~Stolen Heart~ (Togaraka)

~Chapter Twelve~

(HEADER IMAGE IS NOT MINE, CREDIT TO ORIGINAL OWNER)

Hello wonderful people, welcome to chapter twelve!

~A

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"Don't worry, you'll be safe here, but now, I must ask you to explain to me exactly what happened." The princess said, her eyes full of worry.

T.B.C

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Toga's POV (Flashback)

The mansion must have been about half the size of the castle (which is huge btw), yet it had more security than the royal family had ever had. But if I was successful in my scheme, the group wouldn't need the royal families fortune and we wouldn't need to involve the princess.

It started out good, I passed as a servant and was in the house before I knew it. There was no sign of the wealthy family and security was thin inside, making it easy to find each artifact that I required. It so easy I almost laughed. But of course, things are never that simple.

Right as I was about the leave, my eyes caught on a portrait. It was probably the most unimpressive item in the house, the family stood, the mother and father smiling while a little boy with spiky black hair and striking red eyes made a face at the painter. Next to him, in a servants uniform stood another boy, around the same age, with blond hair that stuck to his face, a mischievous glint in his eye. Neito.

Before I could fully process what i'd saw, I heard voices and then shouting as I was spotted. 

I ran faster than I'd ever run in my life, sprinting past the guards standing outside before they could even react. 

Arrows shot at me. Most missing me by centimeters, but one lucky arrow sank into my leg, causing me to stumble. Hoards of arrows followed, a few following the example of the lucky one, piercing my arms, my legs, and my back. I held back a sob, my vision becoming blurry as I ran. 

Shouts came from behind me, until finally, everything went silent. I kept running, looking back as I moved, but no one was following me. I hit a overgrown root, tripping and tumbling down a hill, thorns scratching my skin as I fell. I laid there for a moment, catching my breath, my vision slowly returning, the raging pain following.

Picking myself back up, I stood shakily, ripping out the arrows one by one. Thankfully none of them had hit anything vital or were too deeply embedded. 

I checked to make sure all the stolen items were still intact before moving trudging forward. Each step sent a shock of pain coursing through me, the blood lose becoming too much.

"Wow, Himiko you look like shit," came a voice from behind me.

I attempted to turn around but stumbled again, almost falling before Dabi caught me. I managed a weak smile, "Thanks."

He frowned before looking back and yelling, "Mina, I found her."

With a poof of smoke, Mina appeared at me side, crushing me in a hug, "thank the gods you're not dead. I thought you were dead. Holy shit, you look dead. Are you dead?" She asked, speaking so fast it was hard to keep up. 

"I'm not dead," I groaned, "Could you please let go."

Ashido let go quickly, before gripping my shoulders and looking at me, "Don't ever scare me like that again."

She released her grip on my shoulders and took a step back. 

"Himiko, do you want us to bring you back to base? You don't have to keep going if you don't want to, i'm sure Shiggy will understand," Dabi said, concern in his eyes. 

"I'll be fine," I assured, "plus in this shape, the princess will probably take pity on me and boom, we'll become besties and i'll steal her money." 

Mina and Dabi looked unconvinced but didn't argue. "Fine," Dabi sighed, "But please try not to die, I would hate to lose another member."

I nodded, "I'll be careful, I promise, don't worry." 

"I'll teleport you closer to the castle so you don't have to move so much," Mina offered and I nodded, relieved. 

Ashido teleported the two of us the closest she could get without leaving the safety of the dark trees that kept us nearly invisible. "Good luck," she murmured and I handed her the bag of stolen items before she disappeared as quickly as we'd appeared. 

Deciding the best way to move around unnoticed was to get as low as possible, I crawled to the nearest wall, inching along until I heard voices. Hesitantly, I peered around the corner, spotting the princess and another boy that looked like royalty. I slowly crawled to the nearest bush, catching my breath before moving to the next bush, I kept repeating the process a few more times, hoping the princess saw me. 

Eventually I got sick of hiding in the same spot, waiting to be seen by a less friendly individual and crawled to the largest bush I could find. Honestly, the bush was unreasonably large and I was able to crawl in and lie on my back with ease. (There's no logic here, just work with me)

I faded in and out of consciousness and the rest the rest was already said.

I didn't mention any of this to the princess, since that would give away my identity and ruin the whole plan.

"I was walking in town and was suddenly jumped," I said, shrugging, "I was able to escape and made my way to the closest place, which just happened to be the castle."

Uraraka looked skeptical but didn't press further, "Do you want to contact your friends?" she asked.

I shook my head, "Nah, I have no way of reaching them and they're not too good at dealing with life threatening wounds," that wasn't completely true, Mina had some intense healing magic and we had a way of communicating back and forth with one another but I'd made it this far already and might as well stick to the plan. 

"Fine, I guess you're staying here then," she said, smiling a little. 

T.B.C

Q: If you won $1,000, what would you spend it on?

A: Probably books

Let me know your answers in the comments and I hope you have a good day/night!

~A