fear. || { bnha }

thirty.

a/n: sorry for the long wait (and the sort of short + chapter), but! here it is, and thank you all for reading and waiting <3

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"What?" Hitoshi's voice filled Valui's ears, but it sounded distant; as if he were on land and she was far underwater. "How the hell do you know her?"

"Oh? Did she nit t...ll y..."

The voice — his voice, the one she had hoped to never hear again — faded out as the corners of Valui's vision quickly turned white, closing in until she was seeing through a pinpoint. A dull headache formed behind her eyes; fear climbed its way up her stomach and coiled itself around her heart. She wanted to faint — to faint and wake up and be in a bed; in a house and safe and away from the Hell that had opened up around her.

I'm scared. 

A third voice cut through the air — the one belonging to the guy that had been laying on the ground; the one that Hitoshi recognized — but she couldn't register anything he said. Her eyes saw blurred movement, but only for a moment; the white that had creeped up was turning black.

Hitoshi, I'm scared. 

Something fell in the corners of her eyes — something that grabbed her arm and yanked her backward just before it hit the ground. Valui crashed down with it, her knees hitting the concrete and sending an aching pain up her legs. Her eyes, which had begun to close, shot wide open and looked to her side.

Hitoshi was laying on the ground, completely immobile, save for his eyes a few small twitches of the muscles in his face. A cut on his neck was bleeding, flowing heavy enough to drip down onto the concrete, but not yet enough to be considered profuse. He stared up at her, more anger in his eyes alone than Valui had ever seen on his entire face.

"Le...ave..."

His voice sounded strained and forced, like someone was actively suffocating him.

"H-Hitoshi?" Valui ignored what he said; and he should have expected her to ignore it. Did he really think she'd just up and leave him? "What's wrong? Are you h—"

"Sorry, Valui." Hearing that voice speak her name sent waves of uneasy nausea across her. "I didn't want to have to kill your boyfriend, but—"

Anything he said afterwards fell on deaf ears.

Kill. 

The word rung in her mind like a thousand sirens going off; blaring and bright and obnoxious and startling. You always think you're ready for the sound and the flashing lights, but you're not. It gets you every time, reminding you that the world is an awful place, even when heroes are as normal as breathing; even when the world has a symbol of peace to look to for hope; even when you think you're safe and the tragedy is far away from you. The sirens remind you that it's not -- that you're still as vulnerable as ever, even with Quirks and heroes and symbols of peace.

And Valui was more vulnerable now than ever.

Kill.

He's going to kill.

He's going to kill Hitoshi. 

One final siren went off, bringing with it memories of her dead father; waking nightmares of it being Hitoshi instead; the horrifying realization that those thoughts were soon going to become a reality. It sent her brain into a panicked frenzy — a thousand questions and thoughts formed at once, though one was more prominent than the others.

I'll save you. 

Blue, terrified eyes landed on a knife that was laying on the opposite side of Hitoshi's body. Adrenaline shoved herself up and to the weapon, her fingers curling around it so quickly her fingertips were painfully scraped against the concrete. Valui straightened herself up, standing as tall as she could in front of Hitoshi's motionless body. Both her hands gripped the hilt of the knife; it was held out in front of her, the point quivering as her hands shook.