Preydator || Todoroki x OC

•36: Revelations•

'Come on!' I groan as I push on the metal door. It creaks and finally opens, however not by me. My eyes widen as I meet a familiar face. Carnal.

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The corners of Carnal's lips turn up into a wide grin at the sight of me. "Haven't we met before?" She asks as she steps down into the cellar. Her short, red floral dress seem to have a few small scratches and blood stains. However, she doesn't have any apparent wounds. I can only assume the blood is on her dress isn't her own.

She claps her hands together. "Ah! You're the Mistress- er, Mirroress' daughter." She replies to herself in a tone that tells me she recognized me right away, and is merely jesting now.

'The Mistress?' I think to myself.

"How strange that I meet the daughter of a pro hero who attends a hero school, at a villain's banquet." She thinks aloud with a playful glint in her eye. "Perhaps you're reverting back to the ways of the Masked Vandal." She whips out her fan and I immediately step back.

She chuckles darkly. "I'm sure you must remember this baby from the last time we met." She gestures to her blue fan, its edge coated in wet blood. Her eyes flicker down to Shoto in my arms and her grin widens.

"Pfft. Your friend is out like a light!" She cackles. "Matako! You can leave now! I've got the brats." She calls out to the lady a couple meters behind us.

Matako dips her head in a slight bow of respect before walking up to us and out the door behind Carnal. I sit Shoto down, leaning against the wall next to us as the cellar door shuts with a loud, metallic clang after Matako.

"So, Rin." Carnal turns her attention back towards me as she walks forward, closing the distance between us. "I assume you saw your mother up on that stage today."

I gulp, freezing in my tracks. "Y-Yes." I curse myself for stuttering. A million questions race through my mind. There's so much I want to know about my mother, but I feel as if I don't even know enough to ask a good, solid question to Carnal.

"Nervous?" Carnal asks. "Since you're not here for actual villain recruitment, I can only assume that somehow you heroes infiltrated the banquet. That being said, I should probably get rid of you." She wipes the edge of her fan on the side of her dress. "If you're anything like the last time I fought you, this should be over quickly." 

Carnal rushes towards me and slashes at me with her fan. I quickly duck, fan slicing at the air above me. I quickly grab her by the arm and uppercut her. I raise my leg and kick her square on her stomach. She stumbles back a bit before regaining her balance. "You've improved some since the last time we hung out." She says.

"I wouldn't say we 'hung out.'" I mutter as she runs at me again. She throws a kick that I swiftly block. I step back just in time as Carnal waves her fan in front of my neck.

"Aw, what? I thought we were getting along nicely." She responds as she dodges one of my punches.

I narrow my eyes at her. "I'm sure that's why you broke my mask and tried to kill me." I sarcastically shoot.

"Are you the type to hold grudges?" I block one of her hits. "I guess so, since you haven't let go of your mother after all this time." She cackles.

I hesitate for a moment and that's all it takes for Carnal to land a clean kick to my stomach, winding me and pushing me back. "You're so obsessed with her, it's pathetic." Carnal pouts in mock sympathy. "I pity you, really." She says as she kicks me back down as I try to get up. My chest aches as I get winded over and over again. She crouches down to my level. "You're no fun, either. Maybe we should play a little before I kill you." 

Carnal's fingertips glow a vibrant shade of red similar to her dress. "I haven't revealed my quirk, have I? Well, I suppose you deserve to know." She says as she stares as her fingers. "I control three of the seven deadly sins. Carnal- the sins of human desire. Lust, Sloth, and Wrath. Once I imbue you with one of these sins, the desire will take over your mind and body. You'll be completely out of your mind!" She cackles. "I'm sure you've seen what it looks like before."

I raise a brow in confusion. I wasn't even aware of what her quirk was until now.

"Come on! No guesses? You've seen the sin of wrath overtake someone in person!" She chuckles. "Or at least, your mom told me you did."

My eyes widen as I recall the day my mother lashed out and tried to murder me. 'No, there's no way. It seems so far-fetched. Could Carnal be the very person who caused my entire life to flip upside down.' 

"What a lovely expression." Carnal chuckles. "A year or two ago, my sister- who controls the other four deadly sins, and I were sent out on a mission to gather guests for the annual Scarlet Banquet. Mirroress and a few police officers were on our trail though, so we had to take them out." Carnal explains. "My sister took down one of the police chiefs and covered it up like a suicide. I followed your mother home. Unfortunately, I wasn't as stealthy as I had hoped. We fought in your home and I almost died, but I was able to imbue your mother with the sin of wrath. She went mad with rage and I watched as her little, innocent daughter came home only for her mother to try and kill her." Carnal lets out a cackle. "After you left, my quirk wore off on Mirroress and the look of despair and guilt on her face was pricelesss! I took her to my boss and he wiped her memory with his quirk." She states. "And just like that, Mirroress disappeared without a trace. Only leaving behind the Mistress of our organization. A cold-blooded killer."

My jaw hangs agape as I process everything Carnal had told me. For years, I've been blaming my mother for being a lying traitor when the person I should be blaming is now right here before my very eyes. 

A sliver of relief floods through me at the fact that I now fully understand the situation, but so many other emotions overwrite the relief. I feel guilty for blaming my mother all this time. I feel angry at Carnal for single-handedly ruining whatever life I had. But most of all, I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated at the fact that my mother doesn't have the memory to answer my questions. I'm frustrated that I've been chasing after the illusion of a woman who no longer exists. And I'm frustrated that this whole time, I had been the only one hanging on to that night. The night that haunted me in my sleep, drilled sick ideologies into my mind, and made me ashamed to show my true self behind the illusion of a fox. I'm the only one still holding on.

The voice of my mother that taunted me, egged me on from the back of my mind, no longer existed in the real world. She never even truly existed. She was the ghost of the woman who betrayed me that night. The woman who died that same night.

Carnal steps down on my ribs, pushing me down hard. "I'm curious to see how you will react to my quirk. Will the same fate of your mother be your fate? A rampage blinded by rage, killing everything in sight, including people you care about." Carnal's gaze drifts over to Shoto. "As they say, will history repeat itself?" I squirm and struggle under Carnal as her hand approaches me.

"No! Stop!" I pathetically cry out as I try to get up, but Carnal has got me in a position where I can't do much.'No, I can't hurt Shoto! I don't want to hurt him like my mom hurt me.' I scream internally and clench my eyes shut as I brace myself.

"Stop, Carnal!" A voice shouts from behind us. I open my eyes to see a familiar figure standing in the staircase by the doorway of the cellar.

'Dabi!'