He whirled around, finding Chisaki still lounging on the couch without a care in the world. Izuku, on the other hand, was panting from the effort of trying to reconnect with his quirks that had just disappeared. He couldn't find them anywhere but refused to believe that they were gone for good. They had to be there somewhere. 

"Oh, don't look at me like that," Chisaki said with a tsk. "You were injected with an early prototype of our quirk eraser, it's not permanent. We just needed to make sure you couldn't scurry off." 

Not permanent played on a loop through Izuku's mind. "Then you're idiots!" he yelled, all of his resolve and calm demeanor completely abandoned. "What's stopping me from ripping you apart the second it wears off?" 

A tug on his hand drew his attention to Emiko, who he had momentarily forgotten was present, let alone attached to him. "They still have Hina," she hissed, a fire blazing in her eyes as she glared up at him. 

He was getting really sick of the Seros and their goddamn fire. 

"You think I still care about that?" he snapped back, his grip on her hand tightening. He couldn't pull away, not with her quirk still activated, but he could make it hurt enough for her to willingly free him. "Did you ever stop to consider that I care about my power more than your sister?" 

Emiko let out a quiet whimper as Izuku felt one of her bones give way. "Y-you don't actually mean that," she whispered, using her free hand to pull at her wrist. 

He faintly realized that her quirk was gone and his grip was all that linked them. She fell to the ground as he released her the same second she gave a harsh tug. 

"You can't just change the rules," Shigaraki hissed, scratching furiously at his neck. Izuku's sudden change in M.O. was stressing him out and it made a twinge of satisfaction spark in Izuku's chest. 

It wasn't enough though, not for what Shigaraki had just done. 

His eyes dipped to the girl on the floor before returning to the other two villains. "Keep them, do whatever you want. I'm out." 

"Izuku, please!" Emiko cried, climbing to her feet as he took a step back out of her reach. The last thing he needed was for her to activate her quirk again. 

"You can't just decide that you're done," Chisaki said, pushing himself off the couch in one move. 

Izuku was watching the villains crack. They'd built their whole empire around Izuku siding with them to protect the girls. If he decided that they weren't worth his time, Chisaki and Shigaraki had nothing to hold over him. 

They had nothing to stop Izuku from coming after them. 

"He's bluffing!" Shigaraki screeched, thin lines of blood starting to appear as his nails dug too far into his skin. 

Izuku rolled his eyes in irritation but knew that he had done it to himself. His initial reaction to the girls being taken had been too strong, too visceral. Proving to the villains that he'd given up caring would take work and effort. How annoying. 

With one hand, he grabbed a fist full of Emiko's hair while the girl cried out in pain. She grabbed onto his arm, trying to pry him away, but even without One For All he was stronger than her. 

He dragged her around the couch and threw her at the feet of the other villains. It was surprisingly easy to hurt her without his flames throwing a tantrum about it. "Does it look like I'm bluffing?" he asked in a low voice, cocking his head to the side as his viridian eyes stared straight through Shigaraki. 

A sharp scream rang through the air as Shigaraki latched onto Emiko's arm. Izuku didn't flinch as the girl's skin started to disappear from his quirk. 

"Are we done here?" Izuku asked with a raised brow as Shigaraki released her with an enraged scream. 

Emiko's arm was still there, but it was a mangled mess of peeling skin and muscle. Izuku thought it was a small mercy that she'd passed out after the first few seconds. 

"You're powerless!" Shigaraki shouted, stepping into Izuku's space and grabbing his chin with four fingers. "What's to stop me from killing you right now?" 

Izuku used one finger to push Shigaraki's hand off of him. "You'll stop yourself. You, Shigaraki, are obsessed with the idea of controlling me. You won't stop until you succeed and you can't do that if I'm dead." 

He turned his gaze to Chisaki instead, the last wild card left. "What was the point of temporarily taking my quirk? Why did you want to keep me here?" 

"Another business opportunity," Chisaki replied coolly, but Izuku heard the faint tremor in his voice. "A proper partnership." 

Awe, I'm scaring them, he thought to himself. Even in his most vulnerable state, the other villains were still clocking him as a threat. It boosted his ego just a tad. 

"And you thought the best way to start a partnership was to shackle me?" Izuku sneered. He had known they were stupid, but hadn't realized they lacked any common sense. 

"We couldn't risk you lashing out near our source," Chisaki explained without explaining much of anything. 

Izuku smiled to himself as he figured out their game. "You want me to join your little operation permanently? Showing me your source as incentive... it's a smart play, but what if I want nothing to do with it?" 

"You will once you see her," Chisaki said, sounding too sure of himself. Izuku was missing something. 

"Her? Your source is a person?" Izuku asked, thinking out loud. "Of course it is, a quirk to end all quirks. Poetic, don't you think?" 

"Extremely." 

Izuku waved a hand between them, taking a step back. "Lead the way, then." 

"You're interested?" Shigaraki asked in utter disbelief, looking between his partner and Izuku. 

Chisaki brushed him off easily, his eyes alight with madness. "Of course he is. We should have gone through with this plan first, as I had suggested. Trivial matters like friends and love can only captivate someone like him for so long." 

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shigaraki grumbled in annoyance, still scratching at his neck, but not drawing blood any longer. He'd significantly calmed down, but his irritation was making it impossible to still his hands. 

"Mortals can only hold a god's attention for so long." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the first time in seven years, Izuku found himself in the underground tunnels of his father's compound. The twists and turns of the endless halls brought a familiar feeling to Izuku. 

A mouse trapped in a maze. 

Eventually, he was led to one of the cells. There were armed guards stationed at the door, making his mind run with the possibilities of who was really behind the heavy door. 

With a single nod from Chisaki, the door was unlocked and pushed open. The three men entered and Izuku was surprised to find a girl's bedroom rather than a prison cell. 

The walls were a soft pink color with the paint chipping and peeling everywhere you looked. Dolls and plush animals littered every surface with a few books and notebooks breaking them up. It... looked like a normal bedroom. 

"Eri, I brought someone I'd like you to meet," Chisaki called out. 

A white-haired girl, who Izuku assumed was Eri, looked up from the book in her hands. Her red eyes were wide and untrusting as they roamed over the men. She couldn't have been older than Hina, probably eleven or twelve. 

Chisaki held out a hand toward her and she slowly set her book down on the bed. As she climbed to her feet, Izuku took note of the bandages covering nearly every inch of her exposed skin. Chisaki grabbed her wrist as soon as she was within reach and pulled her to his side. She stumbled from the force, but steadied herself as he tucked her under one arm. 

"This is Deku, he's going to be working with us in the future," Chisaki introduced. 

"Considering it," Izuku corrected swiftly, not wanting the man to get any ideas yet. 

Eri looked up at him for only a second before redirecting her gaze to the floor. Izuku barely got a glimpse of the small horn on her forehead before her hair covered it again. "H-hello." 

"Her quirk is called Rewind," Chisaki explained. "With the use of Overhaul, I am able to dissect her down to her quirk components and put her back together. Her quirk is the base of our serum." 

"Well, aren't you just fascinating," Izuku mumbled to the girl, his head cocked to the side as he studied her. His mind was already running with ideas. 

"Isn't she?" Chisaki said, sounding like a child showing off their science fair project. 

Click. 

Fucking finally, Izuku thought, clenching and relaxing his hands as he felt his quirks wiggle back into place. He hadn't known how long the old quirk eraser would last and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't take a full day. It must have been a very old formula. 

Time to get the fuck out of here. 

"This has been very... enlightening," Izuku muttered, fumbling for a word to describe the interaction without being a dick. He was trying to stay on their good side. "I'll consider your proposition and get back to you." 

"You don't get to just walk out of here now," Shigaraki said, stepping in front of Izuku when he went for the door. "You know too much to still be considering." 

"Take your time," Chisaki cut it, completely undermining Shigaraki. 

It didn't go unnoticed by the other villain, who scowled and stomped his foot into the ground like a toddler. He hadn't grown up in the slightest. 

"I don't think I'll need very long," Izuku said in a leading tone that made Chisaki preen. 

Izuku knew exactly what was going through the other man's head. He thought he already had Izuku secured as an ally, which is exactly what he wanted. Villains got lazy when they thought they had already won. 

"There's been a breech!" 

All eyes were on the new man in the room. He'd come sprinting in, throwing the door open without care, panting as he shouted. 

"You've outworn your welcome," Shigaraki said tersely, his gaze on Izuku once again. "Leave while we deal with this." 

"Stop being a child," Chisaki hissed at him. 

Izuku would have been content to sit and watch them bicker, but he had his own business to attend to. "It's fine, Chisaki. I haven't agreed to work with you yet, so it's only natural that he wouldn't want me present for... sensitive information. You'll hear from me soon." 

He gave a nod to Chisaki as a sign of something close to respect, before backing out of the room. He could hear shouting from behind him, but he was on a mission now. 

It didn't take long for him to get back to the meeting room, spotting Emiko still passed out on the floor. He was at her side in half a second, two fingers pressed against her throat where he found the faintest pulse. 

"Thank fuck," he muttered, checking over her injuries. With the state her arm was in, it was a damn miracle she was alive at all. Even with his speed, he wouldn't make it anywhere before she bled out completely. He had to do something now. 

"I'm truly sorry about this, Emi," he whispered. He took a deep breath to clear his head before plucking his resurrection quirk from his teether. Placing one hand on the girl's sternum, he focused all his energy on pushing the quirk to her. 

Transferring quirks to other people wasn't something he'd done much of. He wasn't his father and his quirk wasn't All For One. It was a mix with his mother's, which floated objects to her and not others. It took all of his concentration to make sure that the quirk he was trying to transfer didn't just run off to find its original owner. 

Of course, it helped that its owner was dead. 

Once the light had faded from his hand, an eerie white glow for the resurrection quirk, he sat back on his heels. He could transfer her now, when she inevitably died along the way she'd come back. There was no real risk, but moving her would be... incredibly painful. 

"Sorry," he said one last time as his hands moved to hold either side of her head. With one sharp movement, he snapped her neck. 

How we feeling right about now bois?