Leave Your Mark | Various!BNHA x Reader

10: Goodbye For now

"This scumbag tried to kill [Name]. He attacked her once before, many years ago. It sounded like he used to be a part of the Shie Hassaikai. Do you recognize him, Pops?"

Pops stares down at the former gangster. His lips have been taped shut, and his legs are mangled and broken from when Chisaki used his Quirk on him. He's incapable of running away, so all he can do is whimper and beg for mercy, even though no one can understand what he's trying to say.

"Yes, I recognize him," Pops replies, voice frigid and stern. "There was a reason I deemed him unworthy of holding the Shie Hassaikai name. But never in a million years did I imagine he would try to murder a child. Absolutely sickening."

You don't say anything. Chisaki holds you close, even though the man is no longer capable of posing any danger to you. It's true that he deserves nothing but the worst. He tried to kill you, brought back horrible, traumatic memories that you've been doing your utmost to forget. He should suffer, and yet, when you remember the way Chisaki tortured him purely for the sake of it...

It all just feels terribly wrong.

"We should dispose of him," Chisaki says. "I can have his vocal cords rearranged too. He'll never be able to breathe a word of this to anyone else. We should throw him somewhere where he'll know nothing but pain for the rest of his days."

Pops narrows his eyes, but even though he is a respectable man who follows a code of honor, at the end of the day, he is still a yakuza.

This criminal just tried to kill his precious little girl. Needless to say, the punishment won't be light.

"I'll take care of it," Pops nods. "Rest assured, he won't get off easy. In fact, death would have been a more merciful fate."

Once again, the man starts whining hopelessly, voice muffled behind the tape covering his mouth. You clench your jaw and peer at him from the corner of your eye. You remember how quick he was to smash your head against the concrete, knowing not guilt or shame as he watched you bleed to death.

He isn't a good person. He deserves this. Perhaps Chisaki was completely justified in what he did.

And yet... why do you feel so fucking scared?

"Kurono, get that piece of trash out of my sight," Pops instructs. "I'll make arrangements to deal with him in just a moment. But first," he says, softening his tone a bit, "I want to make sure [Name] is alright."

Kurono nods and drags the crippled man out of the room, despite the latter's attempts to scream and fight back. The sound of his muffled cries ebb into the background, until finally, you stop hearing them altogether.

Pops crouches down and grabs you by the shoulders. "My sweet girl," he breathes. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry something like this happened to you."

He pulls you into a hug, squeezing your tiny body as if he fears he'll never get to do this again. You can feel him trembling, even though he's doing his best not to let it show. He is a powerful man with ample authority, but he loves you, and he must've been scared out of his mind.

You feel safe in Pops' arms. Even though he is a yakuza, he knows how to stay calm and control his anger. His first instinct is never to respond with violence or threaten others into submission. Even after such a serious incident as this one, he didn't give in to his rage. He didn't let it destroy his humanity.

In that sense, he and Chisaki are completely different.

You know what kind of person Chisaki is. All this time, you hoped you could change things. You did everything in your power to show him how beautiful the world is, to reassure him that there was no such thing as a sickness that plagues nearly the entire population. You showered him with love and affection in the hopes that it would lead him down the right path, away from a life of violence, murder, and manipulation.