The Next Victim
Ketzuka
Pearl
Tanya

|~|
Ketzuka

Dad refused to tell me anything. I guess I should've known that. He's stubborn. 

Thankfully, I figured it all out anyway. Karina, Adrian's older sister, had called everyone and told us about the conversation she had had with her family while Adrian was visiting.

I looked up as I walked home. The sky was dark. It was about to rain. I checked the date and time. 

Thursday, July 4th, 3:10 pm.

Three days until July 7th, my grandma's death day. Today is her birthday, if I remember correctly. Papa always stops by her grave today, and on the 7th. 

I sighed, entering the cafe. I was meeting Kaechan and Akira.

"Zuka!" Was the first thing I heard. Kaechan had stood up, and was waving at me excitedly from a table. Akira was waving too, though she was still sitting. I laughed, and walked over to join them.

"So... what's the tea?!" Kaechan asked as I sat down. I snorted.

"I don't have a lot of tea, actually," I replied, "not a lot has happened recently. At least not stuff I'm involved in."

"Ooh, that sucks," Akira said, "I haven't actually been doing a lot either, aside from watching anime," she laughed a little, rubbing the back of her neck.

"What?! You guys are boring!" Kaechan laughed.

"Oh yeah, then what do you have for tea?" I asked, crossing my arms. She flushed, and Akira and I laughed.

"Thought so," I laughed.

An awkward silence settled. My eyes settled on a TV in the cafe. It was on the news.

They were talking about a murder.

"Hey, look," I pointed at the TV, and my friends turned to see.

The reporters were talking about a recent string of murders. People who we're killed on the corresponding day number of the month they were born in. The last one was an old man, who was killed on June 6th.

They were speculating about the murders, and who would be next. Police were on high alert for July 7th, which was when they thought the next murder would take place.

I sighed. They were advising everyone to stay inside on that day, and not let anyone inside.

"That's not going to work out," I muttered, sighing.

"What do you mean?" Akira asked, frowning.

"June 7th is my grandmother's death day," I explained, "Papa's going to visit her grave. He always does, today and the 7th. Today's her birthday."

"Ah... can you convince him not to?" Kaechan frowned.

"Papa's stubborn," I sighed, "No way."

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He is the n-"

I quickly covered Akira's mouth.

"Shh," I said quietly, pulling away, "Sorry, I uh... tend to get recognize whenever I'm involved in a conversation about Papa... it's annoying."

"Ah, right! Sorry," she laughed nervously, looking down. I smiled, laughing a little, and we just hung out together for a while. At least until Papa called, and told me to come home.

|~|
Pearl

"Harmony, relax, we'll be back at the end of the month. ...Yes, I know I said we'd be back three days ago, something came up- What?! No we're not moving here permanately! Why would you even?!- Ow, that's my ear your screaming in..."

I sighed, and looked at Ellie. She mouthed a 'help' at me, and I sighed, walking over.

"Uh, one minute Harmony..." handed me her cellphone and I put it to my ear.

"Harmony?" I asked. The familiar voice our friend, who was also our bass back in Canada, replied instantly.

"NIGHTLIGHT! What the hell?! Why aren't you and the others back yet?!"

"Ah, please don't yell..." I mumbled, "I'm sorry, I know we said we would be back earlier, but things came up. There's been something going on, and our friends are involved. We're staying to help them..."

There was a long pause. I heard her talking to someone. Then there was a loud sigh.

"Alright... you have 2 more weeks, I'm coming to get you myself if you aren't nack by then," she sighed, and I smiled softly.

"Alright, thank you Harmony."

She just sighed, and mumbled, "No problem," before hanging up. I gave Ellie her phone back and she sighed in relief.

"We have 2 extra weeks," I told her, "but after that she's going to come for us herself."

"That sounds like her," Ellie laughed, before sighing, "Come on, the others are waiting for us."

I nodded, and followed her off into a closed off room. Yaoyorozu, Shoto, Katsuki, Tara, and Kara were already in there. My wife, Ashley, was in the corner.

"What took so long?" Tara asked.

"We were supposed to be back three days ago," Ellie sighed, "had to deal with an angry boss..."

"How long do we have?" Ashley asked.

"2 more weeks," I replied. She shrugged.

"That should be fine. Can we look at the body now?"

"I've never met someone so eager to see a dead body," Shoto muttered. I laughed a little.

Yaoyorozu sighed, and pulled the blanket off the body. It revealed the last dead body, that was killed on June 6th. Ashley stepped forward.

"You said the cause of death was his neck snapped?" She asked. Yaoyorozu nodded.

"Your kidding," she muttered, "and there's no fingerprints or anything? No rope?"

"No," Shoto responded, "It's like it just snapped."

We all stared at the body for a moment. Then Kara spoke. 

"What's that?" She asked, pointing at something on the neck. Everyone frowned.

"I don't see anything," Ellie said.

"Neither do I," Yaoyorozu frowned.

I looked where Kara was pointing. There was something there. I thin line, like a scar.

Ashley looked at it, and frowned, "That's a sword cut."

"What sword cut?" Katsuki crossed his arms.

"There's nothing there," Shoto frowned. Ashley rolled her eyes, and grabbed the head of the body. With a strong jerk to the side, the head turned at a 90° angle and came clean off, and blood spewed out of the neck.

"Oh god-" everyone backed away, except Ashley.

"The neck was never snapped..." I muttered, "he was decapitated, and then made to look like his neck was snapped."

"Let me see the other bodies," Ashley said.

Within 10 minutes, we had gone threw every one of the other dead bodies in the murder. They were all decapitated, as displayed by my wife who ripped their heads off.

"How did they do that though?" Ellie asked.

"A quirk I would guess," Kara said.

"I'll go check the records for someone with a quirk that allows them to reattach things and hide any marks," Yaoyorozu said, leaving the room.

"Can you determine the type of blade?" Shoto asked. Ashley looked closer at the cut.

"Must have been an expensive blade," she said, "it's a clean cut, but no. I can't tell without a piece of the actual blade."

"Fucking great," Katsuki sighed.

"He looks familiar," Ellie sighed.

"Who?" Shoto asked.

"Somebody Deku's dad works with I bet. I checked the records. Everyone was somebody who was associated with Hisashi." Katsuki sighed, "Don't ask me why..."

"If it's all people associated with Mr. Midoriya, what about Izuku?" Tara asked.

Everyone paled.

|~|
Tanya

I growled.

"I can't believe I'm helping you," I grumbled, glaring at the man next to me. Dabi smirked.

"Well, after Blitz quit, we needed someone to help with the murders," he replied, smirking. I scowled.

"I only agreed to this to get back at that little shit." I replied. He snorted.

"You already agreed. Good luck getting out of it."

His walkie talkie buzzed.

"Target has moved into place. I'm in position. Any time now."

He smiled, "Copy that, we're moving in now."

Dabi looked at me. I sighed, and we started walking.

I flicked my hood up to block the rain.

I wonder what revenge tastes like...