You Can't Lose Me || Shinso x Reader

Chapter 19: RIP Fancy Clothing

Warnings: itty bit of foul language, 

___

"Don't worry about me. Just enjoy the party."

With that, he leaves me behind to stare at the door where he had stood. Some of our agencies are being attacked, and they appear to be synchronized as well. This can't be coincidental. As I go through the list of the heroes who have already left, I notice that they've been occurring in a specific order.

Tokoyami is currently ranked #10 in the hero charts and Todoroki is #6. The three others who left were #9-7, and their individual departures occurred in that specific order. Whoever is doing this is making their way through the top ten. I need to find Bakugo quickly – which doesn't turn out to be a difficult task.

"I'll explain more later, but you need to get back to our agency as quickly as you can. Nothing's happened yet, but it will. I need to warn a few others and then I'll catch up to you." I speak sternly into his ear to keep our words between us.

"Goddammit. Alright, I'm on it." He growls to himself before muttering under his breath, "Of course it has to be now."

He's got a valid point there, but I can't think on that at the moment. Hurriedly, I struggle through the crowd of people searching for the #5-3 heroes. It takes me a few minutes, but then I'm practically running along the edges to the entryway. Security returns my devices and I travel at max speed the moment I step foot outside.

Wait. Pausing on some rooftop, I look down to see at least half of my suit either torn or burned away. How could I forget that I'm not wearing my hero costume; regular clothing can't survive at these speeds. Hearing an explosion in the far distance, I continue on at a slower speed.

I arrive to find the agency already destroyed and covered in flames, but Kacchan is nowhere in my sight. Don't tell me he was already inside. My ears catch a smaller and more recognizable explosion along the side, where I find Kacchan stumbling through a giant hole in the wall with two grey cases in hand.

"Kacchan!" I exclaim, running over to him. "Are you hurt? What happened?"

Kacchan doesn't respond, he just continues coughing, probably from all the smoke and dust. Dragging him out of the alleyway, he collects himself almost instantly.

"When I arrived, our agency was already gone, and I didn't see you anywhere. You had me worried there for a second. Thought I'd sent you straight to your death or something." I scratch the back of my neck.

"You idiot. Did you really think a little explosion could stop me? Hell no!" he smirks before looking me up and down. "What the fuck happened to your clothes? ... Not that mine are much better."

"I forgot that regular clothing can't withstand high speeds, heh. Do you think I look better like this, Kacchan? Showing some skin?" I grin. He rolls his eyes at me.

"No, I think we looked better when our suits were still in one piece. Ugh, and these clothes were expensive, too. Fuck!" Kacchan groans.

"Let's worry about this later, yeah? Do you know how this happened? Did you see anyone?" I ask as the firetrucks and police cars start arriving.

"There wasn't a soul around. Nobody on the perimeter and nobody inside the building, not even any employees since it's so early. I was searching around inside and found a bomb in one of the storage closets. I grabbed our hero costumes on my way out, but as you can tell I didn't quite make it that far. How the hell did something that big get into our agency anyways?"

"I'm not sure, but if there wasn't anyone around, then it was either on a timer or remotely detonated." I ponder aloud.

"From the look I got of it, I'd bet on the latter."

"Ah, that's curious." I say, shivering now that the fire is out. "Let's get into different clothes before we do anything else."

___

"Yes, my agency was also destroyed through explosive means, but there was no one at the sight when it occurred. We've been searching through the remains of my building and of those surrounding it for any trace of the villain responsible. I will be occupied with this for at least the next hour, so I will not be able to return to the party. I hope you have better luck with this situation than I am."

The line cuts as Todoroki hangs up on me. After changing into my hero costume, I had decided to do some recon on some of the other top ten heroes; their agencies have all suffered the same fate. If it wasn't certain earlier that this was the work of a single villain or organization, it is now.

Walking over to Kacchan, who is recalling our conversation to an investigator, I continue my pondering aloud.

"All nine attacks occurred in the exact same fashion, so it is almost certain that a single perpetrator is behind all of this, but what concerns me more is the timing. Its coordination with the party is too exact for it to have been coincidental. They must have found out about it somehow and knew that all ten of us would be away from our agencies at the same time. Who knows about the party?"

"To our knowledge, only the heroes, commission, and police were informed on the party's existence and scheduling," the investigator supplies.

"What motive might any of those groups have in doing this? The commission has nothing to gain from attacking its strongest allies, nor do the police. Could it really have been a fellow hero who planned this? Even if they wanted to rise higher in the ranks by disposing some of their competition, it wouldn't make sense for them to attempt doing so without us here to be affected by it," Kacchan adds.

"Or," my hand raises to my chin instinctually, "someone could have leaked the information to an outside source. Again, I see no point in any of these groups doing so willingly, so either the information was taken by force, or we have a mole hidden in our ranks."

"We'll start filtering through everyone as soon as we can." The investigator scribbles into their notebook as Kacchan and I continue to converse on the topic.

"Still, why would they make their attack when we're not present? It's just a building. The worst it'll do is slow us down for a day or two. What would this accomplish?" Kacchan questions.

"Perhaps they counted on us responding to the attack. If they wanted us to be here, they're most likely trying to keep us distracted from something else," I answer.

"Well, they knew that the party was happening, so that's the most obvious answer. Sure, it separates the top ten from everyone else, but would someone this coordinated be so stupid as to attack a building with over a hundred heroes inside? I doubt it."

"As do I, but what else could they be distracting us from? The only other possibility would be an attack from a completely unrelated front. Nothing has come over any of the police radios yet, so the party should still be going smoothly, but one of us needs to be there in case they do decide to attack there. You know the most about the events that transpired here, so I'll return to keep watch over the party and protect it if need be."

"Fine, I'll stay here to coordinate the cleanup and investigation, but you better let me know about any attack the instant it happens. It's smart, but I don't want to separate ourselves any more than the villains have already forced us to."

"Of course. You'll be the first to know," I say turning away, but I pause to look back at Kacchan, "And you better do the same if anything happens here. I know you'll try to take care of it yourself, but don't. Alright?"

"Tch, whatever. Just hurry up and get going, Deku. Just don't die," he scoffs.

"Wasn't planning on it, Dynamite," I snort making a small smirk appear on his face. Pulling my mask over my face, I head off back in the direction of the party. 

___

A/N: Gee, I wonder what those villains could be plotting (he says while knowing exactly what they're plotting). Anyways, here's the other half of that chapter I promised. 

Also, because this section is from Midoriya's point of view, anytime Bakugo is referenced, he is called Kacchan. I'm assuming that their nicknames for each other haven't been let go, even at this point. And no, I will not be defining what their relationship is in this story, just that they're the top two heroes and own an agency together. Anything else is up to you. 

Word Count: 1482