Blossoms of the Dark

LVII Selene: Destiny

Trigger Warnings:

- somewhat graphic description of murder

- mental instability

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Two very taxing weeks have gone by.

Honestly, it's a miracle my grades are still high.

Since that day I spent lunch with Todoroki-kun, I've maintained the lie that I eat by the koi fish pools. I'm just not ready to bring him to my little paradise in the forest yet. But the experience has been entertaining, nonetheless. I never took him for the type to enjoy reading or like the city life, yet the revelation was pleasantly surprising. Ironic, considering I loathe surprises. I wrote about our lunches in that diary I hid in my interdimensional vault. But this is only what has happened at school during the daytime. At night, it's been a different story.

Every night, after the Pro-Hero fell asleep in my bed, Kurogiri's warp gate opened, and I passed through to enter the bar. Two of these nights were for their part of the agreement: one murder a week. These times, I didn't wear the black clothes from my first two nights in service to the League. Instead, I wore white. Moon white dress shirt, trench coat, breeches, analog watch, satin gloves, and knee-length leather boots. The only things entirely black were my silk choker and waistcoat. My mask was white with a black border. Perhaps the most noticeable change was with the flowers I had adorned my hair with: black roses instead of white amaryllis. My cane, faerie ear shells, devil horns, and chignon. This was my villain costume, which appeared as the color opposite of my hero costume. What was black was now white, what was white was now black. These costumes were the acquiescence to both of my lives, which resided in the shadows. These costumes were the proof that I, a girl as doomed as a wilted flower blossom, was destined to only have any hope of survival in the dark, never in the light. These costumes were my declaration that I welcomed my desolate destiny.

Like the first time, I gave the addresses to the homes and news offices, and Shigaraki accompanied me. Avoiding, disabling, and tricking security systems, we broke into the homes. I killed my second victim by tying his limbs to the bedposts and suffocating him with the bedsheets, and I killed my third by drowning him in his bathtub. But first I shattered their bones with my cane. Their screams were like a salve. Both times, Shigaraki had to pull me away from their corpses because I couldn't, wouldn't, stop mutilating their bodies. Post-death anger, I suppose, was what I was feeling. But I didn't mind it. It felt good. It felt necessary. I wished that they would come back to life, just so I could kill them again. And again. And again. I wanted their families to find them so horribly disfigured because my sanity was just as disfigured during those nights I spent in their beds and bathtubs. But Shigaraki pulled me away from the bodies just as I was starting to relish their deaths.

He spoke quietly so that he wouldn't terrify me. Or, maybe, so that in my state of insanity, I wouldn't attack him. "That's enough, kid. They're dead. I've killed many times before, so I know how you feel. That anger, that hate. I felt it every day. Even now, I do. And when I killed, I let all of that out of me, but it didn't feel enough. But from someone whose quirk is to literally destroy everything to dust, I know that you can't bring back the dead just to send them back to the dead. Even if you sold your soul to the Devil himself."

He tugged at my sleeves with all of his fingers, and I, in my finally defeated state, didn't resist. I realized much later that the intent to decay was the other aspect of his quirk, or else why would he be able to pull me back without crumbling my sleeves and elbows? He waited until I had composed myself. The first time, it took a few minutes. These past two times, however, took much longer. But he waited, regardless. Afterward, we left for the news offices and dropped off the criminal evidence I collected. I saw a newspaper, which read that the family of my first victim, the politician, was completely resigning from the political career and sold numerous of their properties. It made headlines, too. That brought a wicked smile to my lips. When we arrived back at the bar, Kurogiri gave me a glass of water, and thankfully did not ask any questions. All for One also had the decency to not prod at my pride.

All the other nights consisted of the three of us going over the attack plan at the U.S.J. Shigaraki said that he had amassed a gang of 50 - 60 low-time criminals. When I asked him about his secret weapon, he gave me the answer as before, saying that I would see for myself. Once again, I offered to tell him about the students' quirks, but he refused. However, he explained the strategy of attack. He and the criminals would be at the offense, while Kurogiri would serve as the defense and blockade for the heroes. I would stay at the sidelines and observe so that my double identity would not be revealed.

"If anything happens to me or Kurogiri, don't enter the fray. Under no circumstances will you enter the battle. Got it?" he said in a grave tone.

"Why?" I asked in return.

"Isn't it obvious? You're the League's most valuable asset. Because of you, we're even able to plan this attack. We can't afford to lose a resource like that," Shigaraki replied in annoyance.

Asset ...

Resource ...

Hearing that stung. But he wasn't wrong. I was using him and Kurogiri for my selfish needs, and they were using me for theirs. It was a mutual agreement. I agreed to do this.

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And now is the day of the attack. While everyone was changing into their hero costumes, I called Shigaraki with his given flip phone and gave him a simple, curt message: "Leaving now."

His response was just as curt. "Be ready."

Here I am, sitting on a bus seat next to Todoroki-kun, trying to suppress the waves of anxiety from overcoming me. I consider sleeping, but I hear the students say something that gathers my attention.

"Your quirk reminds me of All Might's."

Who said that? I open my eyes a little to see the frog-quirk girl Asui Tsuyu talking to Midoriya-san, who looks utterly perplexed by the statement. He stammers as he denies the statement. Out of curiosity, I glance at Todoroki-kun whose watching the exchange intently. I shut my eyes immediately to avoid getting caught.

The other students pipe in.

"Wait up, Asui, All Might never gets hurt! That's where the likeness ends! I'm kind of jealous of that kind of simple enhancer-type quirk, though! There's a lot you can do with one, and flashily too! My "hardening" power isn't bad for punch-ups, but I hate that it's just not that flashy." Hardening power ... that must be Kirishima-san who was speaking just now. But he has a point ...

Another voice pipes in. Ashido-san's voice. "'Pros,' huh ... But you know heroics has a lot about it that's more like a popularity contest too, right?"

"My navel laser is both flashy and strong enough for the pro level," replies Aoyama-san.

"But it'd be bad if your stomach collapsed!" Ouch. That was quite the burn. Ashido-san continues. "If we're talking the double whammy of flashy and strong, you can't not mention Todoroki and Bakugou!"

I hear a faint "Tch" sound from Bakugou. But what Asui says elicits a much stronger reaction from him. "Bakugou's always fuming so he won't be very popular," she says.

To which Bakugou shouts, "You bitch! I'll be popular, too!"

Asui-san only uses this to emphasize her point.

This bickering continues until Aizawa-sensei tells the class to quiet down as we are almost at the U.S.J.

My anxiety rises again, more intense than before. A quirk that resembles All Might's ... And an attack on the heroes ... If I make it through all of this today, I'm going to reward myself with some Black Forest Cake. And some sleep. Some long hours of sleep. I'll sleep like the dead. 

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Image URL: https://i1.wp.com/www.pngitem.com/pimgs/m/274-2746732_flower-flowers-rose-black-blood-black-rose-with.png?resize=820%2C717&ssl=1

Note: I have copied some dialogue from one of the English-translated versions of the manga. The link to the chapter is here: https://bokunohero.online/manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-13/