A Hero and a Villain

Scene 18: You were fooled :3

[Midoryia]

Izuku finally found the building the villain had mentioned. It was an old concrete apartment complex, crumbling at the edges.

He made his way inside, only to find a dark, debris-littered stone room about half the size of the Sports Festival Stadium. He noticed a set of stairs in the corner, indicating that this was only the ground floor, and followed them up to the second floor. About halfway up, he heard the unmistakable sound of a girl crying.

It set him to running up the stairs two steps at a time. When he reached the top, he found a young woman chained to a chair in the middle of the room.

She had shiny brown hair with metallic blue highlights, and light cream colored skin. Her eyes were two different colors: one a dazzling emerald green, the other a sparkling sapphire blue.

The young woman was sobbing pitifully, and on the backside of her forearms were lined with what looked like a pair a serrated blue razor blades. They melded seamlessly with her flesh. Maybe it was her quirk? She looked like she was trying to use them to saw away at the chains, but she wasn't making much progress.

When she saw Izuku, she flinched and shrank back into the chair. She stuttered, her lip quivering, "P-P-Please d-don't h-hurt m-me!" Izuku took a small step forward, making eye contact to get her attention, and spoke softly, "Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to harm you." He knelt beside her, gently putting a hand on her arm to stop her from shaking. "I'm Deku, the Pro Hero. You have nothing to fear. You're safe now."

Tears streamed from her eyes, "Th-Th-Thank y-you." She hiccuped, "I-I th-thought he w-was g-going to k-kill me. H-He th-thought I w-was working w-with th-them....." Izuku raised an eyebrow, his freckles shifting on his cheek, "Them? Who's them?" She bit her lip, her chin trembling, "Th-The R-Russian a-arms d-dealers that w-work th-there. Th-They had m-me trapped in that b-building." Izuku's eyes widened, "Russian arms dealers?!" She nodded. "Wow.....this is much more complicated than we thought....." he muttered under his breath.

Izuku shook his head, "Nevermind that. What's important right now is getting you out of here, Miss.....?" She smiled slightly, "Hagane. Hagane Aoi. I'm an international liaison hero working abroad." Izuku smiled as well, gripping the chains with both hands, "I see. Well, I'll have you out of these in no time, Miss Hagane."

He sighed, "Hold on. This may or may not hurt a bit." He summoned One For All at ten percent and poured it into his hands, snapping the chains in two with a single firm tug. Aoi nearly cried in relief, rubbing her arms as the blades disappeared, "I've been trying to get those off for hours."

Izuku helped her up, and then glanced at the time on his phone. "I hate to ask this of you, considering what you've gone through, but do you think you could make it out of here on your own? I have to go check up on my partner....." Aoi nodded, "Of course, you go find them. And remember, if you ever have need of me, just ask around for Azura. I'll be there in a flash." She saluted with two fingers above her brow and they shook hands one last time.

With that, the two parted ways, and Izuku made his way back to where Hitoshi was waiting. However, when he got there a few minutes later, he found Hitoshi slumped against the wall unconscious, his lip bruised and bleeding.

He ran over and knelt beside him, propping up his head and gently shaking his shoulder. "Shinso? Shinso?! Wake up?!" Hitoshi groaned, cracking an eye open, "The hell? God...my ears are ringing......why is everything so loud?" Izuku held him steady as he sat up, "Shinso, are you alright?! What happened?! Where's the villain?!"

Hitoshi squinted, rubbing his bruised jaw, "Ugh.....I don't know. He must have knocked me out and bolted....." "But how the hell did he break out of your brainwashing and escape the Binding Cloth?!" Hitoshi's head rolled back, "Agh.....I'm sorry Midoryia. My head hurts.....I can't remember anything....."

Izuku checked the back of his head, only to find a welt the side of a small grapefruit. "Man.....he must have hit you really hard. I'm sorry I wasn't here to help....." Hitoshi shook his head, "No, no. It wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have let my guard down....."

Izuku helped him stand, and Hitoshi put an arm around his neck. They slowly walked out of the alleyway, towards Izuku's house to get him bandaged up.

[Third Person]

Andeddo leaned against the brick wall at the corner of the alley, waiting for his operative to arrive.

Soon enough, Aoi stepped out of the shadows, a sly grin on her face. She stared at him with cold, lightless eyes, "You were right, he was absolutely clueless. Honestly, I can't believe how naive and gullible he is. I mean, I am a professional, but he's the #1 Hero, right?" Andeddo nodded, stepping off from the wall, "Indeed he is, but he is too trusting. He lets sentiment cloud his judgement. He doesn't look behind the facade that people present. He doesn't think he needs to."

Aoi shook her head disappointedly, "And that will be his downfall. Too many of us use that to our advantage." Andeddo looked her in the eye—the green one, to be exact, "I didn't think to ask, but is there anything you wanted as payment? I know I asked you to do this as a favor, but just for your time....." Aoi waved him off, "Forget it. I'm good to go. Besides, I have other business to attend to. I still live the life of a Hero after all."

Andeddo made a small bow, "In that case, thank you for your service. Dasvidaniya, Azura." She smiled as she walked back into the darkness, "Dasvidaniya, Reaper."