Lightning in the Ashes (Katsuki Bakugou x OC Fem)

Chapter 18: Power and Sacrifice

Katsuki could feel his pulse hammering in his ears as he fought against the wind and chaos. The storm, Valerie's screams from inside the collapsing weather machine, and the blaring city alarms all seemed to meld into a cacophony that drowned out his usual, steady resolve. The rain stung his skin, but the real pain was the sheer fear carving through his chest, an unfamiliar and terrifying emotion.

His heart ached, each beat echoing with the unrelenting dread of losing her. This was a feeling he didn't know how to handle, one that twisted his insides and blurred the lines between rage and desperation. The memories surged unbidden: Valerie's laughter, the way her eyes lit up when she was talking about something she loved, the way she challenged him without fear. Her touch, gentle yet firm, grounded him when he was spiralling, and her fiery spirit, matched his own.

She has to be okay, he told himself, fists clenching so hard his palms bled from his own explosive sweat. He'd faced villains, near-death experiences, and every type of danger imaginable, but none of it compared to the bone-deep dread coursing through him now. If he lost her, if she slipped away in this storm, if she—

Katsuki's throat constricted, and his vision tunnelled, narrowing to the singular thought: I can't lose her. It was then, in that horrifying moment of clarity, that he realized the truth he had been avoiding for so long. He was in love with Valerie Black. It wasn't a passing crush or some fleeting feeling; it was something raw, something that terrified him because it made him vulnerable in a way he'd never been before.

His eyes burned, and he tried to blink away the tears mixing with the rain on his face. I can't lose her. Not her. The mere thought drove a new kind of power from deep within, one he hadn't tapped into before. His quirk burned hotter, fiercer, like an inferno roaring to life.

"VALERIE!" he roared, his voice cracking, the name tearing from his throat with a desperation that ignited his quirk to a level he didn't know he had. The explosions erupted from his palms in a blinding blue-white light, hotter and more destructive than ever before. The sheer force of it shattered the concrete around him, evaporated the falling rain in a violent steam, and sent shockwaves rippling through the storm.

Deku and Shoto, busy battling the now-mutated Todd—were momentarily stunned as they felt a massive spike in Katsuki's power. They turned to see him, a blazing beacon of raw energy and felt the ground quake beneath them. His explosions turned from angry orange flames to that searing, almost ethereal blue-white heat, like the core of a star had ignited in his hands.

Deku, wiping blood from his lip, looked in awe. "Kachan..." he whispered, feeling the intensity of his friend's power. Shoto's eyes widened, the steam from his own flames swirling around him. Both knew that something monumental had awakened in Katsuki.

The mutated Hurricane sneered, his grotesque form pulsing with energy from the quirk serum. "You think you can save her?" he mocked, his voice a twisted echo of the storm's wrath. "I'll rip you apart first."

Katsuki barely registered Hurricane's words. All he could think about was Valerie. The idea of a world without her was suffocating. His heart raced with the realization that she had become his everything. Her kindness, her strength, the way she saw through his walls—she had changed him, made him want to be better. And he was done holding back.

"You're not taking her from me," Katsuki snarled, his voice a fierce promise as he launched himself forward, explosions so powerful they tore apart the weather machine's outer defences. The structure began to collapse rapidly, but Katsuki pressed on, every fibre of his being driven by the love and fear coursing through him. You have to hear me, he pleaded silently. You have to make it through.