𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓖𝓸𝓮𝓼 | Katsuki Bakugou x Male reader

Chapter 8

Most of the other Peacekeepers fell into an awkward formation behind him and followed. When they looked at (M/N), he mouthed a quick "thank you", and then they were gone.

"Shoto." (M/N) turned, his hands fumbling at the knots binding his wrists. Someone passed forward a knife and Katsuki cut the ropes. Shoto collapsed to the ground.

"Better get him to your mother," Shota said.

There was no stretcher, but the old woman at the clothing stall sold them the board that served as her countertop. "Just don't tell where you got it," she said, packing up the rest of her goods quickly. Most of the square had emptied, fear of getting the better of compassion. But after what just happened, (M/N) couldn't blame anyone.

By the time they had laid Shoto face down on the board, there were only a handful of people left to carry him. Shota, Katsuki and a couple of miners who worked on the same crew as Shoto lifted him up.

A girl who lived a few houses down from (M/N)'s in the Seam, took his arm. His mother kept her little brother alive the previous year. "Need help getting back?" Her eyes were scared but determined.

"No, but can you get Rei? Send her over?" (M/N) asked.

"Yeah," she said, and then she left. (M/N) grabbed Shoto's jacket and hurried after the others.

"Get some snow on that," Shota ordered over his shoulders. (M/N) scooped up a handful of snow and pressed it against his cheek, numbing a bit of the pain. His left eye was tearing heavily now, and in the dimming light it was all he could do to follow the boots in front of him.

As they walked (M/N) heard two of Shoto's crewmates piece together the story of what happened. Shoto must have gone to the old Head Peacekeeper's house, knowing that he always paid well for a wild turkey. But instead he would've found the new Head Peacekeeper. No one knows what happened to the old one. He was buying white liquor in the Hob just this morning, apparently still in command of the district, but now he was nowhere to be found. The Head Peacekeeper put Shoto under immediate arrest and, of course, since he was standing there holding a dead turkey, there was little Shoto could say in his own defence.

Word of his predicament spread quickly. He was brought to the square, forced to plead guilty to his crime, and sentenced to a whipping to be carried out immediately. By the time (M/N) showed up, he'd already been lashed at least forty times. He passed out around thirty.

"Lucky he only had the turkey on him," Shoto's crewmate said. "If he'd had his usual haul, it would've been much worse."

"He told the new Head that he found it wandering around the Seam. Said it got over the fence and he'd stabbed it with a stick. Still a crime. But if they'd known he'd been in the woods with weapons, they'd have killed him for sure," another crewmate said.

Snow began to fall, thick and wet, making visibility even more difficult. (M/N) stumbled up the walk to his house behind the others, using his ears more than his eyes to guide him. A golden light coloured the snow as the door opened. (M/N)'s mother, who was no doubt waiting for him after a long day of unexplained absence, took in the scene.

"New Head," Shota said, and she gave him a curt nod as if no other explanation was needed.

(M/N) was filled with awe, as he always was, as he watched his mother transform from a woman who called him to kill a spider to a woman immune to fear. When a sick or dying person was brought to her... that was the only time (M/N) thought his mother knew who she was.

In moments, the kitchen table had been cleared, a sterile white cloth spread across it, and Shoto was hoisted onto it. (M/N)'s mother poured water from a kettle into a basin while ordering Eri to pull a series of her remedies from the medicine cabinet. Dried herbs and tinctures and store-bought bottles. (M/N) watched her hands, the long, tapered fingers crumbling this, adding drops of that, into the basin. Soaking a cloth in the hot liquid as she gave Eri instructions to prepare a second brew.