in the shadows - Bakugou x reader

20 - the apartment

Katsuki's POV
After I got back to the office, Azira ended up calling a fucking medic to deal with the injuries I had sustained trying to break free from Shadow's weird arrows.

Once they had gone and I was alone, I opened the database back up.

Y/N L/N

Education- Aldera Junior High

So she did go to my middle school.

She was the other quirkless kid who used to copy Deku.

I was thinking back to what she had said to me earlier; about me never seeing her again and somebody wanting me dead- probably her boss.

Everything that she said to me seemed so final. Something big had to be happening.

—

I tasked Azira with finding whatever organisation or singular entity Hirou Takei was working for and a few hours later, she returned.

"I believe I've found what you were looking for, sir."

She walked over to my computer and input a name:

Rokuro Otsuka.

Quirk: melt
Job status: unemployed

"The fuck does 'melt' mean?"

Azira shrugged her shoulders, "no idea, sir. His profile seems incomplete, he has no educational history, no current or previous address- nothing."

I took a moment to consider my options, before standing up and sighing.

"I'm going out on a mission, finish whatever you need to for the day and go home, I don't know when I'll be back."

"Where are you going, sir? Would you like me to organise some assistance for you? Or perhaps you'd like-"

"No."

—

I was stood in front of what was supposedly Shadow's front door.

Do I knock? Or do I blast the door open?

I pounded my fist on the door.

If they don't respond in the next few seconds, I'll just blast the door open.

A young woman slowly opened the door, "uh- hello, Ground Zero. Can I help?"

From behind her, a man who I recognised to be Hirou Takei rushed to the door, "why don't you check on the cupcakes, babe? Hi, Ground Zero. Is everything alright?"

He plastered a grin on his face as the woman rushed off to the kitchen.

"Where can I find Rokuro Otsuka?"

He scratched the back of his neck, still grinning, "I wish I could help, man. But I have no idea who you're talking about. Hold on, I'll ask my girl if you just-"

"Cut the crap, Lightning. I'm not here to arrest you or Shadow or anyone, I just need you to tell me where the fuck your boss is hiding."

He raised an eyebrow, "Lightning? Sorry, dude, I'm Takei, I don't know who-"

I grabbed him by his T-shirt and pulled him closer, "listen here, dumbass, I know who you are and I could easily have you arrested- or better yet I could blow you to fucking pieces. So you tell me where this guy is or I'll fucking kill you right now."

I heard him gulp before patting my hand, "easy, now! There'll be no need for that, we'll sort that location out for you, no problem."

I dropped him, and he quickly scurried into the apartment, gesturing for me to come in before shutting the front door behind me and pulling out his phone and calling someone.

But he got no response.

I huffed irritatedly as I stood against the wall with my arms crossed, waiting.

"Hey, uh- Ground Zero, you wouldn't happen to have run into Shadow recently, would you?"

"I saw that little shit earlier on, said she was supposed to kill me or some shit like that."

His face dropped slightly.

"What?"

He shook his head and mumbled, "nothing, nothing. Gimme a sec."

I pulled myself away from the wall, "I asked you a fucking question."

He turned to the woman from earlier who had come back into the hall, I thought she might've been Rina Imai but was unsure, "babe, have you heard from Shadow?"

She shook her head, "no, why? Is everything okay?"

He glanced over at me before turning back to her, "she, uh- she backed out of the mission."

Her face dropped, too.

"CAN ONE OF YOU STUPID EXTRAS JUST TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?"

Lightning sighed before folding his arms and looking over at me, "I don't know how much you know about the boss, but he's a bit of a psycho. Shadow wasn't planning on going through with the plan to assassinate you, but the punishment for not going through with it... I don't even think her body can take it... She's probably going to die."

I took a moment to process the new information.

That's probably why she was crying like an idiot earlier.

That's why she said I won't see her again.

"So where the fuck is she?"

—

I left Lightning in his apartment with his girlfriend and followed his directions to what looked like an abandoned warehouse.

But inside, it was far from abandoned. As I blasted the door down, eyes from all over the room turned to me.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE!?"

Nobody in there was in a costume, most of them were trembling whilst some whispered:

"That's Ground Zero."

"Shit, what do we do?"

I grabbed the nearest one by his collar and yelled, "YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK SHADOW IS OR I KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU."

"She's- I think, she's with the boss- down that hall and turn right, the third door."

I dashed him onto the floor and stormed in that direction.

I hadn't even gotten to the turning when I heard agonising screams from the direction I was headed in.

I blasted open the door, revealing Shadow with her hands chained above her head, and her ankles chained to the wall, with large parts of her costume melted off and fresh burns, most of her visible skin painted red in her own blood.

There was a man dragging his finger down from her temple to her jaw, but he jerked away at the sound of me entering.

Shadow sniffed away her cries as she looked up at me, narrowing her eyes, "what the fuck are you doing here?"