Worthless Necessity [HitoZuku]

Chapter 48 - You've tuned me out

Usually, when a member of the League came into the tiny room, whether they were malicious (Hikiishi, Toga or Shigaraki), downright confusing (Kurogiri, Sako and Bubaigawara) or nice (Dabi and Iguchi), they had always entered via a portal. It had happened so often that Midoriya could always sense the portal whenever it opened; a small, cold spot outside his cell, the air slowly but surely moving towards it, as if it were being sucked in, before that faint, hissing sound as the portal opened.

And the second the portal opened, he could also tell which member of the League it was.

Shigaraki was the easiest to identify. He had the air of confidence and a complerely deranged aura. Toga had a more playful, cheeky, but equally deranged feel to her. Bubaigawara had a very clonflicting aura; there were times where he was calm, then agitated, then happy, then sad, all in a span of a few seconds. Sako had the most grandeur aura; he always wanted to show off, but it seemed that he couldn't figure out how to do that when all the boy could do was listen. Hikiishi seemed the most afraid of him out of all the members of the League; she was the easiest to discern from the rest.

Dabi was warm, literally. It didn't take much to tell him apart form the others. And Iguchi... he seemed to have an air of admiration around him, for some reason? It was confusing, to be honest, but Iguchi really seemed to like him a lot... it was odd.

Kurogiri was the weirdest, though. Midoriya could sense emptiness from him, a certain hollowness. It reminded him of those Nomus... except Kurogiri could talk, and had his own opinions. He was either a very weird Nomu... or he was trying to figure out what his purpose in life was, besides serving Shigaraki. Midoriya didn't dwell on it too much.

So, when Midoriya could hear the door opening, he found it odd. He was immediately on guard; Reiko was with him, and he wasn't going to let anyone hurt her. He had a muzzle on, and he couldn't see what was going on, but he wasn't going down without a fight.

"I can't see anything. Todoroki, can you make a small fire?"

Wait, was that Yaoyorozu?

He could sense some heat from where he presumed Todoroki was, and heard a chirp.

Ryuto.

"Reiko? So... this really is... Midoriya -"

He could practically smell the ozone in the air as Shinsou shocked himself by accident; it had a very distinct smell that Midoriya had gotten accustomed to after being slammed into the bars repeatedly and getting electrocuted. It was nasty, but at least Shinsou didn't seem too hurt by it.

"That's what he meant by generators. I'll deactivate it. I've seen my father do it before." He heard Uraraka walking out, before walking back in a few minutes later, "Alright, it's done."

What on earth where they doing here?!

He heard the sound of a key being inserted into a lock, and the sound of a metal cell door opening. He knew that there was a door, but how his classmates had gotten their hands on the key...

Did they actually come all the way here to save him?

He heard footsteps as someone got closer; Midoriya couldn't tell.

"Midoriya?"

It was Shinsou.

He felt Shinsou's hand pressing against his neck, and suppressed the urge to hiss; Toga had slashed him across the throat a few times, but Shinsou's hand was warm and it just felt nice, for some odd reason, that his classmates had come all this way for him.

For you? Don't be silly. Do you actually think they care about you? Or is this just a more drastic way of trying to gain your trust? So that they can break you again?