𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕠𝕟𝕖 ℙ𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕖

Chapter Twenty-Seven

As they rode into the capital, Katsuki slowly started to regain consciousness.

His head was throbbing and found him tied up to Shouta's waist. His waist bound so he wouldn't fall off the horse.

"The hell.." He groaned, startling Shouta.

"Are you calm?" Shouta asked, earning a forced answer out of Katsuki. "You try something stupid I'll beat your ass, agreed?"

"Sure, old man." Katsuki rolled his eyes, allowing Shouta to undo the ties and Katsuki rubbed his now sore stomach, with his hand. "Where's my horse? And where's that bitch?"

"She's knocked out restrained to a tree. Your horse is being guided by Iida." Shouta answered. Katsuki looked ahead of the road and saw Iida riding his own horse, and using the ropes to guide Katsuki's horse. The horses were calm, surprisingly, but only because Shouta was the one who trained them. His skills were undoubtedly the best so far.

Kirishima and Kaminari were next to Iida, all three of them talking amongst themselves.

"How's your head?" Shouta asked.

"It's fucking great. Only feels like my brain is going to explode." Katsuki answered sarcastically.

"You need to listen to me, Bakugo." Shouta answered seriously, the tone he used taking Katsuki aback. "I get it. You want to kill them all, and I get why. But in a weird way we need them. If you're going to kill them, do it after we find Midoriya."

"I can't tell if you're joking about that or not."

"That's up for you to decide." Shouta shrugged his shoulders.

"Right."

The two rode in silence for a bit before Katsuki spoke up again. "Why did you really retire?"

Shouta looked back at Katsuki briefly, before looking straight ahead again. "I had a family."

"Bullshit." Katsuki shook his head. "You loved fighting. You loved being a Knight. You used to tell us that it would give you a wonderful feeling."

"Yamada hated it. He hated me coming home and being all cut up. My family—"

"He understood why though." Katsuki sighed. "What are you not telling us?"

Shouta stayed quiet before muttering under his breath. "I enjoyed it too much. And it got to the point I really good at what I did. I wasn't scared of dying. I wasn't scared of anything. I knew I had to protect my husband and my son and my Kingdom."

"But," Shouta continued. "Hisashi started recognizing my potential. He thought I could be a wonderful fighter. That I would train all of the other fighters and Knights to be as good as me. And I did. I.. started training some of the older Knights. Then I started training you guys. And once I had my son, I realized I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't train you guys. At least, not the way Hisashi wanted me to do it. I didn't want you guy to become monsters."

"I went to tell him, and the same day he planned for me to go and become Head of the Knights. I didn't even know such a position even existed. And it sounded good. That was until he told me that I was only to kill. And the first people he wanted me to kill was Inko and Midoriya. I could never do it. He was going to banish me and my husband and my son from the Kingdom for defying him, but Inko fought for him not to."

Shouta sighed heavily. "I'm sure he beat on her. She didn't leave her quarters after that and when she finally did, her eye was swollen shut. Her lip was split open. But when I asked her about it and even tried to confront Hisashi about it, she kept on saying it was not a big deal. That she was used to it. I wasn't going to work under that, and it was then that I realized how he was nothing but a piece of shit."

Katsuki could only listen as Shouta talked. "I couldn't... I thought maybe if I only continued to train you guys... it'd be okay. But it was a mistake—"

"How is it a fucking mistake?" Katsuki asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"You'd have a fucking arm. Sero wouldn't be dead. You kids shouldn't have become knights."

"Shut up."

"I'm serious, Bakugo." Shouta grimaced. "You should've stayed kids. And not have to worried about that kind of things."

"And what? So I could be a fucking botanist? Or doing anything else that would've been completely and utterly fucking useless?" Katsuki shook his head. "I don't regret shit. Because you taught us how to fight, we fought back. Deku fought back. We're all fucking heartbroken and will never forget about Sero, but that doesn't mean that we hate being Knights. Especially fighting for Deku. And especially since you risked everything to do something that was dangerous as that."

"You didn't teach us to be fucking murderers. You taught us to protect ourselves and for what we care about and for what is morally correct." Katsuki swatted at Shouta's back. "Don't you dare fucking regret teaching us how fend for ourselves."

"We're here!" Kaminari called out, gaining Katsuki's and Shouta's attention.

Katsuki and Shouta got off of Shouta's horse and Shouta stopped Katsuki. "Thanks, I guess, kid."

"Tch. Don't be getting sappy on me." Katsuki offered a small grin and walked side by side by his mentor.

Shouta fastened the horses to a tree, in order to make sure they didn't run away.

Kirishima, Iida, Kaminari, Shouta, and Katsuki stood side by side looking at the town. It was semi-lively, filled with older style buildings. Towns people roamed the streets, and Katsuki kept scanning the crowd, hoping to see the mop of green hair he grew to love.

"You think he's here?" Kirishima asked hopefully, tightening his sheath around his waist.

"One can only hope." Iida said, leading the way and the others.

They ignored the stares of the civilians, and Katsuki stormed ahead of the group, feeling antsy. He couldn't wait, he ignored the calls of his friends and he looked back to yell at them, when he suddenly bumped into someone.

"Shit!" Katsuki said, stumbling backwards, and the person fell to the ground.

"Dude, watch it!" Kirishima said, catching up to them. He looked down at the person on the ground. "A-are you okay?"

The person stood up, and removed their hoodie. It was revealed to be a girl with blonde hair spiked, styled into ponytails. Her eyes were a pale blue color, her upper eyelid full of lashes.

"I'm alright. Luckily I didn't land on my stomach." She sighed, rubbing her small baby bump. She looked over at Katsuki. "I apologize..." Her eyes squinted, looking at the pendant around Katsuki's neck. "No, that cannot be the same pendant."

"Why do you know this one?" It wouldn't have been another kind of jewelry like this. Each Knight had their own crafted to each their own.

"I met an Omega with it once." She sighed. "How we met was very unfortunate, but I allowed him to leave. My name is Tatami Nakagame."

"How'd you meet?" Shouta asked, his eyes full of confusion.

"He killed my mate." Tatami said nonchalantly. "I owe him. His name was—"

"Izuku Midoriya?" Katsuki asked, it all clicking.

This was Shindo's mate. The one Izuku's spoke of.

"Precisely." She nodded slowly. "And I'm assuming you're his mate?" She pointed to Katsuki, and he nodded emptily. "Wonderful. He's a fiery Omega. As a Beta, it's wonderful seeing someone so lively as him. How is he?"

"He's not with us." Kaminari stated quickly. "The League of Villains had taken him. He had managed to escape, but we're looking for him."

"League of.... I think I remember Shindo mentioning them once before. I might be able to help. My Kingdom is close by, I was here meeting with some allies to help me shop for my child. Do you think he's here, or at least around here?"

"Yes. That's what someone told us, that the base of the League was located around here. You shouldn't get involved. You are pregnant." Iida said, but Tatami rolled her eyes.

"Nonsense." Tatami began walking and urged the group to follow her. "We have an Omega to find."

To Be Continued
1381 Words