They arrived inside Overhaul's headquarters. The place was clean and tidy.
Overhaul casually sat onto the couch with his henchmen surrounding him. He gave off satisfied vibes as he spoke. "Sorry about the whole disassembling thing. It's unfortunate, I didn't wanna do that but you left me no choice."
That apology didn't even seem sincere. Satoko kept glaring at Overhaul.
It took everything within Shigaraki to not say what he was really feeling. Overhaul didn't HAVE to do anything. Not with the advantage that he had. Shigaraki couldn't risk him hurting Satoko though. "You took Takahashi's quirk. When will it return?"
"About that," Overhaul waved his hand dismissively. "Her quirk should naturally come back soon. It takes about a few hours or less for the drug to wear off."
They were tricked? They could have left Overhaul and not come here?
(That liar made it seem like he had a cure!) Satoko shouted in her head.
"This drug..." Twice started. "How did you make it? We haven't seen anything like it before."
"Pretty typical stuff."
"The one we've used on her," Overhaul pointed towards Satoko. "Is the weaker dosage. It doesn't have long-term effects. If we did use the stronger one on her, we would have provided an antidote. But we only have ONE antidote."
"You need to just-" Satoko finally regained her voice. A gun was pointed at her.
"I see you have your voice back. I am rather interested to see how your quirk would work, but I highly suggest you not using it on me." Overhaul suggested in a threatening manner. "Not unless you'd want to lose your quirk completely. You may never speak again."
Satoko bit her tongue. Even if there is an antidote, where would she be able to find it? With these watchful goons, it would be hard to do. That wasn't a risk she was willing to take.
Toga definitely didn't trust working alongside Overhaul. Who's to say he won't turn around and betray them? He maliciously killed Shigaraki over and over again. Satoko was thinking along the same lines.
"Anyway," Overhaul continued. "We produce our drug by a DNA source. I wasn't sure if you would believe me if not for testing it on that woman. But isn't this grand? A drug that destroys quirks. Wouldn't you like to have that on your hands to reach your goals?"
The idea was an interesting one to Dabi. Perhaps Shoto and Endeavor could understand how he felt when he was younger if he made their quirks go away before killing them. "Would we be able to take some of the bullets for our own plans? I have my eyes on two people to take quirks away from."
"Not without some sort of alliance. Payment." Overhaul responded. He eyed towards Shigaraki specifically. "What do you say about that?"
These people were really fools to him. He didn't really care what would happen. Promises aren't worth keeping with Overhaul. People are nothing to him. Once they're used, he will dispose of them. Just like the feeble ants they are.
"I don't have a choice anyway. It doesn't matter how I feel," Shigaraki replied bitterly.
"Then it's settled?" Dabi smiled. "We already agreed to work with you. All we need is you to give us our part."
"Dabi-" Satoko leered at him.
There was a sudden tremor. Everyone looked a bit confused as to what was happening. One of Overhaul's men came in.
"The heroes! They found us!"
"How?" Overhaul stood up. "What about the girl?"
"We can't find her! She must be on the move."
Overhaul cursed. He stashed away one of the guns. To be honest, he didn't have many quirk-destroying bullets. They were still in process of mass production. It is such a lengthy procedure using a live DNA sample to make such products.
"You two, stay in groups with our men." Overhaul ordered Toga and Twice. They both had the idea of sabotaging this to the heroes' advantage. But they kept that to themselves.
Little does Satoko know, the gun Overhaul had didn't have any bullets in it. It was a scare tactic for her to listen.
"You." He motioned for Satoko to come over. "You're coming with me." Satoko didn't answer, so Overhaul roughly grabbed her arm. If anyone were to get the kid to listen, she would be useful as a device to do so. "You will do what I say." He brushed the gun against her throat. Its cold touch gave Satoko goosebumps.
There was no way she could be her mouthy self at this moment.
...
Tiny feet hit against the hard floor. The girl's heart was pounding so loudly that she was scared Overhaul could hear it.
Overhaul came into view. The young girl froze, her eyes widening in fear. A wave of sheer, dizzying terror washed over her. She knew that he wouldn't be happy with her, and that thought scared her more than anything else.
Satoko came from behind him. Shigaraki didn't want Satoko to go by herself with him. He convinced Overhaul that they should go as a small group.
Apparently, Dabi didn't seem too keen on Overhaul and Shigaraki taking her, so he followed as well.
"Eri, where do you think you're going?" Overhaul asked.
Satoko watched the small child with unkempt and messy hair. There's a brown horn poking out from the right side of her forehead.
(What's a kid doing here?) Satoko felt uneasy about this. Not only that, there was bandages wrapped around both her arms and legs.
Dabi quickly put the pieces of the puzzle together. That girl- Eri- was clearly being used. "Your DNA source for the bullets is a little kid?"
That caused Shigaraki to feel uneasy as well. That small child standing before them was being killed over and over again for the sake of some bullets? He didn't like that. Even though he was a villain too, the thought of putting a kid so young through that was disgusting to him.
Eri whimpered. She took a small step backwards without taking her eyes off of them. "Please...I just wanted to walk around. That's all."
Her eyes moved on from Overhaul to study the others carefully. Shigaraki and Dabi both seemed scary to her. Especially Dabi. Satoko, on the other hand, seemed to practically radiate warmth and safety. Eri wasn't sure what it was about her, but she immediately knew that she could be trusted. The only thing she wasn't sure of was why she was with Overhaul. She could guess that she was threatened or forced into it.
"Tch." Overhaul spat. Dabi was smarter than he actually looks. "You're correct. We need to take her." He was talking to Dabi.
While he was distracted, Satoko had thoughts. She can tell by looking at Eri's eyes, those were eyes of being a victim to abuse. Similar to how Satoko looked at herself in the mirror as she had hard days. Living with her parents. The trauma they've put her through.
Anger and sadness crept up onto her heart. She can empathize with this child. She wants to save her.
Just like how her 'grandpa' had done in the past.
While Overhaul was talking to Dabi, Satoko whispered to Shigaraki, "We need to help her."
"How do you plan to do that?" He whispered back. "He'll kill us. I wouldn't put it past him to kill her again just to get us to stop. We didn't come here to be heroes. I don't want to risk any of our lives to help someone we don't know."
"But she's a child. Look at her." She pressed. She felt sad he even said that. Maybe Dabi was right. Maybe these villains are just bad and don't care.
(Why did I bother staying with them? Why did I-) Her expression became obvious that she was bothered immensely. Not only that, how many times did this monster kill this child?
(The fact that I'm even considering this is stupid.) Shigaraki sighed. He scratched his neck a few times as he thought. "If you want to help her, I will do my best to make sure you're able to. But I don't know if I can keep us from getting hurt or killed for long."
As they were talking, Dabi approached Eri. He reached his arms out towards her. "Come here. We can't have you running around like this."
Eri was hesitant, but after seeing Overhaul's threatening expression, she crawled into Dabi's arms. Her heart started pounding even faster when he lifted her up. Tears were starting to form in her eyes.
"All this fuss over her? Really? She seems completely harmless," Dabi stated. (Somehow, I need to get her away from him. For her DNA to be used in quirk erasing bullets, she must have that power inside of her. She can be of use to us.)
There was more tremors happening. Some pellets from the ceiling fell down a little bit.
"We need to get out of here before the heroes get her." Overhaul looked at Dabi, pleased he was able to retrieve her. "Co-"
Suddenly, Satoko took all the energy she had to cross chop the back of Overhaul's neck. It made his eyes bulge from the shock of it, but he collapsed, knocked out onto the ground.
The adrenaline was too high as that was a risky move. She couldn't stop herself from panting as she took the gun from the unconscious man. She realized there wasn't any bullets in it. (He lied.)
Why was that? Was he not planning on actually taking away her quirk?
Not taking any chances, she smashed the gun to pieces with her foot.
Shigaraki turned to Dabi. "Hand her over. We're getting her away from here."
"Don't you realize how useful she can be to us?" Dabi asked. "She is the source for the drug. If we can get that drug then we're all one step closer to our goals."
Eri didn't respond. She was staring at Shigaraki and Satoko with wide eyes, silently pleading for help.
Those eyes were enough to even make Shigaraki feel awful. He had to refrain from reaching out to take her into his arms himself. "She's not even a hero in training. She's just a kid. We aren't going to take her away only go hurt her."
For a moment, Satoko paused to think. It was during the time she first used her quirk on Dabi. The time she lost her voice.
...
'You see, we actually aren't that different.' He started. 'I was the result of a quirk marriage too. My father is a famous hero, but he was always second choice. No one would want him as number one. Even now that he is the number one hero, I doubt he has many fans. I was the first born too, but unlike you, I had a powerful quirk. But guess what? It still wasn't enough for him!'
Dabi continued smiling as though what he was talking about wasn't traumatic. He was burying those feelings deep down.
'It's ironic, right? I had a powerful quirk and all, but I still ended up being neglected. It was because my brother was born that it happened. HE had what they really wanted. If he had never been born, I might not have been neglected. But it's not like they actually love him anyway. He's just a tool. Not even human.'
Dabi pointed to himself. 'I'M human. This is what it looks like when heroes get what they want. All burnt up. It's an ugly truth, isn't it? I have seen the corruption up close. Quirk marriages. Abuse in the home. THAT'S what heroes are really about. Not saving people. But you know all that already, don't you?'
'This is the only way to stop them. You say that talking doesn't work. So why do we keep doing what we know will fail? Only those who have experienced the truth first-hand have the means to stop it. They call us villains, but we're our own heroes. Someone has to be fighting for themselves in this world.'
...
She repeated what he had said, almost word for word. Although, she's starting to believe more that what he told her wasn't true. There wasn't any details he had given her with his past. She believed that he only said those things to get her to join.
She doesn't know the fullness to his own trauma.
"You want to use an innocent child?" She asked angrily. "You say you want to end corruption, yet you're wanting to use her as a source of a drug. What about that so called 'abuse' you went through? I very much DOUBT you really understand her and I. You're such a liar claiming you were a victim!"
Her voice ended up getting louder. "You're your own 'hero'? You make me SICK."