"Maybe" | Denki Kaminari [COMPLETED]

Chapter Nineteen: Burn

"The heroes are coming," I hissed at one of the Plague masks. "Tell Chisaki."

"Why should I trust you?" it squeaked back defiantly.

"If I'm wrong, I'll take the blame. But if I'm not and you're the reason he has no warning, you'll be the first to feel his wrath."

It backed up and ran down the hall. I followed at a slower pace, due to my still-healing leg wound. A few minutes later, I was walking through a completely different set of hallways, carrying a little girl who I was instructed to not allow to fall into the heroes' hands. I let her cling around my neck but made no move to secure her.

"Do not let her fall," Chisaki said beside me.

"I'm not in the business of hurting children unless I have to. They have to be taught lessons of pain again and again."

"I know. And even if you did drop her, she wouldn't have very far to fall."

"I would appreciate it if you stopped remarking on my height."

A sound behind us alerted me to the presence of someone else. I reached out to their emotions, finding regret, confidence, and hope jumbled up to make courage. Mirio. The girl, Eri, was gone beneath the folds of my coak in an instant.

"We'll know who you are," Aizawa had said when explaining the plan to save Eri from the villains," but we may have to fight you."

"Do what you need to," I'd said. "Eri is the priority."

Mirio fought well, but Chisaki fought better. It almost seemed he was toying with Mirio, as if to show off his quirk. I wasn't fully prepared for Mirio, though, because he punched me in the face and a second later Eri was gone.

There was a gunshot, and then everything passed twice as fast as it should have: the ceiling caving and debris pinning me against the ground by a wall; Mirio collapsing and not using his quirk at all; Eri, bundled in Mirio's cape, defenseless; Midoriya, fighting Chisaki over the little girl; the debris pinning me being pulled away by Chisaki's quirk as he grew stronger and stronger to fight Midoriya. I used my quirk to give Midoriya strength and take Chisaki's strategic smarts away. It wasn't much, but maybe it would be enough. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone bleeding heavily. I could only hope it wasn't a hero.

As Chisaki and Midoriya (with Eri) flew out of the crater in the ground, I refocused and climbed from the ground and into the sunlight, where I flipped my hood over my short blue hair. The new style was too recognizable. When my eyes adjusted, I saw Twice and Toga with their backs to me.

If I was to go by the League's plan, I would join Twice and Toga and return home before the heroes found us. If I was to go by the heroes' plan, I was to ensure Eri's safety. But as I saw Chisaki's grotesque fighter he'd created to fight Midoriya fall from the sky, I knew Eri would be fine. I also knew exactly where Tomura Shigaraki would be in the next few minutes, and I knew I could end his reign over the League once and for all.

I ran, knowing I didn't have much time before Toga and Twice came this way as well. I didn't slow down until I was a few feet away from the alleyway where Shigaraki was waiting. I reached out for his emotions, and sure enough, there was impatience, boredom, and unearned confidence. I hated him for that.

I didn't stop to think before I peeked around the corner and began drowning him on his own spit. When I heard the sounds of him gasping for air, I stepped out from the shadows.

"How does it feel to be the one suffering, hm?" I said, keeping just out of reach. "How does the pain feel? Isn't it horrible to know there is nothing you can do to make it stop?"

He scratched at his throat as if he could tear a hole right through the skin and drain the water.

"I might kill you right now," I said. "I haven't made up my mind yet. But in case I don't, consider this a warning. I know you. I was trained by you. I know all of your tricks. If I ever see your face as a villain again, I will not hesitate to suffocate you with your own villainy."

"You waited too long to kill me," he rasped.

A knife whistled past my ear, sending a few drops of blood to the pavement. I whirled around and sent Toga to the ground with one wave of Shigaraki's pain. As I prepared to fight Twice, more blood sprayed onto the ground before me. The dagger only nicked me. Where is all this coming from?

"One last lesson: never turn your back on an enemy," Shigaraki said, letting go of the pipe that now stuck through my left side. "And thank you for getting rid of my pain."

I tried to dodge, but Shigaraki's fingers brushed my shoulder, turning the skin gray. The three villains walked away without looking back.

I slumped against the wall, not bothering to do anything about the wound in my side. I was dead anyway.

"You've got yourself in quite a situation, haven't you?"

I didn't look at Dabi. "Come to gloat?"

"No."

A rush of fire enveloped the entire right side of my upper body, charring the skin on my arm, shoulder, and neck. I screamed, not able to find the strength to mute the pain.

"Now we're even," Dabi said. "I almost killed you, and now I almost saved your life."

"Go back to your family, Dabi," I said. "You can still be a hero."

"I have some things I need to take care of first." He walked in the same direction the League had gone.

I used my left arm to find my phone. I was no longer at risk of dying from Shigaraki's quirk, but I would probably die of blood loss in the next few minutes. I clumsily dialed Denki's number with my shaking hand.

"Kaiya, I'm on my way," Denki said.

"Listen to me," I said.

"Dabi told be where you are. I'm coming."

"Stop. I need you to listen to me." I choked down a cough. "Denki, I l--"

"Don't say it," he said. "Tell me when I get there."

"I love you," I said.

"Kaiya, no. That's too final."

"Please say it back."

"Kaiya--"

"Say--" I doubled over in a fit of coughing, covering my boots in blood. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the flashing lights at the end of the alleyway, but I couldn't stop coughing. Eventually, I ran out of air and leaned back against the wall to wait for death.

"She's lost a lot of blood," a woman's voice said. "If we can close the wound she might be okay. I don't think it's injured any major systems."

"Do you have any water?" I heard Denki ask. A few seconds later, I felt the pipe pulled out of my side, then a liquid was poured over the wound.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"I can't focus my electricity enough, but the water will conduct it. Kaiya," Denki said, "this is really going to hurt."

I smelled the burning flesh as Denki used his electricity to cauterize the gaping hole in my side enough to stop the flow of blood. Everything became a blur after that. I was carried on a stretcher to an ambulance, where a swarm of people surrounded me. I lost track of Denki, which sent me into a panic.

"She's moving too much," a voice said just before I was forced into the black world of unconsciousness.