in the shadows - Bakugou x reader

16 - that name

Katsuki's POV
There she was, as always, waiting for me along my patrol route- though I had no idea how she had figured out all of my patrol routes.

And she was healed up, that had to be her quirk.

"Good afternoon, Katsuki, the weather today is just lovely, isn't it?"

I didn't even give her a moment to react as I sent a massive explosion at her, I watched her eyes widen in the split second she had to realise what was going on- but it was too late.

When she tried to pull herself up, I sent another explosion her way, and another- and another.

She was barely able to get a word in until she finally dodged, "woah, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I'd say we could talk about it, but I don't get paid enough to be a hero's therapist."

"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!"

She seemed to pick up her energy after that explosion, and tried to reach for her bow, but I didn't give her the chance.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME!? WELL, I'VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU: I'M GONNA BE THE NUMBER ONE HERO, AND YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A SHITTY-ASS EXTRA STANDING IN MY WAY! NOW, DIE!"

She didn't have a single moment to retaliate, I don't even think she had armed herself at all. She was yelling idiotic comebacks and trying to mock me but all I could hear was the sound of my explosions ringing in my ears.

"YOU THINK YOU'RE SO MUCH BETTER THAN ME! JUST GET UP AND FIGHT ME ALREADY!"

I kept on exploding at her.

"DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME!? I SAID: GET UP AND FIGHT ME ALREADY!"

It was then that I realised the muffled sound of her yelling through my explosions had stopped.

I felt my eyes widen as I dropped my stance and panted for breath, watching the smoke clear, "HEY, DON'T IGNORE ME, YOU SHITTY VILLAIN!"

But she still didn't respond.

I groaned before stomping into the cloud of smoke caused by my explosions- if she makes one wrong move, I'll blow her to pieces.

"OI! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU HIDING, YOU IDIOT!?"

It wasn't until the smoke began to clear that I understood what had happened.

There she was, laying limp on the ground, blood and dirt covering the exposed skin from the rips in her costume. Her tattered bow was still over her shoulder and her knife was strapped onto her thigh- did she not even try?

I grabbed the front of her costume and yanked her up, "HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE PLAYING AT!?"

She didn't respond.

I didn't realise the severity of her wounds until I felt her blood that had trickled down my gauntlet and onto my bare arm.

I lowered her body back onto the ground and the fog in my mind started to clear.

What have I done?

I couldn't have killed her, she has a healing quirk.

Why wasn't she fighting back?

Why isn't she healing?

Looking over at Shadow's body laying in a growing pool of blood, it had suddenly dawned on me.

I can't let anyone see this.

Shit, shit, shit.

Not a-fucking-gain.

I leaned down and checked her breathing- she was still breathing.

I scooped her up and started looking around on the rooftops.

"HEY! LIGHTNING! COME AND PICK YOUR SHITTY GIRLFRIEND UP!"

But I received no response.

"LIGHTNING!"

Again, nothing.

"OI, YOU SHITTY VILLAIN GET THE HELL OUT HERE AND TAKE THIS FUCKING IDIOT!"

But he didn't respond.

I placed her back down and checked her ears and her wrist for some sort of communication device, but there was nothing.

At this rate I'm gonna have to send her to a villain's hospital.

She had a utility belt that was probably for holding weapons and such, but I thought it was worth a try to check it anyway.

I ripped it from her waist and went through each of the pockets. Bullets, little vials of liquid, grenades and... a phone?

It wasn't a smart phone, it was one of those vintage flip-phones, they're harder to track so this was probably her phone that she used for work.

There was no passcode.

I opened contacts, looking for Lightning, but nobody was saved under that name, nor any villain alias I had ever seen.

Boss, Dabi, Himiko, Hirou, Lev, Rin, Yara.

I ended up choosing Rin, hoping some stupid villain would pick up the phone.

Though I was hoping it'd be Lightning, a girl's voice answered the phone, "Hey, Y/N, what's up?"

Y/N?

"Uh- are you Shadow's friend or whatever?"

"Who is this?"

"Answer the fucking question."

"Babe? Babe! Some man's got Y/N's phone."

There's that name again.

Wait no, don't tell me-

Now I was hearing a man's voice, "hello?"

I looked over at Shadow, who was still bleeding out and unconscious, "Fuck's sake. Are you Shadow's fucking friends or not? I don't have time for this shit."

"Yo, shit, babe! Ground Zero got her."

"Can you extras shut the fuck up and LISTEN."

The line went silent and I took a deep breath before explaining, "She's in pretty bad shape, her quirk isn't activating so either you get one of your shitty little villains to pick her up, or I turn her in to the villain hospital."

The line stayed silent for a few moments before he replied, "Send the location."

I sat there for a few minutes, checking on Shadow's vitals as I stared at the phone in my hand.

This has a lot of information on it. The real names of her little villain friends, it confirms that she's definitely working for someone and it has that person's number.

If I took this back to Azira, this could be a game changer.

It had been about four minutes when Lighting and some other guy turned up, I sighed and put the phone back into her belt before stepping back as the guy without a costume kneeled beside her, holding his hands over her wounds and closing his eyes.

He cried out in pain a few times as he did so, and when he'd remove his hand, the wound would have disappeared.

So, that's how she's been healing.

I huffed before dragging my feet in the opposite direction, ready to finish my patrol and head back to the office.

"Yo, hero."

I snapped my head around to meet Lightning's eyes, "the fuck do you want!?"

He looked back at Shadow before turning back to me again, "Thank you."

I rolled my eyes, "tch." and walked away, leaving Shadow with her shitty little villain friends.