Everything was going according to plan.

Miketsukami Yua sat at her desk, tapping her pencil on her temple over and over again, as it was a magic spell that would lull her into a state of complete focus and control. Everything around her seemed to zone out as her red-tinted eyes were tunnel-visioned on the piece of paper in front of her, making everything else a lesser priority.

She was one of the few who were born with their quirk, leading her to grow and develop herself on the extent of her abilities. As her quirk evolved and developed, she began to as well. The world which had previously been a journey of experiencing new things had quickly become a bleak and unforgiving place.

And so she became bleak and unforgiving herself.

Her words became her greatest weapon. As a misanthropic personality began to slowly develop, she turned her sharp tongue on the very people who taught her how to use it. To call it a betrayal was drastic, as she was never on their side to begin with. After all, you live only for the sake of yourself so you may as well use people for as long as you need them, and then toss them aside when they're no longer of use. Especially if it was your own family.

Instead of being ostracised by other people, she did it to herself.

Growing up in a tainted house where she was praised to the heavens was a disgusting feeling. Even as a child, Miketsukami Yua had high expectations for herself and the people around her, so when trash began to worship her, it meant nothing. If anything, it was insulting.

Her narcissistic, self-centred personality only heightened when she learnt how to lace her words with a sweetened poisonous venom, allowing her to bend anyone at her will and have them dance in the palm of her hand like a puppet master.

She soon found a joy in it, asking herself what else she could do with the power she was gifted. Because she had never experience life without her quirk, her life was filled with manipulation and trickery, which quickly became her favourite game.

Even without speaking a single lie, it was easy to twist words and offer the sweet illusion of safety.

Born out of an impure, sacrilegious family, she was bound to live a life of misfortune. Instead of being the product of a beautiful union of two families, she was a mistake born out of one. When necrosis occurs, you burn the flesh off.

So that's what she did.

Burned the place to the ground. That was the day she realised that red was truly beautiful.

Shutting her notebook, she glanced out her window, a deadly smirk spreading across her face like ivy as she sighed in happiness, "Everything is going according to plan."

~~~

"Have you ever heard of a benzene fire?"

Yua waited for a response, never taking her eyes off them as well as never blinking. She sighed and untied the gag from around her victims mouth, watching in boredom as he gagged, coughed and wheezed, trying to regain some lost air.

"Well, have you heard of a benzene fire, or not?"

"P-Please! I-I was just... following o-orders, I really didn't know what I was doing-"

"Benzene is highly flammable and volatile. The agent is easily ignited, even a single spark can set it off." Yua interrupted, her eyes fixated on the flame from her lighter. She flicked it up, and then snapped it shut. This action was repeated, the snap being the only sound present apart from Yua's voice, and the pathetic whimpering, "The fire is corrosive, and will even produce a toxic gas."

He chocked back a sob, and looked up at the girl with teary eyes, "Please... please don't do this!"

Yua laughed, "I never thought I'd make someone cry from a science lesson. Well, actually... oh, nevermind."

She flicked up her lighter once more, and grabbed the mans face, making sure to dig her long sharp nails into his cheek. He bled quite a bit considering his face was already plenty bruised. Curiously, she watched as the blood dribbled down her finger, onto her hand and then drop down to the floor.

"P-Please-"

"Don't you worry, I'll stop the bleeding right this second."

Yua held up her lighter to the cut. Sensing the danger, the man began to thrash and whimper, screaming for help. Still, Yua didn't falter at all. She just grabbed his hair and watched carefully as the flame flickered, but did nothing to burn the cut up.

"What a shame," She muttered. "Benzene fire! Benzene fire... You'll never guess what I happened to take just a little bit before coming to greet you. Come on then, guess."

The man was withering in a pile on his own blood, sweat, urine and tears, barely conscious. Yua squatted down and grabbed him and punched him square in the jaw. He cried out and wailed in agony, biting down on his tongue so viscously that his vision once more began to fade.

"You really aren't making this any fun, but oh well." She lifted up a huge yellow carton with the word BIOHAZARD written in bold font, "You guessed it. It's benzene!"

Paying him no attention, she grabbed the spare end of rope that he was attached to, and began to casually spray the entire establishment with benzene after placing a gas mask on her face.

"Calm down," She would say in that soothing voice of hers. "Everything is going to be fine."

Turning on a tap, she watched as the water poured down, a grin on her face.

"Oh, how fortunate it is for you that the water is still working, even after the power was cut off."

It was a big building, filled with multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, training rooms, weaponries, storages rooms that had already been doused in benzene. She beckoned the man to sit on one of the beds, and handed him a her lighter.

She smiled, "There's something I want you to do, is that okay?"

He nodded.

"Good! I want you to count to six hundred, and when you get there, I want you to drop the lighter onto the ground. Do you understand?

His breath came out in raspy breaths, and he forced himself to nod, all while shaking and sweating uncontrollably. 

Confident in her abilities, Yua untied the man and simply left him there, sat alone on a bed counting to six hundred without knowing why. Knowing that there wasn't a rush, she took her time calmly walking out of the building and towards a getaway car where an impatient dog was sat in the driver's seat.

"What took you so long!" Raiden snapped, and he immediately recoiled back as Yua sat herself down in the passenger seat. "Ugh, you fucking reek!"

"Don't drive off just yet," Yua ignored him. "You're going to want to see this."

"We really should get out of here as soon as possible-"

"Any second now," Yua muttered, her voice sounding like she was muffled underwater.

There it was.

The beginnings of a devastating fire began to glow, shining brighter and brighter as it consumed everything in its path with a never ending appetite for destruction. It was warm and comforting, bringing ease to Yua's restless heart. If she closed her eyes, she could almost hear overlapping screams of terror from women, children and men alike. She smiled.

She watched as the red began to spread further and further, consuming her vision and drowning out the rest of the world. When necrosis occurs, you burn the flesh off.

What was a more cleansing way to die than fire?

Content, she leaned back in her seat and considered today a job well done. Raiden clearly staring at her, not understanding her satisfaction behind the fire and her will to risk getting caught just to watch. "Woah, wait a minute. Why is the fire only getting bigger?"

"Hmm?"

"Well, it's been burning for ages now. The wood on the house is running out so the fuel for the fire is less than before. It's still going though, how does that make any sense. Unless..."

Yua smiled, ever so happy with the way things turned out. "Have you ever heard of a benzene fire?" She recited, as if reading from a script.

"Benzene fire?"

"They're hard to put out. Dumping water won't help and it'll only spread it around. If the firefighters go into this thinking it's a regular fire, they'll just make it worse and be swallowed up by it."

Yua laughed.

"Isn't it amazing?"

"Riiiiiiiiight," Raiden squirmed, thinking that her smiling face was extremely creepy. "Yuzu is going to be mad though, he said no fire."

"He's mad for thinking I would listen."

~~~

After switching cars three times and walking for who knows how long on foot, they finally got home. Raiden immediately ran up to his room, not wanting to be a witness to whatever argument they were going to have. The entire way back, he would talk to Yua without a response, or maybe he didn't want one and just wanted to talk out loud.

"You're fucked, honestly."

"He's going to be so mad at you."

"Damn it, why did you let her go in alone. Yua, why didn't you tell me to go in with you?"

So Raiden did what Raiden does best when he's anxious.

Run.

The minute they stepped foot into the house, he darted up the stairs as quickly as it was humanly possible after kicking off his shoes, and Yuzu let him go because he wasn't the target this time. Yua, on the other hand, wasn't worried at all.

"I said no fire."

"We both knew I wasn't going to listen."

Yuzu was sat on the couch, a paper in hand. He looked like he hadn't slept in two days and Yua coming back after committing arson wasn't exactly going to make him feel better. He stood up and made his way to the kitchen, "You know the consequences. Arson isn't something people will brush over. Because of you, we're going to have to lay low for a while."

Yua licked her lips, "There was a room filled with small, child-sized beds, each bed with a pair of handcuffs cuffed to the frame."

He flinched. "And?"

"After seeing them I couldn't help but feel-" Her throat closed up, as if the words got stuck in her throat. Yua took a deep breath, reevaluating her words. "I knew you would hate to see that. What better way to completely eradicate something then by burning it down?"

"I'm assuming you took everything that would be useful out before burning the whole building down?"

"You must think of me as some incompetent bimbo, of course I did."

"So you're going to help me look through everything." He glanced up at her, a small smile on his face, "You weren't going to get out of this without paying the price."

"I'll help too!" Raiden yelled, practically tumbling down the stairs in his own excitement. "You need help, right? I can help! What are we looking for?"

It kind of annoyed Yua seeing how happy and chipper Raiden was. While he would love nothing more than to wag his tail for Yuzu, she could think of a hundred other things she could be doing right now.

"What was their cover up again?"

"Construction and industrial work."

"What kind of things have you found so far?" Yua asked, ignoring Raiden's thirst for praise.

"Embezzlement, fraud, forgery, identity theft, kidnapping, human trafficking they've taken bribes and most importantly, I've found their very expensive sponsor."

Yua told Raiden to go get everything from the car and then turned back to Yuzu, "There's one thing we have in common."

~~~

Yua lowkey a girlboss lowkey needs very intense therapy because she has a lot of issues and brain is fucked :)

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A BENZENE FIRE

have a nice day