PAPER FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 34

' versus, i '

━━━━━

Kaede cannot breathe.

Passageways of air are blocked and she claws for air, fingernails digging into his fists and the other heroes, police officers and heroes in training running towards her to help, but minions atop minions block their passageways. Just like how him choking the living daylights out of her is terrible. Almost imperceptibly, she's lifted off the ground and other parts of her body are not even struggling because of his Compulsion.

Minutes and seconds are passing before her eyelids, her breath catching and the end is coming because her eyelids are closing, her neck is scorching and seconds are the only things needed to be counted before she meets her... end.

"Nothing personal, Kaede," he says, but there's a sense of satisfaction on his eyes that makes her believe otherwise and... a gust of air pushes both of them and they're both thrown at opposite sides with Kohaku landing on the handles of the bridge and Kaede gently on the floor.

"You okay, fam?" a voice calls and she looks up, groaning all the while at Caimie shielding two people. One is Honoka whose face is filled with concern at the sight of her and the other, with her once beautiful silver hair now a choppy bob and scratches littering her visage, Kaede's breath catches. Akihisa Yuko is standing next to Honoka, pacifying the girl and there's a mass of air twisting at her palms.

It takes minutes for her to nod as a sign for thanks, dusting herself off and fending off a minion who tried to attack her with a knife. Using her left foot to kick its face, she snatches the dagger away and knocks him unconscious with the hilt.

From the corner of her eyes, she sees Honoka and Yuko being led to safety with the assistance of Gang Orca and a couple of other officers. She decides that they're safe now and instead engages the minions that are slowly overpowering Officer Anri. It's seven against one, but with two of them now, the odds aren't that bad anymore.

Throwing a punch at one of the minions, stabbing his knee as she twisted and kicked his gut, Kaede blows a strand of her hair on her face. Taking two steps back after a minion hit her with a bullet, grazed her left leg, she ties the long sleeves of her cardigan tighter and when the action is concluded, she lunges.

A battle cry tears itself from her still burning throat and she deflects and throws attacks. Catching Officer Anri as she held the minions elbows, she sees the nod that's directed towards her and pushed the minion towards her.

She hears gunshot from the fingernails of the older woman and at her fingertips are needles the length of Kaede's thumb, all succinctly thrown shot at the minions heading her way. Maybe she isn't that overpowered earlier, but Kaede still helps her, grabs the shoulder of one minion from earlier and attacks him with a sidekick to his gut (with her right leg, since the left is still trickling blood from where the bullet hit her).

Running, Kaede follows a minion trying to escape and she flings herself towards it, the soles of her rubber shoes on its back and when it tries to raise its head, she hit it with a stomp on the head, winces at the sound of cracking bones.

When another lunges at her, probably someone from Kouda or Sero's part, Kaede evades it and she moves her own feet into position: left foot forward, right foot back, arcing the stronger part of her body towards her opponent.