Shackles of the Past

(Attempted) Healing Process

Implants.

That one word left a nasty taste in Aizawa's mouth.

According to the information that Nishiya had found in the base, the kid they had picked up had been dubbed Akatani Mikumo, his real name wasn't stated in the database, depicted by a NA under the section of the spreadsheet under Real Names. He had implants embedded deep in his flesh in various locations, and the second the sensor that was embedded in his neck detected that he had left the base, it had sent a large electric shock through his system, harming the boy and activating the other implants, which were supposed to explode.

It wasn't aimed to kill. Aizawa realised. It was aimed to hurt. To prevent him from moving. To make him bleed out, before dying. To ensure that he wouldn't have gotten out alive unless someone unluckily managed to stumble upon a bleeding body right outside their base.

That was just plain cruel.

Aizawa was just glad they were around, and managed to save him and get him medical treatment.

Nezu and Aizawa had gone through the information they had.

They had read reports on what had happened to the boy.

Apparently, they picked him up two years ago wearing a uniform, with his skull split open, many broken bones, and a lot of blood loss. His bones were a lot stronger than a regular person's, and both the doctors and Aizawa had confirmed that yes, he was quirkless. That meant that his bones had been broken a lot, and healed, for them to be as strong as they were.

Something about a uniform, the date, and being quirkless, reminded him of Midoriya Izuku, the kid who supposedly was attacked and went missing. But it had been two years since then. He couldn't keep his hopes up.

But Akatani Mikumo wasn't his real name.....

He couldn't save Midoriya. But at least he could help Akatani.

It only got worse. Apparently they tried to force a quirk onto the boy? What? You couldn't just ... give a quirk to someone. But Aizawa just tried to ignore the grave look on Nezu's face. They were unsuccessful anyway, so he filed that matter at the back of his mind.

After that, they had practically tortured the poor boy. Ran tests on him because they were curious. Aizawa was seething when he read that they had shot a laser in his right eye and almost blinded it.

They also fed him lies, tried to break him, tried to make him forget who he was.

He had been broken.

"We peered into his mind, and saw a purple haired boy who seemed to be very close to him.

We told him he had died. He kept reinforcing it, and Mikumo eventually gave up."

He did everything he was told, apparently. He analysed heroes and villains, never complained whenever he was beaten up, would always attack villains whenever he was told to do so. He was perfect, always listening to instructions, never making a sound, never complaining, never asking for anything, unless a hero or a civilian was involved.

Then he resisted.

He refused to hurt a hero, or a civilian. Controller had to force him to act every single time, and he eventually grew resistant enough to it for him to ignore his orders. That was when the shock collar came into play.

Aizawa felt sick.

He didn't know the kid personally, but seeing how he acted, how he felt about himself and the world, how he apologised for something that wasn't even within his sphere of control....