𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓖𝓸𝓮𝓼 | Katsuki Bakugou x Male reader

Chapter 23

Neito's eyes narrowed at him dangerously. "Yeah, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it?" he said. "I guess I must have been distracted by keeping your little friends alive. While you were... what, again? Getting Ultear killed off?"

(M/N)'s fingers tightened around his bow.

"Go ahead. Try it, and I'll rip your throat out," Neito said.

(M/N) knew he couldn't kill him right now. But it was just a matter of time with Neito and him. Before one of them killed the other.

"Maybe we all had better be careful where we step," Denki said, shooting (M/N) a look. He took the coil and set it on Tenya's chest. "There's your wire. Watch where you plug it."

Katsuki picked up the now-unresisting Tenya. "Where to?"

"I'd like to go to the Cornucopia and watch. Just to make sure we're right about the clock," Denki said. It seemed as good a plan as any. Besides, (M/N) wouldn't mind the chance of going over the weapons again. And there were six of them now. Even excluding Tenya and Ochaco they had four good fighters. It was so different from last year at this point, where (M/N) was doing everything on his own. Yes, it was great to have allies as long as he could ignore the thought that he'd have to kill them.

Tenya and Ochaco would probably find some way to die on their own. If they had to run from something, how far would they get? Neito, frankly, (M/N) could easily kill if it came down to protecting Katsuki. Or maybe even just to shut him up. What (M/N) really needed was for someone to take out Denki for him, since he didn't think he could do it personally. Not after all he'd done for Katsuki. (M/N) thought about manoeuvring Denki into some kind of encounter with the Careers. It was cold, but he didn't know what his other options were. Now that they knew about the clock he probably wouldn't die in the jungle, so someone would have to kill him in battle.

Because this was so repellent to think about, (M/N)'s mind frantically tried to change topics. But the only thing that distracted him from his current situation was fantasising about killing President Nezu. Not very nice daydreams for an eighteen-year-old boy, but very satisfying.

They walked down the nearest sand strip, approaching the Cornucopia with care, just in case the Careers were concealed there. (M/N) doubted they were, because they had been on the beach for hours and there had been no sign of life.

The area was abandoned, as expected. Only the big silver horn and the picked-over pile of weapons remained.

When Katsuki laid Tenya in a bit of shade the Cornucopia provided, he called out to Ochaco. She crouched beside him and he put the coil of wire in her hands. "Clean it, will you?" he asked.

Ochaco gave a nod and walked over to the water's edge, where she dunked the coil in the water. She started quietly singing some funny little song, about a mouse running up a clock. It must have been for children, but it seemed to make her happy.

"Oh, not the song again," Neito said, rolling his eyes. "That went on for hours before she started tick-tocking."

Suddenly Ochaco stood up and pointed to the jungle. "Two," she said.

(M/N) followed her finger to where the wall of fog had just begun to seep out onto the beach. "Yes, look, Ochaco is right. It's two o'clock and the fog has started."

"Like clockwork," Katsuki said.

"You were very smart to figure that out, Ochaco," Denki said.

She smiled and went back to singing and dunking her coil. "Oh, she's more than smart," Tenya said. "She's intuitive." They all turned to look at Tenya, who seemed to be coming back to life. "She can sense things before anyone else. Like a canary in one of your coal mines."