Chapter 7
The amount of sappy romantic shit going on in the office was enough to make him sick. Not literally but it was still annoying. Now that Kirishima and Uraraka were together, that idiot was trying to woo her. Despite them being together he said “that’s just the first step. I want to make her feel special!”
Now the rest of them had to watch as he did something new and romantic every single day. Today he made her a special breakfast and got her favorite fruit smoothie. He was telling Bakugo how he couldn’t wait for her to arrive. Despite all this happy stuff, it made him think of something the redhead seemed to have forgotten.
“When are you going to tell her?” he asked
The other man’s smile fell instantly. Bakugo sympathized with him immensely. After the dancing and slight kiss, Deku had been looking at him even more. Bakugo often caught him staring to which Deku would just blush and look away. The looks made Bakugo start to think the other man felt the same. Maybe it wasn’t love but it could be a crush.
The problem was even if Deku did have a crush on him Bakugo had lied. He couldn’t hide his mark forever if they started dating or something. Granted thinking about dating he was getting a bit ahead of himself. It seems that Kirishima hadn’t thought about this like Bakugo had.
“Oh shit. Man, what do I do?”
“What? Don’t ask me. I don't know.”
He truly didn’t. He couldn’t even figure out his own situation. Much less help with his friends. He listened to Kirishima try to make a plan but he wasn’t much help. Luckily Uraraka arrived and sure enough, she loved the food and drink. She’d even brought food for Kirishima. Those idiots basically just traded meals but whatever.
He was going through the plan for today when he realized it was two minutes past the usual time Deku arrived. Strange but even he could be late for a day, right? Two minutes turned into five minutes which turned into ten. He tried calling him but it rang multiple times before going to his voicemail.
“Aye, anybody heard from Deku?!” He yelled
Everybody looked up from their desks and echoed a chorus of no’s. Bakugo had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach… maybe… maybe he was just at home and he’d slept in. It didn’t seem likely but Bakugo had to hope. Nothing bad had happened in so long, even the attacks had stopped. They’d gotten lax because it had been so long. What if this was related?
No. He calmed himself down. One thing at a time.
“Todoroki with me, we’re going to his apartment. Iida, can you find out what happened when he left work yesterday? It’s probably nothing but just in case?”
Both men agreed easily. He saw the worried looks on everyone else’s faces but there was no comfort he could offer. They were all pro heroes so it wasn’t unlikely for one of them to be targeted. It was a fear they all had but since it hadn’t happened recently nobody had been worried about it. Deku was a strong hero, stronger than Bakugo. He’d be fine, he’s just sleeping in, he assured himself yet again.
They didn’t bother with transportation, using their quirks they made it to his apartment in about five minutes. There would be ice to melt and a few singe marks on some rooftops but getting here quickly took priority.
He fished out his key and unlocked the apartment. Todoroki followed behind him heading to the kitchen while he headed to the bedroom. His fears were confirmed when he found the bed untouched. Deku hadn’t slept here or he had just made his bed. The bathroom and closet were both empty. Todoroki didn’t find him or anything else amiss in the apartment.
Todoroki called Iida and let him know Deku was missing. Hearing it out loud made it feel more real. His world quickly turned in on itself.
DAMN IT.
Deku was really missing. How had this happened? How long ago had he been kidnapped? Kidnapping Deku would be hard for almost anybody to do. He was trained, he was part of The Trinity, All Might’s fucking successor for god's sake. Who would dare to try and grab him? It could be related to the other attacks or it could be something else entirely.
They’d have to start checking all the cameras but what if he wasn’t grabbed in an area that had cameras? He’d have to call Inko Midoriya and All Might to let them know that Deku was missing. They would both be worried sick. He couldn’t call them without having any information.
He didn’t even know if Deku was dead or alive.
“Katsuki! We’ll find him.”
The words and hands on his face brought him back to the present. He was staring in two mismatched eyes, assuring him they’d find Deku. Yeah… yeah. He was right. They’d find him. They dealt with the league of villains before, dealt with All For One, and numerous other villains together. They hadn’t lost anybody yet and they wouldn’t now.
“Thanks, Todoroki, I’m back. Let’s go find Deku.” He told him. They raced back to the agency together.
____
It took them an hour to find him on the cameras. They checked everything from the night before to that morning. Eventually, Asui spotted him on a camera near the coffee shop. He walked past the camera but didn’t show up on the next one. Somewhere between the two he disappeared.
It took them thirty minutes to find a clue. Signs of a fight in a nearby alleyway. An empty tranquilizer was found in the trash. The trash truck was supposed to come by and take the cans today but the truck had rolled over something getting a flat. It was a fluke, a random occurrence, but thanks to that flat they were able to find the tranquilizer.
It took them forty-five minutes to determine where the tranquilizer came from and get the list of people who purchased one. Nobody recognized the names on the list. Bakugo was barely holding it together.
“We’ll have to check out each name on the list,” Yaoyorozu told them.
He looked at everyone else agreeing with grim nods. The hell was wrong with them? They couldn’t do that.
“There’s over 20 people on the list. By the time we find the right one Deku could be dead if he isn’t already!” He shouted.
A few of them flinched at his words but he didn’t care. Didn’t they realize how long he’d been gone already? Who knows what could have happened to him in that amount of time. He knew he was spiraling, he wasn’t thinking straight. It didn’t matter though, Deku was missing. It was everything he’d always been afraid of. He didn’t want to lose him. Now he had and it was scarier than anything else he’d faced.
Before he could say anything else Uraraka grabbed him and started dragging him out of the room. Kirishima and Todoroki tried to follow but she made them stay. He didn’t argue with her. It didn’t matter. Nobody had a way to find Deku faster.
“Bakugo, let me see your soulmark,” she demanded as she dragged them into a nearby room and locked the door.
“The hell? Why? That’s not important right now!” He snapped but she didn’t seem phased.
“If your soulmate dies, your soulmark fades. Show me your soulmark” she calmly reminded him.
He’d forgotten. It had been so long ago that his mom told him that it completely left his mind. He yanked his shirt up and peeled back the adhesive. His soulmark was still there. Jet black against his skin. His body sagged in relief. Deku was alive. He was alive and they’d be able to save him. They just had to find him first.
“Okay now that we know he’s alive. I need you to think, what can we do that would be faster? What are we missing?”
He thought about her words with a clear head now. They were keeping Deku alive but they kidnapped him. They came prepared with a tranquilizer as well. They nabbed him during his morning routine and planned to dump the tranquilizer. Why would they dump it though? Why not take the object with them?
“I got it!” He told her. He turned to open the door and headed back to share it with everyone else.
“Ah ah, no!” She stopped him from leaving. Gently she pressed his patch back into place and pulled his shirt down.
Without saying anything she unlocked the door and lead the way back to everyone else. Damn, he had forgotten all about that. He really needed to keep his head in the game if he wanted to save Deku. Something like that was a big thing for him to forget. He took one moment outside the door to take a deep breath.
Once he walked back into that room with everyone else he would be focused. He wouldn’t be Bakugo trying to save Deku. He wouldn’t be the man trying to find his missing soulmate. He would be pro-hero Dynamite trying to save somebody.
He stepped into the room.
“Listen up, the kidnapping is likely related to the previous attacks. This person prepared for this by having a tranquilizer ready but disposed of it instead of taking it with them and they went for kidnapping instead of killing. We need to work on the motive, find out if the tranquilizer can be tracked, check the camera for the hours before and after the attack for any familiar faces. I don’t give a shit who does what but everybody better be doing something. We need to find the person before it reaches the 12-hour mark.” Bakugo commanded them and everybody sprang into action.
___
Eight hours after the kidnapping they were headed to raid the place. Turns out their old classmate, Neito Monoma, was responsible for the kidnapping. They found him on the cameras before and after the kidnapping. The tranquilizer also included a traceable substance. There was a place registered under Monoma that also had traces of the Tranquilizer.
Everybody else was in place. They’d decided that some of them would hang back with the police, some would go in the other doors, and Bakugo, Iida along with Todoroki would go straight through the front door.
He blasted off the front door, because why knock? They split up as soon as they entered. Iida took the top floor, Todoroki the main, and Bakugo the basement. There were at least five villains pointing guns at them but Iida ran straight past them at the same time Todoroki threw up an Ice wall giving Bakugo time to make it to the basement.
He used a blast to fly down the steps and kick the person at the bottom square in the chest. He didn’t hesitate to knock out every person in his path as he checked every room. Most rooms appeared to be empty but the hallways were lined with guards. Anybody he didn’t knock out would be somebody who could come after him or head up the stairs to his teammates. With that in mind, he showed no mercy as he blasted through them.
He opened the door at the end of the hallway and there he was. Deku was strung up, hands above his head in chains. He was dangling by them, the area around the cuffed had been rubbed raw. His costume was ripped up. He had visible slashes and bruises everywhere. Bakugo was frozen in place body shaking with rage.
“K-k-“ Deku coughed aggressively, spurring him into action. Bakugo blasted the chain holding him up apart and caught him before he fell. He lowered him to the ground but he couldn’t blast through the cuffs without hurting Deku more.
“Ka-… Kaac…”
“Yea it’s me so stop trying to talk yeah?” He said the words harshly but he gently pushed the hair out of Deku’s face trying to assess how bad the damage was.
“Dr…ugs… c-c-… an…”
“Drugs? Anything deadly?”
He struggled but managed a barely perceptible head shake.
The physical damage was pretty bad. Nothing lethal, nothing that couldn’t or wouldn’t heal but that wasn’t the point. The eight hours it took for them to find him had been painful. He was going to kill Neito Monoma for this.
He tried to help Deku stand but his legs refused to support his weight at all. He tried to gather Deku into his arms as gently as possible. It didn’t work, he saw him wince in pain. Deku stayed silent, gasping through the pain as he took him upstairs. It hurt him to see how much pain Deku was in but he’d make sure Monoma felt that same pain no tenfold.
Stepping over the bad guys he’d knocked out was time-consuming but it didn’t take long for him to reach the main floor again.
“Todoroki!” He yelled as soon as he made it.
He saw a bunch of guys on the ground but no Todoroki. He yelled for him one more time which finally got the other man’s attention from the floor above. An ice slide from the top floor to the main one appeared with the man himself sliding down it.
“Bakugo, Midoriya” he called out as soon as he made it close.
Bakugo didn’t reply, he had a villain to torture. He just handed Deku off and raced away. He vaguely heard both men calling after him but didn’t bother turning around. If Todoroki had cleared the first floor and he cleared the basement, then Monoma had to be on the top floor.
Passing by all the bad guys he raced through the top floor until he found Iida and Monoma together. Currently, Iida had him cuffed and was asking something. He grabbed Monoma and slammed him against the floor.
“Did you hurt him yourself or did you make one of your associates do it?”
He asked a question but it didn’t really matter, he still followed it up by punching Monoma in his face. Even if he didn’t do it himself he was still responsible.
“Always so aggressive Katsuki Bakugo or is it Dynamite now?” he spit out some blood. “Can’t believe you became a hero and I didn’t.”
“That’s because you’re a weak piece of shit.” He punched him again.
“Weak this weak that. That mentality is why you all were attacked and he was kidnapped. You’re all so dumb. I teamed up with somebody who hates you all just as much as I do. If only Id been able to shake my hero mentality sooner I would have killed you all. I learned from torturing Izuku Midoriya that I have a taste for it.” He cackled but it was cut off by Bakugo’s fist slamming into his face.
“Bakugo, stop. We need him to talk. Who helped him do this? They’re still out there.”
He did not stop.
He kept punching him.
He thought torturing someone was funny?
He deserved everything that was coming to him.
He didn’t know how long he’d been hitting him before he heard Deku yell “Kacchan! Stop it!”
Hot and cold hands held him back. He still tried to surge forward but then there were those worried green eyes staring at him. He finally let his body relax. Deku was safe and he was supposed to be a hero. Heroes were supposed to save people, not kill them.
___
The hospital machines next to him beeped steadily signifying Deku’s heart rate. Monoma was injured badly and had to be healed by Recovery Girl herself. He didn’t deserve it but there was nothing Bakugo could do to stop them. Monoma boasted about how he was the one who stabbed Bakugo although he would have preferred to stab Uraraka who turned him down back in highschool. They had to stop Kirishima from beating him up again. After an intense interrogation led by Detective Tsukauchi, they found out who the accomplice was.
Minoru Mineta
Formerly a member of class 1A and a part of their agency despite many of them not wanting to add him. He’d worked at their agency for six months before he was caught trying to assault a woman he saved. To add to his crimes, he’d placed a camera in all the women’s restrooms in the building. He’d stolen many of their belongings and stalked pro hero Midnight for a few months. They fired him and took his hero license. All of this occurred years ago, none of them thought he could possibly be behind this but he was.
Turns out he had access to their patrol list because he was still a part of their group chat. He never texted in there so none of them remembered to delete him from it. He personally blamed Deku for getting him fired since Deku is the one who caught him in the act. Monoma also blamed Deku for not getting picked up by an agency. Some bullshit about Deku outshining him so other agencies didn’t want him. The truth was they didn’t want him because of his shitty attitude.
In any case, the two teamed up to ultimately kill Deku. Monoma decided he wanted to try his hand at torture first though.
Every piece of information made Bakugo more pissed off than the last one. He was going to find Mineta and bring his slimy ass in by himself.
He gazed over at Deku’s sleeping form. He ran his hands through his hair memorizing the feel of it. Mineta himself wasn’t dangerous but he knew they would’ve figured out he was behind it by now. He’d be expecting somebody to show up to get him. Knowing he’d be ready, didn’t change anything. Bakugo was still going to go after him.
Deku could’ve died. They intended to kill him. He knew he wouldn’t make it if that had happened. Everything he’d ever done was in an effort to keep Deku alive. All because he loved him. Even if they weren’t soulmates he would have loved him. Yet today he could have died never knowing that. He’d still die never knowing it, hopefully at an old age. Still… Bakugo ached to say it to the man at least once.
“I love you Deku.” He said, placing a kiss on his forehead before stalking out of the room.
Now wasn’t the time to be sentimental, he had work to do. It wasn’t just Deku who’d been attacked but it was okay. He’d make him regret all of it. He wasn’t out to kill this time though. He was thinking mostly rationally. He’d just mess him up a bit and get him locked in solitary confinement at the worst prison he could find.
No matter what, Mineta would pay for this.