Hanako had been eight years old when she first learned what 'the system' was. She had overheard it when the older kids were talking about it, how one of them was being put into the system. She, being the curious and clueless young girl she was, asked more about it.
It was very tempting.
But then she was quickly told how "It could be worse than your own home, you probably don't want it." and "You'll lose all of us, besides, you're doing fine here.".
Little did those kids know that it couldn't be worse (well it could be, rape and sexual assault were serious problems) and that she wasn't really doing fine.
But even Hanako didn't know that.
It was another lie.
********
Bakugo was shaking as he was crouched. His base of his palms were pushing into the sides of his head as his fingers grabbed onto his hair. His eyes were squeezed shut, and every muscle in his body seemed to be tense.
He was injured, he knew that much. He had to fight villains, and he was outnumbered, so there was no telling that he was going to be at least a little roughed up. But the fights themselves weren't the main things that injured him.
It was Hanako's mother's quirk that made him feel like every muscle in his body was on fire and being ripped up. It was Hanako's mother's quirk that made his head pound and his vision blur.
But it was the villains that had cut him, hit him in the head, attacked him.
He didn't know when the pain stopped. It was an immediate relief. It was probably when he passed out.
The four that had rescued that two were beyond unprepared. They hadn't really considered that the two could be injured seeing as they both only had a few scratches and bumps when they were taken.
So when they were greeted with Hanako bleeding out from the chest whilst also being in a state of anaphylactic shock, and then there was Bakugo covered in blood and also bleeding, they didn't really know what to do.
"Kacchan?!"
"Bakugo?!"
Shinso was quick on the ball though, probably because his best friend was bleeding out. "Midoriya, give me your jacket."
"What?"
"Give it." Shinso repeated, Midoriya scrambling to take the jacket off and to give it to Shinso. Shinso snatched the jacket and ripped it in two whilst ordering the other three. "One of you call an ambulance! Now! Or do you want two dead classmates?"
Iida's hands shook as he called 119, if possible, his voice wavered more. With the two pieces of fabric, Shinso scrunched them up separately and then placed one onto Hanako's chest and the other on her back. A bullet goes through things, it doesn't just stop.
Midoriya and Kirishima took it upon themselves to help with Bakugo's wounds, and for once there were no complaints from Bakugo's end. That was probably because he was unconscious. Todoroki helped with what he could for both of them. But there wasn't much they could do as they were grossly unprepared.
This couldn't have gone any worse.
It was less than five minutes before two ambulances arrived, good thing too, Hanako's breathing had almost stopped twice. There had been multiple protests from the four as they weren't allowed to go with the two.
"But please! I've known Kacchan for my whol-"
"Kid, I don't want to come off as rude, but both of them are in serious condition as of right now. I know you're just trying to be nice, but you need to go home and rest too, you and your friends." The paramedic explained before walking off.
The four were now left in an alleyway as night turned into day, as their tears dried, and their souls became solemn. One had died last nightfall, and it was only thanks to the person that killed them that they survived.
Maybe they did hold remorse.
Or maybe, dying was an easy way of dealing with problems and guilt, but living meant that she had to face her guilts and her problems.
Her problems being them.
She would face them once again.
********
The intensive care unit was rather busy on this morning, it would make sense, half of Kamino ward was destroyed, of course there's going to be injuries. The intensive care unit of this specific hospital had rooms with two beds in each, there had to be room for equipment and the beds themselves.
There was a rather large window which was allowing a soft light in, the light also heating up the blankets on the beds, slowly but surely that is. There were four people in the room at the time, those four being Hanako, Bakugo, and Bakugo's parents.
Bakugo's ash blond hair was still covered in blood, albeit dried now. His hands had been cleaned of the substance, though according to the nurses, they didn't want to clean his hair as it may aggravate any wounds on his head; which there were quite a few of. He had a nasal cannula (oxygen tube) that was resting just below his nose, and along with that he had an IV that was supplying some pretty severe medication as he would most definitely need it.
For the most part, Hanako's chest was wrapped up fully for the most part, though there were still wires that were supplying blood, nutrients, medication, and a multitude of other things scattered around her body. Unlike Bakugo, she had an oxygen mask, for what reason, that was unknown.
Both were pale, their skin looking as though it hadn't seen the sun in months; it had.
Mitsuki, Katsuki's mother, and Masaru, his father, were sat at Katsuki's side, to the left. The chairs they were sat at were the basic fabric kind, not too comfortable, but doable. Masaru was holding his son's hand, whilst Mitsuki was running her hands through her son's hair; which wasn't as soft as per usual.
Katsuki took in a deep breath. His eyes felt heavy and his body ached, it had never ached this much, at least not that he could recall of. On top of this, he felt kind of floaty, like one does whilst being underwater. He opened his eyes, his vision blurred, whether it be from slight tears or medication he didn't know.
The ceiling was plain white, and there were lights too, albeit turned off. The room smelt of cleaning chemicals and lemon, probably what the scent of the cleaning chemicals was. His mouth was dry, and tasted slightly of blood, most likely because he felt the faint pain of his tongue; he probably bit it. He could head two faint beeps, out of time with each other, most likely heartrate monitors.
He was in a hospital.
He felt something below his nose, and that something was going on his face and around to the back of his neck. He didn't like that. The villains-
Meekly, he lifted his right arm to pull it off his face, it felt heavy, his arm that is.
"No no, don't do that, Katsuki." A soft voice said, it was his father. The man tenderly grabbed his arm and pushed it back down onto the bed with Katsuki putting up little to no fight. Katsuki still didn't like the tube that was on his face and touching his neck, but he could live with it.
He turned his head slightly to look at his parents, but all it gets him is a stab of pain that rushes through his entire body and makes him squeeze his eyes shut briefly. What the hell...
The rhythmic beeping speeds up slightly then and there's rustling next to him.
"Katsuki?" Another familiar voice asks, though it sounds very different from how he's used to hearing it. He blinks his eyes open again when an uncharacteristically gentle hand rests against his head and comes face to face with his mother. When she speaks again, her voice is still uncharacteristically soft and relieved. "You weren't meant to wake up for a while, y'know."
Katsuki was going to make some snide comment of how 'I'm not some weakling' but when he went to speak, his throat felt raw and dry, forcing a cough to rip through his throat. It felt like his throat was burning. Like when he would eat a piece of food that was just out of the oven.
His father passed him a plastic cup of water that he was rather appreciative of whilst helping him to slowly sit up. "There you go, champ. You got a pretty bad concussion and some minor blood loss according to the doctors. " His father explained.
"You better not do that again, you gave us a heart attack." His mother joked, Katsuki rolling his eyes whilst continuing to sip on his water. He stopped all of his movements once he saw the bed to the right of him.
And then he remembered.
He understood why his eyes were sore, and he understood why his heart hurt and his mind was floating in feelings. Maybe the constant noise of beeping, whether it be from her or him, wasn't too bad.
"Is Spidey okay?" Katsuki asked, his parents shooting him confused glances.
"Who's Spidey?" His mother asked, his father nodding along. Katsuki sighed and tilted his head towards the bed next to him. "Oh that girl, she didn't get off as lucky as you, champ,-" Katsuki held his breath because he knew that, he knew that she wouldn't get off as lucky as him."- but seeing as no one came as her guardian, we don't know more than that her condition's stable."
That was somewhat a relief. She was fine, she was going to be fine, but even better, those excuses of parents didn't show up. He laid back in his bed, he felt exhausted and as if he were in a haze. That was the medication. He closed his eyes blithely, and his breaths became slower.
Now he could rest in tranquillity.
*******
"Do you feel as though we went too far?"
"No, what we showed her and everyone else was that we have power, and that proves to us that they are afraid."
"I agree, but she could die."
"And? Look, we've done several tests on her body and it has all come back the same, the plan won't work."
The woman sighed at the man's response. "What do you suppose we do now? Are we going back home, or running off?"
"We should stay at our house, it's good shelter."
"But what about Hanako? She has to go somewhere."
"Why do you worry?"
"Because if we do go home, then she could rat us out."
"Darling, it's too late to worry about that." The man responded, the two sitting in a warm room that had wooden flooring and warm accents.
"I suppose you're right."
********
The woman ran down the alleyway in her crimson heels as the man came every closer, the man was in all black with an equally black face-mask. She knew he was up to no good when he pushed her into the alleyway into the first place. She was panicked, naturally, as all she wanted was to get back home to her wife and two cats.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!" The terrified woman sobbed out
"I want you-" he cornered her in the dead-end of the alleyway, seeing her face only morph into more of a feared expression "-to be dead. It's only fair."
He pulled out a knife with a big blade, one intimidating to the sobbing woman. Her make-up was being ruined by her salty tears which didn't cease at any point, only flowing down faster the more the situation escalated.
"PLEASE! I'll do anything!" Her voice quietening as sobs racked her lungs, preventing her from getting proper breaths.
"Get down on your knees and beg." The man growled, his black, cat like eyes watching her like a hawk making sure she wasn't to run away. The woman did as told and got down on her knees and began to beg him to let her live. Though the man continued "It's funny, people say they never want to die, but what it really is, is a relief from the pained world we live in. You'll find out."
He stood beside her and whispered one final thing in her ear as he stabbed her ruthlessly in the back and neck, the woman letting out muffled screams of agony as her mouth was covered with his hand.
The colour drained from her face as her now lifeless body laid in the alleyway, he took said body through a portal thankfully supplied by their one and only Kurogiri.
It turns out Kumoshi wasn't done, and that mean that the League wasn't done either.