For a while, it was like you were in a deep sleep. With nothing surrounding you, nothing to disturb the peace you seemed to be having.
It was kind of strange -the peace, the quiet.
You remembered having just been attacked by the league of villains.
However, now you weren't anywhere near them. In fact, you had no idea where you were. But it was quiet, there was no noise coming from anywhere, no heavy breaths, no trembling hands, no blood, no fighting, no hurt.
It felt good. Like a nice dream, one you wished you never woke up from -simply because it was better than whatever reality had in store.
But dreams aren't more than that -just dreams.
And you have to wake up and face the world, whatever it wants with you, whether you like it or not.
There is rarely a choice.
***
When you opened your eyes, the first thing you saw were several pairs of eyes, some looking at you, some looking to your left, at something -or rather someone- you couldn't see.
The first thing you felt was a hand wrapped around your neck. It wasn't tight, but it was tight enough to keep you from moving.
You were being attracted by something from behind. You didn't dare try to look at what it was, however, as one of the many people watching you with horrified eyes moved.
He ran in your direction, an arm stuck out, reaching for something. His green curls were bouncing up and down as he ran, almost distracting you from the whole situation you were in.
"Kacchan!" he yelled, and you spotted the fear in his eyes.
The world started going blurry and you just about spotted a head of red and white hair, watching you with the same horrified expression as the green-haired one had.
"Don't come, Deku" the something beside you spoke as your vision went dark, and the familiar feel of that black portal came through again.
***
"Well, well. Isn't this a sight."
You slightly flinched at the familiar voice. Opening your eyes, you saw yourself sitting on a chair, your arms tied behind, your legs tied to the legs of the chair.
You didn't need to look at the chair to your right, as a grunt came from Bakugou, who was more securely tied next to you.
The room you were in looked like a bar, and the whole league was occupying it. After a few seconds of silence, Shigaraki continued, "Neither of you will say anything, will you?"
"Shigaraki, what should we do?" came Kurogiri's voice.
Shigaraki folded his arms, "Nothing for now, I wanna have some fun, test the waters first".
You kept your head low, too afraid to look at any of them. You kept your hands in fists, trying to stop them from trembling, but failing miserably. At times like these, you could only wonder how people like Bakugou could be so brave.
"So, let's start at the beginning." Shigaraki spoke again, walking closer to you. "Y/n. Long time no see, eh?" you didn't respond. "Reckon you know exactly why you're here. A smart little girl, aren't ya?"
Shigaraki leaned down, his head now at your level, but you still kept your eyes glued to the ground. "He still wants it, and he will have it, I'll make sure of that. Not like last time." his voice was now plain, void of any emotion, but threatening at the same time.
Bakugou was not having it. "Oi! The hell you talking about?!"
Shigaraki straightened up again, turning his head in Bakugous direction. "Oh? Curious much, aren't we? We want you to join us, Bakugou Katsuki, that's why you're here."
Bakugou frowned at Shigaraki's words, before moving his head to the left, referring to you, "And her?"
"That's an unfinished business. None of your concern, I'm afraid." Shigaraki then turned back to you. "So, where were we. Oh yes,"
You could tell he was now smirking only from the change of tone in his voice. However, you still couldn't look directly at him. "First, I thought I would put you in that exact same room, for the sake of memories, you know? But it seemed a little boring, and now we have the whole league here" he gestured to the people around, before leaning, once again, closer to you.
"Oh and, not just the league... " Shigaraki whispered, before straightening back up and walking closer to a monitor on the other side of the room. "...sensei?"
Your head shot up in an instant, a look of shock on your face. Bakugou was looking at you very confused, wondering who that was, but decided to keep quiet.
Your breath hitched as a voice came from the monitor, "Shigaraki. Got them yet?"
"No, unfortunately. But I will"
"I see. Do not disappoint me"
Only the sound of his voice made shivers run down your spine. Trying to remain calm, you took a few breaths in.
"Oi! What the hell is going on?! Who was that?!" Bakugou asked as the monitor shut again.
Shigaraki turned around. You now fully saw him too, and he was just like you remembered, only now a bit taller. He wasn't that much older than you, so you had always wondered what could have made him join the league.
You were sure it was somehow against his will -or by some sort of manipulation. All for One's doing, of course.
That man was so scary, you were surprised you hadn't given in back then.
"Bakugou Katsuki. You will see when the time comes. That is, if you join us, of course" Shigaraki said, looking at Bakugou, who scoffed, although you could sense the slight tremble in his voice.
"Tch. Never"
"Hm... Y/n here used to say that." He motioned to you. "Didn't do her too much good, unfortunately."
Bakugou looked at you once again, confusion still in his expression. "Huh?!"
You were looking back and forth between the two, not having the strength to say anything, a blank expression on your face.
"He wanted her quirk, you see, hers and another boy's. But back then, we didn't have what we had today, so we couldn't succeed. But now we do. And we will succeed." Shigaraki explained, somehow glad to share that information which you obviously wanted buried deep down. While speaking, he gave you a glance and even though his face wasn't visible, you could tell he was smirking.
You didn't react in any way. For some reason, after internally freaking out for a few minutes, you were numb. That place -even though it wasn't the same as the one you had been to back then- had the same atmosphere, one that used to scare you, make you want to cry and scream and beg to be taken anywhere but there.
But now, seeing yourself surrounded by the league once again, you didn't feel anything. It was almost as if you didn't care what happened anymore, like being there once more meant that safety wasn't an option for you anymore.
However, you weren't the only one there this time. There was Bakugou too. And he wasn't like that. He wasn't going to just stay put and wait for whatever the league had in mind.
You could tell that, even though he was scared, part of him couldn't wait for the chance to fight them. And when Shigaraki freed him, almost mockingly, he didn't even hesitate before forming explosions.
Shigaraki didn't free you, though. He wanted to see what Bakugou would do in that situation -how he would fight, his instincts, his attitude.
From you, he wanted only the quirk. There was no need to measure your abilities or anything of the sort.
Not that you had the strength or motivation to fight, even if you had been given the chance to. You just watched Bakugou land a few kicks, before he knocked the hand off of Shigaraki's face, which attracted more of your attention.
It was the first time you saw his face. It surprised you, but at the same it was just what you expected. Dull, red eyes, surrounded by self-inflicted scratches, so many and so deep it almost made you visibly cringe. His lips were chapped, his lower one with a red spot, probably from having cracked to the point where it bled.
Under all that, though, he looked helpless and scared and small and controlled by someone stronger against whom he had no power.
At that moment, something inside told you that maybe he didn't have a choice either. Maybe it had been the only option that would keep him somehow safe from the world.
He was a villain, yes, but maybe you had judged too quickly.
There was a knock on the door, which left the entire league silent. They all stared curiously at it, wondering who could have discovered their hideout, before a voice spoke, "Excuse me! Pizza delivery!"
"I'll go" Dabi said, heading for the door.
You glanced at Bakugou, who was looking at you with a frown. He seemed calm, considering the situation you found yourselves in.
Before Dabi had the chance to open the door, the wall to your left crumbled, through it coming All Might, along with other heroes.
"SMAAASH!"
Before anyone could react, most of the league was immobilized by a branch-based quirk, and All Might made his grand entrance, before Grand Torino went and freed you.
From the sounds, it seemed like many more heroes, including the police, were outside.
Bakugou was standing next to you, trying to get in the fight, before a weird black goo came out of nowhere, surrounding both of you, and everything went dark once again.
You found yourself outside of the building, surrounded by the police, as well as many heroes, all fighting. Bakugou was next to you, looking just as confused.
As the rest of the league of villains appeared from that same black goo, a voice made you turn around.
"Well, well, what do we have here?"
***
A/n: im not sure if I made it clear enough, so I will fully explain here. As you might have figured out by the few flashbacks, as well as this chapter, when she was about 12, Y/n was captured by the league of villains, along with Shinsou. That was, because AFO wanted to take their quirks and inherit them himself, since he considered them useful (Y/n's time stopping quirk and Shinsou's mind control). However, back then, he didn't have the full power of doing that. He had a machine that could fully extract one's quirk, but the down side was that the person had to give their consent, which means that AFO couldn't just knock them out and then extract their quirk (this "machine" is of course a product of my imagination, not something that actually existed in the manga/anime. I inspired it after those things they used during the shie hassaikai arc to take Mirio's quirk).
However, AFO wasn't able to earn Y/n and Shinsou's consent for their quirks, so he tortured them almost every day for about a week, but neither of them gave in.
After a week, All Might came and rescued them along with the police.
Following those events, Y/n was left with psychological trauma, which caused her to lose most of her memories from before the kidnap. Thus, she basically became a different person, more reserved and quieter etc, and she forgot a lot of important things about her childhood.
As for her and Shinsou, while kept in that place, they developed a sort of safety feeling in each other. For a while after the event, both of them lived like robots, unable to feel much, while the reality of what they had just gone through started appearing.
They met up often after that and kept each other company. It was better for both of them to be surrounded by someone with the same experiences. That's how they developed a connection which remained when they went to the same middle school and now high school.
Their relationship is strictly platonic, so don't worry, Todoroki has no rivals;))
I hope that clears things up a bit, thank you for reading, and see you next time!
Also, don't mind me posting this today instead of tomorrow, i got excited lol
-D