16

Deku's POV

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The evil laughter rang in my ears as she lay there on the table. Her clothes long since gone her body was coated in her own bright red blood, glistening under the fluorescent lights above us.

"Come on Izuku, you can do better than that!" She refocused her eyes on me as I watched the slash that I just carved across her stomach stitch itself back together again. "Don't get me wrong, that would kill most people but that's not what you are supposed to be doing now is it?" Her voice made chills run through me.

Why? Why do I have to do this?

"If you don't do it I'll put little Katsuki up here, and we both know what will happen if you fail with him. Don't we?" Her high pitched voice sang out as she instructed me on how to correctly torture someone.

My eyes darted towards Kacchan and I could see how pale he was at just the thought. He wasn't worried about me killing him. No, that would have been easier. If I failed with him I would be put on the table and I would be brought to the edge of death only for HER to force me back again. Then they would do it again and again until finally I would start losing my grip on what is real and what isn't.

I can't do that again. Last time I almost killed Kacchan thinking that he was her, I gave a curt nod and when she said begin I did what I was actually supposed to. I tortured her. Each cut, every nick and bruise I gave her her giggles grew louder and louder until she was squealing with joy. I had just cut out something, a kidney. Why was it so easy? How many times have I done this? How many more times will I be forced to?

"Now!" She squealed with joy before her glazed over eyes drifted back to me. "Cut out my heart, be more careful this time. Pretend you're a doctor saving me for all I care but it must be in one piece when I wake up again." The trimmer in my finger stilled and I did as she told me, cutting her open and carefully pulling out her heart and I was forced to watch as her body sputtered and shook at the violation only to see her body gradually regrow and attach a new one again.

"Not bad, now my brain!" She giggled with all the purity of a child at such a thought. This woman… Her quirk was self regeneration, much like a starfish she would simply regrow anything and everything that was damaged, including her brain. She should still feel pain, but instead it's like the greatest joy she could ever feel.

Who knows how long she has been tortured? Her life seemed to freeze or come to a pause at 17 even though we are well aware that she is well into her 30's now, at least. For a moment her giggles were interrupted by a screech of utter fear and pain only to disappear into giggles again after just a few seconds.

***

"AHHHH!" I sat up reaching out in front of me as I wailed in pain of the memory. Zay; the one person who could still torture us with just the sound of her voice, if I ever actually saw her again I just might take my knife to my own throat. The way she forced us to cut into her again and again, day after day. Anytime we failed to satisfy her she would pout before jumping off the table before tossing one of us onto it only to rip us apart. Technically her quirk is self regeneration but anyone who has ever been fed her flesh or blood she can force them to heal, if she was nearby that is.

And it is excruciating.

I couldn't stop screaming, reaching out blindly. Where am I? Why is it so dark? Wait, what is this? Is this water? Is someone trying to drown me? It took several moments for me to hear that I wasn't the only one screaming.

I forced my eyes open to see myself floating in what I can only describe as a bubble of water and when I looked around I saw Sandman and Three staring at me in horror. I looked away from them to see Kacchan next to me. We are in a bubble of water but my green energy was out of control as it sparked around us, through us and created what was basically an electrified field around the water. Our disguises were gone but I don't remember removing them.

I need to stop this. I close not only my eyes but also my jaw, cutting off the screams that were still being forced out of me. As I'm reminded again and again what it felt like to be forced back together again. My quirk, the quirk that I got from my hero, feels so much like hers. How will I ever forget it? When it's a part of me now? Yet I can never tell dad why Kacchan and get pale when we have to plan to use it, at least like this.

I managed to control my quirk so that the energy slowly died down and Kacchan's screams stopped. I opened my eyes again to see him panting heavily next to me, still sleeping deeply. I pulled him into my arms and just cried, ignoring anything and everything around me. I don't care that we are in a bubble of water, it must be Kacchan because otherwise how would we be able to breathe? No, as much as I hurt right now I know that we are safe.

I felt a hand caress my face and when I opened my eyes I saw Kacchan looking up at me. There is pain in his eyes. He still has contacts in and the green covering his beautiful rubies was just infuriating. I frowned and pointed at his eye only for him to smirk before he pointed at my own. I frowned more before nodding. The green and blue are out of our skin and the hair coloring is also gone but I could see the scales Kacchan uses on the ground below us. Just great, at least we are still at the base and it looks like we don't have any "guest" at the moment. 

Whatever, right now I wouldn't be able to stay in character anyway. My vision went blurry for a moment and I saw my contacts were removed, probably by Kacchan and He took them and the scales below us and hid them away quickly. I looked up to see the door fly open and a shadow appeared. That doesn't look like anyone on our team.

I felt Kacchan tap his fingers into my hand and I calmed down, it's time to play my part. I don't know how he figured out where our base was but at least it is only a throw away location. After all, those marked for the death table are meant to be found, gruesomely.

"What's going on? Why is my friend on the table upstairs? He isn't even breathing either!" Spinner came running down, yelling once he saw Sandman and Three. He hasn't noticed us yet but that is only a matter of time. I quickly motioned for Sandman to check his phone and he nodded like he already knew. More time must have passed than I thought if my delayed messages had already been sent.

The plan was simple: leak the information that One and Two will heal worthy heroes. But Kacchan and I have to look like we were kidnapped and that was because we were "kidnapped" not volunteers. After all, for all the villain and the public know is that we are at least fairly healthy heroes that managed to go undercover to catch an obscene number of villains. The leak would also undermine the League of Villains support from Staine followers, not to mention the Followers of the Numbers. It took everything I had not to roll my eyes when I heard what our fans called themselves.

I held Kacchan close as if protecting him, gently pulling him behind me thanks to his exhaustion from protecting us from the villains. The water we were currently floating in that is.

I pretended to scream questions at them but it was only now that Spinner noticed us at all and he actually took a step back in his shock at seeing us.

"I thought you only put villains on the table?" He asked, confused looking at us with clear suspicion.

"Not quite, we only torture villains. One and Two have healed several heroes as well as innocents," Sandman answered calmly, keeping his attention on us as I struggled, pretending to not be able to hear them. Kacchan was still behind me acting like he was barely holding on, fighting sleep.

"Heal? So they are doctors? No wonder their available hours are so unpredictable," Spinner mused out loud and Sandman coughed in surprise. I mean we don't exactly come off as looking like teenagers when we are One and Two but we also don't really look old enough to be doctors either, but then again. Thanks to quirks, ages were really hard to guess in many cases.

I almost didn't even notice what all he said next, "I'll have to be more open with their scheduling in the future." No lie that was one hell of an unexpected advantage to letting Spinner show up here.

"Wait! Why is my friend upstairs dead?" He shook his head before refocusing on what he saw above.

"Apparently he thought that he could 'join' One and Two in their bedroom a few days ago. I really didn't think anyone was actually that stupid," Sandman rolled his eyes before turning towards me. "I am just here until these two finally pass out and then I'm supposed to notify One and Two that they are ready but your "friend" really screwed up our plans. Because he couldn't keep his perverted ways far away from them." Sandman visibly shuttered and I don't even blame him for his disgust, cause same.

"Speaking of," Sandman turned back to Spinner, narrowing his eyes at him. "How exactly did you find our base? I don't remember putting you on the table." Spinner started stuttering and backing up but Kacchan reached a hand out, passed me, and shot a small, weak, jet of water at him, making him hit his head on the wall behind him.

Time to get to work… Already. At least I don't feel tired, most likely thanks to Kacchan's water surrounding us. Then again when I woke up my quirk was going off too.

Could this be a new faster way of recovering? I mean sex is much more fun but only a couple days and I don't feel like I'm dying. That's a huge improvement.