Crimson Murders

Chapter Thirty-One

"Thirty? That's good, right? They found most of the bodies?" questions Sato. Kouda is beside him, curled into himself and signing nervously. He is trying to reassure himself, but it isn't helping him. Sato pats his arm.

"No," he murmurs. "It's only a quarter of what they found. They believe she has killed over twenty of children and about eighty adults all who had helped in search for the killer."

That earns small gasps from many of the class. He doesn't know it, but the story has caught the attention of Aizawa and Sekijiro.

"Witness reports always say the same thing. They always start off with whispering before transitioning to screams. Once they want to head back to check on whoever they were with, they start seeing gruesome tortures. They always describe it as being in Hell itself. The victims at first were tortured post mortem until the killer decided to hear their tortured screams, watch the way they shudder and flinch in fear and in pain. Bodies were found amputated, hung by their intestines, eyes shoved into their mouths or in their hands with drawings carved into them. Bones have been shattered, some being shoved through the skulls. One particular victim had their brain ripped out, cut into pieces and shoved down their throat. Finger nails have been taken off, toes and fingers cut, teeth missing, tongue cut and mutilated. They wouldn't be able to find a few body parts. Ears would be cut off, teeth would be then found so far into the holes that they'd be lodged into the person's eardrums. The flesh on their backs were cut open and ribs broken, jutting out to look like wings. Pictures carved into—"

"Stop!" cries Uraraka. "Deku, please—stop. I don't want to know anymore."

"Deku, what the fuck?" Bakugou mutters as he stares at the dark and creepy teenager.

Midoriya blinks, his irises regaining focus. He seems to come out of a trance as he rubs his eyes. "So-sorry! I was saying it how it's written in the report. I'm sorry, I got carried away." He rubs his palms on his thighs. "Anyway, it took them two years to find the killer. Apparently, they had a quirk that caused illusions and they let the people who got too close to where they were to see and hear things that weren't real. The only way they had been able to apprehend the killer was a bullet to the head."

"Now that that's over, I will never be able to sleep without those images in my head," mutters Kaminari.

"How did you even know about that?" inquires Sero, who doesn't seem to be too affected like the others. While it seems this way, he is absolutely terrified. He reads horrifying stories but this one, knowing that it had happened—it makes him uneasy. He fears for it to happen again.

"Uh, the internet?"

"They wouldn't publish that much!"

"Oh. Yeah, I have an internet friend who hacked into police records and published it. Before it was caught, I had the whole case downloaded into a flash drive."

"Why?" Mina is horrified. He speaks about this like it isn't a big deal! "Those are people, how can you speak about it like that? Especially with a case that gruesome!"

"They're dead," he says bluntly. "Simple. It happened a long time ago. We're heroes. We save lives, not the dead. No one can save the dead. I'm sorry if I come off rude and disrespectful, but that's just how it is. One day, when we're all dead, people will speak of us like it doesn't matter."

Aizawa shares a look with Sekijiro. "Alright. Get to sleep. No more horror stories. Midoriya, please do not speak about another homicide case like that again. People aren't apathetic to it like you are."