Shangri La Pt. 1

87: An Eye for an Eye

"W-What? How could someone be able to defeat this many of our–" 

"Let. Her. Go."

Everyone in the room instantly looked up to see where such a harsh and demanding tone came from, only to see a large sword in this man's hand and spiky ash blond hair to appear through the smoke. And once they all saw those blazing Crimson red eyes, all the Scholars in the room went into a panic. 

"Ack! S-Scholar Ink! T-That's the Captain of the Todoroki Knights; Katsuki Bakugo!!!" one Scholar exclaimed. 

Scholar Ink–the man who read the message sent by the Empress and instructed harm to be done onto Izumi–stood there in dismay, as he couldn't believe or even understand why a man from the West would be here. 

'The Captain... of the Todoroki Knights is here? Why on Earth would he come here, and how did he know we had an Emerald here? Is he... trying to save her?' Scholar Ink thought as his eyes tried to look around the situation, and that's when he focused on the greenette that was still being held by her arms by the soldiers.

"Arg– gimme that!" Scholar Ink yelled as he grabbed Izumi by her bicep and then pulled her up against him as he revealed a sharp dagger and its blade to rest up against the greenette's throat. 

Katsuki's eyes widened in a fury as he was about to storm up to the Scholar, but the second he took one step, Scholar Ink didn't hesitate to poke Izumi's skin and for a drop of red to start to spill out. The blond halted himself to see Izumi's neck bleeding and the pained expression on her face clearly read for him to not try and come any closer. 

"Ha~ Just as I thought, you came here to save this woman! Well, unfortunately for you, she is an Emerald that has caused a huge crime towards the Empress. Her powers are far too great that she must be rid of!" Scholar Ink declared, thinking that this could scare the blond. But as he listened to the Scholar, Katsuki instantly understood that this man holding this blade up against the woman he's had dear feelings for clearly doesn't know everything about Izumi.

"Tch– seems you didn't do your research." Katsuki started. 

"Research?!? Don't try and fool me, boy, this woman has the same traits that all Emerald's have! Dark green hair, and Emerald green eyes, they don't fool me! And if the Empress has requested for us to get rid of her, then that means she truly is a threat to all!" 

"A threat, huh? Did she even try to show you her powers?" 

"I don't need to see them to know who she is! All Emerald's are a threat, as they were the ones that decided to make a treaty between the East and West, declaring that there is no true winner to this war!" 

"Arg– that woman... SHE DOESN'T HAVE ANY POWERS, NOT A SINGLE DROP!!!" Katsuki screamed, forcing everyone in the room to freeze up.

"Wha– What?" 

"She doesn't have powers, she's not like other Emeralds! Did you even check her back?" 

"H-Her back?" 

"All Emeralds are known to have a tattoo of a cherry blossom tree in full bloom, that tattoo shows if they have powers or not. Izuku–that woman right there–doesn't even have a single flower on her back but a bare tree!" Katsuki exclaimed as he pointed at the greenette right in front of him. Izumi didn't know what was happening, as she'd lost far too much blood already that everything sounded muffled and her sight was pretty blurry. 

'What's... What's happening?' 

"No– No flowers?" 

"Yeah, so how can you go after someone who doesn't even have the powers that you call a threat?"