𝔸 𝔾𝕙𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕒𝕤 𝕆𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕖 𝕍.𝟚 💥𝔹𝕜𝔻𝕜💥

Chapter 54

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

A Hero's Demise

Katsuki

Katsuki sputtered violently, hacking up water in bursts that left his chest screaming. Each cough felt like his ribs were cracking, his lungs shredded raw from the inside out. His throat burned, his vision swam, and his head felt like it had been shoved through a blender. Damn it. What the hell happened?

The last thing he remembered was going down—his body hitting something warm, pressure closing in all around him, and then...nothing. The ground. He thought he'd hit the damn ground. But no. No, it wasn't ground. It was water. And he'd sunk like a rock.

Shit, he'd nearly drowned.

Somewhere above him, Jet Fuel's taunting voice cut through the fog in his head, though it sounded warped, like hearing it through a busted speaker. Before Katsuki could even begin to understand how the fuck that bastard was even up, a hand grabbed his chin roughly, yanking his head up. The movement sent a spike of pain down his neck and into his spine, the strain of the angle radiating down to his fingertips.

The bastard's words barely registered. Something about watching someone die? His mind was too scrambled to follow before he fully registered the words. His first, guttural thought was Izuku.

Katsuki's hand shot up, clawing at Jet Fuel's forearm like a rabid animal, his fingers digging in hard despite the way his body dragged like dead weight. His damn limbs still weren't cooperating, sluggish and weak from the blackout and the choking flood of water that had nearly taken him out.

"Release him—"

That voice sliced through the fog in his head like a knife—low, sharp, and dripping with a kind of fury that froze the air around him. Katsuki stiffened. He knew that voice. He'd know it anywhere.

but it was laced with a chilling edge Katsuki had never heard before. The sound of it—so foreign yet so familiar—ignited a surge of adrenaline that ripped through his veins like wildfire. Katsuki wasn't sure if it was fight or flight, but it didn't matter.

It was only then Katsuki's thoughts realigned with the grim reality. The asshole wasn't talking about Izuku. He was talking about killing him. "Or I swear, I will bring hell upon you and everyone here in this room. I will paint these walls with the echoes of your screams."

Jet Fuel scoffed above him, that smug, wheezing laugh grating against Katsuki's raw nerves. His vision sharpened just enough for him to take in the unfolding scene. His Gaze flicked to the left, and his stomach twisted.

Izuku.

Something raw and feral was pouring off his frail body, the kind of power that didn't just settle in the air—it made the entire damn cavern quake. The ground beneath Katsuki's battered body trembled as though the earth itself wanted to back the hell away. His eyes locked onto the restraint around Izuku's neck, its metal twisting and groaning under pressure that should've been impossible. That light—the green glow of One For All—was brighter, harsher, almost alive, flickering with dangerous intent. It wasn't just power. It was something more. Something...wrong. Katsuki's throat went dry.

Jet Fuel didn't shut the hell up. That same stupid, manic grin split his face as he tightened his grip on Katsuki's throat. The bastard's fingers dug in, like he was trying to pop Katsuki's damn head off his shoulders. The pressure made his vision spark white at the edges, each strangled breath harder to take than the last. The villain's taunts were half-snarled, half-laughed, going on about Izuku being some pawn in All For One's plan, but Katsuki wasn't listening anymore.