At the Core | Bakugo Katsuki | S/H

Dangerous Game

・・・　・・・　・・・

     There were 8 people in the room.  Bakugo was one of them.  In front of him were 7 of the villains who had been tasked with kidnapping him.  A blue-haired man with detached hands gripping his arms and face was their leader, and one who Bakugo recognized from long ago.  Shigaraki Tomura.  When U.S.J. had been attacked, the search and research center offcampus, that man had crumbled Aizawa's skin and set forth a terrifying beast only vaguely resembling a man.  Heroes had started calling them Nomu; brainless.
     He recognized five of the others.  Another he knew from the U.S.J. attack was the black fog wearing a suit.  He could great create black portals which was exactly how Bakugo got here.  A magician of sorts in a yellow trench coat with a cane and a top hat (which he tipped when the blond woke up), a blonde girl with yellow eyes in a middle school uniform, a man in a plan black bodysuit with gray eye marks, and a black-haired man with patches of purple broiled skin held on with staples.  There was another one, a man covered in green scales and looked mostly like a lizard standing on its hind legs with a neck bent forward, but Bakugo had never seen him before he got here.
    The only other one he knew the quirk of was the man with purple patches, well-known by the name Dabi.  He had a simple fire quirk, but his flames burned blue instead of the usual warm colors.
     Shigaraki chuckles.  His voice was annoyingly high pitched and snotty, the kind that gave Bakugo a headache when they spoke.
    "I'm so grateful to the media for all the free publicity lately."  He looks over at Bakugo, tied down with chains to a metal chair.  "Isn't it nice, Bakugo Katsuki?"

     A knock sounded in the emtpy hospital room.  Midoriya didn't have time to respond before the door reeled open.  Behind it where plenty of his classmates, slowly trickling in.
     "Hey!  Midoriya!  Good, you're finally awake!"  Kaminari's voice was cheerful despite the tragedy that had occured 3 days prior.  "Did you see the news?  Reporters are all over the school right now."
     "It's worse than last time," Sato agrees.
     "I brought you a present!" Mineta shouts, jumping so Midoriya could see him from the tall hospital bed.  "I mean, it's from all of us.  It's a melon!"  Indeed, above his head sat a watermelon wrapped in Japan's protective styrofoam wrapping.  Considering how expensive they were in such a popular city, Midoriya smiled as best he could through all the numbing medication.
     "I caused you trouble, Midoriya," Tokoyami says in a sad tone.
     "No, please.  I did this to myself," he defends.  "Did everyone from class A come to visit?" he asks as his eyes glance over the crowd.
     "No..." Iida speaks, head lowered in shame.  "Jiro and Hagakure are still out.  They were knocked unconscious from that villain's poisonous gas.  And Yaoyorozu took a pretty bad hit to the head.  She's hospitalized here, though I just found out she finally woke up yesterday...  So, it's just us, though obviously we wish the whole class could be here," he explains.
     "Only 14 of us for now," Uraraka says.  She opened her mouth to continue, to promise more soon, but was interrupted by Ashido yelling.
     "He knows, Todoroki!" The group looks over as she stares down at Todoroki.
     Midoriya had heard him, muttering about Bakugo being missing.  He couldn't help thinking about the blond slowly fading away into that spiraling vortex, a burned and purple hand gripped around his throat.
     "All Might told me there will always be people beyond our reach.  That we can't protect.  Even though we want to," Midoriya mumbles, eyes up at the clouds that quickly go fuzzy through his tears.  "Which is why we have to save the people we can reach.  I... was so close to being able to save him.  I... needed to save him.  Had to.  That's the entire reason I have my quirk.  It's exactly like Aizawa-sensei said to me.  My body... wouldn't move.  I couldn't save someone who was right in front of me.  And since I failed, he's gone."  Kirishima nods.
     "All right.  Then let's go get him," he offers.  "I was here yesterday, too.  And so was Todoroki.  We were on our way to visit you when we saw All Might and some police officer talking to Yaoyorozu.  She had a tracking device on one of the things, and she also has the thing that tracks it," he explains.
     "This means you're going to have Yaoyorozu make another receiver for you, doesn't it?" Iida asks, his teeth mashing together.
     "What if it does?" Todoroki snaps back.
     "You should listen to what All Might said!  We should leave this to the professionals!  It's not the right time for us to get involved!" Iida shouts, his anger clearly rooted in shame from the Stain incident.  "Idiots!"
     "Maybe!" Kirishima yells over him.  "But all I know is that at camp, I couldn't do anything!  I heard my friend was targeted, and I just stood by!  Helpless!  So if I stand by and do nothing now, how am I supposed to call myself a hero or a man!?"
     "Kirishima, calm down!" Kaminari intercuts, a finger over his lips to try to silence the redhead.  "We're in a hospital!  There's a better time and place for this, dude."
     "Yeah, and what Iida said is true," Asui agrees.
     "All of you... just listen to me for a minute," Kirishima says.  His voice was quivering in fear and anger, rage from being held back from protecting the people he cared about.  "I know what you're saying is right, but still!" he says, turning to face Midoriya.  "Come on, Midoriya.  He's still within your reach.  We can save them!"
     Midoriya looks back out the window.  He knew the whole class felt like they failed.  They'd done what they could, and it wasn't enough.  They hadn't been enough.  He didn't think anyone could feel worse than he did in that moment.  It was a selfish thought, and so was the idea of running off to go save Bakugo without the proper help of heroes, but nobody won by being selfless.  Heroes had a duty to attend to, that was protecting the most amount of people possible, and rescuing Bakugo might not be a risk worth taking.  Midoriya couldn't stand the thought of it.