Poison From The Same Vine

11 | The Branding

- IZUKU -

A soft hand gripping mine woke me up.

I blinked a few times, adjusting to the bright lights. Everything hurt. My head, especially. It was like a consistent aching pain, which felt burning hot like a pot of boiling hot water had been spilled over me. No, it felt worse. Like a burning fire that had decided only to target my head. At the same time, it felt as if I was being stabbed over and over again.

"Zuku, are you awake?" a familiar rough voice asked.

I blinked a few more times, slowly opening them properly to face a bright white ceiling. Everything felt fuzzy and hot. I wanted to go back to sleep and forget this whole ordeal.

"Zuku? Are you okay?" they sounded concerned.

I lifted my head a little, seeing the blurry figure sitting beside me. They were blonde and wearing grey clothing.

"H-Huh..?" I stuttered, voice hoarse and throat dry.

They seemed to perk up at that, squeezing my hand a bit tighter. "Zuku! You're awake!"

I flinched a little at the loud volume. After a moment, I calmed, pushing myself to sit up. It hurt, every muscle aching and head hurting worse at the sudden movement.

"Ah! Zuku! Don't move so suddenly!" The person scolded, arms reaching forward to steady me.

I blinked a few times. "O-Oh.. s-sorry,"

"Don't apologise, you didn't know. Just don't move like that again, alright?"

I nodded, everything becoming clearer. I blinked again, sitting up properly. Everything hurt. Everything ached. I looked down, finding a bandage wrapped around my wrist and torso area. I looked up again, meeting a worried Kacchan's glance. "Kacchan," I started, pointing at my waist. "What's this for? I didn't get any injuries on my waist, I made sure."

He sighed, interlocking his other hand with my free one. "Something happened while I was carrying you back to the ambulances."

"What happened, Kacchan..?"

He looked away. "Most of the villains were supposed to be taken care of by Eraserhead, Midnight and other heroes. On the way back, one of them escaped Eraserhead's sight. He had originally meant to burn me as we were fighting earlier, but his attack accidentally hit you instead."

I nodded. That made sense. The villains wouldn't want me to be rescued, so trying to sabotage one of the heroes (or heroes in training in Kacchan's case) would slow it down, giving them an opening. Once they have an opening, they could take me back, then flee to another base with the help of that mist villain I had seen.

Kacchan sniffled beside me. "What's wrong, Ka-Kacchan?" I coughed, my throat hoarse.

Tears built up in his eyes. "It's all my f-fault you got hurt." A tear rolled down his cheek. "If I hadn't f-fought that villain, m-maybe you wouldn't be h-hurt right now."

I leaned forward, irritating my wound. Slowly, I wrapped my arms around him, attempting to comfort him. It wasn't fair that he was blaming himself over something that couldn't be prevented.

I patted his back gently. "I don't blame you, Ka-Kacchan. It isn't your f-fault."

He hugged me back, choked sobs filling the air. "I th-thought you w-were gone for good. Everyone was ac-acting as if w-we could never g-get you back." He sniffled, burying his head into my neck. "Those d-damn extras were the only ones st-still believing we could r-rescue you."

"Kirishima and Kaminari?" I questioned.

He nodded into my shoulder. "Ashido, Sero and Jirou as well. They kept checking up on me when I confined myself in my room."

"You locked yourself in your room?" I pulled away, meeting his gaze.

He looked away. "I didn't feel like socialising, with you missing and all, and eventually I didn't want to get out of bed. It was like every day you weren't there, I didn't see a purpose in getting up."

Tears welled up in my eyes. "Kacchan.."

I sat back on the bed before examining my bandages properly. There was one on my wrist and another wrapped around my head, the bandage going across my eye. The one around my wrist was probably what I thought it was, but I decided to check it out anyway.

I quickly unravelled the bandage, revealing the branding. It was less red now, the ink of the numbers clearer.

005.

"Eh– Zuku!" Kacchan jumped forward, holding my wrist with one hand and the discarded bandage in the other. "You're supposed to keep that on!"

I looked up at him sadly, tracing the mark with my finger. "They branded me, Kacchan." I felt like crying and screaming at the same time. "Overhaul branded me. I can't escape him."

Kacchan sighed, climbing onto the bed. "You can escape him. You've escaped him twice now. That branding means nothing if he's weak enough to let you escape multiple times."

"But, I still have the mark. He still did things to me." A tear rolled down my cheek. "He still marked me. Everyone will know me as 'Five', the weak subject."

He brought my hand away from the mark. "We're not experiments anymore. We're U.A students. We're Katsuki Bakugou and Izuku Midoriya." He started to trace marks on my hands which was somehow soothing. "We're going to become heroes and save everyone from going through what we went through."

"A-Are you sure? What if they're scared of me?" I asked.

He smiled. "Why would they be scared?"

"B-Because I'm a m-monster. I h-have these stupid q-quirks that I can't control and–"

He squeezed my hand. "I have lots of quirks too, but is the class scared of me? Is the hobo scared of me?"

I started to stutter, mind racing with different possibilities. "W-Well, n-no but–"

He smiled softly. "No one's going to be scared of you, Zuku."

"But still, I'm branded. If someone sees that, they could give me back to Overhaul." I shuddered at the thought, tears building up in my eyes once again. The thought of going back to Overhaul, back to the pain, back to the experimentation. It was terrifying. I never wanted to go through that again.

Kacchan placed a hand on my shoulder. "We won't let him take you again. The hobo won't let him take you again. The extras won't let him take you again. I won't let him take you again."

"A-Are you sure, Ka-Kacchan?" I asked, hesitant.

I didn't believe that many people cared. Back at the lab, no one cared much if we got hurt or were in pain. We could only care for each other. When Eri came in, we had to act strong and protect her whenever possible.

"I'm sure. I promise we will never let them take you away again, you got that?"