I'd been hunched behind the sticky dumpster for so long that my legs started to cramp up and the what-I-thought-to-be odorless trash gained a foul smell.

Kokoro still laid unconscious beside me, shallowly breathing, while my knuckles turned red from holding the dagger so strongly. I refused to move a single centimeter until I played the idea out in my head perfectly, from step to step.

Clothes soaked through with sweat and blood and shivering so much that I might've caught frostbite, I wondered if this would actually work. I really doubt it would.

Even so, I clung desperately to that single feeling of hope, praying it would be all I need to keep propelling forwards.

It'll work. It has to.

"I just hope I'm fast enough..." I murmured.

"Are we still playing Hide and Seek?" Arrow called out. "I don't want to take too long, I'm a busy man, y'know."

His words said one thing, but I could sense a hurried tone in his voice, the excited tip-tap-tip-tap of his feet echoing through the empty alley. It wasn't impatience though. More like excitement.

I deeply breathed in and out, trying to prepare myself for what'll happen next.

I got up on my hind legs, ready to run around the entire apartment building to its other backside, but I took a quick look at Kokoro in haste.

Her body was limp, but not lifeless and her black dress still clung tightly to her curves. I grimaced at it intentionally— must be uncomfortable.

Glancing back up at her sleeping face, I felt my heart ache a bit. How'd she get involved in all this anyway?

I absentmindedly pat her head.

"I'll get us out of this mess, Kokoro" I whispered. "I promise."

Dagger in hand, I rushed to the other side of the brick building. I kept my steps quick and light and was admittedly proud that I'd made it without tripping over my own two feet. A mistake as simple as that would really mess up the plan.

I slowly peeked from behind the apartment building, so now I was a solid thirty feet behind Electric Arrow, staring at his back.

He stretched his arms and flexed his intimidating muscles, as if he knew I was silently watching.

I had to draw him away from Kokoro and give her time to wake up. That meant acting as a distraction, however useless and brief it may be. If anything he'll humor me-- maybe indulge in some conversation, hold off on the finishing blow and give me that chance to get away. But even if I did get that chance, how would I take Magne with Kokoro and me?

One of them will have to wake up so they can help me with the other, but...

I glanced back at Magne a distance behind me. Her body still laid limp on the broken concrete, her head in the center of frayed impact.

... there won't be enough time to compensate for that.

My head swarmed with doubt as I quickly rethought the plan and ran it over and over again in my head. But I refocused my attention on the bastard's back and held onto the knife in both hands.

There's no going back now...

Pushing back the onslaught of hesitation and regret, I stepped out in the middle of the road behind him and instantly raised the dagger.

"Then let's get this over with," I said, addressing his comment from before.

He turned around, a flicker of surprise crossing his face before one of amusement completely took over.

"A sneaky fella, are ya? What happened to your lil girlfriend? Did I kill her by accident?"

I answered his question with another one. "Why are you doing this? Aren't you supposed to be a hero?"

It was a question I'd been dying to ask. Maybe I could understand him, even if it's just a little bit-- understand his reasons, his motives, his way of thinking. Look at things from his perspective, and see what choice will result in the least blood.

He only stared at me, taken aback if anything. Then, the silence gone as soon as it came, Arrow laughed, grey eyes glinting with mirth. He laughed and laughed and laughed, holding himself for fear that he would fall over.

I just kept the green-hilted dagger centered on his head.

After a moment he wiped at his pale face, his laughter dying down. He let out a long sigh and looked me in the eyes as he did before.

"It gets boring after a while. Don't you think?"

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked at him questioningly. Is that his only justification? He was bored?

With the disgust that overloaded my senses, it took a moment to realize that he was staring at me, waiting patiently for an answer to what I thought to be a rhetorical question.

"I--"

"But it's not like I get work anyway. Do you know how long it's been since someone last requested me? Since I was top ten in the ranks? All these civilians like are young heroes who come straight outta daycare, but the second you get some gray hairs--"

This piece of shit can't be serious. He's blaming others for his fall in popularity? Unable to contain myself, I yelled, "Maybe that's because you spend all your time in shitty bars, whoring and lazing around-- instead of making an effort!! How can you even say that when there are tons of older heroes who've done the most for society, like--"

I stuttered. "Like..."

Like who? All Might?

"But t-that's not the point!" I recovered. "Aren't heroes supposed to save people? Protect them? And still, here you are-- drinking with a bunch of young girls, manipulating them.

"I saw how you were touching her."

Electric Arrow only crossed his arms, clearly entertained with what he was hearing.

"Ahhh, is that what you're pissing about? Is it so hard to believe that beautiful young women could love me?"

I scoffed at that.

"Besides," he smirked. "I wasn't the one who told her to give me a lap dance."

If my hands weren't shaking before, they certainly were now. Why would he lie about something as disgusting as that?

My palms started to sweat.

"Don't lie."

He faked hurt. "That's offensive. I find myself to be a very honest and straightforward person."

"Honest and straightforward, my ass."

His playful demeanor suddenly dropped, and he looked down on me. "You lot were the ones who came to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset--"

Taking the time to stretch his biceps, he continued, "I needed to blow off steam anyways."

With no warning, Electric Arrow sent a flying ray of voltaic electricity my way-- this time at least ten times faster than before. It was so quick I had no time to process it-- the scintillating light temporarily blinded my eyes and I felt its form strike my core.

It spread from my chest to my arms, my legs, and my face, and the buzzing sound echoed in my ears. It felt like a small charge of electricity you'd get from your friends-- but stronger; like getting tased-- but the pain seemed like it would last forever.

Arms twitching and mouth choking, I took a few steps back before the paralysis seized my body and I completely fell over.

The bastard was in front of me in a second, pinning by my neck against the grey wall. My oxygen was suddenly cut off and all I could feel was hot blood rushing to my head, the pressure slowly killing me. I clawed at his tight grip desperately and tried to kick, but my arms were starting to feel numb...

All I could see of his wrinkled face was a smug expression that didn't care much about his actions.

And it infuriated me.

After all this training, after all my hard work... I'm the one who has to suffer when this bastard likes to laze around touching women for a living?

It's so unfair-- I've worked so hard-- my blood, sweat, and tears went into getting where I am now. Three months of training, readying myself, preparing-- for this?

Fuck that.

Mustering the last of my strength and breathing the rest of my oxygen, I put all my energy into getting him off me. I had to get him off me. I need to breathe; I need time to gather my thoughts-- my eyes darted across the road until I spotted that emerald green sheen.

No.

What I need is that dagger.

"So feisty!!" he crooned, "I'm starting to think twice about killing you. How would you like being a personal pet?"

"Get the fuck off me!!" I seethed, scratching blood from his hands and wrists.

He chuckled and lifted me a bit higher, nearly ripping my head off. "Yeah, a great lackey you'd be.."

I spit out the saliva from the back of my throat and watched it land right in his eye.

"Agh!" He stumbled back in repulsion, wiping hastily at his red face.

With his grip gone, my dazed knees fell over each other-- numb to the bone. I buckled over and took the one split second I had to just breathe. Sore hands wrapped around my bruised throat, ribs heaving, I scrambled across the road in pursuit of the dagger.

If I could just stab him in the eye or nose...!

But something tight grasped onto my ankle -- and threw me back with alarming strength. Quick air whipped through my ears, popping them -- but the sensation left as soon as my back hit the full force that is the wall.

A cry of pain crawled out my throat before I could even think to silence it.

My throat was on fire-- my lungs too, my arms, my ankle, my head, my face-- everything was on fire. It pained me to breathe, but it seemed my body was so focused on keeping me alive that I couldn't even control it.

My eyesight blurred, going in and out of clarity-- but the blood blinded most of it anyway.

Everything seemed to spin around, like the earth was losing balance-- but my eyes shot open when something clamped on my ankle, pulling me upside down. Electric Arrow held onto me even tighter this time, watching me carefully with an annoyed expression of furrowed brows.

The pain of a broken ankle had me so limp that my shirt rolling up didn't even register in my head.

He sneered. "Why are you trying so hard?"

I held still at his taunt. Why am I trying so hard?

Kacchan's face, angry and mockful, flashed through my mind. How many times have I heard him say something like that?

"Why are you trying so hard?" "Why do you keep annoying me?" "Why are you still here?" "You wouldn't survive in the real world." "You're just a quirkless idiot."

"Why haven't you killed yourself already?" "Why haven't you killed yourself already?" "Why haven't you killed yourself already?"

They played again and again on repeat, like a broken record player that existed only to torture me.

Why am I trying so hard?

Why am I trying so hard??

I used whatever leftover strength in my arms to swing them over for momentum. Latching onto his lower stomach, I brought my other leg around Electric Arrow's neck and held onto it for dear life.

The bastard must've been surprised by my sudden maneuver because he loosened his grip on my ankle, allowing me to bring it over and hug his neck with it.

I flipped over in one single movement and pulled up my upper body to block his view.

Thank God for all those sit-ups, I thought.

His spirited demeanor dropped the second things weren't going his way.

"Aye, get off me!!" he raged. "Or I'll shoot you off!"

I positioned myself behind his head, hands rested firmly on his jaw. It gave me a dominating sort of feeling. Like he was the marionette and I the puppeteer.

"And how will you do that?" I smirked, a familiar emotion crawling up the back of my throat and infecting my brain. "I've watched you as much as I've watched any other hero. You may have a tolerance for your quirk, but it's not like you're immune to its effects."

I brought my lips right next to his ear, whispering in a low tone. "Shoot me off, and you'll kill yourself."

He grunted, fury contorting his white face. "I'll just pull you off then!!"

He then sent his hands flying at me, grabbing in my general direction. I avoided his endeavors with ease, moving and dodging as fluidly as one could do with a broken ankle. 

I snickered. "You're not that great with close combat, aren't you?"

"I said get the fuck off me!!" Electric Arrow turned and spun around in an attempt to get me dizzy-- but it only made me laugh.

"Didn't know I was on a rollercoaster ride!"

"Eugh!!" He banged his head against the cracked wall of the apartment building, all reason out of his mind it seemed. I only moved around and let him go at it.

"Get off me--" BANG! "get off me--" BANG! "Get off me!!"

I don't know what it was-- or why it filled me with such a feeling of satisfaction. It was as if I've been detached from my body and emotions, forced to watch myself from an outside spectator's view. It felt so surreal and wrong-- so wrong to have some sort of joy in watching someone destroy themself.

Yet my heart fluttered with each bang against the concrete, nails digging into his jaw with each yell, smile widening with each tear. Almost like a guilty pleasure.

It's for the best anyway. Let him kill himself.

But wouldn't I be the one doing the killing...?

My core dropped, the excitement falling from my senses.

"Hey. Stop it."

I used my unbroken foot to push ourselves off the now-blooded wall, Electric Arrow's head drowned in blood as well. I applied force to my hands on his jaw and quickly twisted his head, hoping for him to fall unconscious at least.

"Nnghh," he swayed. "I said ge' off me!"

I must've let my guard fall too early because he managed to grab onto me, and held me up in front of him by my neck.

His face chilled me to my inner core.

Blood and chunks of tissue and sparse hair smothered his expression, hooded grey eyes staring at mine with such loathing.

I would've stumbled back if I could.

The bastard kept silent, devoid of any active thought as he slowly tightened his grip on my neck. I gasped loudly, my windpipe constricting. Despite my distressed slashes at his hand, he still squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed...

As suddenly as he was slowly killing me was he gone-- a strong energy abruptly wrenching him backward. I was again released from his hold, staggering to the ground as I wondered what happened.

The next thing I heard was the shattering ring of broken glass as it splintered, crumbling into a million pieces. It seemed the sky was raining with shards of glass-- I winced as one piece cut the skin of my hand.

Once the downpour whittled away, I shot my head upwards to see the destroyed and fragmented walls of a glass corporate building, tainted in a red sanguine liquid I could only guess to be blood.

"What the--" I started, but all confusion (and any other feeling) disappeared as I saw a dark, tall figure on the roof of the building, a deranged Electric Arrow in hand.

Between them and the bastard was a large metallic magnet-- and the early onset of relief set in-- it didn't take long to figure out it was--

"Magne??"

She grinned that sinister smile of hers, "Miss me?"

I rushed to my feet and ran to the base of the building as best I could. "How are you--? I thought you were--??"

She was just behind us two minutes ago...

"Dead?" she completed my thought, almost offended. "Didn't I tell you I don't go down easy?"

It seemed that must've been all the time Electric Arrow needed to come to, because his eyes widened, infuriated, as he sought to destroy Magne's pillar with his bare hands.

I quickly looked Magne in the eye to get her attention.

"Don't let him go!!" I yelled. "We could end this if we keep him close--!!"

But it was too late-- he managed to slip away from Magne's force field and wasted no time sending a weapon of his own her way. The electric ray manifested in less than a second, flying straight for the billboard directly behind Magne as she dodged it with seemingly more ease than last time.

"Shit--!" He grunted, veins bulging.

I watched his contorting expression carefully, unaware of Magne's jump to the ground. Is he starting to get worn out?

"Midoriya," she called. "Thanks for covering for me."

"Cover..?"

She readied her pole. "Isn't that what you were doing? Keeping him occupied while I recover?"

"Huh? Oh- I guess you could call it that." I personally would've called it trying to get out of this alleyway alive.

I turned back to Magne, still confused. "But how are you so... okay? I thought you were... I really thought you were--"

"I was just acting. So don't get upset."

"What do you--?"

"I bet you've already picked up on his cat-and-mouse tendency. He's the type to wanna play with his food. So I knew if I acted dead or something, he'd go on to you. And you've trained enough to deal with him till I could get used to his quick reaction time." She explained before I had a chance to ask.

"But why didn't you--?"

She hushed me. "Incoming!"

Another voltaic arrow flew in between us, scattering to a million rays upon making contact with the road as we separated. I ran behind a smashed car for cover and Magne only used her magnet to protect herself.

"Keep him close you said?" Magne called to me.

Before I could even nod she listened to my former instruction, activating her magnetic quirk and attracting Electric Arrow toward her. He fumbled midair as he jumped, if that was even possible, and changed course-- completely pulled into her gravitational force.

Magne kept him pinned to her staff as I took the opportunity to run behind and grab the dagger. It was right where I saw it last-- a few feet from the brick walls, specks of blood spotting it.

Knife in hand, I jogged to where Magne and Electric Arrow stood, the latter squirming fidgeting as much as one could with that amount of pressure placed on them. His grey eyes were bulged wide open, frantically looking back from Magne and me-- and I knew a lifetime of hatred lied within. His hands were red and veiny with contempt, the gravity forcing him down.

I would've felt bad for him if he was even worth my time.

"Well?" Magne said though it was a bit constricted-- like she was barely getting any air. "Kill him. I can't hold on much longer."

That knocked me out of my short-lived triumph of finally pinning him down.

I have to be the one to kill him?  

I stood still, hands slightly trembling at the thought.

I don't like Electric Arrow. He's not a good person. He drinks on weekdays and runs around in bars, touching and grinding against underage girls. It wouldn't matter if he died. The world would probably be a better place if he did.

He tried to kill me-- he hurt Kokoro, Magne-- so why am I so hesitant?

Magne gritted her teeth. "Come on...!"

I tried to keep my movements simple and without much thought as I lifted the dagger, aiming for the center of Electric Arrow's chest-- his heart.

The knife had almost slipped out from my palm with all the sweat and I kept my green eyes trained on the target.

A tiny spark caught my attention from the corner of my eye, though-- the beginning of an igniter that could not only electrocute and kill Electric Arrow, but Magne and I too.

My hand moved so fast I would've thought it to be a natural instinct. The blade of the dagger pierced through his hand-- tendons, muscle, flesh tearing apart.

The pressure from Magne's quirk must've paralyzed him because when I looked to him for a reaction, all I got were eyes widened in intense pain and an unmoving mouth. Thinking ahead, I stabbed through the other hand, making sure the blood that gushed out was red and plentiful.

Electric Arrow's eyes rolled to the back of his head in obvious discomfort. His pain was somehow...  comforting. If I had more time, I would have felt inclined to inflict that wound in his feet-- his thighs, his legs, his arms, and neck-- and watch as he squirmed around like this. Helpless.

Then suddenly, Magne reached out and held the base of Electric Arrow's jaw, snapping it in a single movement.

He collapsed, broken, to the ground and the indescribable pull I'd felt was lifted from the air. The glassy thoughts glazed over without my realizing, and I was woken up.

Magne and I stood in a pool of blood, glass, dust and gravel, with the lifeless body at my feet. It was all I could do to just stare at it, nearly admiring it for its peaceful expression-- much more relaxed than how he was when alive. Are all dead bodies like that?

"Sorry," I murmured. "I couldn't do it."

"It's alright. It was wrong of me to force that on you." Magne looked at me a second, then ruffled my hair. "Let's go home," she smiled.

A blush reddened my cheeks as I looked down. It felt nice.

Still, my eyes wandered to the body. "What about...?"

"I'll take care of it later. For now, let's get some rest."

I only nodded, ready to fall asleep then and there-- but my eyes suddenly widened when I remembered something.

"Hold on--" I said, rushing to the back of the apartment building and searching behind the dumpster.

But no matter where I looked, Kokoro was gone.

.

.

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A/N: FINALLY!! things should be moving pretty quickly after this, AND IM SO EXCITED TO WRITE IT JDFJDJFIDJ

don't forget to vote and hydrate babes, ly <3