CONTENT: Sad Angst
Bakugou Katsuki's POV
Who was he? It was such a simple, basic question, and yet proved to be one that Katsuki couldn't possibly answer. His gaze fell to the floor, the tension slowly easing out of Katsuki's body as his consciousness retreated somewhere deep inside himself.
He was a boy. Yes. He was sixteen years old. Yes. He was scared. Yes. His name was...His name was Katsuki. Katsuki who? Katsuki...Bakugou. Yes. He was somewhere in Japan. Why? Because he lived there. Yes. He lived there...By himself? No. But for now, at least, he wasn't alone anymore.
Ruby red eyes snapped back up to the three people standing in front of them, widening almost immediately. Scrambling off the bed, bare feet brushing against the stone cold floor, Katsuki backed himself into a corner. Those people had crept forwards while he was thinking.
They were close. Too close. Katsuki didn't like it, he didn't feel safe. Suddenly, he wanted to be alone again. Katsuki didn't want to be with these people, he wasn't longing for human interaction and didn't need to converse with those strangers. He was fine being by himself, he felt that being alone would be safer than being in their company.
As it was, Katsuki knew only himself. He had no knowledge beyond the basics of bodily coordination and speech, no prior thoughts to guide himself with. He was running on pure adrenaline-pumped impulses, nothing else. The leftover stress from his previous 'seizure' put him on high alert, with stimulated senses and a whirlwind of thoughts.
"Who are you?" Katsuki demanded again, though his voice sounded strained and forced even to his own ears.
"Aw, you don't remember me?" The girl said, sounding hurt.
"Should I? Do I...Know you?" Katsuki asked hesitantly.
"No, you don't know her or any of us." Said the one from the middle sharply, though it seemed to be aimed at his own companion more than anyone else. Katsuki blinked, taken aback, and began to lower his fists.
"Well, he does now! I'm Toga Himiko, nice to meet you again!" Exclaimed the female in a high, lilting voice.
A giggle punctuated her statement as she moved towards Katsuki, letting him see her for himself. Toga wore two messy buns of blonde hair on either side of her head which bobbed up and down as she tipped her head at Katsuki, honey gold eyes glimmering in the dim lighting. She was small in stature, and hummed a little melody to herself as Katsuki looked her over.
She was a petite girl, only appearing to be a little older than Katsuki estimated himself to be. Toga wore what appeared as a schoolgirl's outfit, with a beige cardigan, stereotypical skirt, and a red bandanna tied around her collar. Toga's face melded into a close eyed grin as Katsuki finally registered what she'd said.
"Wait, meet me again?"
"This is Dabi," The man from the middle said again, signalling to the looming male behind him and outright ignoring Katsuki's query.
After a moment of suspense, the supposed 'Dabi' took a step forwards into the light. Half-lidded turquoise eyes peered out from under low hanging midnight hair, stuck in a foreign punk-like style, and the man's mouth was set in an unimpressed grimace. That wasn't what caught Katsuki's attention though.
Rather, it was the patches of burned purple skin that followed the curve of his jawbone, covering a decent half of his face. The same blemished substance stood stark against the pale skin under Dabi's eyes and along what was visible of his arms, presumably his legs as well.
Where the burns met his normal flesh crude surgical staples held the two together, making it impossible to tell if the disfigurement was accidental or self-inflicted. He wore a long dark blue trench coat with two large metal cuffs at the start of each elbow, and a hem that lay ripped and tattered by his feet.
He was even taller than Katsuki had first thought, and held an aura of incurable boredom. Dabi appeared to be in his early twenties, but the charred disfigurements all over his body distorted his appearance enough to make Katsuki second guess himself. Dabi was intimidating to say the least, with a face straight out of a child's nightmare. But then again, Katsuki didn't even know what he himself looked like, so how could he judge?
"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Asked Toga, directing her question at the third member of her party.
He hesitated for a moment, before grudgingly entering the spotlight for himself. "I go by the name Shigaraki Tomura."
Shigaraki was slim, just as Katsuki had noted earlier on, with deathly pale skin and chapped lips. He had messy greyish-blue hair, chopped and grown out in uneven wavy clumps. Shigaraki wore plain red tennis sneakers, and his black jean-pants left his ankles exposed to the air just above them.
The young man wore a matching coloured long-sleeved T-shirt, which was covered by a dark jacket over the top. More concerning though were the dismembered hands positioned along various parts of his body. Katsuki felt the cold touch of fear crawl down his spine as he counted fourteen, and dragged his focus to the main limb, plastered against Shigaraki's face.
It concealed his key features, but Katsuki caught the flash of a mahogany red eye from in between one of the fingers. As he watched, Shigaraki lifted his own hand to the side of his neck and started scratching at the flaking skin. The sickening sound of nails scraping against flesh had Katsuki wincing, but to his relief Shigaraki stopped almost as soon as he realised he'd started doing it.
"Well now that the formalities are behind us, we can get to business." Shigaraki said, holding his other hand out and clicking his fingers.
Dabi stepped forwards, resonant clinking echoing in the eerie silence. Hanging from the burned man's grasp was a pile of chains, strung throughout his splayed fingers like string, and some sort of muzzle. Katsuki's eyes darted from the restraints to the three people's expressionless faces before they narrowed, his lips curling into a snarl. Before he had a chance to say anything though, Shigaraki spoke again.
"We can give you the answers I'm sure you want, Bakugou Katsuki, but you're going to have to play by our rules."
Katsuki's face fell slack. These people knew his name. Did that mean he was supposed to have known theirs? Katsuki racked his brain but try as he might, couldn't pin a single fact or scrap of information to any of the faces. There was nothing, only blankness. He looked back at them and realised that all he could evaluate them on as people was his initial reaction, and gut feelings.
Fear. Worry. Concern. Anxiety. Panic.
Katsuki knew that this didn't look promising for him, but the situation only had one route. There was nowhere else for him to go except out that door, and with those people. So, reluctantly, Katsuki let them tie him up and drag him through the rough hewn exit.
— — —
The bonds hurt Katsuki, rubbing incessantly wherever they met his skin. His arms had been joined at the wrists by some sort of binding cuffs, which then continued upwards to cover his elbow before stopping at the point where the muscle of his shoulder connected to the sinew of his bone.
Katsuki's feet had also been chained together, only giving a minimal amount of slack so that he had to shuffle with small steps in order to avoid falling over. His three new companions walked briskly too, causing him to stumble occasionally.
He wanted to hiss in distress every time they cut a little bit further into his body, but the strange mask covering his face prevented all but the smallest sounds to escape his mouth. It was uncomfortable and awkward for Katsuki, and he didn't like it. At all.
The corridors Katsuki entered were numerous and similar, each made of the same dark material and of the same style. They were all slightly cramped so that Shigaraki ended up walking in front, Dabi behind, and Toga skipping next to Katsuki in the middle. Doors lined each side, with a decent fifteen meters between each, and the group passed too many to count.
After untold minutes, one turn after another, they reached the end of the hallway before stoping in front of the entryway. Shigaraki placed two fingertips on the handle, but didn't open it. Without so much as a backwards glance, he spoke;
"If you disrespect my Sensei in any way, there will be consequences that you'll have to face up to."
Katsuki blinked once in contemplation, before nodding his understanding. The door opened into what Katsuki was surprised to find was a bar of some kind. Not a speck of dust moved, and not a soul stirred. It was empty, and Katsuki's brow furrowed slightly in confusion as his restraints were adjusted to accomodate for the wooden chair he was sat on.
Another stool was placed in front of him, and on it, an old but well cared for radio box. The three other people moved out of Katsuki's line of sight, taking off his mask before loitering somewhere behind him. It was dead silent, until the old fashioned speaker crackled like a live wire and a deep, monotonous voice spoke through its amplifier.
"Ah, young Bakugou. I've been expecting to talk to you for some time now, but first, let me introduce myself and the people you are with. This is our base, and we are the League Of Villains. I am All For One, and I am here to try and help you."