Where Loyalty Lies // Mori Ougai x Reader

Chapter 19: Burn It Down

She briefly had enough strength to lift her head and glare at him from the corner of her eye. "You aren't the maker here, got that? The Port Mafia will find you, and when they do, you'll be the one munching on the dirt you despise."

"Then I'll assume that you'd prefer that the children be brought to slaughter? My, how selfish of you to sacrifice the young to save the old. Or maybe it would be better to say that you were only intent on saving one to begin with," he said, grinning. "Either way, I hope you're not actually betting on them to rescue you. This place is quite difficult to find, and I've already taken the appropriate measures to ensure we won't be disturbed."

Y/n chuckled. "Maybe I am selfish, but it's far better than being someone like you. You wouldn't know love if it shot you in the head."

Fyodor's eyes went cold, and he pressed his knee further into her spine, pulling out a small knife before jamming it into the shoulder of the arm he had twisted behind her. Her eyes widened, but she muffled her aching scream with her heavy breathing. She couldn't move her shoulder, as she felt like it would tear her ligaments and tendons apart.

Then, he stood up and grabbed his phone. Y/n lifted her head to see what he was doing, and saw murder nestled in his eyes. With a grimacing face, she propped herself up on her remaining arm, and shifted her legs into a sitting position. She grabbed the handle of the knife while breathing even heavier. Even touching the mere bottom of the blade made her flinch from her wounded nerves. If she was going to really do this, then she would need both hands for it.

She counted down from three in her head before yanking the knife out of the backside of her shoulder. She teared up a bit from the stinging sensation, but carefully took off the extra long-sleeved shirt she was wearing and wrapped it tightly around her wound in order to stop the bleeding.

Fyodor turned to look at her with his deathly gaze still present. "I don't think that will do much to help your situation," he said. "I've instructed Nikolai to handle those children in my stead. I would rather be here to judge your sins for myself." He began walking towards her.

"I'm glad, since I plan to do the same," she said, holding her shoulder, trying to tolerate the pain.

She took in a deep breath, calming her heart rate to a steady rhythm. She could no longer afford to pull her punches with this man, so she decided that she would let her sins run wild. "Ability—" She said, spreading her arms out with her palms facing upwards. "Monster."

In mere seconds, a blast of energy released itself from the palms of her hands, and only kept growing more and more into a giant cloud of flames above the two of them. Fyodor's eyes widened, not realizing that he had taken a step back in response to her overwhelming power.

Y/n rarely used the full extent of her ability, and would only call upon it in this manner at the utterance of its true name. However, she was more than willing to send this man's curmudgeonous soul back to hell if it meant saving everyone that had been dragged into this.

Fyodor maniacally laughed. "This is what I've been waiting for, my dear Y/n! We can finally destroy it all, everything that has casted its depravity upon us. I'm proud of the monster you've become for my sake."

Y/n's eyes were glued to him. "I agree. Death is what you ought to have been waiting for."

As the cloud of heat gathered in the air, it gradually morphed into a blue and purple inferno that made it hard for Fyodor to breathe properly. He clutched his throat, coughing and gasping for air. The room was so sweltering hot that when he went to grab the door handle, it seared his flesh. He fell to his knees, and his vision became blurry. Almost there, she thought.