Hunter: Vigilante Deku

Chapter 3: "No."

Izuku's POV...

I bolted awake, gasping for breath. I went to wipe my brow but I found out my hand was chained to the bedpost. Almost unconsciously I unlocked the handcuff. I hopped out of the bed and took a moment to examine my surroundings. I was in a hospital-like room. Almost everything was white. I noticed a calming sensation wash over me but it only succeeded in making me more panicked. I looked down at my other arm and saw a tube fed into my arm, while my wrist was in a cast. I pulled the tube out of my arm and grabbed a tool to tear the cast off. My eyes darted around the room, seeking an escape. I saw a window and I grabbed a table, smashing the window. I hopped out and ran, but then was suddenly immobilized.

'No no no! Fuck! Stop fucking panicking! Your father trained you better than this.' I thought to myself. I calmed my breathing and looked for something that was preventing me from moving. Oddly I saw nothing holding me. My brow furrowed as I thought out different possibilities. I closed my eyes and looked with my quirk instead of my eyes.

'It's a fucking simulation. How dumb do they think I am?' I thought.

"We don't think you're dumb at all Mr. Midoriya." A voice came through.

My eyes widened at Midoriya.

"No. My name is Izuku Hunter. I don't want to be addressed with the name of that scumbag." I snarled. Then I stopped in surprise. I touched my throat. There were no scars there. But then I sighed. Of course, in a simulation I would see what I wanted to see, not what was actually there. But it was nice to hear my voice again!

"Of course. Sorry, we don't think you're dumb at all Mr. Hunter. We think the exact opposite actually. Did you know, you just beat the record for escaping UA's simulation? You even beat the record of the person with the highest IQ ever recorded." I recognized the voice now. It was Eraserhead.

"That's cool and all but- what does this have to do with anything?" I asked. Then I blinked in surprise again. My voice was full of life and happiness... Again, I knew it was a simulation but it made me very nostalgic. From a time when I had that blissful ignorance. I mean, then I had still been undergoing training with my father but at least I still had my mother... I snapped out of my thoughts and listened to his reply.

"Well, considering you've been the vigilante to evade us the longest, we wanted to test you. Do you mind one more test?"

"Erm- okay!" I said. The longer I got to talk, the better. Then I was reverted to the same person I had been just after my father had burnt my vocal cords. So much for being able to talk... My mother had been dead at that point so I was basically how I was in the present time, just younger and with less scars. He had only carved two words into my back. I had just woken up at 4:30am. My father went out from 3:00pm-12:30am every night. He would sleep for 4 hours and then train me. I made breakfast for him and then stood there in case he needed anything else. He ate, I washed the dishes, and then we went to the basement. Down here were all types of torture machines.

"What are we doing today f-father?" I asked in sign language. He knew every single language and so did I. It had been part of the training.

"Ehh... today we'll work on... hmm... water." He said. My eyes widened. I hated water training.

"Come on little shit, get in the tank." My father said huskily. He had been drinking last night. I walked over to him and climbed into a see through chamber. It was just a little taller than me. My father opened the door into it from the back and started chaining my body up. These chains weren't meant to be escaped from. He wrapped them around my whole body, not too tight but so that I would never be able to escape it. Once I was sufficiently chained, he closed the door and sealed the chamber. It still let oxygen in but otherwise it was airtight. The front was built out of a mix between plastic and steel. Nothing could break it. I calmed my breathing down and closed my eyes. The tank started filling up. That was the hardest day I've ever endured. Thanks to my quirk, I could go long amounts of time without something essential (like food, water, air, heat, etc) but my father really liked to push the limits. That day he left me there for 8 hours straight. I had screamed, struggled, and done everything I could to escape but nothing worked.