You Can't Lose Me || Shinso x Reader

Chapter 4: Ten (Long) Years Later

Warnings: fighting,

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~Ten Years Later~

Shinso's POV

Kaminari and I traverse the city rooftops while watching the people below for any attacks. Japan as a whole has been relatively quiet for the past year, which is great of course, but the radio silence from the villain organizations has kept me on edge. Kaminari, on the other hand, is cherishing every moment of peace we have, which, I suppose, is also a valid point of view. Even though I have difficulty trusting anything good that happens, he does his best to be positive in any situation – maybe that's why we make good partners. It balances out.

We've been best friends since our time at U.A. High, and after graduating, we started an agency together because our quirks work much better together than they ever could alone. It's been several years and we're still going strong. Neither of us are particularly concerned about our pro hero rankings, which removes any conflict that might have arisen otherwise – though we have climbed relatively high in the rankings since we began.

As the late summer sun reaches the horizon, my peripherals catch Kaminari's head snapping up. I don't hear or see anything of note, so he must have caught some channel or broadcast through his communication earpiece. Then, he gestures hastily for me to follow him as he breaks into a sprint over the rooftops, updating me along the way.

"Robbery. Electronics store, three blocks away. Culprit has a stretching quirk, and the scene has citizens fleeing and panicking," Kaminari relays to me.

We arrive to find the scene exactly as described. We've discovered the most effective way to approach the situation with our team is to send Kaminari in directly to attempt to de-escalate the conflict and or as a distraction. While he does that, I assess the scene from afar to strategize and often before acting as a sneak attack. Kaminari is the extrovert whom people recognize immediately, but they tend to forget that I work alongside him.

I peer into the shop window from the shadow of an alley across the street. The robber has a backpack and a separate bag, which the shopkeeper is being forced to fill with expensive tech, but there seems to be no one else in the store. He has no weapon to threaten anyone with, but his quirk affected arm that wraps around the storeowner's neck persuades them to comply with his demands. Then, my eye catches a door behind them.

As Kaminari enters the store from the front to communicate with the robber and hopefully free the hostage, I move quickly around to the back of the building. I find that the back door is locked, which isn't a problem for me. When your job requires stealth and working in the shadows, you learn a few things over the years. Pulling a small tool from a side pouch, I open the door within 15 seconds.

Cool air clashes with the hot air from outside as I pass through the doorway taking in my new surroundings. The back room is dark and relatively small, but light peeks into the room from beneath a second door, likely leading to the main shop. Through the door, I can hear Kaminari speaking to him – so I was right about that.

"-grew up with it, but you can get help from others instead of resorting to something you don't want to do anyway. So can you let this man go and compromise with me?"

As expected, Kaminari's really good with empathy and connecting with people. I hear some rustling and footsteps running out the front door, but no fighting, so his words must have worked.

Then, the robber bursts through the door in front of me before seeing me and turning around. He grips both sides of the doorway, stretches his arms while leaning back, and sling-shots himself through the front glass window. Kaminari and I chase after him, slowly catching up and cornering him in a dead-end alleyway. Using his quirk again to reach up to the leg of a water tower, he pulls himself up the side of the neighboring building and grips the ledge.