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Izuku pulled out his keys and unlocked the door to the apartment and stepped in.
“Oh, so you’ve decided to grace me with your presence today, you ungrateful brat?” his mother’s voice rang out.
“Hi, Mom,” Izuku said quickly, taking off his shoes and getting ready to run to his room.
“Don’t you hi, mom me! Where have you been?!” Inko screeched at him, throwing a half-full bottle of wine at him.
“I was at school,” Izuku said, having shielded himself from the bottle instinctively with his shadows.
Inko stood up on shaky legs and stomped over to him. “You’ve been staying out for days at a time lately!” She made to grab his hair, but Izuku blocked her again with the shadows, so she just tried to slap him, instead. “Stop using this disgusting quirk, you villain!”
“I don’t want you to hurt me,” Izuku whispered. If he showed up at home with injuries, he just knew Shouta would be super worried about him, and he’d find a way to follow him home, even if it was a month earlier than planned.
Inko glared daggers at him, and if looks could kill, Izuku would be dead ten times over right now. “Where have you been staying, you filthy brat?” She blinked a few times at him. “You look clean, so you’ve been staying with someone. Have you been whoring yourself out to make some money? You should have been dead years ago!”
“N-no! I’m not-“ Izuku tried to defend himself.
“Why else would someone be feeding you, providing for you?!” Inko moved to hit him again but was blocked like always. “Get your disgusting ass in your room!”
Izuku quickly ran to his room and winced when the door was slammed shut, and the deadbolts clicked into place. Seconds later, the bright lamp outside his door turned on, and Izuku was officially locked in his room.
~#~#~#~
Izuku jolted awake as he heard a fire alarm go off. He looked around, remembering he was at his mother’s place, and it was as if ice ran down his spine. She wasn’t going to let him out, was she?
Izuku started pounding on the door, hoping that she wouldn’t leave him there to die. “Mom! Mom, let me out! That’s a fire alarm! Mom!”
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief when he heard his mom stop outside his door, but it was short lived. “I hope you burn! You should have been dead years ago, but now is as good a time as ever,” he heard her hiss to him, before running out the apartment and slamming the door shut behind her.
Izuku backed up from the door with a panicked look in his eyes. “Okay, okay, calm down, Izuku, you can do this. You just need to escape from this room,” Izuku muttered to himself, trying to keep himself together. He could feel the terror getting the best of him, so he quickly wrapped his arms around himself. “Come on, Bunny, don’t do this, don’t you dare let Shouta down. He’s waiting for you to come home.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Okay, I can do this.” He looked at the door, and then found a spare pair of shoes that was in his closet and put them on. If he was going to try to kick down the door, he’d need shoes. Taking a deep breath, he took a firm stance and aimed a kick at the door.
“Well, that did nothing,” he muttered, with a hint more panic in his eyes. “The door is too solid. Maybe,” Izuku cut himself off and went to the wall next to the door. The door was solid, but how solid was the wall?
Izuku took his stance again and kicked the wall only to find that it hadn’t been much more affected than the door. His mom must have had it remodeled at some point “just in case” he decided to try and destroy the wall to get out. He spent the next few minutes kicking at every wall in the room only to leave tiny dents in each. He took another kick at the door and double-checked what he already knew - the hinges were placed on the outside of the door so that it opened up into the hallway.
Izuku screamed in despair and anguish at his decision to go home to his mother. He then continued trying to kick a hole in the wall - kicking over and over at the same place. It was working - albeit too slowly to let him out in time, but he didn’t have another option. Izuku had to destroy the wall or die trying. He didn’t notice the smoke beginning to seep under the door in his desperate bid to escape his room.
Three minutes later Izuku was beginning to feel fatigued, overheated and dizzy - not to mention his throat was also beginning to feel scratchy from the smoke. The wall had a fairly large dent in it but no hole had begun to form - Izuku began to wonder if it was the effect of a quirk. He began struggling to breathe but vaguely remembered the generalized fire safety training everyone was given in school. He dropped to the floor and crawled over to his closet and yanked a long-sleeved shirt down from a hanger - he then tied it over his mouth and nose, attempting to provide a filter from the smoke slowly filling the room.
The next thing Izuku knew he was unconscious.
~#~#~#~
Shouta awoke to excruciating pain in his upper left arm. He clutched it in pain even as his pain-filled mind began to careen through possibilities as to why he was in pain. He wasn’t injured on patrol last night, he didn’t sense anyone else nearby - or at least anyone close enough to physically injure him, maybe it was the effect of a quirk? Except, no - he hadn’t been hit with any quirks last night. Izuku… was at his mother’s place and logically should be unharmed.
The pain eventually began to decrease over the course of several hours to the point where Shouta could do more than clutch his arm in pain. He immediately tore his shirt off and resumed clutching his arm, his heart hurting because he’d managed to see his soulmark; black. Izuku… Izuku… Izuku… his bunny… was… Shouta began to sob uncontrollably at the thought of never being able to wake up beside his bunny again, or being able to laugh with him over stupid cooking mistakes or even fighting over small things like who had the most blanket.
Shouta regretted even more now, not following Izuku home. Izuku’s mother didn’t even deserve to call herself a parent - not with the way she treated Izuku, his precious bunny. He didn’t even know where to begin searching for his bunny’s previous home. He stumbled out of bed and to the freezer, snagging an ice pack out of it and using a stray piece of capture weapon to bind it over his soulmark. With both his hands now available he staggered into the hallway and shoved his feet into his boots, snagging his capture weapon, keys, phone and wallet on his way out the door.
After locking the door behind him he immediately began searching for large-scale attacks and emergencies in the area as it was most likely Izuku had been caught in one of those as opposed to something smaller like a hit and run. The most recent posting had been a fire at an apartment building several blocks away - the incident report said the building was clear and that all residents had made it out alive and with only minor injuries. Shouta quickly flipped to the next one.
~#~#~#~
After hours of poring over incident reports outside his front door, Shouta had collapsed on the floor - no mention at all of his bunny. He hung his head between his knees as he mentally revised the major reports he had encountered. No results. He decided to finally begin searching the locations himself - starting from the burned apartment building last night.
~#~#~#~
He wasn’t prepared for it. The firefighters were busy putting out the final remains of the fire whilst clearing the building to double-check that no bodies were to be found. Shouta presumed the large mass of people huddled nearby were the former residents of the building - perhaps they’d have insight as to whether or not Izuku had been living there.
He unobtrusively sidled over to the group - toting a medical kit to treat any injuries that the people may have sustained. He knew he’d be prevented from entering the building regardless of his hero status until the firefighters had cleared the building and it was declared stabilized. He walked over to the first person with an injury he could see.
“Here, let me treat that for you.” He nearly growled - his hero training being the only thing preventing him from taking his steadily building anger out on the civilian in front of him.
“Thank you.” The person said tearfully.
~#~#~#~
As Shouta worked on patching them up he began questioning them. “Do you know if someone by the name of Midoriya lived in this apartment complex?”
“Why yes, she’s over there,” the person pointed in the direction of a green-haired woman that looked so much like Izuku it stabbed Shouta in the heart all over again. “That’s Inko Midoriya, she was such a lovely neighbor… before…” the person clammed up.
Shouta finished patching the person up, “Go get checked out by the paramedics - just to be sure I didn’t miss anything vital.” they nod in response and head off.
Shouta sets off for Inko Midoriya. He angrily glares at the woman who’d made his bunny’s life so miserable. He thinks of all the ways he could… remove her… permanently… from her current state of being. His current personal favorite was siccing Nedzu on her so she’d receive a death penalty… one way or another.
“Excuse me, Inko Midoriya?” He inquires as politely as he can while still making his displeasure towards being near her known.
“Yes?” She turns to look at him, “What do you want?” she appears to be hungover and in a foul mood.
“Your son, Iz-”
“What do you want with that good-for-nothing whore? Are you that sugar daddy he’s been seeing? You’re disgusting, forcing yourself on him like that, he’s a child! Not that he even deserves to still be alive anyways - he should have died years ago. Maybe the fire finally did the fucking villain in. About time.”
Shouta gapes - shell-shocked for a moment before remembering that this woman abused her own son - locking him in his room for days at a time without food or water, regularly for years. This was the abuse his bunny took every time he went back to this woman? Shouta saw red . He stealthily snaked his capture weapon around her arm and leaned in close.
“You’re going to come with me, and you’re going to come silently without making a sound or else… Nod if you understand.” Shouta seethed, glaring at her.
Inko Midoriya shakily nodded her head and meekly bowed. She was this easily cowed? After all those years of abusing Izuku she had the gall to not even put up a fight when he finally got his hands on her? He supposed it was alright for now.
~#~#~#~
Shouta led the woman to an empty warehouse nearby.
“Now, you’re going to put this blindfold on and come quietly or else I’ll gag you as well.” Shouta unknowingly sent her a quirk-enhanced glare.
She took the blindfold from him and tied it around her head. He brought forth some zip ties he’d had in his utility belt and began to tie her arms and legs together. He bound her ankles together first and then her arms behind her back before he took a piece of his capture weapon and shoved it in her mouth before utilizing another piece to keep the first piece in place.
Now that the vile woman was safely secured for the time being, Shouta hid the now, writhing body behind some crates and went back out to the scene of the fire, taking care to enter without being noticed and resuming helping injured people until there were none left to help.
~#~#~#~
While Shouta was helping people the firefighters had finally managed to finish clearing the building. He’d noticed a lot of commotion at one point but it wasn’t until everyone had been helped he allowed himself to look at what the commotion had been about. A body bag was lying on the ground.
Shouta instinctively knew that it was Izuku’s body in the bag. He knew they’d take one look at his bunny’s record and cremate the body - all because of his quirk. Really, what was one more crime tonight? Shouta walked over to the body bag, flashed his hero license, said he was picking up the body to be cremated on HPSC orders, took Izuku and left without a hitch.
He set off on a long winding route, disposing of the body bag by burying it in a glen in a particularly woodsy park and taking Izuku’s body with him to the warehouse he left the bitch in. He holds Izuku’s cold, stiff body close to himself as he makes his way to the warehouse. He cautiously slips between the buildings and into the warehouse, Izuku bound to his back.
Shouta moves over to where he left the bitch bound and gagged and ever so slowly takes out his knife. He finds himself making hundreds of cuts all over her body.
All the while Shouta muttered things like, “He’s not your son, he was never your son.”
“You never cared for him like I did, how can you call yourself a parent?”
“Could you truthfully say you ever loved him, truly?”
“Scum like you deserve to rot in hell.” it was a non-stop stream of abuse, retribution with every tiny stab for everything the bitch had made Izuku endure.
The bitch had the gall to scream in pain every time Shouta made a cut until her throat was so hoarse she couldn’t make any noise, she simply began convulsing on the ground in pain. Shouta felt pure rage building within and he found himself gashing her neck open in a violent fit. He looked at the stilled body and his shoulders began to shake - he wasn’t sure if it was from laughter or tears as he let out a muffled cry of agony. He left the bitch’s body in the middle of the warehouse and took Izuku home, to their home, their apartment, a safe space.
~#~#~#~
It had been a few days since Hizashi had last heard from Shouta which wasn’t unusual - what was unusual was the fact that Shouta wasn’t answering the front door; not to mention the scent of something decomposing nearby - Hizashi would have to investigate that later.
“Shouta! Open up - don’t make me use my key!” Hizashi tried one last time.
Hizashi pulled out his key and opened the door to the apartment - gagging as the scent grew stronger. It wouldn’t be the first time Shouta forgot to take out the food waste but Hizashi would make sure it was the last time he forgot. Hizashi started by checking the couch - making sure Shouta hadn’t simply passed out there before moving to check the bathroom, as Shouta also had a tendency to pass out on the floor in there after patching himself up.
The deeper into the apartment Hizashi ventured, the stronger and more pungent the odor of decay grew. A sinking feeling grew in Hizashi’s stomach and he poked his head into the guest room to find Izuku’s bed rumpled but empty. There was only one room left to check - Shouta’s room.
Hizashi shakily walked down the hallway to Shouta’s room and gently pushed the door open, his nose was immediately assaulted with the smell of decomposition and vomit. The source? The bodies of Izuku and Shouta lying together, seemingly peacefully asleep in Shouta’s bed, almost snuggled together. Vomit was everywhere over the side of the bed and tugging the covers down revealed Izuku’s body covered in severe burns and Shouta’s body stained with blood that didn’t seem to be his own.
Hizashi vomited himself and broke down sobbing loudly as he fell to the ground at the foot of the bed where the bodies of his best friend and his best friend’s soulmate lay. He knew he needed to call this in - report it to the Commission immediately - but he allowed himself time to grieve for what had once been and could now never bloom into something more.