Nomu

Part 5

"How's experiment 4 doing?"

"I believe it's ready for the next stage. I've finally beaten that thing into obedience."

Deku could hear master Shigaraki and the doctor talking out in the hall outside the closed door to his prison.

He wasn't sure how long it'd been since he was kidnapped. He'd completely lost track of time, the days bleeding into one another.

He didn't know what exactly they were talking about, but knew it was about him. Deku was experiment 4, or just 4 as they usually referred to him.

Am I ready? What do they mean by that? Whatever it is I'll do what they want.

When I'm good, I don't get hurt.

He would be good, and do whatever they asked. Anything to avoid getting punished.

Punishments were terrible.

Deku reached up and touched his left eye. He couldn't see through it, not after his first punishment.

That one had been one of the worst. He'd only been punished as brutally a few times more since then.

He could feel the cold metal collar around his neck.
Shigaraki had told him if he were to try and escape again, he'd push a button and he would die. That's all he said.
He put it on Deku the day after his first attempt of escaping, after his first punishment.

He didn't try to escape again after that.

———
(2 months earlier)
"What do you mean you saw him?!" Bakugou screamed at Hawks.

The mission to the last known location where Deku had been, where the tracker signal had come from, was a failure.
They'd searched that building top to bottom and the only trace of the freckled, green haired boy they could find was the blood in that white room. Which after testing, turned out to be Deku's. They had no way of knowing where they'd taken him after that.

"I saw him while undercover in one of the leagues labs." He said calmly, crossing his arms and folding his wings against his back.

The police chief and a few pro hero's were gathered in a meeting that Bakugou had insisted he come to as well.

"Why the hell didn't you help him?!" Bakugou snapped, jumping up from his chair in rage.

"If I could have I would. I hate seeing the kid like this, in that situation, but there was nothing I could do. I was outnumbered." He said, trying to keep things under control. And remembering how not only Shigiraki and the doctor had been there, but the group he was walking with behind him.
He wore an almost emotionless expression, but his eyes revealed how broken the hero felt over it.

If I'd just walked a bit slower, he would've escaped through that window. He thought, being tormented ever since he saw the young boy, and just stood there.

"Hawks is right." Principal Nezu spoke, looking up at the enraged blond from where he was positioned in Aizawa's scarf. "And now that we know where they're keeping young Izuku we can hopefully recover him and capture the league."

Hawks continued telling his story, but Bakugou couldn't help but feel he was leaving something out.
He was right, the hero had specifically avoided telling the part where he had to watch Deku be stabbed and later heard his screams of pain. He could only imagine what Shigaraki had been doing to him.

They slowly devised a new rescue plan, but decided they wouldn't be able to carry it out for a few months.
Hawks had just made his way into the leagues trusted few and couldn't ruin that yet. Being in that position also gave him the knowledge of what exactly was happening to Deku and when, or at least they thought.
It was the much safer option to wait and allow him to gather as much information as possible, about the building, where they're keeping Deku, etc.