Two weeks after the disposal in front of UA~

Katsuki grumbled under his breath as he stomped down a downtown street of Musutafu. The annoying sidekick was trailing after him, speaking cheerfully about everything and anything in sight. This was the first time since the bodies had turned up outside the gates that Katsuki had been invited back to his work study at Best Jeanist's agency, two weeks later.

There had been a lockdown on all students coming back to work studies following the incident as the pro-heroes had wanted to keep the students off the streets in case of any more kidnappings. Only a select few students had been allowed to continue their work studies, including Uraraka and Asui, and that damned Todoroki, whose father had welcomed him back immediately. Once again, Katsuki was angry at himself for choosing Best Jeanist's agency. Most of the time, the number three hero tried to make Katsuki look more like a hero instead of actually allowing him to do anything heroic. But, it had been the best offer that he'd gotten his first year, and was still the best offer two years later.

Today, finally, Best Jeanist had let him go on patrol around downtown, but he was forced to take along one of Best Jeanist's sidekicks. Since the incident at UA, heroes had started traveling in groups and pairs instead of alone. Most sidekicks at the agency were annoying, always kissing up to Best Jeanist and taking more priority in their appearance rather than their strength, but this one took the cake. Katsuki hadn't learned the sidekick's name, despite being in the same agency for two years. When he wasn't droning on about some anecdote about his life, he was criticizing Katsuki's costume, his hair, his posture, anything he thought Katsuki was lacking.

If your hair wasn't so spiky, civilians wouldn't be scared of you. Those grenade arms are really unsightly, how is anyone supposed to trust you with those things on? Why do you always look so angry? If you smiled more you would definitely be more popular.

Katsuki had to force himself to take long breaths and count to ten to keep himself from decking the guy in the mouth. He desperately needed something to do before he lost his temper completely. He would have taken anything at this point, a petty burglary, a cat stuck in a tree, a little old lady who needed help crossing the street, anything...

"Well, young Dynamight, I believe it is time to return to base!" The sidekick exclaimed, clapping Katsuki on the shoulder. Katsuki jerked away from the man's touch and glared at him.

"What are you talking about? The sun hasn't even set yet." He demanded, gesturing to the bright street. They had only been patrolling for a couple of hours so far, which was not nearly enough for anything to really happen at this point. On most patrol days, Katsuki was lucky if even one criminal showed himself. Most of the time, he was stopping accidents from happening on the streets, which for him was less than fulfilling.

"The boss says we can only patrol a few hours in the daylight. We need to go back now." The sidekick said cheerfully, turning around to talk the opposite way up the street.Katsuki gaped after him, surprise and anger spurting inside him. He bared his teeth and marched to catch up with the sidekick before grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around.

"No way." He snapped, eyes burning. "I am not going back now. We haven't even done anything yet! We've just been walking around and nothing has happened! You can't seriously want us to go back now."

"We have orders from Best Jeanist. He says you are not allowed to patrol at night, even if you're accompanied by someone."

"Oh, for the love of–... Look, it's been weeks, no one is going to pop out of the sky and kidnap us. And even if they try, that's a good thing because we'll be able to fight them and bring them down!"

"I'm sorry, but we need to follow orders."

"Fuck that!" Katsuki immediately turned on his heel and stalked away, ignoring the shouts of protest from behind him.

He was fuming, his fists clenched and shoulders tight. How dare they try to bubble wrap him when he was practically already a pro hero in his own right? He was top of his class at UA, the best hero school in the world, and he knew for a fact he was stronger than most of the existing pro heroes already. He was tired of being treated like a child.

It took a few moments of irritated grumbling and grinding of teeth before Katsuki realized that the shouts from behind had stopped. He paused and peered over his shoulder. He frowned when he saw the empty sidewalk behind him. He turned, looking around the street for the sidekick. It was strange that he'd left after he'd just been arguing. Katsuki narrowed his eyes, feeling a bit uneasy. He called out for the sidekick, but there was no answer. The street, he realized, was completely deserted, no sign of life anywhere.

Now feeling a bit panicky, Katsuki ran down the street in the direction of where the sidekick had disappeared. He shouted for him, looking down alleyways and shops for any sign of a civilian or the sidekick. He was about to turn a corner when he slammed into something hard, having not been paying attention to what was in front of him. Katsuki stumbled back, rubbing his head from the impact and looked up to see a tall, brawny man in a purple and green hero costume.

"What seems to be the problem, civilian?" The hero asked, placing his fists on his hips importantly.

"Did you see another hero around here somewhere?" Katsuki asked, looking around and trying to peer around the large, muscular man. Then he paused, having processed what the man just said. "I'm not a civilian, I'm a hero!"

"Oh, you are, are you?"

"Obviously! You think I dress this way for fun?"

"Well, if that is the case, then you leave me no choice."

"Wha–" Katsuki suddenly leapt back as the hero shoved something toward him. Katsuki heard the thing in the man's hand clicking and buzzing, which Katsuki understood to be a taser. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Whoops! A little slippery aren't you?" Katsuki growled and raised his hand, but before he could blast the amused expression off the extra's face, something hard whacked him over the head and he collapsed onto his knees, his eyes crossing. His vision became blurry around the edges as he suddenly couldn't hear anything besides a ringing in his ears.

"Didn't put up much of a fight, this one, huh?" Katsuki recognized someone's muffled voice from above him and he grimaced, trying to shake the fuzz out of his head. He made to stand, activating his explosion quirk with a few pops, before something dug into his side and Katsuki screamed. Every muscle in his body clenched from the surge of electricity passing through his body, unimaginable pain. He collapsed again as the pain swiftly left, but he found he could no longer move his limbs, and his vision had fallen into complete darkness. He could hear the voices above him arguing as he slowly sank into unconsciousness.

"Are you sure this is good enough?"

"Sure, the boss said as long as they were heroes, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure he meant a kid."

"I don't think he cares about their age. Anyway, let's go to the rendez-vous point. Kurogiri will have our heads if we're late again."

~~

Katsuki woke to a pounding in his head. He grimaced, peeling his eyelids open and it took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to the darkness surrounding him. He blinked and tried lifting his head, but it felt as though his head was filled with lead. He registered the windowless, dark room, lit only by a candle fixed to the wall to his left. He tried to stand, but found that he was chained to an old rickety chair in the center of the room. His wrists and ankles were cuffed to the arms and legs of the chair and as he tried to pull himself out of the restraints, his skin burned under the rough metal.

Katsuki blinked again and tried to shake the molasses out of his brain as he peered around. He realized that he'd been stripped from his hero costume, so he was left in only the form-fitting black shirt and black cargo pants. His gauntlets, shoulder and knee pads, and boots had been taken. His black socks were nearly indistinguishable from the dark ground.

Breathing hard, he tried again to free himself from the chair, but to no avail. He tried using his quirk, releasing little explosions, but that only served to fill the already musty room with smoke.

Suddenly, he heard a door open behind him and his chair started to move on its own accord. Katsuki gasped as he was turned around and slid toward the open door. He had to squeeze his eyes closed to shield from the blinding light outside the small dark room. Now, he could hear a loud, steady rumbling of voices and thundering of footsteps coming from somewhere above him. His eyes adjusted enough and he saw he was being pushed down a long, brightly lit wooden corridor with a large metal gate blocking the far entrance. There were masked guards on either side of him, holding long, dangerous-looking spears that flickered with electricity at the tips.

"Where the hell am I?" Katsuki demanded, yanking at the cuffs again. "Who are you people?" He tried releasing an explosion at one of the guards, but the guards simply spun the spear and whacked Katsuki over the head with the non-electric end. Katsuki snarled and lunged for the guard, making very little progress with the cuffs around his wrists.

"Oh, how tough you are, hitting a chained opponent. You let me out and I promise I'll give you tenfold what you give me." He received another sharp thwack on the ear from the guard on his other side and it took a second for the ringing to subside.

Finally, they had reached the gate at the end of the corridor. Both guards stepped back and raised their spears, electricity end up. The gate slid upwards, and the cuffs on Katsuki's wrists and ankles sprung apart at the same time. Katsuki jumped up and whirled around, blasting one of the guards while the other one lunged forward and jutted his spear at Katsuki's side. Katsuki dodged the blow and blasted the other one too, but he wasn't fast enough to stop the second spear from stabbing him in the arm. He screamed as the horrible sensation of a full-body spasm overtook him again. He stumbled backward through the gate and it slammed shut, separating him from the guards the instant he was clear of the threshold.

Katsuki panted, pushing himself to a standing position again as he looked back into the corridor to see both guards on the ground, smoke hissing from their cloaks. Katsuki grinned triumphantly and reached out for the gate. He tried moving it, but it was solid as a brick wall, which told him the only way out was forward.

He slowly moved forward, hearing the rumbling of the crowd grow louder and louder until he emerged into a large area, domed by a chain-link cage, separating him and a massive crowd, which were raised on stands several feet above. Those closest to the chains were pounding against them, shaking them at him as they cheered. This wasn't the kind of cheering that Katsuki was used to. It was jeering and nasty, the kind of cheering that you would hear at a street fight or a brawl on the playground. Katsuki bared his teeth and glared around as cups and food wrappers were thrown through the chains at him. He blocked a soda can from hitting him in the forehead and snarled at the plump, purple-faced man who'd thrown it.

Suddenly, he realized he wasn't alone in the arena. He looked around and saw the sidekick he'd been patrolling with trembling on the other side of the area. He, too, was standing in front of a gate and had been stripped of his hero costume to be left in a flimsy white shirt and shorts, completely barefoot, just like Katsuki.

"What's going on?" Katsuki called, but his voice was drowned out by the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the Midnight Sun! We have a special treat for you tonight as two sidekicks will face off for the first time! Place your bets now!"

Katsuki spun around, looking for the disembodied voice that had echoed across the arena. There were hoots and hollers from the crowd, but Katsuki noticed many of them had been shouts of anger and annoyance. Katsuki was utterly confused as lights flickered above him and he looked up to see numbers projected at the top of the dome. It wasn't until he looked across at the trembling sidekick did he understand what was going on.

Those fourteen corpses had been severely beaten.

It wasn't a villain who had done that to them.

They had done it to each other.

A/N: bit of a shorter chapter but they'll pick up I promise! Shit goes down in the next chapter so get excited XD