Atonement [Bakugo Katsuki]

🤍 Chapter 99 🤍

Kuroyanagi Kimitsuki

Kimitsuki stared at the illuminated screen of her phone in silence, unable to tear her eyes away from the text that had popped up out of nowhere. It was a number that was not registered in her phone but the cause for concern was that she herself did not recognise it from anywhere, either. The text was simply her name yet the dread it sent through her chest was something un paralleled.

More and more messages popped up but none of them were from that number. Katsuki was inquiring about her whereabouts, seeing that she was active online yet Kimitsuki felt completely frozen as she remained within the window with the unknown number.

The car beneath her continued to fly down the empty bridge as Present Mic drove it remarkably fast while Aizawa was completely silent with his own thoughts – neither of them seemed to notice that something was very wrong. Everything seemed to be going as it was meant to be yet Kimitsuki could not comprehend what to do about the text message. She had no idea what to say about it.

Dusk had dyed the skies into shades of violet, smearing across the last sunrays of the evening, and Kimitsuki watched her phone switch itself off. The darkness of her screen gave her the momentary reminder to take a breath lest she wanted to pass out. There were no more messages from that number.

Yet a sense of morbid curiosity was overtaking Kimitsuki as her mind worked in a hundred paces. It hurt to think so much after what she had went through with Kurogiri but it was hard to control it once it had begun. Kimitsuki felt a sense of frustration as she reached for her phone once more. Her fingers twitched as she tried to type in her message –

Who are you?

There was no response from the other side. Kimitsuki had no way of even knowing if they had even read it, she somehow knew: they had received her response, they had read and they had left it as so. For a moment, Kimitsuki had been doubtful it was Shigaraki Tomura, given that he was impulsive enough that he would respond immediately. But then, she wondered if he knew she knew that.

Kurogiri was not wrong in calling Shigaraki boyish but Kimitsuki felt like the proper term for him was childish. Shigaraki was a man-child who had absolutely no regards about anyone else – and for some reason, he wanted her to suffer for his entertainment. Kimitsuki had never understood why.

Patience was not something that came easy to Shigaraki, Kimitsuki was well-aware of that. It could be anyone else in the world who may have messaged her. It could be Dabi, or it could be an entirely innocent person. It could even be a meddlesome journalist trying to reach out to her personally.

It would have been wise to mention this text message to Aizawa and Present Mic at once. Yet seeing what had just happened with them and the revelation of their late friend, Kimitsuki remained silent. Kimitsuki knew that she should have been smarter about it – but she thought more from her heart than her head.

However, as they arrived back to their school, Aizawa seemed to have noticed. He did not appear to know what exactly was wrong with her but he appeared to know. Present Mic had stopped to drop Aizawa off at the teachers' dorm before he went to drop Kimitsuki but the girl had absentmindedly gotten out of the car as well.

"Kuroyanagi," Aizawa spoke up, and Kimitsuki turned to look at him to find him looking at her in confusion. "Are you alright? Mic is going to drop you off at the dormitory,"

"Oh, I apologise, Sensei," Kimitsuki replied, getting her senses back into check. "I was distracted... but I suppose it is better to get off here. I still have to pick my stuff up from the classroom,"

Aizawa stared at Kimitsuki for a moment – it was true that she would have an easier time going from the staff dormitory to the school building than from her own. But never had he seen Kimitsuki act so lost. He pursed his lips, wondering if the Kurogiri issue had more of an adverse affect on her than he initially thought.