Monoma showed up to school the next day quietly. He'd heard Nagisa on the phone with Karma the night before, and didn't want to run into the redhead. He didn't know what happened to Nagisa or (Y/n), if he was honest. Knight had chased after Nagisa and (Y/n) when they ran off, and he'd rushed into the nearest open establishment before he couldn't even wonder if anyone else was around.

He tried to make it to class without being noticed, but he knew he'd never have such luck. Monoma didn't expect Karma to be waiting for him, though. Monoma hadn't even had time to react before Karma pulled him into an empty club room roughly.

"Akabane!" Monoma feigned excitement.

"Where is he?"

"I—"

"Where is he?!"

"I don't know, Akabane! We split up and—"

"Neito," Karma said, sickly sweet. "if you don't tell me where Nagisa is by two, I'm going to tie you up and leave you in last night's alley for the kakuja as a peace offering, got it? So, tell me, where is Nagisa? You're going to tell me, now."

"I told you I don't know!"

Karma threw him across the room, grabbing him with a kagune through his stomach before he could hit the wall. He was seething. Monoma had never truly felt as threatened as he did at that moment. Knight hadn't managed to strike that much fear into him. He truly thought he was going to die.

"You have until two, and don't think I won't keep my promise. I've been a lot better about that lately."

Karma let him drop to the floor before leaving the bathroom. He held in a growl. As hostile as he wanted to be, he was more afraid than anything. Nagisa hadn't shown up to the usual pre-school ghoul drama as he usually did, and he wasn't at his house when Karma dropped by in a panic the night before. 

He stopped by the classroom in hopes of finding Nagisa talking to Itona, an unimpressed look targeted at (Y/n) and Todoroki, or a pitiful one to Tsukishima. Instead, he found Itona actively ignoring Todoroki and (Y/n). (Y/n).

"(Y/n)," Karma said calmly. 

"Akabane, hey," (Y/n) replied. "where's Shiota?"

Karma's stomach climbed and crawled into his lungs, scratching at his inner walls roughly for purchase. "You don't know?"

"No. After we ditched Monoma, Shiota shoved me off a building and stopped running," (Y/n)'s voice began to waver with grim realization as he spoke, his tone quieting even more than the hushed whisper he used around his human classmates. "I hit my head and blacked out for a while before Shouto found me and dragged me home...I..."

"Shiota's arm was in the alley; we assumed the worse," Todoroki said.

"Wait, wait," Karma said after going quiet. He and Todoroki had split ways quickly post landing in the alley, and neither of them stuck around to see what Uraraka did after. Todoroki had found (Y/n) and hadn't thought to maybe let him know that they weren't all dead. "why didn't you mention that you found (Y/n)? I gave you my number weeks ago, you could have told me. I would have looked in the area more."

"I... uh..."

"This is why you two can't form alliances," Karma spat. "you do this shit, then get offended when people don't like you. Screw you guys. Itona, we're skipping to go check the area again for Nagisa. We'll drag Isogai out of class if we have to."

Itona didn't protest, getting out of his seat and grabbing his stuff. After hearing what (Y/n) had said, he wondered if Karma was in denial. He should've known that Nagisa wouldn't be able to fend off Knight, or King, and definitely not the Emperor. The fact that Nagisa gave up on escaping also bothered Itona. Had things gotten bad enough for him to give up on fixing it?

Karma didn't try to read Itona's expression. He led the way out of the classroom, giving a last glare to Todoroki before heading to the floor below them. 

Isogai was surprisingly pliant in going with them. What was more surprising was that Kaminari offered to go as soon as he saw Isogai try to sneak out of class. The teachers at Rakuyama, despite the school's prestige, were terrible. 

"Let me go with you," Kaminari said. "I don't know Shiota well, all he's done is threaten me so far, but he doesn't deserve to be left alone if he's still around. It's like how I only ran into Yamaguchi once, but he didn't deserve whatever happened to him that night."

Karma was quiet. He had tried to forget what he'd seen in Yamaguchi's apartment. It didn't seem as bad while he was there, but it had definitely left some trauma if the nightmares that thoughts were anything to go by. It didn't help that seeing an arm, probably Nagisa's in the alley immediately made him think of the tall brunet. 

If Karma was honest with himself, he knew that Nagisa was probably dead. From what (Y/n) said, it sounded like he had more or less accepted that he was going to die and opted to at least not take (Y/n) down with him. More than anything, he just needed to find Nagisa. Even if he was dead, gone, or something terrible in between, he at least needed to find him. They never actually found Yamaguchi, and there was a good chance that was part of why finding his arm and dried blood bothered him so much to that day.

Suddenly, there was a scream, causing everyone in the room to jump and the teacher to turn towards the door, alarmed. Sure, occasionally things were heard in every school. Loud laughter, random yelling, a door slamming, someone falling over—a bloodcurdling, fearful, pained screech was not on that list. 

Karma suddenly felt the urge to gag. He smelt the faint scent of blood as the cry went silent. It wasn't just anyone's blood, though. He'd had the same scent flood his nose when he plunged his kagune straight through Monoma's digestive system.

"No," Karma said quickly. He cursed. "shit. Shit! We have to go!"

He took off towards the staircase, Isogai once again the closest behind him. Bounding up the stairs in threes with fear coursing threw his veins, Karma felt urgency rise in him. He didn't like Monoma. Monoma was a danger to them. Monoma was a jerk. Monoma probably took advantage of Uraraka. He made Yachi upset. Monoma was terrible, but he shouldn't die.

Yamaguchi was more than enough. As much as he hated to admit it, Nagisa was more than enough, even if it was probably Monoma's fault that he was gone. He'd never forgive the blond and he'd make his life hell until Monoma decided to disappear, but he didn't need to die. No one else needed to die. No. No. No, no. No! Not again, never again, I can't let this happen again! Nagisa couldn't save Yamaguchi, but he saved (Y/n) and gave up himself. I have to save Monoma, for him. 

When he reached the bathroom where he left Monoma earlier that morning, he wanted to scream. Yachi and Uraraka were standing there, the latter sobbed desperately, trying to break into the bathroom. Yachi had her kagune covering them, the petal-like, whispy appendages spread to keep anyone outside of them from seeing who the ghouls behind them were.

The door was in shards on the floor. Armored kagune covered the entrance, unmoving as they could hear Monoma's former scream turn to an agonized whimper. Karma shed his uniform shirt and drove his sharp kagune into the ones blocking their way, watching hopelessly as they were repelled to the side. 

A loud, sickening squelch sounded from the bathroom. They all went quiet. The only sound heard aside from Uraraka's quiet crying was a voice, not Monoma's, talking in a hushed tone behind the armored kagune blocking the door. The voice was disguised through a machine. Whoever it was didn't want to risk being recognized in the slightest.

┈

"It's a shame I had to do this, really. I'm hungry, sure, but I could have found someone with less influence or somebody no one would miss. Maybe Pops or some lowlife from whatever's left of Aogiri Tree. I've always hated the old man from Anteikku, but the Emperor has him claimed for a friend."

There was silence for a moment. Another squelch, then chewing—bones crunching—a wet swallow behind it.

"All you had to do was know your place. What a terrible shame this is. You had the potential to be useful...but you just had to go and attempt to disrupt things-" A sigh, a bite- "he warned you when you managed to join the Blood, but people like you never learn."

Everything was too quiet, somehow. 

"You should hope your precious Bunny knows her place, y' know. Emperor knows her name, and I have orders to bring her to him on a platter if she tries anything. You knew that was a possibility, though." 

Karma tried to sleep.

"You were always a terrible actor, Grin." Squelch. "if you cared about power, you would have died by your own brother's hands ages ago. To think you did this to yourself to give Bunny a dream you knew you'd never succeed in delivering." Squelch. Swallow. "I'm glad you were too snobby to eat anything other than the best humans available, you brat." A satisfied sigh. "Thank you for the meal."

A minute passed, then the sound of metal on metal sounded, hushed. By the time the doorway was clear, the kakuja had already escaped through the vents. All that was left was the terrified, pained face of Monoma Neito, his hair wet with sweat and blood. His mask was propped on his head, splattered with red. Blood pooled around what was left of him. To the right of the stomach-wrenching sight was a signature in blood, neat, as if claiming the best of art.

Grin was gone, all but his head consumed by one of the few kakuja-ghouls left in Japan. The King.

Karma opened his window, throwing up and dry-heaving out of it and onto the street below. 

┈

Itona sighed at the sight before him. So unappetizing... Could she truly not find somewhere else to leave her pity shit? He saw the slightest fleck of blue out of the corner of his before it was gone. I must be losing it...Nagisa's gone.

Uraraka stared down at the park below. She'd never been there other than when she'd followed Karma there the night before. Her family was too poor to live on this side of town, and transportation was expensive since they didn't have a car.

Her parents had become afraid of her after the accident. Caught in a risky experiment that they didn't know about, the free surgery to save her was their only hope. If only it had been that easy. Her crushed organs had been replaced with that of a ghoul they had created artificially. Uraraka became a monster that her parents feared. They only kept her around out of pity. They never spoke, and god forbid they eat together.

She saw nothing left for her. What would do after this, become friends with the others? Karma would hate her out of the association with Nagisa's disappearance, and the others would never trust her. Monoma was all she'd had left, and now even he had been swept away right from under her nose as she sobbed helplessly, unable to save him. 

Even she Uraraka could join the others, what could she contribute? Karma and Nagisa were strong and smart, (Y/n) and Todoroki were uncatchable, Isogai had friends, Itona was unique and frightening, and Yachi was a clear voice of reason. Now that they had started to give Kaminari a chance, what good was the little information she could provide? What good was her own reasoning? 

Though she did not think the world would be better without her, she saw no way that her presence could make it better. She'd die off anyway. Just like her name suggested, Bunny would never hurt a fly. How could she kill a human if she used to be one? Monoma had always force-fed her when she refused everything except coffee, and now no one would keep her alive.

"Uraraka?"

She jumped, twisting around quickly. What she saw horrified her. He was beaten up, several chunks taken out of his left arm and his sides. His right arm had been ripped clean off, as well as his right leg from halfway-up-his-shin down. Bruised and bathing in his blood, Uraraka was surprised he was standing.

"Holy shit, you're...oh god..."

Nagisa chuckled bitterly. "They're going to catch me again, but I need someone to tell Karma I'm not dead yet." Nagisa looked sad. The same altered voice from before spoke in a whisper. "I'm sorry about Monoma. King told me what happened in detail, and-" the voice got louder, a victorious call coming from the source. Nagisa's eyes filled with fear- "run. Run! Please, tell Karma that I—"

Two armored kagune grabbed him, one through his thigh and the other around his neck. Blood gurgled in his throat and spilled out of his as he became pliant. Uraraka needed to help him. Uraraka needed to run. Why was she stuck there? Uraraka needed to fight. The person who killed Monoma was there, those sickening kagune plaguing her thoughts. Before she could act, he was gone, dragged over tree roots and rocks and his screams were muffled by his own blood.

She turned towards the ledge, peering over to catch Itona eating another suicide victim. She couldn't save Monoma, and now she'd let Shiota die. She changed her mind—the world would be better without her. She had nothing left to live for. She leaned over the cliff and yelled to Itona.

"The Emperor has Nagisa!" Uraraka scream, tears she'd never notice steaming down her face. Without another thought, she lept over the edge.

┈

(2418 Words)