Midoriya didn't have to open his eyes to know where he was, and who was sitting beside him on the familiar chair. The dusty scent of the room, the dimness of the light coming from the cracked lantern on the slowly rotting nightstand to his right, the leather latches on his skin that strapped him to the bed, the creaking bed stained with blood of many villains and kidnapped alike.
He was back at the underground of the League, inside one of the healing rooms. And beside him was no one other than the worst, sane madman that Midoriya had ever known.
"You don't have to pretend you're asleep, Izuku. But you can if you want to, although, I must admit, I have been lacking your company. For a while now, as a matter of fact." Keisha stated as he shifted on the creaking stool, his voice casual and confident, holding not even a small hint of hesitance. Keisha knew he was awake, and no wasn't an answer.
"Why am I here? Why go through all the trouble to get me back?" Midoriya whispered, his throat dry and his eyes aching threateningly. He hadn't cried in a while, but being outside of the underground had definitely made him unwillingly more sentimental than he preferred.
"Like I said, I am lacking proper company. I had wanted to get you back earlier, but All for One refused. I'm guessing he just got sick of me trying to make conversation with him, so he aided me with your recapture." Keisha explained bluntly, a small chuckle escaping him afterwards. "You haven't been wanting my company as much as I wish for yours, I suppose?" Midoriya stayed quiet. Should Keisha have asked that 3 years ago, Midoriya would've answered honestly, for the sake of pleasing the man and spending more time with him rather than Shigaraki and the other menacing villains. Keisha was one too, but...He was different.
"You are right. I've been alright on my own all that time, and I was alright as well before you decided to kidnap me again." Midoriya heard Keisha take a deep breath, ready to start speaking, but Midoriya quickly interrupted, not wanting to listen to any more nostalgia from the closest to him villain in the underground. "I am training to become a hero now. I can't be nice to you anymore."
"But you want to, don't you?" Midoriya hesitated at the blunt statement. Sure, Keisha was always this blunt, be Midoriya could never get used to that, and he couldn't come up with as much of a blunt statement off the top of his head like Keisha did. Keisha chuckled again, placing a hand onto Midoriya's shoulder. Midoriya flinched from the touch, and shifted as much as he could away from the side of the bed where he knew Keisha was sitting.
By then, Midoriya had realized that Keisha had put a blindfold on him, and yet Midoriya didn't understand why. Because of Midoriya's quirk, Midoriya had an extreme sense of his surroundings, especially living beings. So why did he blindfold him?
"Hey, Izuku." Keisha started again, seeming to straighten in his chair. "No one ever understood me. Except for you. And don't pretend like you don't feel the same way. I've seen the way you looked at me." Keisha hummed nostalgically. Midoriya, meanwhile, tensed up at the statement. It hit too close home to his liking, and he was going to have to start playing more hero than an old friend of the villain.
"That was then, this is now." Midoriya stated simply as he turned towards where he knew Keisha was sitting. Keisha went quiet, and for the first time in a long time, Midoriya had no idea what the man was thinking. He didn't have the privilege of seeing his expression either, not that it would help much.
Suddenly, the leather straps on Midoriya's hands began to shift, and Midoriya tensed up as he realized Keisha was doing something with the straps.
Midoriya didn't know what he had expected when the first strap on Midoriya's hand fell off, and Midoriya put it down on the bed. Of course Keisha would start playing games with him. And Midoriya, as contradictory as it would seem, wasn't going to be stupid and try and possess Keisha to escape, whether he had all the keys or not. Because that man was insane. He never brought along any keys, and...Nor did ever he have any weapons either when he was with the villains, forced or not, if it wasn't torture.
"Izuku..." Keisha called out quietly, his hand touching Midoriya's cheek as Midoriya sat up in his bed, fully unstrapped. Midoriya didn't know what to do, but he knew Keisha knew exactly what he was going to do with him. All he could do was go along with whatever plan Keisha had in mind.
"Whether you believe me or not, I always have a plan, no matter the situation." Keisha stated proudly as he side-eyed the 12 year-old greenette as the two walked down the corridor towards the cafeteria of the underground.
"That's unreal. You can't possibly come up with an outcome for everything around you." Midoriya stated bluntly as he looked at the ground, avoiding looking at Keisha. Keisha did that to him — Keisha's bluntness was one of the factors he had infected his favorite little villain with.
"I suppose. But that's just who I am. Izuku..." Keisha turned his head towards Midoriya and placed his finger under his chin, turning Midoriya's head towards himself and forcing him to look in his eyes. "You, one day, will understand. The mind is a powerful place, it's similar to...A pen and a sword. Do you know that saying, about the pen and the sword?"
"No..."
"The pen is mightier than the sword. The mind is stronger than the muscles. Something along those lines, you see?" Midoriya hummed in understanding, and Keisha smiled proudly at the young boy beside him.
"One day, you will understand the true power behind weakness. You have to...Open up to yourself, rather than those around you. You don't have to be understood in order to be smarter than those around you. The craziest are the smartest ones." Keisha slid his hand off Midoriya's cheek slowly, and Midoriya listened as his footsteps slowly faded away, the other way from where Midoriya knew the door was. Without a goodbye, Midoriya felt Keisha's presence disappear, and continued to sit on the bed as he thought about what the villain had said.
What his mentor had said. What the one man whom he didn't understand, and yet saw as a saviour, had said. The light in his darkness, the evidence of pure caring and acceptance, spotted with hatred and the hungry mind. No perfect human exists, and yet, if you accept the worse, you will get the best as well. That's who Keisha was. He was both, a janus coin...
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Aizawa was beyond pissed, especially at the absurd explanation Midoriya had given him after he came back from his so-called "walk and tumble" that lasted for more than an hour.
"Let me get this straight." Aizawa grunted as he rubbed his temple. "You...Were hanging out with Bakugo for a few hours, and then, you ended up tripping and falling, knocking yourself out." Aizawa raised a disbelieving eyebrow as he looked at the calm, injure-less student, hell, his son, in front of him. Midoriya simply nodded in response, a small smile on his face. Aizawa let out a heavy sigh as he locked his hands in front of him, hiding his lower part of the face.
"Midoriya...I...Listen to me." Aizawa said quietly, looking at Midoriya with nearly pleading eyes. Midoriya's smile wavered as they slightly widened, just barely for Aizawa to notice, but enough for him to continue. "I want to know what happened. What actually happened. But...I can't force it out of you, and I don't particularly want to. If you swear to me that you aren't in fine, and that you aren't in danger, I'll let you off the hook. Just this once." Midoriya's smile completely faded away as he looked at Aizawa in pure shock and disbelief. Aizawa put his intimidating glare back on, and although it completely went unnoticed by the greenette, Midoriya nodded nonetheless, a small, seemingly sad smile etched on his face.
"I'm not in danger. It's fine, really."
"But you did lie, didn't you?"
"I'd rather not say."
"I see."
Midoriya quickly, almost noticeably, glanced at the door, before once again looking at his knees, although Aizawa noticed the hint and let out a sigh as he stood up.
"Okay. You're free to go. Although, you're under house arrest, not including lessons, for a week, along with Bakugo. The two of you aren't allowed to see each other outside of school, and by school, dorms aren't included, got it?" Midoriya nodded firmly as he himself stood up, nodding in gratitude as he hurried out of principal's office.
Nezu, meanwhile, continued to sip on his tea as he didn't bother even sparing a glance at Aizawa nor the greenette, although a small smirk was visible enough on his lips for Aizawa to notice and speak up.
"Got anything to say, Nezu?" He stated more than asked. Nezu stopped sipping his tea, and the same smirk etched on his face, turned towards Aizawa with eyes full of emotion Aizawa couldn't identify.
"Yes, and no. I'll stay silent. But...Izuku, he's special. He knows something we don't, and I want to know what..." Nezu said quietly as he smirked at Aizawa, before hopping on the couch and walking towards his desk. "I'll just have to try and figure it out..."
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Keisha had known that Midoriya was making a phone call during the time he was drugged and knocked out. Like every other time, even then, he had a plan.
Midoriya had taken off his mask a minute or so later, only to see that the room he thought he was in was actually an exact copy of the one in the underground. The only difference is that it wasn't in the underground. It was in an abandoned building, similar to the one that was used for the base of the higher team of the League, and Midoriya, much to his luck, got out with ease through the door without even having to break into sweat.
After he got into UA, greeted by the angry and shocked Bakugo and the overly-concerned, and surprisingly, even more angry Aizawa, Midoriya remembered just how bad of a liar he was.
"You're a bad liar, kid. And for lying, you get extra punis–..."
Midoriya snapped out of his thoughts as he fell onto his bed, phone in hand as he looked at the slightly cracked screen, thankful that it was still working, but at the same time, feeling overly guilty about ruining one of Aizawa's presents (even if he had excused it as being a necessity, which Midoriya hadn't gotten used to, seeing as he only noticed the missing calls after a few hours). Although, much to his increasing guilt, his mind slowly wandered away from the phone, Keisha appearing in his mind and plaguing his thoughts.
He always did that, whether he was in the underground, surface, close or far. Even if it had faded as Toga and Mustard began to take up more of his time and became a bigger part of his life, they never left, and Midoriya always wondered about the man.
A villain, one who was interested in everything, and would do anything to reach his goal. And could. He was always underestimated, because unlike others, he didn't use his quirk, or muscles, at least not any other than his brain, to win and get what he wanted. Midoriya was ready to bet that his intellectuality was rivaling Nezu's, and although he wanted to test those two and actually find out, Nezu, despite being an animal with little sense of human emotions, wasn't as insane and apathetic to human experimentation and murderer like Keisha was.
Although Midoriya, much to his dismay, never saw his mentor as a murderer. Even after he forced him to kill several innocent lives of forced villains, he had always sought reassurance in support from him, despite him being a villain. Keisha had replaced his parents, in a good way, in a way that helped Midoriya grow stronger and become the person he was today. Even if his soul was forever stained with murderer, not only forced, but out of pure loathing as well.
"Keisha, Keisha...What have you done to me..." Midoriya whispered to himself as he lifted his hand, watching as the dark orange rays of the sun entered his bedroom through the window, to the right of Midoriya's bed. Those claimed by the people to be monsters hide among humankind, and no other sun or moon shines on them.
Most, like any other, were born in a hospital, learned their first words and took their first steps. Even if some had taken their steps towards the place where the sun that shines on heroes, is faded by the rotting walls of alleys and undergrounds, it shines the same on all of us.
The sun shined on Midoriya, just like it was on the other side of the wall, on his brown wooden desk, on the wooden-planked floor. On the school UA, on the other millions of citizens outside, on the heroes currently patrolling or rescuing people. On the fearsome villains, on the curious Keisha, and even on All for One.