You Can't Lose Me || Shinso x Reader

Chapter 24: Checkmate

Warnings: violence, death, unnecessary poetic license, 

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(y/n)'s POV

"Then prove it."

I stand in shock as Kanata walks a few steps closer to me so that our faces are centimeters apart before reaching into my side pouch, grabbing one of the discs, and holding it up between our gazes. 

"Take care of Shinso over there, and I can finish off Deku for you. You won't have to hurt anyone; I shouldn't have tried to force you into it."

My hands are shaky from both my exhaustion and my emotions, but I carefully take the disc into my hand and nod hesitantly.

"Good girl. You've done so well," he says softly, kissing my forehead. 

He then turns away to focus again on Deku who had almost broken free again.

I walk over to where Hitoshi is restrained and stand face to face with him for the first time in ten years. I keep my eyes closed for a moment before slowly peeking through my eyelids. He can't say anything with the gag shoved into his mouth, but Hitoshi's eyes say everything they need to.

Then, I hear Deku behind me struggling and making guttural noises that can't leave his mouth. He's going to die. And the purple eyes before me plead in fear for me to do something. I can do this; I can do this; I need to do this. I turn my head slightly to look at Kanata again for some sort of reassurance in my conscience only to find him grinning wildly at the hero's suffering.

Following whatever gut instinct driving me, I take the disc between my fingers and slap it onto the back of Kanata's neck. He freezes for a moment before reaching around and ripping it off him – not that it'll do him any good at this point. I can see his entire body trembling. Behind him, Deku falls to the ground coughing and barely retaining consciousness.

"Why would you ..." he struggles to breathe and remain upright, "why ... what? I- I did everything for you, (y/n)!" 

He turns to face me with his arms wrapped around his stomach and his brows creased upward.

"And I did everything for him." My eyes tear up at what I've done. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Kanata's breath quickens as his gaze shoots to the floor. Grabbing a metal pipe lying on the ground beside his feet, he rushes toward me with unstable steps. As he swings it around wildly, I pull the knife out from its sheath within my boot. When he swings at me from the right, I block and grip his arm with my left hand, turn into it, and swing my knife around me with my right, sheathing it once more in Kanata's stomach.

I immediately release it and back away from him. Kanata lets the pipe clatter onto the floor as his hands instinctively move toward the wound in his stomach – the wound that I gave him. What have I done?

"Heh." Though the pain is evident in his expression, a small smile appears that releases a soft chuckle. "I taught you that move. Never thought you'd have to use it on me though. How poetic. I lived for you, and now I'll die for you. I suppose my game is over now."

Tears fall over his cheeks. I don't think I've ever seen him cry before, and I'm the cause of it.

"Checkmate." My lips tremble as the word escapes my mouth.

Kanata snickers before turning away from me, collapsing to his knees, and ripping the knife out of his stomach. He falls the rest of the way to the floor letting the metal blade clang against the concrete. My hands rise to cover my mouth and the heat leaves my body, now cold and empty.

Step by step I stumble over to the edge of the building's remaining ground floor. Looking out over the sea of villains and heroes still fighting, though some of the heroes have been corralled, I release my quirk. The villains all crumble to the ground into individual piles of sand and skin, and my energy returns to me, allowing me to physically calm down.

The heroes look around in confusion and turn their gazes to me, but I turn back to face the two heroes behind me. Deku has mostly recovered and is unwrapping the metal from around Hitoshi's form; they both look up to me as I take a few steps toward them. I try to look Hitoshi in the eye, but my head snaps down and my cheeks warm up slightly from the guilt and embarrassment.

Once I stand only a few steps away from them, my knees buckle and I fall to the ground with my hands landing limply in my lap. A moment passes. I raise my wrists into the air toward the number one hero, Deku.

"I surrender myself to you. Punish me as you see fit."

A pair of handcuffs snap around my wrists. 

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A/N: Art. I'm blocking out the world around me and making art. Because that's totally what this is.

Word Count: 849