Chapter 16: Puppet on Strings
Went all out for this chapter, 3500+ words!!!
BOOM!!!
BOOM!!!
BOOM!!!
The milky bubbles released their gifts upon your attackers in the form of ear shattering pain. The more bubbles that fled from your palms, your energy seeped away little by little like a mosquito sucked away at humans for the copper taste of crimson. Students and teachers alike who felt they could successfully apprehend a violent teenager with minimal injuries to her took on the task knowing they’re in the gravest of danger. A great number of sprouting heroes turned out, but only few were coming through as a fair match. Vlad King and Todoroki jutted out side by side, their quirks similar yet all so different. Icy blue shards and crystalized blood fleet from the males. Like a fourth sense, you predicted their moves as a light pain tickled the back of your skull. Your feet found no sense in running, crossed your arms and spun once around inflating a series of blue tinted bubbles that popped in contact with their attempts to restrain leaving behind a thin wall of ice that not only caught Todoroki’s attack but created a roadblock as well. Your quirk was tricky to use as it was, yet another problem for the others. Your feet upon beginning to sting and pulse with pain after yet another fleeting attempt, too much exhaustion catching up to your tired body. Why can’t they just leave me alone? I need somewhere quiet… I need to think…
Just follow the black smoke, that’s what Aizawa told himself. Follow the black smoke and surely you’d be there. Whenever it came to combat, it became prominent that you will more than likely turn to use the explosion characteristic of your quirk rather the ice or paralysis characteristics. Technically, the explosions are an easy way to inflict damage while the others are more of status conditions. Did you use the explosions because of that fact? Or maybe because your closest friend had that destructive explosion quirk and you felt the need to mimic? Such a powerful quirk now to be used for evil. Aizawa shook his head violently, he needs to get out of his mind; clouded with contradictory thoughts one after another. Yes, you’re his daughter now, but right now, you were terrorizing the school for reasons unknown, hopefully logical. You were the villain… He has to take you down as a villain.
Your eyes enlarged to a few familiar faces that sought you out. A muscular blonde, drowsy long haired male, and a provocative woman with red glasses. You bit your lip, they were the last people you wanted to get involved in this mess. You prepared another glacial attack, spun around to release bubbles of the blue variation, for none to come. Aizawa’s cold eyes were ruby red holding up a gaze that were as hard as steel, his grey scarves pouncing at you, one after the other, like entranced cobras. “What the hell has gotten into you!?” Bakugou practically demanded as he struggled out from behind Aizawa and Midnight with his fists a blazing. Snapping like firecrackers. You dodged one close range explosion, pulling back your leg that shrouded with green electricity, nailing the blonde in the chest.
Aizawa were dumbstruck. Midnight, in turn, smacked Aizawa in the chest to bring him back to earth. “What the heck! Just who’s quirk are you cancelling out!?” All sassy with each word to leave her glossed lips, hands were perched upon her hips.
“I forgot she has two quirks…” Aizawa always neglected to remember the quirk you and Midoriya shared. Aizawa was left with the decision to cancel out your bubbles or One for All, the bubbles being the better decision of the two. And so the male thought immediately about plan B. “Do not use your quirk, let Bakugou do the work,” he held his arm out as a barrier to his colleague.
“Huh?” Midnight growled. “Wouldn’t it be smart if I just knock out everyone here? It’d save the hassle...”
“This problem surfaced because of Bakugou,” Aizawa remembered back to the guilt riddled over Momo and Uraraka’s normally cheerful faces. Bakugou was the subject, they must’ve forced it onto you no doubt. Aizawa’s eyes stung as he continued to cancel out your main quirk while you attacked Bakugou with what little of One for All you possessed. I have no clue why Bakugou is responsible for her actions... “If Bakugou wants to finish it, let him.”
"You do realize we could lose our jobs for not apprehending the threat? Are you ONLY saying this because she’s your damned daughter!?" Midnight offered a well deserved glare to the man in black, smacking him yet again.
"I’m doing what’s best,” Aizawa refused to glance at Midnight, fearing it’d cancel his quirk and everything would go south fast. “Besides… Knowing Nezu... He won't fire us if he knows the details," Aizawa smirked.
Bakugou stumbled backwards, muscles tensing, doing just about anything to soften your blows. You were a monster in close combat, the strength of ten men behind your swings and lightning fast movements. Even then, Bakugou can’t just pull his trump card with one large explosion like he did in your first fight with him nor that escalating fight with Zack. Bakugou remembered back to that training exercise from easily a month or two back, yeah, the one where you got gravely injured by the ceiling collapse. Again, his trump card was used there as well. The point of the exercise was to keep interior fights to a minimum in order to preserve the building. This factor led to the shedding of his quirk. If you can't use your explosions, he won't. That’s what Bakugou is telling himself at least. The blonde gripped his fists, time to go defensive. You strike with a zipping kick that landed at his forearm. Bakugou moved quick, taking hold and threw you over his shoulder. You crashed onto the tile flooring, cracking some along with it, with a guttural whine that vibrates your throat. Another trick that Bakugou remembered, even though back then he were in your lowly position and Deku was on top with a determined yet terrified victory face.
You shuffled, whimpering, trying to get back up as quickly as possible. Bakugou pressed his shoe to your chest more like a stomp to prevent such escape. Immobile. The blonde stared down upon you. His crimson gaze burning holes into your own and about to speak, but those blue eyes of yours... They were a pastel grey, bloodshot, pupils dilated to the point he asked himself if you even had pupils. "You there (Y/n)?" He grumbled, not expecting a reply any time soon. This isn’t you, those eyes aren’t yours.
You remained silent. Words flooding in little by little just to escape out the other ear. Aizawa and Midnight stepped before you both. Curious yet all so disappointed. And just as Midnight began to tug on the sleeve of her costume to incapacitate the little troublemaker. "I'm... Here," you yawned in an absent minded tone, Bakugou could’ve sworn some color came back to your eyes.
"Care to explain why you tore up the entire school?" Aizawa asked as if it were a regular everyday question like ‘how are you?’ while he peered over you, his quirk still activated upon yourself.
You physically trembled, eyes beginning to bead up with tears. "There's voices in my head… I've ignored them the best I could b-but," you hiccupped. "I can't handle it anymore!"
Aizawa knelt down, brushing a hand across your cheek. Close up, your features were dusty, overwhelmed with exhaustion, physically reeling with a sickness that you must've been covering up for quite some time. "If you aren't gonna attack anybody... We can walk down to Nezu's office peacefully,” an offer that he knows he’ll receive backlash upon.
"No promises..." You were still sniffling, no trust in your own self.
Aizawa pats Bakugou's leg, a signal where the blonde removed his foot from your chest hesitantly. "Stay close to her," Aizawa asked of your friend and straightened himself out. You struggled to even sit up from the floor, body aching with every movement made, your spine a jumbled painful mess. Even despite the escalated fight, nothing like the first fight you both shared, Bakugou offered a hand.
"Come at me again and I won't hesitate to blow your brains out," Bakugou warned with a distasteful grimace. He knows that you know he won’t do such a thing. An attempt to liven the mood. You began to accept his hand, rather yours began to shake. You don't trust yourself not to harm Bakugou any further than you had already... "Are you being difficult or are you gonna attack me again?" Bakugou huffed, now beginning to doubt even his own judgement.
"I'm not sure..." You sighed, unable to decide for your own self.
"Fine, I'll decide," Bakugou leaned forwards and snatched you up by your entire arm before throwing you ahead of him whereas you crashed into Aizawa's backside. The sleepy male didn’t seemed to be phased. "Start walking!" Bakugou commanded with a point of his finger. You ran ahead, making sure not to go ahead of Aizawa though, a limp behind every step. The students of UA darted out of the way upon seeing you, scared you'd snap and rip their heads clean off their shoulders. Internally, you felt horrible knowing the students feared you as if a lion had escaped from the zoo. It couldn't be helped though, but if Bakugou and Aizawa are being strangely calm about your outrage, there has to be another reason behind your actions. Or... At least you hope there is.
Upon entering Nezu's office, which was another problem in itself with rampaging parents and students bombarding the small room. Policemen kept the office under control and cleared it out. Aizawa pats the backside to a cushioned seat, a silent request for your to take it. The mouse were downing cups upon cups of tea. His stress must be skyrocketing and no amount of tea will help. Beside the Principal were the two police officers that had previously cleared out the office, one with a cat head, and the other were human with gentle features and raven hair. The nametag on his coat said Tsukauchi. Tsukauchi was a name Toshinori brought up on occasion, you assumed he were a good friend to him.
Aizawa coughed, grabbing the attention of his oblivious boss, still downing tea in a crazed manner. Nezu took the hint and gently sat his mug down atop his desk before clearing his throat. "Now now... I hate to take extreme measures but this isn't the first time (Y/n) has attacked the students of my school," Nezu stopped to take in some air. The pause and the words before made you internally break apart. "Shouta, I can't allow (Y/n) to remain in this school-"
"Pause," Aizawa rested a hand on your shoulder. "I suggest you tell us everything (Y/n)."
"Everything?" You asked in a questionable tone of confusion. "Tell you what?"
His eyes squinted, "What you told me and Bakugou out in the hall." Aizawa realized he had to walk you through this step by step. He began to wonder how mentally damaged you were, your attitude has been fluctuating between repaired and damaged lately. You were nice, calm and collected when the time was right, but rather irritable, tired and aggressive as the days went by since the cemetery attack. An event like today could've been predicted yet nobody prepared. The only one who noticed enough to ask about such was, well, Toshinori.
I don’t remember… What did I tell Aizawa and Bakugou out in the hall? You had a hard time recalling an event from not even ten minutes ago. I think… I at least know I cried for a little bit. I was pinned to the ground and wanted to die… But why? The voice in my head told me to… Wait! The voice in my head! That’s what I told them about! The realization made you giddy to get the information off your chest, your sudden change in attitude attracted the attention of the policemen ten fold. The raven haired one pulled out a notebook and prepared to write down everything you had to say like documentation.
“Ever since me and Bakugou got attacked at the cemetery there’s been a distant voice in my head just like Zack’s!” You aggressively poked the side of your head. The could hear you physically touching yourself. “The voice, It tells me what to do and for some reason I follow every order. I also have horrible nightmares…” You stopped suddenly, remembering back to the vivid nightmares that haunted your mind. “I refuse to sleep… I can’t sleep… I at first thought it was just me being spooked from the near death experience but I highly doubt it now...”
“What sort of things do the voice in your head tell you to do?” Tsukauchi asked with concern.
“It drives me nuts! It makes fun of me; saying I’m a loser who has no friends and that I’m a freak. But it constantly tells me to start fights, kill other people or even myself… I’ve been able to ignore the demands for quite some time but now my body has given in without my okay...”
“What about the dreams then, they seem to be the biggest problem here,” Tsukauchi were still writing down in his notebook. At the top of the page said your name, (Y/n) Yagi. Below were key words of your claims such as suicidal/homicidal thoughts, hostile, irritable, nightmares, and seems to show signs of PTSD, multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, and paranoia. During your pause in time, unwilling to share the nightmares you’ve been avoiding for a good week or two now, he had time to finish writing down his thoughts.
Have to tell him eventually right? “Every nightmare is the same…” You began with a sigh. “I’m being chased around by Zack. He wants to kill me. Until I trip, he catches me, then, when he’s close up, it’s actually Bakugou dressed up just like him an-and mimicking him and he guts me alive with an evil evil smile! I can feel the pain in sleep and for some reason I cannot awake from it.” Bakugou simmered in his own anger, clenching his fists. He’s done everything in his power to help you out and be there and here you are dreaming him as a filthy villain!!! “I know Bakugou isn’t evil but the voice in my head says he is! So every day when I go to school with Bakugou I’m terrified that my dreams will become a reality! I mask my feelings cause I know he won’t do a thing to me but deep down I can’t help be feel he could hurt me-”
“That’s it!!!” Bakugou kicked a chair. The leg broke clean off with a splintering crack! “This entire thing has something to do with that bandaged bastard! For some reason he had total control of (Y/n)’s body then and clearly he’s manipulating the shit out of her-”
“We’re aware now that you both explained," Tsukauchi tucked away his notepad and wore a reassuring smile. "Bakugou, It wasn't until you successfully apprehended Zack that we learned about his true quirk."
"And?" Bakugou's eye twitched. You on the other hand hummed with confusion.
"Here," Tsukauchi held out his personal cell phone with a profile on the Bandaged Killer decorated about the screen. With a recent mugshot and everything. "That's what we know about him as far as today. I'm sure his quirk matches up pretty well with the information we’ve gathered and both of your claims," he couldn't even finish his sentence before Bakugou snatched the phone from right out of his hands to read, his eys squinting to read the small print.
Name: Unknown
Nicknames: Zack, Bandaged Killer, Grim Reaper.
Crimes: Homicide, Burglary, Breaking and Entering, Vandalism, Multiple counts of Jail & Prison breaks
Quirk: Proxy
After leaving a 'mark' or 'anchor' on his target, the victim obeys the user's every command. However, this is a very loose rule as the user can also physically/mentally alter the victim such as increased knowledge, athletic capabilities, even add mental disorders to the victim if he sees fit.
Zack has been known to use his quirk to make his targets kill themselves or go insane through mental torture. Zack can only have one anchor at a time and any negation of his quirk doesn't take away the effects on the victim.
"How the hell does this anchor thing work?" Bakugou huffed scratching his chin. "He didn't even touch her at the cemetery." A fresh flashback of the cemetery played about his mind, no, Zack never even gotten close to you.
"You are correct, he needs physical contact in order to leave an anchor but It's quite possible that Zack put an anchor on (Y/n) long before that day," Tsukauchi regrets to point out.
"Are you saying that I've been Zack's slave for the last ten years?" Just thinking about it made your skull throb with a growing pain that intensified by the second.
"If you’re talking about the day your mother passed away, then yes, it's a possibility," Tsukauchi shrugged. "Have any other problems I should know about? Only one symptom left before we can determine Zack anchored her," the man turned to you wearing that reassuring smile. "(Y/n), do you have any weird marks on your body? In the shape of a tattoo or a scar that is."
"I... I haven't seen any-"
"Take it off," Bakugou demanded of you out of nowhere.
"Take... What off?" You were frozen, robotic in speech.
"The shirt," he grabbed the hem, giving it a harsh tug where you squealed. "I know you're being manipulated by the bandaged Bastard... The mark might be in a place you can't see. So take. It. Off," your hands visually began to shake yet they reached for the collar of your shirt anyways, pulling the fabric from your back in an agonizingly slow fashion. You couldn't tell if Bakugou wanted to be genuine and help look for a mark or if he's being just as dirty as that scumbag Mineta.
Once your torso were revealed, the only thing being concealed was your breasts thanks to bras. You gave your back to Bakugou, gazing over your shoulder to the blonde with watering orbs. "See anything?" You asked, voice shaken. The silence lingered.
Bakugou only made choked noises, taking a fistful of his own hair and glared at you with a seething rage. "There's a scar on your back alright... And its fucking black!"
"That just confirms it..." Tsukauchi wore a face of concern.
"R-really?" You gasped. "How come ive never seen it?"
"Its right in the middle of your back," Bakugou announced. A black slash mark, perhaps the size of a swipe from Zack's scythe, occupied the very middle of your back, from the base of your neck to the small.
"Thanks but," you huffed. "How do we get rid of it? I don't want to be his slave any longer!"
"Either Zack removes it himself, or you remove the mark from your skin manually," Tsukauchi informed yet it left you pieces.
"As in?" You gulped.
"Skin her like animal?" You just about passed out hearing that question so effortlessly flood out of Bakugou's mouth.
"B-B-Bakugou!!!" You cried.
"He's... Not wrong," Tsukauchi had problems agreeing.
"Or I can just do this," Bakugou pressed his hand to your backside. Cold chills racked your body, shooting the male an intensely worried look with teary eyes.
"Wh-what are you gonna do!?"
"Don't worried, I'll keep the injuries small," for a second there, you saw this genuine peaceful smile play across Bakugou's face. Was that his first real smile? One that wasn't for the love of battle or hatred? That smile, you took a mental picture and stored it within your mind. You couldn't get that image out of your head.
BOOM!!!
An explosion ripped at your backside. Yet you didn't feel an ounce of pain. You did, but there was this overwhelming sense of continuous happiness coursing through your veins that distracted from the real pain. Little by little, your worries were burnt up into oblivion, you didn't hear the voices, nor did you want to cry. That was until you crash onto your face, on the floor.
"Bakugou!" Aizawa was two steps away from murdering his student.
"I solved the fucking problem! The mark is gone isn't it!?" Bakugou retaliated at full force. Aizawa but his tongue, forcing himself to gaze upon the bare red flesh of your backside.
"Technically you did..." The male hissed. "We need Recovery Girl ASAP!" Everyone but Bakugou fled the room in the search to follow.
"Bakugou?" You weakly asked, unable to lift yourself from the floor.
"Yeah?" He huffed.
"You remember... When Sero literally stuck Mineta to you, and I helped you out of that?"
"Why is that on your mind?" Bakugou tuts.
"I had to resist stabbing you in the back with scissors that day..." Bakugou felt uncomfortable watching you attempt to smile. "Thank you for doing this... I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I were to kill you-"
"That's touching and all, but I think you should shut the hell up and try not to die," Bakugou meant it. That confession. He didn't want to talk anymore, the thumping in his chest make his body tremble.
You glanced up at Bakugou from the floor, closing your eyes within a sense of bliss. "Thanks..."
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