"You here to finish me off sweetheart?" Maneater smiled weakly. Y/n tilted her head with a smirk. "Something like that." She began to walk towards him. "I'm here to finish off Maneater. And bring back Shinjiro." He scowled, clenching his fist. "There is no Shinjiro anymore... Let me do what I need to do and don't put yourself into further danger by fighting me." His fist erupted into dark red flames and he bolted towards her as fast as he could with his feet sinking into the sand. Y/n held her ground when he jumped at her with his fist raised, and she grinned lightly when the flames flickered out seconds before his fist collided with her palm.
"Well. That's unfortunate." Her silky voice mused, making him growl. His body was flung back when she used her quirk to shove his fist away. He cursed as he slid across the sand. Y/n frowned when he sunk his hand into the sand. A few chains exploded out of the sand behind her and wrapped themselves around her torso, confining her arms to her side. "You think this'll-" Y/n's voice was cut off by a shout when she felt a surge of electricity zap her through the metal. "I'm- I'm sorry but I really need to get to them and-" "You see?" She panted on her knees. "M-Maneater wouldn't have ap-poligized! Shinjiro is still there!" She shivered and stuttered from the electric shock.
"How are you still so adamant on helping 'Shinjiro'? I don't need him! Hero society is poisonous and corrupt, and should be wiped and restarted." He clenched his fist, tightening the chains around her when he noticed her begin to stir and get off her knees. "And yet.. You just apologised to me and I fought for them to not execute you after your interrogation." Y/n smiled, her knees wobbling as she rose from the sand and tried to stand. "But that's you. You're different. Do you deny that all of these people, claiming to be heroes, are cruel?" Maneater asked. Y/n grunted, reusing the energy that she absorbed through being electrocuted to break the chains.
She massaged her arms where the chains used to be and shook her head. "No. I've been cruel. I've experienced cruelty at the hands of heroes. It's a cruel world. Maybe all heroes should be abolished and deserve to die." Y/n sighed, looking at the course sand in front of her, coating her boots and suit. She looked up at Maneater, who was still on the ground a good few metres away from her and was listening carefully. "But maybe, just maybe, we could get better too. Look at it this way, if you kill all the 'bad' heroes, which in your opinion is 99% of heroes, you'll put an end to hero cruelty. But then.." She moved in his direction, stretching a hand out to help him up.
"You'll put an end to hero kindness too." When she smiled, Maneater grimaced. He accepted her hand and got up. "I know that you're intelligent, Y/n. So why? Why do you choose to blindly believe in something that barely exists..?" His eyes held desperation, no matter how much he tried he could never really understand the way she thinks. "...Society and heroes are weird. They think good and evil, chaos and order, heroes and villains, all that stuff– are opposites. Most of them want to control things that can't be controlled, like the creation of someone who riot against orders." Y/n turned, staring at the sunset ahead. Maneater kept his eyes on her, though.
"But there's always some good intentions in their actions. I think you missed that part." She hummed. At that moment, she was thinking of her father, how he abandoned all to be with her mother and died to protect her even though Y/n was the reason she died. Of her teacher, who died refusing information about her to protect her from villains. Of her best friend, and how he put himself through so much pain just to stay by her side. And of course, her love, who swore to keep her from harming herself repeatedly even if it meant risking himself. There were still good people with good intentions, she thought, and people with good intentions who go about them in the wrong way.
"The HRS.. we're already helping the police work on arresting and rehabilitating the rest of the members. It's fine. You just have to worry about helping him now."
"We... want him to get better. He was the one that made us. And you... you're the one that saved us. The commission.. They made him. So you'll have to be the one that saves him. Please."
"They're doomed. Good intentions don't get you anywhere anymore." Maneater muttered, turning to look at the sunset that she's staring at. "But...Things aren't beautiful because they last. Like flowers. I think.. I think it's a privilege to be among people who are kind. Who have good intentions and want the best for you. Like your team." He scoffed and shook his head. "You're unbearably naive, willingly too. Why?" He asked, making her laugh. "Well. We all have a little kid inside us that wants to be hopeful. I want to bring yours out again, Shinjiro." She turned to him, her eyes stern and serious. For a split second, she saw a tinge of vulnerability flash in his eyes before he shook his head and tore his gaze away from hers.
"No. No I'm- no. I already told you Shinjiro is gone. Please leave. Let me do what I need to do, and if I die in the process then so be it. I'll die satisfied knowing that I left a mark in society." His face twisted with a look of determination and anger, and he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. "I can't let you attack the main base Shinjiro. Come back with me. You can get help, along with the rest. Haruki, Shiro, Reia. They're all waiting for you." She sighed, tilting her head. "Stop!- Stop calling me that.." He begged. He couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes, seeing flashes of that kind nurse with every glance. He wanted to be mean and show her how cruel he is so that she'd leave him alone, alone to rot in his own revenge ideals.
"Revenge is great. Assholes need punishing. But after you punish them all, you replace them as the leader, the new asshole to people who might get mistreated under your system because guess what, no system is perfect." She shrugged. He whipped his head towards her. "I won't." "You will. You're smart enough to know what the right of conquest is, right?" Maneater nodded and opened his mouth to speak. "Yes. I've thought of that too when I was planning on setting the commission right. Well I decided to lead by example. The civilians and normal people are the ones who are most affected by the wrongs of the commission. So all I have to do is show the secrets that I have access to and let the people do what they see fit is. That should work, don't you think?"
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of helicopter blades, coming from more than one direction. "Attack helicopters..." She mumbled to herself. "Benji what the shit are these?! Didn't I tell Killian to cancel his order?!" She asked through the comms. "Yes! Hold on I'll... He said he didn't call them off for your own safety!" Benji responded. "That fucking liar!" Y/n shouted. "Maneater get behind me I'll solve this-" He grabbed her hand and glared into her eyes. "Don't." Is all he said before unhanding her and shoving her onto the ground behind him. He raised his hands, creating an invisible force field between them and the gun bearing helicopters.
Y/n flinched when a storm of bullets rained down on them and collided with the shield that Maneater was holding up. "Y/n I can't get to the helicopters, they're using something to block my quirk! They were prepared I think- I think Killian was planning on taking you out too and covering it up! You need to get out of there!" Maneater took a few steps back, his shield was being pushed back by all of the bullets, and he was getting tired. He fell to his knees right in front of Y/n, who was on the ground trying to communicate with Benji. She turned and glanced at Maneater when he called out to her.
"Y/n. I... It's too late for someone like me. You can't save me from myself. You can't.. Save me from my urges. My past. My hunger. But you have to save them. They're not like me. Those three, they don't have a natural urge to do unspeakable things to satisfy their own hunger." He shouted through the sound of bullets. Y/n shook her head but he shushed her. "You have to fix hero society. There's no one more fit for it than you. Don't.. Don't let what I'm about to do cloud your thoughts with revenge. Keep your eyes on the goal. Save people. Save them." He said, his eyes bolting to the cuffs on his hand and then to the flickering shield.
'No..' Y/n thought. This was the worst time for his cuffs to turn on. "Shinjiro-" He tackled her to the ground, shielding her body with his. They shared a terrified look before her turned her head to the side and covered her eyes. The next few moments went by in one long second. The gunshots got louder, and the flashes that the machineguns emitted got brighter, even through her tightly shut eyes. The sand felt coarser on her cheek, and her chest felt heavy. But then, it stopped. All of it. Except for the heaviness on her chest. She opened her eyes and stared up at the helicopters hovering above. They stopped. Her eyes slowly moved down, towards the hole riddled body of Shinjiro. His blood seeping onto her chest, and pooling into the now crimson sand beneath them.
She peeled him off of her and laid him onto his back. His black eyes were empty, but not as empty as Y/n felt at that moment. She failed. She felt weak. So weak. But staring at Shinjiro's mangled body, that she failed to help, reminded her of an important conversation that she had with her teacher many years ago.
"L/n. What's your goal? Why are you always tense and fighting for something?" Mr. Carter asked. Y/n swallowed. "I.. I want to be the strongest, so that no matter how horrible a situation is, people still feel safe because I'm around. So I need to be perfect at everything I do." She answered truthfully, making him laugh.
She stood up. Despite the pain in her chest, and how weak her legs felt. Despite the pounding in her head and the tightness in her throat. And she turned towards the attackers. "Benji, get the helicopter that Katsuki is in out of here now." She ordered. Y/n's frown deepened as she felt the familiar course of energy intensify. "I will. What are you planning? Y/n your quirk monitor, the levels are getting dangerously high you need to tone it dow-" She grabbed the device from her ear and chucked it aside. Benji slammed his desk frustratedly when he heard a thud after she stopped answering. "Damn it!"
The knot that was holding back all of her energy from being released was getting tighter and tighter. She heard the sounds of the reloading guns and smiled. Benji was staring worriedly at the metre's arrow that was bobbing uncontrollably at the amount of energy that Y/n was holding in. The guns aimed towards her.
"Being the strongest is not about perfecting everything and being perfect... It's about letting go."
The large wave of (colour) energy that was released from Y/n's body was visible even from the agency. Benji, Katsuki, Midoriya, hell– the entire country watched in awe through their screens or windows. There was a beauty to the (colour) explosion, the kind that you couldn't look away from. She had unlocked a part of her quirk, a part of herself, that she never knew she had in her. With her fists clenched, her head down, and arms and legs pulled in close to the body, she bit her lip to suppress a sob.
She was feeling so many things at once. Fatigue from the biggest blast that she's ever created. Sadness because of her failure to keep her promise and save Shinjiro. A longing for comfort from her parents and teacher. She just wanted someone to tell her that everything will be alright. But she had a job to finish.
'Let me do what I need to do, and if I die in the process then so be it. I'll die satisfied knowing that I left a mark in society.'
She needed to make sure that Shinjiro left his mark.
So Y/n stood up, despite the pain, the fatigue, the sadness. She got up, and made her way to where Shinjiro's corpse laid and kneeled next to his head. Y/n brushed her palm over his face, closing his eyes. She then stood up to her full height again and used her foot to write a series of letters beside his body. By the time she was done, media helicopters swarmed with their army of cameras to report on the situation, only to be met with the number one hero tearing off her star spangled cape, and lighting it on fire while standing next to the words 'FUCK THE COMMISSION'.
With one hand, she held up her trademark peace sign. And with the other, she gripped the burning fabric of the flag. Panting harshly, she stared directly into the cameras. "Y/n.. you madwoman.." Benji whispered, covering his mouth as he watched her actions spread across the news like wildfire. Katsuki was speechless, watching her from the helicopter after threatening the pilot and forcing him to turn back to her. He was in awe. "Holy shit.." Midoriya whispered from beside him.
Y/n let go of the burning flag when she felt a tight squeeze and immense pressure to her chest. Her hand grabbed her chest, as if she was trying to claw at the heaviness spreading from her heart and across her body. There was a ringing in her ears, probably from the explosion. "Shit." She muttered through gritted teeth, falling to her knees and gripping the fabric of her suit tightly.
Her body tilted to the side, and her head hit the sand. Three figures appeared in front of her. She knew that she'd fucked up and over done it with her quirk when she saw the hallucinations of her parents and former teacher smiling at her. "You did good, kid." Carter spoke, and Y/n smiled.
'Hey. I might've gone crazy, but this is nice..' She thought, slipping into the darkness that the pain had brought on when it made its way from her heart to her head. Katsuki leaped out of the helicopter even before it landed, running towards Y/n and falling to his knees beside her. "I've got you. You were amazing, you reckless shit." He huffed.
"Her heart Bakugou! Her heart!" Benji shouted through Katsuki's communication device. He placed two fingers onto her neck and cursed loudly at the lack of a pulse. Katsuki quickly swung his leg over her and placed the heel of his palm onto her chest and began compressions. "C'mon. C'mon please stay with me, everything is gonna be okay just don't..."
Panic started to course through his veins when CPR wasn't working. He knew it wasn't time for tears but he couldn't help but feel the salty liquid well up in his eyes. "Kacchan! Give her a blast!" Midoriya shouted, running out of the helicopter that had just landed. "What?!" He panted, giving Midoriya a look as if he were crazy. "She needs energy! She let it all out and her heart stopped! Give her energy!" He explained, and Katsuki turned towards Y/n. Drawing a deep breath, he placed his palm directly above her heart and released a small explosion. He released the breath he was holding when he touched her neck again and felt a pulse. Weak, but there.
Katsuki rested his forehead on her chest and laughed.
"You're one crazy little shit. God I love you."