Manifest Monsters

Part 26~Ritual

Kirishima groaned as he woke up. The light was too bright and his shoulder still hurt. "Hey, don't move." Kirishima could feel someone pressing against his chest, being careful to not touch the wound.

"Katsuki?" Kirishima blinked, smiling at the almost angelic figure sitting beside him.

"Yeah, it's me. How are you feeling?"

"Like someone stabbed me. How is everyone?" Kirishima shot up when he noticed Katsuki avoiding his eyes. "Katsuki...? How is everyone else?"

Katuski sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Well, Kaminari's fine. He's a shadow but he's fine. Uraraka and Tsu... They're dead. They were killed by the same creature that attacked you. And Izuku... Izuku is missing. He was taken by the villains."

Kirishima's eyes softened as he brushed Katsuki's cheek. "It isn't your fault." Kirishima didn't need to hear Katsuki's thoughts to know he was blaming himself for Izuku's disappearance. Katsuki lowered his head, leaning into the touch as Kirishima pulled him closer and into a tight hug. "He'll be alright. It's Midoriya, he'll likely be kicking a screaming until the sun goes down."

"If you don't let me out right now, I'll burn you all from the inside out! I'll use Mano to pull out your tongue and linch you for all your sins! I'll make you pay for-" I couldn't finish my threats as one of the villains stuffed a gag in my mouth. I glared at the burnt chicken nugget, spitting out the gag and hitting him in the face. He growled, forcing the gag back in and strapping it in place so I couldn't remove it.

Tokoyami was a lot calmer than I was- though I didn't understand how he was. He watched me interacting with the LOV. Safe to say I wasn't backing down easily.

"Why are we bothering with him again?" Shigaraki glared at me as I muffled another threat. "Can't you just kill him already? He's getting annoying."

"Now now, Tomoura, be patient. Everything needs to be perfect for this to work." I wanted to scream at the figure who hopped off the countertop and paced the floor. His large smile grew as he spotted my glare, seemingly taking pleasure from my hatred. "Aww, don't give me that look Izuku. Surely you know this was coming. Ten years of planning and waiting has all boiled down to this. And to sweeten the deal, we get to do this in front of your boyfriend. He'll get to watch you die!" The Ringmaster jumped onto my lap, laughing maniacally.

"I won't let you touch him!" Tokoyami jolted in his seat, managing to move it despite it being made from concrete.

"Oh~ho! How cute! Don't worry bird boy, you two won't be separated for long. Though... you might not be. I don't know what the side effects of this will be. Oh well, only one way to find out." The Ringmaster leapt off me, waddling over to the other side.

Tokoyami kept trying to move, shouting his own colourful threats that made me proud to call him my boyfriend.

"Dabi, gag the other one too. He's interrupting my games."

Dabi sighed as he followed Shigarki's order. Toga gushed excitedly, unable to wait much longer. "Come on Ringy! Let's start cutting him already! I bet he'll look amazing covered head to toe in blood!" Toga squealed as she played with her knife.

The Ringmaster chuckled, hopping onto Toga's shoulders. "Do you remember what you have to do?"

"Of course! I won't let you down!" Toga turned to me, spinning her knife in her hand as she ripped off my shirt. She slowly brought her blade closer to my chest, painstakingly carving into my skin. She laughed as the blood dribbled out.

My lip quivered as I held back the pained whimpers that tried to rise up my throat with each stroke of the blade. Tears dropped down my cheeks, making it hard to see anything through the blur. Toga didn't once stop laughing. Tokoyami wanted to throw the girl away from me but he could do nothing more than fight against the restraints.

Kirishima interlocked his fingers with Katsuki as they waited. They didn't want to wait but they had agreed to wait. Katsuki tapped his foot on the floor, chewing on his fingernails while Kirishima tried to stop him.

Tiny twitched, she didn't want to stand still for a second. Ever since Izuku had gone missing she had been acting strange. For the first few hours, she barely did anything, a mere shadow of what she used to be. Then she seemed to snap out of it but she didn't get much better. She became anxious and barely stood still, pacing continuously for hours on end.

The others weren't faring much better. Charlie was staying by Jiro's side, refusing to move even for food. Bubbles, Dic and Dom had spent the days in the support department, fixing Bubble's machine to preoccupy themselves. Lastly, Oshken had decided to stay with Kaminari. Kaminari had barely become accustomed to being a ghost and Oshken didn't want to leave him.

"I'm going to state this very clearly, I do not agree with this and believe we shouldn't get involved. However... you are my friend and I'm not going to let you leave without me." Iida crossed over his arms as he walked out of the shadows, shaking his head.

"Iida... Thank you." Katsuki had a genuine smile on his face as he watched Iida.

Yaoyorozu walked out to stand beside Iida. "It appears we are on the same page. I will not allow you to go alone but I will not allow you to fight. We are going to rescue Midoriya and Tokoyami, nothing more or less."

"Wow! Yaoyorozu! I didn't think you would change your mind," Kirishima cheered as she shook her head.

"I'm doing this because I know if Jiro was here, she would do it." Mentioning Jiro caused everyone to wince. Even after bringing Jiro back, the girl hadn't calmed down. She still wanted to kill Izuku and anyone who tried to stop her and there was nothing they could do about it.

"I'm going to. Uraraka would be telling me it was the right thing to do if she was here." Todoroki clenched his fist, a long list of emotions running through his eyes as he remembered one of the few friends he had.

Katsuki fidgetted, still uncomfortable talking about Uraraka. He hadn't told Kirishima what had happened or why and he wasn't sure if he could. He didn't want to admit what happened really happened and he was too afraid to try it out or approach All Might as he had been instructed. Kirishima squeezed his hand- miss understanding the shame as grief from watching Uraraka and Tsu die.

"Let's go." Katsuki spun around as Tiny jumped onto his shoulders. "Don't worry Izuku, we're going to save you."