Izuku ran through alleyways for the whole night. He was stuck in the maze like back alleys of the city. The rain had stopped earlier that night, leaving him cold, wet, and shaking. He didn't know where he was and it scared him. These weren't the alleys he remembered from when he was eight.

The early days of his abandonment had been spent getting used to the streets and what the different parts of Musutafu looked like. He wasn't in Musutafu.

At some point Izuku tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. He shifted mid fall to land on his shoulder to lessen impact and laid there. He was so so tired. There was a vague feeling of pain in his left ankle, he must've sprained it when he tripped.

What was he gonna do?

Familiar aching set into his bones the longer he laid there. It wouldn't be so bad to rest, right?

Izuku's eyelids felt like lead and every blink made it harder to keep them open. Slowly sleep took him over and he was dragged back into the subconscious of his mind. When he opened his eyes again the sun was up and soft rays shone down past the rooftops of the buildings next to him.

He staggered to his feet only to stumble when he put pressure down on his ankle. It was definitely sprained. It didn't feel as bad as it could be so he'd give it about two weeks before it was fully healed, that is, if he rested it.

There was a dumpster a few feet away that had its lid open and Izuku limped over time the edge to peek in.

To his disappointment, there was nothing inside that could help him make a splint, but then something caught his eye. Behind the dumpster and a whole hoard of clothes. Shirts, pants, and a few blankets. Whoever put all this there was obviously coming back, but they wouldn't notice if something was missing, would they?

The clothes were damp from what he assumed was the rainfall last night and that was when he realized that the hospital gown he still wore was damp and cling to his skin.

He didn't really want to take more than he needed, he already had the gown (even if it did make him feel uncomfortable) to wear. These were somebody else's things. Feeling a little more guilty, he took one of the t-shirts and sat against the wall of the alleyway.

Izuku has never done this before and he didn't really know what to do, so he awkwardly wrapped his ankle with the large stretched out shirt to hold his ankle still in a standing position. The cold dampness did well against the swelling and Izuku relaxed at the slightly relieved pain.

Now he had a new problem to deal with though. Izuku couldn't speak (he could if he worked his vocal muscles but that takes time he didn't have) and he didn't know JSL. He'd always just used writing to talk to people and that was usually just Kurogiri.

He didn't have his notebooks with him, so he couldn't write to ask for help. What he even say if he could? Hey, I'm sorry to bother you, but I just escaped being experimented on after years of cruel abuse and torture, while also leaving behind one of the only people who have ever been kind to me in favor of getting help. Do you think you could direct me in the right direction please?

Yeah, no.

Taking a deep breath, he stood up again and tested his weight on his newly splinted foot. He couldn't put too much on it, or it would only stop the healing process, but he could walk, even if it was a limp.

The steps were treacherous and the pain was beginning to be agonizing as his other limbs still stung from unhealed lacerations. The back alleyways were like a labyrinth of tunnels and Izuku couldn't even begin to tell where he was.

There were no people in sight to look to for directions (who was he kidding, he wouldn't even be able to ask if there was.)

He just hoped he could make it to a street soon. Osachi still needed help.

___________________________________

Tenya was bristling under his suit when he walked the streets of Hosu. His face had been controlled and calm, but his mind racing with thoughts, all fighting over priority.

Manual had caught on to what he was planning and told him to think logically before doing something he would regret. What did he know?

He didn't know how Tenya felt.

None of them did.

Tenya soon regretted not listening to Manual when he could as the Hero Killer stood over him, eyes gleaming dangerously, blade hovering over his back. He couldn't move a muscle. It was like his body had given up on him.

"Perish," The villain seethed before bringing the blade down.

He closed his eyes, waiting for death as he watched his life pass before his eyes. Thoughts of his classmates and friends, apologies to Tensei that he'd never get to say. He waited for the blinding white pain of the katana piercing his back.

But it never came.

Looking up he was met with the sight of the Hero Killer being pulled back by bandaged scrawny thin arms. The katana was pulled back with him as Stain turned to meet his offender, only to be met with the sight of short green haired boy. It was the same boy from the USJ.

He and his classmates had asked about who the strange boy next to the villain they had called Shigaraki Tomura was. The teachers had been pretty tight lipped, but inevitably, Midnight-sensei told them that he was a boy their age that had been forced into villainy after being kidnapped at a young age. No one could find out his whereabouts for years and plans of rescue were being made now that they knew he was still alive.

Now as Tenya looked on, he made sure to take in as much about the boy as he could. His teachers and the police would want to know, that is if they made it out of this alive.

The boy wore a dirty white hospital gown that was ripped up at the bottom hem. Dirtied white bandages covered his arms and legs with red blood seeping through. He was thin as a twig and didn't look very strong, but seemed to be quick on his feet, despite the sprained ankle he seemed to have. It was wrapped up in a dirty t-shirt. The boy's hair was long, about past his shoulders, and matted with grime and dirt.

Sickly pale and thin cheeks with dotted freckles held an angry frown as he didn't let go of Stain's arm. Green eyes that looked haunted as the light dimmed in their depths.

Tenya didn't need to be a rocket scientist to tell that this boy was hurt.

"Hey! Get out of here! You're hurt, there isn't anything you can do!" Tenya shouted. The boy didn't even look in his direction, but let out a rasp as he tried to speak. Was he a mute?

"Who are you, boy? You aren't a hero," Stain seethed, but didn't notice as the greenette slipped one of the knives from his sheathes. The boy held it up in front of him defensively before giving Stain a large pull and throwing him aside with strength that Tenya didn't think he had and then running to his side.

He fell over Tenya and reached into his pockets, feeling for something. Tenya stayed silent as he noticed the weight of his phone leaving his side and the sound of buttons being tapped on the screen.

The boy (somehow) figures out his passcode and then did something in his contacts. He really hoped that he'd sent out a location for help.

Finally he decided to speak as he saw his phone drop to the ground. "What do you think you're doing? Get out of here! This isn't your fight!" The boy looked at him with a hesitant and scared expression before standing and facing the Hero Killer, who stood a ways away and looked on curiously.

"Who are you? Some hospital run away?" Stain said as he approached.

The boy held up the knife in a way that said he carried experience as his eyes narrowed, studying the man.

"Can you even talk?" The man asked.

He shrugged.

"You should get out of here now while you can. I don't like killing children, but I will if I have to," Stain spoke deeply. Threatening.

The boy held the knife up in response to the killer's threat and his eyes gleamed.

"Then purge," He spoke.

What followed was a blur of movement as both males clashed their blades together. Stain tried to use the boy's sprained ankle against him, but the boy jumped in time to get a slash on the man's arm. It wasn't a large cut, but it was deep enough to coat the knife in blood as Stain held the injury. The boy was clearly skilled with a knife.

They circled each other in the narrow alleyway, Stain's face growing in interest, as the boy's eyes were narrowed and his mouth contorted into a scowl.

"You're faster than you look, kid. I'll give you that. And even with an injured leg. Although, you look used to fighting while hurt," Stain said while eyeing the bandages, still soaked in blood from beneath.

The boy growled lowly, all previous hesitation gone in the face of the killer.

"You won't leave, will you? You'll fight until you die, just to save these two fakes?" Stain seethed as he glanced in the direction of Tenya and Native, who lay against the wall of the alley next to him, staring at the two in both horror and frustration at the fact he couldn't move to stop what was happening.

Growling again as confirmation, the boy spread his feet into a guarding stance in front of Tenya and stopped the circling.

"Maybe you are worth letting live," The man whispered to himself.

He charged the boy once more, katana posed in attack, and the boy parried it before slipping behind stain and going to strike at his other arm, aiming for the artery. Stain flipped around faster than Tenya could blink and cut the boy across the cheek.

Blood coated the sword at the tip as the boy's face bled from the small cut. It did nothing to stop him though as he brought the knife down anyway and cut across Stain's chest. It wasn't deep enough to stop him.

Stain quickly licked the blade and Tenya watched as the boy fell to the ground with a thud, the knife slipping out of his lax hand and hitting the cement with a clank. Desperation painted the boy's face as he watched Stain turn and walk towards Tenya and Native. The boy sent silent pleas, mouthing for him to stop but was never heard.

And just before Stain could end Tenya's life, as the acceptance fell over and he resigned to his fate, ice came flying into the alleyway, freezing all its occupants and forcing the Hero killer away as an ice ramp pulled them towards the sender.

"You should be glad you sent that you were in trouble, Iida-kun. You can be cryptic sometimes and if you had just sent your location I might not have known you needed help," Todoroki said as he can into the alley, waving his phone with the location app attached.

Ice covered his left side and a red eye showed through. His one visible eye zeroed in on the other end of the alley. "I was almost too late."

"I wasn't the one who sent the message," Iida said as he looked at the newcomer, "It was him. He used my phone." Todoroki regarded him for a moment before looking to the boy in the hospital gown, most likely coming to the same conclusion as Tenya about the boy's identity.

"I see," He said with suspicion. "Help will be here soon, don't worry."

Stain's face lit up with recognition, "You're the second place winner of the Sports Festival."

"Yeah, and you're a killer who's murdered dozens of pro heroes and left many more disabled," He growled. "I think we got introductions down."

Tenya watched as the boy next to him moved his fingers, and then his legs, and was then able to move his whole body as he tugged on Todoroki's sleeve. Todoroki looked down at him curiously with a stone face as the boy pointed to his injured cheek and wiped a bit of blood off with his finger before licking it and pointing at Stain. Then he gestured to himself and then Tenya as well as Native.

"He ingests blood and then is able to paralyze people?" Todoroki asked, somehow making sense of the game of charades he was playing. It was amazing because Tenya has always lost at that game.

The boy nodded and stood up, facing the Hero killer, whose face was in surprise and amusement as he smirked from his sudden perch on a short ledge. "You're pretty smart kid. You figured out my Quirk. That's right, I can paralyze people when I ingest their blood, depending on blood type, I can hold them for different amounts of time."

Tenya shivered at his words, suddenly very concerned for his friend and now sudden surprise ally. "Get out of here! This is my fight! I'll say it again, you don't need to do this, this is supposed to be my job, not yours. I inherited my brother's name, I should be the one to take him down."

"Really? Because I never saw that look on Ingenium's face before. If you really want to make your brother proud, stand up and become the hero he wanted you to be!" Todoroki said as he sent an ice attack towards Stain, which was swiftly dodged as another knife flew towards him and cut through the ice incasing Todoroki's left side, breaking it apart like the glass on a mirror as blood dribbled out.

Stain came closer in a flash to lick the blood off his cheek, but was pushed back as a flurry of fire covered Todoroki's left in what looked to be instinct.

A katana that was falling from overhead the duel haired boy was snatched away by the strange boy, who held the knife that had been thrown at Todoroki in the other hand.

After giving a nod to Todoroki that said "cover me" he charged in towards stain in a dance of blades. Stain was obviously the better fighter against the skinny and sickly boy, but the other still held out long enough, with the aid of Todoroki's ice and his calling out warnings.

It was nearly five minutes later that the boy was down once more, after getting cut on his better leg, and falling against the wall again. Stain charged Todoroki, using that fact he wasn't using his fire to his advantage, and nearly cutting off his arms before Tenya's engines boosted to life and kicked him away.

Tenya was back up again, and ready to fight.

Stain obviously looked anxious, the threat of backup being on the way still stuck on his mind. He was getting reckless.

After asking Todoroki to cool down his engines, the fight picked up. Blocking blades and spewing ice.

And then finally, after ice burgs covered the alley, he was able to get a clean kick to the Hero killers stomach that sent him barreling upwards. A knife flew from out of nowhere and embedded itself in Stain's side, just as Tenya ran up the wall and landed another kick to the man's head.

Tenya fell back to the ground as Todoroki raised a pillar of ice to catch him and left Stain up in the air of a chunk of ice.

There was silence.

"Is he..." The word dead was left unsaid but Tenya looked down when he felt a tap on his arm and saw the boy looking up at Stain. He then looked to him and shook his head, then knocked on the side of his head and closed his eyes, as if to say he was unconscious.

"We should tie him up," Todoroki said.

Tenya nodded as Todoroki went to look for some rope as he pulled the hero killer down from the ice. He and the boy started taking the knives off of the man and laying them to the side. Tenya noticed the boy looking for knives in places he didn't even think about like under the sleeves, in his boots, and even in the scarf. He was even more surprised to see that he was actually finding weapons in there.

He guessed that was something one would pick up after being raised by villains.

That thought made him look down to the boy's arms and legs. Dirty bandages covered them, some places with rips through them that showed scarred skin underneath and blood staining through. A sprained ankle that looked to be in the process of healing was wrapped loosely on a t-shirt, most likely have come loose during the fight. His other leg had a deep cut on it, and it was a miracle that he could even stand. Large bruises under the boy's eyes and a haunted look on his face.

He hesitated before speaking, "I- My name is Iida Tenya. Class 1-A heroics at UA. I don't think I had the pleasure of introducing myself."

The boy looked up at him and blinked before realizing he should introduce himself, but he obviously couldn't talk so he looked around before spotting his wrist. Holding it out for him to see, Tenya leaned in to look.

It was a medical bracelet that was lazily wrapped around the bandaged wrist.

T.S: 0056  Midoriya Izuku

"Midoriya Izuku, it's nice to meet you," He said and the boy nodded, "Do you mind telling me what T.S. stands for? And what those numbers mean?" Tenya asked carefully. He had to remind himself he was speaking to a kid most likely tortured by villains, judging from the way he flinched at certain moments and couldn't speak at all.

The boy just shrugged his shoulders and went back to disarming Stain, but didn't take the knife embedded into his side out.

Right. He couldn't talk.

Todoroki soon came back with a rope and they began to tie Stain up. "Ah, This is Todoroki, he's also in my class. Todoroki-kun, this Midoriya."

"How do you know his name?" Todoroki asked.

"Bracelet," He replied.

"Okay? Well anyway, it was lucky that someone threw this rope away. Though, who throws away perfect rope in a dumpster? That's kinda shady."

Midoriya looked up at him in confusion as if the very act of throwing rope away wasn't unnatural to him. It probably wasn't.

"Are you okay?" Native said as he came up to them. He'd been immobilized the entire fight and at one point had begged for them to leave as well. Now he was back on his feet, free from Stain's Quirk but still sporting a few cuts and scratches.

"I'm fine, but I think these two need a hospital," Todoroki said.

"We should call an ambulance," Native stated.

Todoroki nodded and went to drag Stain out of the alleyway when Native went to pick Midoriya up, trying to be helpful and carry the injured boy. He flinched violently at being touched and scurried away from him. Native pulled his hand back in confusion, before putting both out placatingly to show he wasn't a treat. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you if that's what you were thinking."

Midoriya shook his head quickly and backed himself up against the wall. "It's gonna be okay, no one's gonna hurt you. I promise. What happened to that bravery that I saw just a few minutes ago?"

The boy bit his lip and shook as the hero tried to come closer to him. He obviously hated the idea being touched.

Soon more heroes came and gasped at the sight. "Is that the Hero killer?" A female hero asked in shock.

"Yeah," Todoroki said, "we need an ambulance. Iida-kun is hurt, as well as that other boy over there." He pointed in the direction of Midoriya, still backed up against a wall with Native trying to coax him into coming closer willingly.

The heroine nodded and joined Native. Kind words and sweet nothings to get the injured boy to come closer. It seemed, that now, after all the fighting was over, and the adrenaline leaving their bodies as there was nothing left to defend, Midoriya was left as he was before: a scared boy who needed help.

They finally got the boy to cooperate, and carried him out of the alleyway and to the street side to wait for the ambulance.

It was then that Tenya made up his mind and bowed deeply to both his classmate, and his new ally.

"I'm sorry. I was blinded by my rage and couldn't see clearly. And for that I owe you my apologies," Tenya said.

"Come on, it's fine. Get it together, you're the class rep."

Tenya looked up at Todoroki's words and was surprised when he felt hot tears trickling down his face. He wiped them quickly before nodding. "Thank you."

It was then one of the heroes shouted out in terror, "Get down!"

He didn't get enough time to look up before he felt himself get pushed out of the way of razor sharp claws. A weak strangled cry came to his ears and he opened his eyes to see a large Nomu with leather wings flying away with Midoriya in it's grasp.

The blood of the Nomu flew onto the heroine's cheek and was quickly licked away by an elongated tongue.

Nomu stopped mid wing flap and fell towards the ground as a figure rushed between them, cut loose from his bonds. "The word Hero has lost all meaning in this society. In a world overrun by fakes and criminals like you who chase pretty dreams."

Tenya looked on as Stain jumped into the air. "You must all be purged." He came down on the Nomu's brain with the same knife that he'd been stabbed with.

"Everything I do is the create a better society."

There was a moment of silence where the only thing heard was Midoriya's rasping struggle, unaware of the intense pressure being put down on them.

This wasn't going to end well, Tenya could feel it.

___________________________________

Izuku struggled violently against the touch of the man's hand against his back. Pure fear making him lose sight of what was happening. All he could tell was that he was in danger.

He didn't know this stranger.

They were going to hurt him.

All people ever did was hurt him.

"Everything I do is to create a better society," A distant voice said.

"Heroes! I will reclaim the word! Come on! Just try and stop me, you fakes!" Izuku tried zeroing in on the words as they became clearer and clearer.

"There is only one man I'll let kill me. He is the true hero. All Might is worthy!" The voice spoke once more. At the mention of All Might, Izuku immediately came to his senses.

A pressure unlike any he ever felt before over took him as primal fear encased his being. Stain stood over him, facing the other heroes on the sidewalk with an aura of pure bloodlust forcing everyone into stillness. Fight or flight wasn't responding and everyone was frozen.

Izuku has felt this kind of intensity before at the bar while writing. It usually happened when a fight broke out while he was still doing Shigaraki's analysis and there were people who haven't yet left.

It always managed to make him cower in fear when he was younger, but after a while he had stopped reacting to it.

Until now.

This was stronger than it has ever been. The pure ideals of a man who swore blood shed to anyone who opposed him. Izuku feared for the lives of everyone on that street.

There was no doubt in his mind that this man was crazy and a lunatic, but he still had the tenacity and determination to pull through with his ideals which made him more dangerous than most other villains at the moment. The tension created by this man was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Stain took a step forward, and then froze.

The pressure was gone.

And left in it's place was a stiff body of a mass murderer.

Okay, this chapter was really long.
4,000 words is a lot for me to do, but I didn't really know where to stop.
I decided to leave it at that and call it a chapter. It is really hard to type laying sideways on a bed while cursing your right arm.
Please tell me if you liked the chapter or not, cuz idk what i'm doing and your comments help me know i'm at least not fucking up.
Anyway, Ima go now.
Thanks for reading!
Bye!
~Ace-chan

(4244 words)