Controlee

61. Villain

Rule 61: Don't go in unless you know the way out.

The League of Villains was a very real threat. They had a meeting about it and everything.

A long and terrible meeting, instead of being out on the streets actually doing something to find the missing students. Yamada hated the idea that Bakugou was taken because the villains saw him at the festival— muzzled and chained and acting out because who wouldn't in that situation?— and decided that made him villain material.

Yeah, Yamada and Aizawa both wanted to have a long conversation with whoever decided it was ok to do that to a child just so the world could see him accept a medal. They might even take a page out of Otsuka's book and break their nose for it. They didn't like chains. They didn't like muzzles. They definitely didn't like it when a child and millions of viewers on TV were included.

That wasn't for today though.

Yamada brought up an idea towards the end of the meeting. Some of the teachers were worried about the bad press that would come if Bakugou ended up turning villain— Aizawa had clasped Yamada's hand and squeezed tight enough that his fingers went numb before plainly stating exactly why anyone who thought Bakugou would do that was an idiot. Yamada wanted to know how their students ended up in danger in the first place.

The camp was meant to be safe. Aizawa knew where it was. Vlad King knew where it was. Nezu knew where it was. The Pussycats knew where it was. A handful of people, maybe one or two others Yamada didn't know knew. That was it. The only people who knew were heroes.

So how the hell did that information reach the villains when Yamada didn't even know where it was until the attack?

The idea of a traitor left him squeezing Aizawa's hand right back. Some of the kids got hurt in that attack. Two of them had been taken.

Otsuka might not be alive.

And now they were back home in their too-empty apartment again. And that idea was mulling around his head.

Traitor.

And all those odd little things that didn't add up.

Traitor.

Like a villain trying to kill someone and later saving their life.

Traitor.

Otsuka had been living with them for months now. She was kind, funny, sweet. She was a little too good at poker, definitely too good at suppressing her temper, too accepting of the treatment she'd experienced as a controlee.

No privacy. No consent. It was like those people didn't think of her as human. It could make anybody angry, angry at the world, angry at the people who'd failed to fix things. Angry. And anger could very quickly turn to villainy with the wrong circumstances.

He didn't want to think of Otsuka as an enemy, right now she was a missing student.

She might not even be alive.

But he also couldn't ignore that something didn't make sense. Things that didn't fit suddenly seemed like they might be in the right place when the word 'traitor' was added to the mix.