𝙙𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 (𝗏𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖺𝗂𝗇! 𝗍𝗈𝖽𝗈𝖽𝖾𝗄𝗎)

chapter seventeen

We ignored her pleas and I quickly explained that Midoriya had disappeared. Jiro said that he might have been kidnapped again, considering that there were obviously villains in the school, but Uraraka shot me a side-eye that said she thought otherwise.

"What if this was his plan or something?" she whispered to me. "I mean, it makes sense."

I didn't want to believe it, so I simply shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. All of the signs pointed to him being a villain, but I grasped the last shreds of hope I had and held onto them.

Something silver whizzed past my face, practically grazing the tip of my nose as it did. Toga had thrown her knife and was now laughing manically, standing in front of the ice instead of in it. Her feet were now bare besides her socks—she had stepped out of her shoes to escape the ice.

"Shoto-kun!" she yelled, running towards me. Before I could react, her arms were around my neck from behind. She had pulled out another knife and was holding the blade—which was just dull enough to not tear my skin immediately—to my throat, just like she had that evening, slowly cutting off my airway.

"Stop!" Uraraka stood a few feet away next to Jiro. They were both glaring at Toga, ready to fight but scared that any movement would result in me being harmed.

"Where's Midoriya?" I croaked. All I cared about was finding him—so what if Toga had the ability to kill me at any moment?

Hesitantly, she removed her blade from my neck, but before anyone had a chance to react, she slid the knife across my thigh, cutting through my jeans and slicing my skin. I inhaled sharply and closed my eyes from the shooting pain.

"Deku-kun is busy," Toga whined. "That's why I'm here! You guys are fun."

She pointed the tip of the blade into my stomach and ran it upwards, drawing a gash into my skin. The blonde giggled and I squirmed, trying to get away from her, but she backed me against the wall, making me unable to move.

Outside, thunder roared and Toga perked up, removing the blade from my skin as she turned around to look out the first floor windows. Her giddy expression only grew at whatever she saw, and I took that chance to get away from her.

I stumbled over to Uraraka, my cut leg now bleeding through my jeans. Jiro planted her heel into the ground and turned on her speakers, playing a deafening frequency that made Toga fall to the ground and cover her ears.

The sound stopped quickly and Toga stood back up, her ears dripping with a small amount of blood. "You'll regret that," she hissed, her bloodthirsty grin coming back quickly. She giggled and threw her knife forcefully before turning and running toward the door.

Jiro ducked, expecting the knife to hit her, but I gasped as the blade completely missed, instead piercing me through the side of my abdomen with a brute force like a punch. I doubled over, placing a hand over the new wound while my breath hitched and tears welled in my eyes from the pain. The room spun slightly and I tripped backwards, leaning against the wall for support as an ice cold feeling spread through my side.

The door slammed behind Toga as she left the building and Uraraka rushed to me, looking at the knife now protruding out of the wall behind me. "It looks like the knife, uh, grazed you—"

"That's more than a graze," Jiro said. "We need to get you to Recovery Girl."

"No," I mumbled. "I need to find Izuku."

"No, Todoroki—"

I brushed the two off, pushed myself up from the wall, and pulled my hand away from my side. I cringed at the sight of blood on my hand and continued walking to the door, pulling Midoriya's jacket closer around me.

A few doors slammed from the rooms above and students began flooding downstairs. Bakugou was especially grumpy, considering he had just been woken up. He stormed into the common area, ready to yell at someone, but he stopped when he saw the sorrowful expressions on Uraraka and Jiro's faces.

"What the hell happened?" he grumbled.

"The League," Jiro answered. "They're attacking."

"They're WHAT?"

"Bakugou, it's three in the morning, shut up—"

"Fuck that!" He rushed past me to the door and yanked it open, small explosions popping around his hands.

The sound of the howling wind quieted the room as the storm continued outside. I followed Bakugou onto the porch and flinched from the cold rain, which was blowing hard, smacking us like little pebbles. Kirishima and a few others ran outside with us before stopping abruptly to see what was going on.

On the ground below us, Toga and Twice were talking casually, almost like attacking schools was something they did every day. Toga looked our way and broke out into a bright smile. "Look, look! They're finally coming out!"

A voice to my right made me jump. "Took them long enough," Dabi said, walking out from the dark shadows of the porch with a blue flame in his hand.

Bakugou let out a yell and ran towards Dabi. Blue flames met orange explosions as the two clashed, and Kirishima was standing protectively next to the blonde with his skin hardened. Tokoyami and Sero, who had just run out of the building, joined them, adding Dark Shadow and flying tape to the fight.

Uraraka was suddenly at my side. "You need to go to Recovery Girl—"

"But—"

"—but you also need to go find Deku. Don't get hurt, okay? I'll help you get around these guys." Uraraka was trembling slightly, but other than that, she was putting on a good front: She didn't want the others to know she was scared.

"Thank you," I whispered. The pain from the gash had faded to a repetitive throbbing that rocked my whole gut, so I was able to ignore it for the time being.

Uraraka tapped my shoulder and my feet left the ground, thanks to her using her zero-gravity quirk. The ice-cold rain soaked through my clothes as I moved through the air, using the side of the building to push myself forward with the little strength I had left in my legs. Beneath me, Uraraka ran toward the two villains with Jiro, Kaminari, Iida, and Ojiro.

I didn't have time to stay and watch the fight. I continued forward and eventually ended up far enough away from the villains. Uraraka could still see me, though, so I sent her a thumbs-up and she touched her fingers together, releasing her quirk. I fell to the ground and took off running, my eyes scanning the familiar school grounds for Izuku.

I rounded a corner and stopped as soon as I saw two dark figures standing against the side of a random dorm building. Silently, I backed out of their view and poked my head around to get a closer look.

The shorter of the two was slouching with his hands in his pockets, an extra hand protruding from his face in a recognisable manner that could only make him Shigaraki. Next to him, with wild (and drenched) green hair, was Izuku.

Instantly, I moved to reach him, but the sound of his voice stopped me and I shushed to listen.

"Can we at least get out of the rain?" he asked, a slight tremor audible as he spoke. "It's cold."

"No," Shigaraki answered coldly.

Izuku crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Even in the dark, I could see a sad frown upon his face, and he kept looking up at the cloudy sky as if he was trying not to cry.

After another moment of quiet, a cheer went up from Toga. Her disembodied voice rang through the campus and Shigaraki mumbled something to Izuku, grabbing his wrist roughly and yanking him around the other side of the building.

I jumped up to follow them, but pain roared from the gash in my side and my feet swayed beneath me. Black spots danced in my vision and my breath caught in my throat, yet I didn't stop moving. Weakly, I touched my hand to my side and gingerly pulled it away to reveal dark blood, quickly mixing with the rain as it poured down on me. Lightning flashed, and my legs suddenly gave out, making me fall to the ground roughly.

My vision went completely black and the sounds of the raging storm disappeared. I felt strangely numb, and, as I slowly lost consciousness, one thought overpowered all else: I had failed to save Izuku from the villains again, and all I could say was I'm sorry.