Captive Audience
It was the fourth month of training and Izuku had managed to get a good portion of the beach cleared. Granted, it wasn’t a lot of it, something around a third of it, maybe less. But already there were people visiting the cleared side of the beach.
He still had a long way to go, but he was feeling stronger than in the beginning and was hoping the added strength could help him clear the rest of the beach easier. He still had to think of the trash in the sea itself since not everyone was considerate enough to just leave it in the sand (he had to get to that soon while it was still summer, he did not want to try to swim in the sea during the colder months, thank you very much).
All Might was a demanding taskmaster when it came to training and Izuku wasn’t taking it any easier on himself either. And he was thankful for it all. But some of his favorite moments were at the end of the day when All Might told him it was enough training for the day and they would jog away from the quiet beach towards a more populated area and have a small snack before each went their way.
It wasn’t anything big or something that happened every day. All Might didn’t even actually jog, he just used his segway to keep up with him while in his skinny form and Izuku was usually too tired to talk much when they finally picked that day’s snack. But there was still some level of conversation happening.
All Might would sometimes talk about his time in America or a specific villain he’d defeated, or a particularly complicated rescue mission, and he would sometimes ask about Izuku’s grades and how things were going in school.
It was nice.
And when All Might found out his birthday (this very day), he’d decided to do something extra nice with him after training. Izuku hadn’t told him when his birthday was and the man had only realized it because he’d made an idle comment on wearing his new gym shorts that he’d gotten for his birthday. So, All Might settled on paying him an actual meal in a café rather than the usual snack to make up for not knowing (which wasn’t his fault in the first place, but Izuku gathered he felt guilty because, like the dedicated fanboy that he was, Izuku had known All Might’s birthday and had given him a cupcake that he could actually eat and digest and actually tasted good).
They had been idly chatting as they walked down a fairly populated street when they heard some guy calling out a name very loudly behind them. Despite it not being a name either of them recognized, they turned to see a man with the weirdest old-fashioned fancy clothes looking around with a determined look on his face.
Several people stopped to stare, some were even pulling out their phones, all thinking this was some kind of live play based on the clothes.
The man used some sort of long robe in pale yellow and sky blue with what was clearly an expensive fabric and elaborate designs that went all the down to his feet. It was ornamented with silver jewelry with dark red gemstones and dark grey pearls that didn’t match with the clothes at all. He also sported a cape that fluttered behind him as he loped through the street looking around at every corner, searching for someone.
It would have been easy for the two of them to believe it was some sort of surprise play. The man simply looked too fancy and the clothes too impractical for movement for them to think he might be a villain. But they both felt something was off considering the blank faced man that was following right after him was dressed very normally and no camera or cellphone set on recording to justify his lack of show attire.
It hadn’t been something they had registered immediately. The man on the front was simply too eccentric-looking for them to notice the other one until it was too late.
Suddenly, the robed man seemed to snap and lose all patience and, next thing they knew, All Might, still in his skinny form, was snatched by him and had a fancy looking stick jabbed against his neck.
“I know you are here Potter! Come out right now or this guy gets it!” He shouted in very accented English.
Most Japanese people didn’t speak English despite there being classes in school with the language. Izuku himself, despite getting very good grades in all of his classes, wasn’t that fluent at it until he started training under All Might, who had the tendency of slipping into it at times.
It was because of All Might that he could understand what was being said to a degree, unlike the people around him who were confused and seemed to finally realize what was going on. The accent threw him off, though. It was different from All Might’s American English.
But that wasn’t what was important here. What was important was that All Might, in his skinny form, was made a hostage by someone with an unknown quirk who was pointing a stick at his neck like it was a weapon (and considering how still All Might had immediately gotten when he felt it touch his neck, it likely was and he knew exactly what sort of weapon), in the middle of a crowd with cellphones filming the whole thing. This meant he couldn’t transform into his heroic form and had to play along until someone rescued him and, considering there were only civilians there, it would be up to Izuku to do something.
But before he could begin to enact some sort of desperate plan to liberate his mentor, the blank faced guy was on him, grasping him with strong brawny arms and dragging him further away from All Might, but still in sight of him and the robed man. Izuku immediately started struggling and, right when he felt like he was about to be able to escape, he felt a knife touch his neck at the jugular in a clear threat.
Clearly, they had planned to take two hostages from the start and both were positioned so that no one could get them from behind.
“I’m losing my patience, Potter!” The robed man said, which meant he must have some very short patience since it hadn’t been even a minute between now and when he’d first spoken after getting All Might. “I know that metamorphmagus mut of yours isn’t with you today. I made sure he would be too busy to realize you would need him and you can’t rescue one without risking the other dying by yourself, so you might as well just come out right now.”
A moment of silence, in which Izuku tried and failed to translate everything the man had said, and then a woman stepped forward.
She wore a loose long-sleeved blouse in a thin fabric that was ideal for the summer heat, only fitted against her waist because of the elastic bands on the inside there) and faded mom jeans on top of well-worn red sneakers. She had shoulder length messy black hair that looked windswept even as it was tied at the nape of the neck, round glasses with a thick black frame that shielded emerald-green eyes. She was short with wide hips and carried around a tote bag.
All in all, she looked like a pretty and wholesome-looking mom that should not be involved in this mess in the first place, let alone having hostages used against her.
“Jet Pyrites, the hidden shame of the Pyrites family.” She stated, blankly.
The man holding All Might jerked harshly at her words.
“How do you know that?!” He demanded with anger and fear clearly suffusing into his words to Izuku, despite the language barrier.
“House Elves weren’t allowed to testify back then and they were the only ones who knew what you did. They couldn’t report you for your crimes and that and the fact that you were still very underage were the only reasons you got away with your actions. Trust me, I tried. Kreacher was more than willing.” She continued calmly.
“That explains why your friend has been so aggressive towards me. You really couldn’t keep it to yourself, couldn’t you? That complicates things…” He trailed off, pensively, but never once taking his eyes off her. “That doesn’t matter now. Drop your wand and kick it away!”
Wand? As in the sticks that were used to cast magic in the Hand Drawn Era of Disney? No, Izuku had to have understood it wrong. Or maybe the sticks were support weapons that merely usurped the name for their use? That was much more likely.
It was only after the man named Jet implied that Potter had a wand that he actually saw it. It wasn’t very visible, with her having her arms crossed. She’d hidden the hand holding it beneath her elbow and the wand beneath her arm but now that it had been pointed out, he could see where it was. It still wasn’t obvious, but it was there.
She’d hesitated a bit too long because Jet merely glanced with a look of concentration towards the man holding Izuku and the blade pressed in, breaking skin. He must have made a sound because Potter snapped her head towards him, eyes wide, before going back to glaring at Jet.
She slowly placed the wand stick on the ground and kicked it away in Izuku’s direction, which seemed to displease Jet a bit, but not enough to complain about it since it was still too far away for her to get it. Clearly, he’d wanted to get a hold of the wand himself rather than it simply being out of reach for all of them.
“Done.” She stated, staring back at him defiantly.
“Good.” He said, trying to look unfazed.
Slowly so as not to lose sight of her or allow All Might any movement to free himself, Jet withdrew a welled glass, except that it wasn’t made of glass, or at least not completely.
The rim was covered in some kind of metal with strange symbols written on it before giving way to the glass. The stem was also of metal. It had intricate designs but Izuku could see that there were some more of the symbols spread out in it as well, just better hidden.
To make matters worse, it was filled halfway with what was clearly blood.
“Now, you are going to bleed here.” Jet said.
Potter’s eyes widened upon seeing the glass before her face shuttered again. Slowly, her eyes rose from the glass back to Jet’s face, almost seeming to glint with fire.
“The last time someone got a hold of my blood hundreds of good people ended up dead. I’m not going to willingly bleed there without assurances and at least for you to let your hostage go.” She stated.
Hundreds? Was it anything to do with her quirk? Is that why Jet had chased her down? She was very serious when she said that. She wanted to save them, clearly, but not at the cost of so many people. The only reason he even knew she was thorn up about it was because of how tightly her hands were clenched. This was clearly dangerous yet she still was trying to get them to release their hostages.
All Might looked as thorn up about it as her. He looked like he was about to change into his hero persona despite the danger just to avoid this fate. Izuku was pretty sure his own face reflected theirs as well.
“Potter, Potter, Potter… We both know you made sure your blood couldn’t be used that way again. But if it makes you feel better…” His pitch changed a bit, like he was reciting a poem. “I, Jet Beryl Pyrites, former heir of the Most Dandy and Prestable Family of the Pyrites, swear on my magic that, should one Hallie Vervain Potter willingly bleed into this glass, I shall not use my magic to kill anyone. So mote it be!”
As soon as that was said, Jet waved his support weapon and out of it came several thick ropes the tied themselves around All Might tightly and Izuku blue screened.
That flimsy stick wasn’t big enough to have those ropes stored there. Not to mention that All Might wouldn’t have become so still if it weren’t life-threateningly dangerous in some way. What was going on here? Was it a quirk? He’d said magic, though. But magic wasn’t real, right? Unless that was his quirk? But how would that even work? Not to mention then why would Hallie have a wand just like his? They clearly weren’t related and the only way two quirks could work that similarly was if there was a blood connection and, even then, they didn’t come out working exactly the same.
“Still have my magic.” Jet said smugly. “But as a gesture of good faith, I’ll allow you to escort this muggle to his little companion, but only after you put your blood in the glass.” He then placed the glass in All Might’s hand and gave him a shove. “Go to her, no detours. Any missteps and your kid goes.”
Slowly because of the restraints, All Might walked towards Hallie. Izuku could tell he’d tried to spill the blood in the glass on the floor, probably to try and prevent whatever he needed Hallie’s blood for and immediately blanched when he realized that something was keeping it inside. The only reason Jet hadn’t attacked him for that was because he couldn’t have seen it from where he stood.
He tried to pretend to trip because of the ropes (the move looked far too calculated to Izuku) to give spilling the blood another try, but Hallie lunged forwards and grabbed him before he hit the ground.
She held him in a sort of kneeling hug, the glass between the both of them, hidden from view.
“No need to worry, miss Potter. There are spells in the glass that prevents spilling or breaking.” Jet jeered mockingly and she glared at him from her accidental hug.
She drew back (sure enough, the now visible again glass still had blood in it), sadness in her eyes and looked at All Might, who looked back at her incredulously.
“I’m sorry to have gotten you involved in this.” She said in slightly accented but still understandable Japanese.
Something had happened. Izuku wasn’t sure what, but something had happened while the two were holding each other. Izuku by now knew All Might’s facial expressions enough to know there was something off about it right now.
Damn. Things were bad. Where the hell were the other heroes!?
“Oh, before you free him from the ropes and let him go to his kid, put your blood there first. Wouldn’t want you to skip on your side of the deal.” Jet said, wand now pointing right at Izuku, the tip seeming almost like it was sparking.
Hallie pulled All Might behind her as if to shield him, glass now in her hand. With a quick movement, she drew a small knife from one of her baggy sleeves and cut the back of her hand and let the blood trickle down to the glass until it was full, before wrapping it in a strip of fabric from said sleeve.
The fabric was so thin that it wasn’t doing a lot to stem the bleeding, but she hadn’t cut deep enough for it to be concerning. Not yet at least.
As soon as it was full, the glass began to glow red and she stumbled and heaved as if a sudden weight had suddenly been placed on her shoulders before straightening up again and glaring at Jet.
“I see you’ve felt the first symptom of the Matrimonial Bond Glass. You can’t help but crave gulping it all down and completing the ritual, can you. It doesn’t matter now if I let them go free or not, because you sure are hell aren’t.” Jet stated with a sadistic grin.
Her glare intensified and she put the glass down on the ground with great difficulty to use her knife on the ropes around All Might.
“Go to the kid and listen carefully.” She said in Japanese again.
What did she mean with that?
All Might exchanged a serious look with her before nodding and making his way to him carefully so as not to cause the man holding him to plunge his knife deeper than the skin level it was already at.
“What is this? What are you going to do?” Hallie growled at Jet, looking close to feral.
“Fancy little thing, that glass, isn’t it?” He stated. It would have seemed conversational if it weren’t for the sadistic grin still splayed all over his face. “That’s a Matrimonial Bond Glass. One of the last remaining, if not the absolute last one. It’s a relic from the time when women being too stubborn to do what they were told and marry the right people was still punishable. I put my own blood there first which makes me the head of the household. You putting your blood after makes you subservient to me as my spouse. You didn’t even need to put it there willingly for it to work. It just needs to be there and be put second to mine. The absolute best part? The moment you bled into the cup, you simply can’t help but drink the glass and finish the ritual, whether you want it or not. It’s an absolute stroke of genius of whomever created the first one. Not even those well practiced in Occlumency or capable of putting a fight against the Imperius like you could resist the pull.”
And like he’d said, from what little Izuku could understand of it, she wasn’t being able to resist it. She was trying but slowly her body was giving in. All Might was just in front of him now, just a few paces away, looking closely at the man holding him and trying to come up with a way to free him without transforming.
Hallie drank the glowing blood and stood there like a puppet whose strings had just suddenly been cut, knife clattering on the ground, a blank look on her face, devoid even of the faintest emotion. As soon as the sound of her resisting stopped, All Might paused, concern filling his face, yet he didn’t seem as worried as he should have been.
Something is going on, though Izuku still doesn’t know what.
“You can feel it, right? You are still fully there but you can’t so much as twitch a single muscle. You’ll stay that way until I dictate the terms of our marriage. So, here’s how it’s going to go: You are going to do exactly what I tell you to. You aren’t going to put up a fight or resist in any way. You are to be a blank subservient wife, my trophy. But more importantly, when I tell you to kill someone, you will do so, as violently as possible and then, after they are dead, you’ll be able to show your true feelings for about five minutes before going back to the standard stance I’ve given you. You’ll also show your true emotions whenever I request and for as long as I request it.”
She remained blank faced which seem to bother Jet a bit, but it was put aside from the moment.
Before anything else could be said, All Might turned around and shouted her way, also in English.
“You should only be who you are and not a slave to others. You should be free.”
Jet seemed surprised by the interruption but then sneered at him.
“Would you look at that? The filth thinks it can meddle in our affairs. You should take care of it, wifey. Give them both a quick death this time. They did help me get you, after all, and we need to go before the Japanese aurors show up. Then we are going to fix your little mistake and permanently silence everyone you told about my business.”
What happened next was fast.
So fast that Izuku could barely keep up with it.
Not the part where she walked towards them. That one felt like an eternity even thought she was walking fast. No, it was after her facial expression changed when her back was fully towards Jet and she winked at them. And proceeded to promptly use her allowed proximity to disarm and knockout the man that was holding Izuku with quick movements and a mighty punch to the face, before pulling both him and All Might down to the ground just in time to avoid some kind of purple thunderbolt that crashed against a vending machine selling soft drinks.
Belly up, from the position she’d been before she pulled them down with her, she twisted herself, back arching her back off the ground, tossing the knife she’d liberated from the man holding Izuku with unerringly accuracy to the arm that Jet was using to hold the wand.
With a jump, she was back upright again and dashing off towards Jet who was now screaming and clutching his arm. With a flying stomp, she buried the knife deeper before he noticed her and tried to dodge, making him scream some more before giving him a roundhouse kick to the back of his head, knocking him out as well.
“Are you both ok?” She asked, once more speaking in accented Japanese, worry lining her face.
“A bit shaken up but otherwise fine.” All Might replied, thankfully, because Izuku himself was still quite unsure if he could.
It was one thing being the one attacked directly or the one doing the reckless saving. It was another completely different being used as a hostage to force someone else into submission. If the guy had succeeded in any way with his plan, Izuku was sure he would be feeling awful about his role in the whole thing. She seemed so nice, whenever she wasn’t dealing with the guy threatening her. She didn’t deserve to be chased by that sadistic guy.
She seemed to realize his problem expressing his condition and smiled gently, opening her arms in an invitation for a hug.
“It’s all over now and I am uninjured.” She said.
Normally an invitation for a hug for a Japanese person, especially someone you don’t know, wasn’t seen in good light. But the Midoriyas were a different brand of Japanese, and he really needed a hug, so Izuku didn’t hesitate in taking one being offered to him. Somehow All Might was also pulled along for it as well.
For a small moment Izuku just breathed.
No tears, not mumbling, no thousand miles a second thoughts flaring through his brain… Nothing.
Just breathing.
Once he felt himself centered again, he started withdrawing, feeling a bit embarrassed for hugging a total stranger, even if just for the sake of comfort after a difficult situation.
She didn’t seem to take it personally and instead set about tying up their attacker. She was halfway through one, while All Might had just acquired something to tie up the other before they woke up, when the police arrived. No hero was there yet but he heard one of the officers commenting on a hostage situation happening in one of the banks that was taking up a lot of the local heroes.
“No wonder I couldn’t find any heroes.” Hallie commented, having heard the comment too.
After they secured the two guys, the policemen turned to them likely to escort them to the police station to get their testimonies.
“Oh, before we get into anything. Please make sure the person handling the case is familiar with the Statute of Secrecy. Some of the information you’re going to need has to do with it and these two are going to need the forms to be made aware of it as well.” She said nonchalantly, like she’d done this many times before.
“Actually…” All Might interrupted. “I’m already aware of it so I don’t need a form. Young Midoriya isn’t, if you really want to drag him into this.” The way he stated it was almost like he was daring her to do that, though it remained polite.
Hallie looked at him blankly for a moment, before replying with a serious tone and distant eyes.
“I would rather he be informed of what could happen and never need the knowledge, even if it piles secrets on him unnecessarily, than him getting in trouble because he didn’t have the knowledge he needed to keep himself safe.”
They shared a look of respect for each other before she turned back to the policeman.
“So, one form then.”
They were taken away from the street before the news crews could arrive, though Izuku doubted this incident could attract much attention considering what they’d heard.
Apparently saying this attack was related to the so-called Statute of Secrecy made it so that they rushed to get them to the station, instead of waiting for them to be cleared by the EMTs first. Because of the low amount of patrol cars available, the three of them had to share the back seat of a car and though there was some awkwardness, all three of them did make an effort with some small talk to break the tension, despite being squeezed against each other pretty tight.
Once there, All Might was taken for interrogation first while Izuku was to read a document about the so-called statute of secrecy with the help of some woman (she looked more like a lawyer-type than a police one) that explained the more complicated terms in the form.
The form was simple enough. It basically said that he was to keep secret about something that wasn’t very specified on paper, but it seemed to be about some sort of community of people that kept itself hidden for their own safety. They probably had some sort of quirk, though it was written down as ‘power’ whenever it was referred to.
In the form It was specified that someone of that community would be assigned to him, since he would now know about the community, but it was mostly on a supervisor position. That person could get in a lot of trouble if he started telling people about what he was to find out, meaning that whomever signed this form, which Izuku suspected would be Hallie, was giving him a lot of trust. That’s not to say there wouldn’t be consequences for him too if it happened. It stated that depending on the circumstances, such ‘indiscretions’ could be forgiven, which implied there were times they wouldn’t.
It was still pretty clear that the responsibility was mostly Hallie’s because she was the one recommending him to be in on the secret.
Whatever it was, it had to be something big, if it had this much paperwork just to know about it. He’d have to ask All Might for advice when he was done, since he was already aware of what it was. He wasn’t comfortable going into this with so little knowledge about it.