Red in Different Shades

21. Price of Life

2 Days Earlier...

Niwa had known from the moment she had crashed against the empty floor of the bar, surrounded by multiple villains, that she was completely and utterly screwed.

Her eyes scanned the area while they all stood around the room, staring at her with surprise.

Yeah, even she was surprised at her stupidity. The pulsing adrenaline and her hyper-wired brain quickly realized just how far her stupidity reached.

"Oi..." Came the breathless tone of her friend.

Niwa's eyes shifted over to him the instant she heard his voice. Bakugou was staring down at her with eyes wide from disbelief. She scanned his body head to toe then back up again as she checked for injuries, she found none but her gaze lingered on the hand still wrapped around the back of Bakugou's neck.

"You managed to slip through the portal, even from that distance?" Mumbled the scarred faced, black-haired guy with a grip at her friend's neck, "Not bad."

Her eyes quickly darted around again. There were eight villains all gathered around in the room – a bar? – and Niwa immediately recognized the one who sat on a bar stool, Shigaraki Tomura lounged casually across the counter like a lazy, pampered cat.

While her brain was filtering information through her head at lightning speed, her thoughts rang even louder.

Fuckity, fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck. This was nuts. Absolute insanity.

"You are..." The grey-haired, handsy bastard, caught her attention instantly. This was the guy she needed to not kill her the most, considering he had already tried to once... "Niwa, right?"

Shigaraki sat up on the stool and leaned forward, towering over her as she sat on the wooden floor of the bar. Niwa could do nothing to reply, only stare at the lead villain with her eyes trained for any and all movement. She hated how still the room was. She wanted someone to move, to engage her reflexes, and end the suffocating tension.

"Did you come to save your classmate?" Shigaraki drawled in a bored tone but his words contained simple emotions like amusement and disgust, "How admirable, aspiring hero. Putting yourself in danger to save someone you barely know. But, I guess that's just how your heroes train you. Abandoning everything, even your own families, just to rescue some random."

Niwa knew from the last brief encounter she had with this guy, Shigaraki liked to talk. It was how All Might had stalled for so long back at USJ. Just let the bastard keep talking.

"Wasn't she on our kill list? Along with the rest of the students?" Said the brawny-looking guy with the sunglasses.

Shigaraki scratched at his neck silently for a moment. Niwa assumed he was lost in thought, so she took the chance to glance around again. There was that warp-gate guy standing behind the bar with a white cloth in hand. A blonde girl in a middle school uniform swinging her legs from up on the bar top. Bakugou and the black-haired guy were standing off to her left, beside them was a reptile guy dressed like a bad cosplay of Stain and three other villains stood off at the other end of the room.

Now was not the time to act recklessly. She needed to be careful, extra careful. She needed to delicately weave the situation in her favor. She wasn't really suited for these things...

She had no idea what was going on.

Hell, if she was going to die then she might as well get something out of it. Even if she only managed to snap this bastard's neck, that would be more than enough.

Niwa's eyes flickered over to Bakugou.

He must have seen something in her expression, "Don't you fucking dare." He growled lowly but loud enough for the room to hear.