Kirishima sniffled, wiping his nose on his shirt sleeve. The woman lead him underground, and his memory became fuzzy. He had a hard time remembering where they were and how they got there.

He shook his head as the woman motioned to some fancy chairs. They were green, and soft. Kirishima ran his hand along the back of his chair. They reminded him of his own home.

"Please, have a seat, dear." The woman smiled as she poured two cups of tea.

Kirishima nodded slightly and picked up his cup. He took a small sip, knowing he needed some sort of food. He struggled to place what kind of tea it was. Jasmine? No. Black? No. Green? No.

Maybe his senses were just numb. His eyes started to water and his lip trembled as he remembered Bakugou's blood pouring out of his body. Tears dripped down and into his tea as Kirishima remembered his failure.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that, dear. It must've been quite traumatizing." The woman hid a smirk with her cup as she took a sip.

Kirishima nodded and stared into his tea, trying to form a cohesive sentence in his mind. "I-I failed him."

The woman nodded.

"And-and I never got to tell him-" Kirishima but his lip and shook his head, strands of hair falling in his face.

"Tell him what?" The woman watched Kirishima and took note of his appearance. He was mentally dwindling.

"How I feel," the redhead said quietly. "How he was my idol. H-how I admired him in every way imaginable."

The woman nodded and set down her cup. "We can make it all better."

"W-we?" Kirishima looked up for the first time and noticed the woman. How she was dressed.

The room was nice too. It belonged to somebody of high class. Kirishima started to worry as he couldn't remember how he had gotten here. Something in his brain was telling him to run, but the other part was too numb. Too focused on the death of his best friend.

"I'm a part of an organization. Here, we do not idolize heroes killing themselves for the 'greater good'. Can't you see, Kirishima, that this mentality is what lead to your friend dying?"

Kirishima shook his head and sniffled. "No, it's what we signed up for. We knew the risks-"

"How come there aren't more safety precautions in place?" The woman asked. "Why weren't the medics in the office when Bakugou was hit?"

"Because-" Kirishima couldn't think of an answer.

His mind wandered as he turned his head to stare at his tea again. Maybe it was a milk tea. But no, it wasn't sweet enough. There was a flavor that the red head couldn't place.

"Bakugou was fed lies by a society that idolizes child soldiers and prejudices those with certain abilities to the point of them breaking. I wonder if the league of villains targeted your friend because of how he was caged up at the award ceremony for his first festival."

Kirishima gulped. The feeling in his stomach wasn't going away. He started to doubt himself. Was he apart of a bad society? Was he the cause of Bakugou's death? Maybe if he had just worked harder to keep the blonde out of trouble-

"You are a very important factor in our mission, Kirishima."

His head snapped up, perhaps a little too quickly, as his vision blurred and his heart pounded.

"W-what?" He sputtered.

"I'll tell you when you wake up," the woman said calmly.

"W-wake....up?" Kirishima felt dizzy. His hands seemed to weigh tons as he tried to put his cup down.

"You really should be more careful of what you drink," the woman smirked.

Kirishima's cup crashed to the floor as the redhead lost his consciousness and slumped over in his seat.

***

Kirishima woke up in a panic, thrashing his legs out in an attempt to raise himself in his bed. His panic only worsened when he realized that he was not in a bed but rather a cell, with his arms chained to the wall.

He quickly hardened in an attempt to free himself, but stared in shock when the cuffs conformed to his hand size and didn't break. He tried to break his way out by hardening again but it was no use.

Tears started to flow from his eyes as he realized how much of a failure he was. He had let his best friend die, and managed to get himself kidnapped.

"What would Bakugou do," Kirishima whispered to himself. "Quirkless Bakugou."

Kirishima stood up against the wall and tried to turn his head to examine his cuffs. It was at an awkward angle and uncomfortable to stay in for long. The red head huffed as he tried to knee one of the cuffs. It made a small dent, and he smiled slightly to himself.

He continued to knee the cuff for a few moments before he hardened his arm again. This time, the cuff didn't change with his arm, and he was able to have that hand free. He quickly went to work on his second hand when the sound of a door opening caught his attention.

"Oh, you're figuring that out quicker than expected." The woman had returned, but she was now wearing a white uniform.

"How long have I been here?" Kirishima demanded.

"Hm, well, about three days." The woman smiled as she approached Kirishima.

Three days. The words flew around in Kirishima's head. His friend had been dead for three days. He didn't even get to bury the body. His other friends didn't know what happened. The citizens were left without an explication, and they were surely scared.

"Now, if you don't want to be in unbearable pain, I suggest you cooperate."

Kirishima scowled. "Like hell I would."

"You will, if you don't want a repeat of Ground Zero happening to another blonde you know."

Kirishima's heart dropped in his chest as he thought of Kaminari, writhing in the floor in pain, begging him to help. He stared at the woman and nodded slowly, a scowl still on his face. He wanted nothing more than to punch her as hard as he could.

"We need you to fight in one of our matches," she unlocked Kirishima's other hand but watched him intently. The red head figured she either had a weapon or a powerful quirk. "You will participate in this fight and you will do your best. You will use your  quirk. I don't think I need to remind you why?" She cocked her eyebrow and gave a small smirk.

Kirishima followed her out of the cell and into a white hallway. There were other rooms but they seemed to be unoccupied. Kirishima shivered as fear crept its way into his brain. He had to make sure to win, or his friends and family would be at risk.

The woman pushed him into another room filled with people. She lead him through the crowd and into a large cage, sort of like a boxing ring. The woman quickly released Kirishima from his hand cuffs and pushed him into the ring.

He didn't have time to think before a large man charged at him. His muscles let Kirishima imagine how much his punches would hurt as he threw one and made a dent in the chain link. Kirishima ducked and slid under the mans legs, attempting to kick them out. He blinked when the man didn't even budge.

Kirishima hardened and threw a punch at the man's back, attempting to sway him forward. The red head felt something bounce off his side and glanced down to see a red bullet. He was caught off guard and flung into the link fence as some people cheered.

His thoughts caught up with him. Who was this man? Kirishima was just blindly punching and not paying attention to his ideals. What if the man's life was on the line? That wouldn't be heroic or manly.

Kirishima hardened his body just in time as another punch collided with his stomach. He grunted as he felt another bullet hit his arm. What was the point? He was invincible to them.

He quickly climbed the fence as high as he could before jumping down onto the man's shoulders and punching him in the face with a hardened hand.

Clink.

The red head was getting mad and uneasy. The image of Bakugou's body flashed before his eyes as the punched the man over and over again. He didn't know how, but he had knocked the man out.

He stood over his opponent, trying to catch his breath, as the people in the crowd cheered. He relaxed his muscles and convinced himself that Kaminari would be okay.

Sadly, the red head knew deep down that while his friend was now safe, he wasn't.