You Can't Lose Me || Shinso x Reader

Chapter 23: Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

Warnings: none,

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(y/n)'s POV

"Hitoshi?" I accidently let the words slip from my lips.

"Nope. It's not him that I have back here, but I need to keep both Deku and this one restrained, and I can't focus enough energy on Deku without letting this one go. You need to finish the job for me," Kanata instructs with an irritated tone. 

A chill shoots up my spine.

"I can't do that. You know I can't do that."

"Will you stop being a wimp for ten seconds? I know you keep a knife in your boot, so just use that. Slice his throat, stab him in the stomach, I don't care how you do it, but do it now! We are this close to winning; get over yourself already."

With that, I lower my hand and climb partway up the pile of broken concrete – despite Kanata's protests – until I find a gap large enough for me to see through to the other side. And as I predicted, a gagged Hitoshi rests in metallic restraints on the other side.

"You promised me he wouldn't be here!" I cry locking eyes with Kanata.

"He wasn't supposed to be, I swear!" he defends making his way up to the gap I'm looking through. "I kept him here away from all the fighting the moment I spotted him for your sake, though."

"This is who you were talking to earlier over the line. What were your words again? 'How the hell are you alive'; 'I wasted a knight trying to kill you.' Who did you sacrifice behind my back?"

"Are ... you talking about that girl that was murdered?" Deku rasps from behind me. I immediately turn to face him.

"When was this?"

"About a month ago, I think," he admits.

"You called them a knight. Are you using your stupid chess metaphors again?" I return my glare to Kanata who blankly stares at me in silence. "A knight, so someone in high rankings that would have disappeared a month-." I stop in the middle of my sentence as a horrendous idea reveals itself in my head.

"You didn't. Kanata, please, tell me you didn't," I plead, my voice slipping.

"You really want to know?" He waits for a response from me that isn't given. "Yes, I had Mantani killed. I scared her off the night before so you wouldn't be concerned by it."

"So that's why she never replied to my letters. You fought with her and said all those nasty things purposefully. This really is just a game to you, isn't it?"

"We shouldn't be having this conversation here and now of all places," he says trying to deflect my questioning.

"Was I a game to you?"

"(y/n), I-."

"No. Stop. Why don't you come out here and talk to me? You said so yourself, stop being a wimp and get over yourself already."

"Fine then!" Kanata hollers using what concentration with his quirk he has left to move aside the entire pile of rubble and revealing himself to the world. His eyes occasionally shift between Deku and I as he strides over to me.

"You are my king piece, and I am your queen. I've been playing this 'game' for you. I have been carrying out your plan for a perfect future, and I protected you for as long as I could from needing to kill people yourself. I helped you train, I trained myself, all for your cause."

"But you knew that I cared for Shinso and Mantani. Why would you want to take them away from me?"

"Shinso was a threat to us. I though I had gotten you over your grief, that obsession you had, yet he is still here plaguing your mind. It's him who has caused you to doubt your every move."

"That's no excuse for you to try to kill him and proceeding to lie to my face about it." 

I can feel every muscle in my body tense up and I struggle to keep myself still.

"You don't understand what I'm trying to say," he says as his glossy eyes stare into mine. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to be in love with someone for years and years only to have to watch them repeatedly pine over someone else? Someone else that hurts them?"

My mouth moves to find words, but I have nothing to say. Has he really loved me for that long? I never even considered that, nor how it would affect him. Am I the one in the wrong?

"I thought you loved me back, (y/n). Or were you the one playing me in this game?"

"No! I love you. I could never lie about something like that."

"Then prove it." 

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A/N: Just btw, asking someone to "prove" their love is a red flag, or at least unhealthy. Also, this chapter was more dialogue than anything, which made it easier to work through for me. 

Word Count: 807