threaten him Katsuki was determined to get to the bottom of whatever the fuck he was doing. And god damn if he hadn't been acting bizarre all day.

He had spied Deku standing in the empty classroom through the partially opened door and stopped to look. The kid had his backpack open on his desk but he was standing next to the wall where the costumes were kept . . . with his arm IN the wall. Katsuki froze. Had he used his quirk to break a hole in the wall? But as Deku moved his arm back and forth it became clear that he had somehow manage to phase his arm through the wall without any lasting damage.

Katsuki wrinkled his eyebrows as Deku seemed to light up, and he pulled back with his folded costume in hand. Deku darted quickly to his desk and jammed it into his backpack before he shouldered it. He seemed stressed, but Deku's face was hard to read and he kept his head down as he walked quickly towards the door. Katsuki backed off and darted around the corner, only to collide with Kirishima.

"Oh! Hey Bakugou!" Kirishima lit up and caught Katsuki by the elbow before he could trip, "what's up, man?" Katsuki heard the door to the classroom roll open and, deciding being caught by Deku would be the actual worst thing that could happen, he whirled on the red head. He shoved Kirishima's back against the wall and when he moved to get out of the way Katsuki put up an arm to block his way.

"You fucking trying to start something?" Katsuki growled. Kirishima turned as red as his hair and the sound of footsteps around the corner slowed. Katsuki raised his head sharply and glared at Deku, who also turned bright red before he turned and hauled ass down the hallway.

Kirishima cleared his throat and Katsuki pulled back as he crossed his arms. "I wasn't trying to start anything?" Kirishima said with a smile, "but I might."

"Whatever." Katsuki jammed his hands in his pockets as he stalked off, leaving behind a very flustered and confused Kirishima staring after him.

He had lost track of Deku, and when he wasn't in the lunch room Katsuki began to search through the school building in hopes of finding any sign of him. Something was stranger with this day more than any other, and within him was an inexplicable feeling of dread. It worsened when an explosion rocked the school and sent him sprawling to the ground.

His ears were ringing. Since when did explosions make his ears ring? He picked himself off the ground and shook his head, trying to clear his head before he staggered to the side of the hallway. Katsuki threw open a window and leaned outside, shocked to see the school gates ripped open and people pouring inside. Villains, obviously. The dread in his stomach grew into a sharp pang of terror.

Katsuki clamped his hands over his ears at the first blare of the sirens and ran, hurtling up the stairs as quickly as he was able. He needed to get up past the classroom levels before students could come pouring out, fleeing from the villains invading U.A.

He wasn't sure WHY he was so certain that this had something to do with Deku. But he knew it did. There was nothing logical to it but the ugly feeling, one that ran deeper than the hut he felt whenever he walked home to find Inko crying again.

Katsuki made it to the roof, and blasted the door open just in time to see that familiar swirling warp. One he had seen Deku walk through before.

And Deku was there, his yellow backpack over one shoulder and his face set in cold stone. In front of him was Jirou, her own face wide in terror and he could have sworn she looked at him with begging eyes right before she was pushed forward through the warp. Deku followed after her without sparing him a single glance, even as Katsuki screamed his name.

XXX

"No, LISTEN to me! Deku was fucking there! He took her, he's with them!" Ochako looked up as the sound of a small explosion rang clear. As soon as he had been hauled down from the roof he had been shouting at the pro heroes at the top of his lungs, screaming about how Deku had been in on the attack and how he was the one who had abducted Jirou.

She had known they hated each other but this was too extreme. Deku? A villain? Seriously? Did Bakugou even know what he was implying or did he just not care? Ochako watched him over the head of the school nurse, glaring at him as she considered what was going on inside his head. She wasn't the only one he was irritating either, as he screamed at the Native Hero their teacher stormed up behind him and grabbed him by the arm.

"That's enough, Bakugou," Aizawa snapped, "this is a job for pro heroes, not first year students. Now go home before I waste time dragging you there myself." Bakugou bristled but he accepted the refusal. With a stiff nod he spun on his heel and stalked off, Kirishima following after him with concern written plainly across his face.

Ochako didn't move until they were through the ruins of the gate. She gently pulled her arm out of the hands of the nurse and pulled it close to her breast. Her whole arm ached painfully but there was no time to wait for Recovery Girl and besides, she defiantly didn't have time to waste feeling groggy. "Thank you, but I really have to go call my dad now," She said. The nurse opened his mouth to protest before he sighed and nodded, letting her scamper off with only a small bandage on her burnt arm. Bakugou might have been hell bent of blaming Deku, but he had still seen them getting taken and neither hellfire nor brimstone could keep her from getting everything he knew.

She sprinted after him, running so quickly she tripped turning the corner, and skinned the outside of one of her thighs. Ochako groaned but she rolled back onto her hands and knees and was sprinting again, not even sparing time to brush flecks of rubble out of her ripped tights. She didn't know where Bakugou lived, but fortunately Kirishima was a loud talker and she managed to charge directly into the pair of them by following his voice alone, completely blindsiding the both of them.

Kirishima yelped but managed to stay upright with the aid of his quirk, while Bakugou went sprawling along with Ochaco herself. "BITCH what the FUCK!?" Bakugou snarled as he shot up, ready to pick a fight. He grabbed her by her uniform's tie and yanking it so they were nose to nose. "What's your fucking problem!?" he spat.

"You saw what happened to Deku!" Ochako said at the same time, nearly shouting over him. Bakugou looked surprised and she took opportunity to pull back out of his grasp. "Tell me!"

Bakugou got to his feet and Ochako scrambled up after him. "Are you fucking serious? Deku's gang just destroyed out fucking school and you want to know what happened to him? He took Jirou hostage you stupid fuck!"

"I want to find him! And Jirou!"

"Woah, woah, okay," Kirishima leaned forward to put his hand on Bakugou's shoulder but he was swiftly shrugged off.

"You cannot seriously fucking be worried about him!"

"I don't care what he might have done! I want to find him AND Jirou! And you're going to tell me what you saw!"

"Then I guess we're with you." Ochako and Bakugou turned their heads sharply, neither of them switching their faced from their furious glowers and Kaminari flinched slightly. "Woah! Sheesh dudes." He took a step back and Ashido peeked her head up from behind his shoulder, her own face set into an imitation of a hard expression.

"If you're looking for Jirou then we're going with you!" Ashido said, "she's our friend! If the heroes aren't going to listen to what Bakugou says then we have to investigate!" Her hands were balled at her sides and she seemed entirely unintimidated by the glares boring into her. Her black eyes locked with Bakugou's unwaveringly, but when she spoke it was with an edge of fear. Not of him, but worry of Jirou's fate, "You . . . you are planning to go after Midoriya, right?"

"Yes!" Ochako said.

"Yeah!" Kirishima said.

"Fuck no," Bakugou said.

All four of them stared at him and he drew back his lips. "Fucking WHAT? Deku's been . . . this has been a long time coming. This started when we were still kids. I didn't think he would actually go this far but now that he has he can fucking bail himself out. I'm going home; if Inko's going to hear about this from anyone then it's going to be from me." This time it was Kaminari who grabbed Bakugou's arm when he turned to talk off.

"What about Jirou then!? Look if Midoriya took her then you must have some idea where to look for them! You've known him all your life, haven't you?" Kaminari pleaded.

Bakugou hesitated and Ashido stepped in, bouncing a little the way she did whenever she was nervous or excited, "please, Bakugou! You know something! Please, just tell us what you would have told the heroes!"

He ground his teeth together as his whole face crinkled up. "Saving people, that's the right thing to do," Kirishima said gently. Bakugou glowered at him for a second before small explosions sparked on his fingertips and he groaned in frustration.

"Fucking fine! There's one place I know of – but first I gotta go talk to Inko. You guys can come with and wait outside, we can talk about the plan on the walk over. But I'm just showing you where it is and that's it." His sharp gaze turned to Ochako as he spat, "you can try 'saving' Deku. I already told you to stay away from him. Guess you have to fucking see for yourself, bitch."

"yeah," Ochako said evenly, "guess I do."

XXX

Restraining Jirou hadn't actually been all that difficult. Once her jacks were immobilized there wasn't a whole heck of a lot that she could do, and that had been accomplished with seventeen twisty ties and two USB protector caps.

It wasn't until Izuku did that when it really seemed to sink in that he was in on this whole thing, and Jirou had started screaming. Right up until he gagged her which put a quick end to that.

Even now she was glaring hatefully at him, and were she not cuffed to the chair he had no doubt that she would be beating the shit out of him right then and there, even surrounded by the only true followers of Shigaraki Tomura. The only members who could actually do lasting damage to her, in all honesty.

"Fhk. Yhu." Jirou spat through her gag, "heet uh dhik, Mhidoorhya." Izuku smiled weakly at her (not that she could tell) and he hunched a little more on his tabletop perch. He hung his head so his shaggy mane fell about his face before he nodded decisively and got to his feet. Jirou flinched as he walked closer to her and he stopped dead and held up his hands.

"You shouldn't be worried," Izuku said, "I'm just going to take out the gag, okay?" Jirou narrowed her eyes and lifted her chin defiantly, but she didn't squirm again as he approached. Mindful of her teeth Izuku pulled out the gag, which was actually just one of the sleeves of her uniform, and let it fall around her neck.

She jerked her head back and glared around the lab, taking it all in.

Sensei had vanished into the back room as soon as he spoken with Izuku, and Kurogiri had gone with him. They were watching the news, Izuku had little doubt. Watching the live reports on what was going on and waiting to see how they explained two missing children (they hadn't so far), if they had managed to get the lab location out of one of the captured thugs (also no), and if they had managed to find the note Izuku left in Aizawa'a office (judging from the lack of All Might that was also a big No.)

Four Noumu were standing at points in the lab, one completed and three almost finished. The rest of the creatures in the warehouse lab had been transported out, but Jirou stared with more fear at the equipment than she did at the results. Izuku stared down at her before he raised his head to look at Tomura, who was leaned up against a wall behind her, arms folded and glowering. He didn't see the point in keeping her alive, but Izuku had point blank refused to let him kill her.

"You're a villain," Jirou finally said, her voice weak and soft. Izuku looked back down at her and was surprised to see that there were tears in her eyes. "You're actually a fucking villain."

"Yeah? Guess there's no other word for it," Izuku smiled sheepishly and he cocked his head. It wasn't like he could just deny that now.

Jirou stared at him like it was a personal betrayal and he flipped up his hood. Why was she making him feel so guilty? He looked up again, his gaze locking on Tomura who was just scratching at his neck.

"What do you want with me?"

"N-nothing! Like I said, we aren't going to hurt you or anything. Sorry, Jirou b-but with my record I don't really work as 'bait'." Jirou bristled, grinding her teeth together and one of her legs kicked out, making the metal cuff bite hard into her ankle. "Sorry! We just needed someone who was guaranteed to get All Might's attention. It really wasn't anything personal."

"You're going after All Might!? Why? Aren't you his fanboy?" Tomura snickered at that and Jirou whipped her head around to stare at him. "And who are these people!?" When Izuku cleared his throat her sharp glare returned to his face and he finally tugged down his mask so it rested around his neck and he lifted his goggles so they sat on his forehead. His fingers brushed against the childhood scar by his left eye self-consciously before he smiled down at her.

"We're going after All Might because-" That was as far as Izuku got before a hand set down hard on his shoulder. Jirou was leaning back in her seat, glaring at a point above his shoulder now and Izuku turned his head to see Kurogiri standing behind him.

"Unless you think she can come around to our side stop talking to her. She knows more than she needs to already."

Izuku opened his mouth but nothing came out and he flushed red. He had always wondered why villains spilled their plans needlessly and here he was, about to do the same thing! Izuku laughed nervously, "w-well I don't think I could convince Jirou without explaining everything first." The look she shot him said 'I would die before joining you' but she held her tongue. She seemed wary about the man looming over him.

Kurogiri sighed and turned Izuku towards Sensei's display room, "U.A. has started their press release. All for One would like a word with you before we change our location. I'll watch Tomura and your hostage in the meanwhile." Izuku smiled and nodded once before he walked past him, making his way to the back of the lab with a little bounce in his step.

XXX

"Hold me steady, shithead!" Katsuki hissed as he wavered again. He glared down at Uraraka first but she curled her lips back in a way that implied strongly he could shove it if he was trying to blame her. He looked down instead, and saw Kirishima was looking steadfastly down at the floor and with a snarl he stomped on his shoulder.

"Sorry! But I mean . . . skirt . . ." Kirishima protested weakly and Bakugou kicked the back of his head. He only managed to hurt his own foot with how hard his skin was but it was satisfying.

"What are you, twelve!? We got shit to do! Now hold me steady!" Kirishima was blushing again but he did brace himself a little better and Katsuki finally got a good look through the window. He braced himself against the frame and leaned in to get a better look.

"Okay, I see Jirou."

"Is she okay?" Ashido blurted out.

"Shut up, fuckhead, I can't tell. She's tied to a chair so I can't see much of her. Looks like they have four . . . guys? Four guys standing guard and Deku's buddies are standing around her. Tomura and . . . I have no idea who the other one is."

"Do you see Deku?" Katsuki pulled away from the window and glowered down at Ochako.

"No," Katsuki said curtly, through locked teeth. Getting into this argument again wouldn't help anyone, and at the very least Jirou needed to be saved. He put his foot on Kirishima's head and stood up to get a better vantage point, relying more on Uraraka's quirk than Kirishima's balance to stay up. "Ah. There's Deku."

That fucker had appeared out of a room in the back of the lab, and jogged quickly up to Tomura and began to talk to him. Presumably. "He's got his costume on."

"What? How'd he get that?"

"I saw him steal it earlier." Katsuki shrugged before gravity caught him full force and he promptly fell off Kirishima's head. The boy caught him by the waist before he could hit the concrete but he dropped Katsuki as soon as his dress hiked up a little too high on his hips.

Katsuki landed, rather ungracefully, flat on his face. Fucking fuck god damn it. "The FUCK is your problem, bitch!?" Katsuki snarled at Uraraka. Her face had gone white and she shook her head.

"You're sure that's Deku?"

"YEAH!" Katsuki got to his feet with his hands balled into fists, but Uraraka didn't look like she was about to fight back.

"Dude, get it together," Kaminari whispered, and Katsuki sparred him and the bright red Kirishima a glance for half a second before he glared back at Uraraka.

"Well, couldn't it be someone else in his costume?"

"How many fucking people do you know with curly green hair!? It's fucking Deku and those-" Katsuki pointed up to the window he had just been peering through "-are his friends! I tried to fucking tell you he's bad news! He isn't tied up, he isn't a hostage! He! Took! Jirou!" Everyone was staring at him but he only had eyes for Uraraka. She was trembling a little, but her expression was fixed with a glower fiery enough to match his own. He wanted to grab her and shake her, scream at her, make her fucking understand. She wasn't the only person Deku had tricked, but he wanted her to just see through it already. Why was he only ever the one to see him for what he was!? Why did no one else believe him when he told them what that person was really like!?

"I want to see."

Katsuki tightened his jaw so much that the veins in his neck bulged under his skin. "You know what? Fine. Fucking Fine, c'mere," Katsuki grabbed her around the middle, and she yelped at the feeling of sweaty hands on her bare stomach. Her disguise was . . . particularly exposing. Her clothes had come from Mina's closet and as such she looked like she had just escaped the early eighties in America. Baggy white shorts and a purple blouse that matched her wig, and the whole of her stomach from mid rib to mid hip bare to drizzling storm. She seemed not even a little comfortable with the whole thing but after a moment of being completely rigid she let him put her on his shoulders.

She wasn't half as rough as he had been with Kirishima, but he still got a sneaker pinching at the skin of his neck. Uraraka was shorter than him, and he was shorter than Kirishima so it took a moment of her hoisting herself up and bracing against the wall before she could see through the window herself.

Silence lulled between them as Uraraka watched something he expected he knew, but the others certainly did not. "Well?" Ashido demanded after a pause.

". . . Deku . . . it's really . . ." Uraraka swallowed audibly and she shook her head. The purple locks of her wig tumbled about her back and she cleared her throat roughly, "He's talking to a guy who's covered in severed hands-"

"Tomura," Katsuki provided.

"-And this purple guy in a suit. Ah, it looks like Jirou is talking now . . . oh!" Uraraka lurched back a little and Katsuki took it as a sign to let her back down. She had a hand over her mouth and she was avoiding looking at him.

"What happened to Kyouka?" Ashido demanded but Uraraka just shook her head firmly.

"We need to get her out of there. We need to go get All Might." She was bloodless and she fumbled for her phone for s second before her head snapped up. "I don't know the school number."

"I do!" Kirishima pipped up as he snatched her phone away and began to punch in numbers. "I won't give our names but now that we've actually seen them they have to listen. An anonymous tip should get them over here"

"Don't . . . mention which side Deku's on." All of the rest stopped and stared, plainly shocked. But then Kirishima nodded, just as he put a phone to his ear.

"Whatever you want, Bakugou."