they all gave up on me (kiribaku)

2

The new hero-killer was all the news could talk about nowadays. Kirishima had seen so many deaths this past year. Too many. How did this happen? He wondered. The villain had popped up out of nowhere about a month ago, and had already killed thirty-five people. At least half of those were heroes. 

His phone rang, and he jumped. "Hey, Mina." 

Silence, and then suddenly, loud, heavy sobs. "Kiri-shima, Kiri, did you see-"

"See what? Mina, what happened? Are you okay, did Uraraka break up with you or something?"

"N-no, not that Kiri, did you--Have you seen the news?" 

"No, why?" He hurried to the T.V., quickly flipping it to the news channel. 

The remote fell from his hands, clattering loudly on the floor. 

Pro heroes Chargebolt and Cellophane found dead, along with 6 sidekicks and 18 civilians

No, this was impossible. He was dreaming, obviously. How could someone take out that many people-- "Mina? Mina this is fake right? Mina, please tell me this is fake please-"

The sobbing had quieted, but was still there. 

Oh god- "Fuck. Shit." He hung up, before he agitated her further. Uraraka was there with her. She'd be okay. Silently he stood there, watching the program run on. 

"-Chargebolt was found with a gaping burn wound in his neck, and all other victims showed signs of an explosive-type quirk having been used on them. This lines up with the new hero-killer's, now dubbed Fire-Raiser by the police force, preferred method of murder. As before, it seems one specific hero was targeted, and the rest were killed due to running to the resc-"

Kirishima scrambled for the remote and shut off the channel, the tears coming fast. Both Chargebolt and Cellophane were gone. Kaminari and Sero--two of his closest friends. Done in by the new hero-killer, this Fire-Raiser.

Kirishima now had a new mission. 

X X X

Bakugou laughed silently at all the attention society had been giving him. All over Japan, heroes were trying to capture him, and still they knew next to nothing about him? The only thing they knew was that his quirk had to do with fire. Pathetic. 

Though part of it was obviously due to his plans and killing off all witnesses, he supposed. The only people that had ever truly seen him were now dead. He needed it that way--no one to rely on, no one to rely on him. Pulling out his list of targets, he crossed off Chargebolt and Cellophane. He had killed Grape Juice off last month, along with Phantom Thief. Phantom Theif wasn't originally one of his targets, but all witnesses had to be eliminated. 

Sixteen more to go.

He smirked. They forgot me, they gave up on me, now I will make sure the world forgets them. 

"Fire-Raiser," he mused. "Not the worst name they could have given me. Might as well live up to it, don't you think?" 

Talking to yourself again, are we? 

He pushed the thought away. He didn't like being reminded of the silence, so he filled it up with muttered words and deafening explosions. Sometimes he would go out into the alley behind the abandoned building he called home, and see if he could find a stray cat. Anything to ease the pain of silence. Even a rat digging around in the garbage would do. Those were not his highest moments, he'd be the first to admit, and more often than not they would end with another part of the building being destroyed as he threw himself against it. He relished the pain of a fight, of throwing himself into a battle with everything he had, but he couldn't get that in this world. Not without being caught easier, without making himself too vulnerable.