Friends With Benefits | Chishiya x Reader

Chapter Thirty-One

☆ In which a final promise is made. ☆

Your heart chills when someone emerges from the smoking depths of the lobby, blazing orange with embers now in full force, a figure so charred and disfigured you are unable to tell who they are until they actually speak.

"Fuck, that hurt." Niragi spits.

The militant lurches violently into view like a drunkard, singed from head to toe. By fight or by fire, he has been rendered completely unrecognisable; his silver piercings are blackened with soot, his skin smudged with ash, and something resembling a tattered blindfold is fastened to his head. In one hand, he wields a flaming torch - in the other, his rifle. He shifts each item as if weighing them, deciding on the better weapon. 

"Should've just burned this dump down in the first place," he drawls.

Only once the torch in his hand is airborne do you realise that his words were a forewarning.

The flaming stick whistles through the air like a rocket and bursts upon the floor – just metres away from where you stand. Screams and fire erupt where the torch lands, igniting the threaded carpet and clinging to any stray fabric it can catch. Niragi sways on his feet and lifts his rifle; he aims into a cluster of residents and they scatter. "I'll clear this damn game myself!"

You reel back when the first gunshot rings with a resounding bang. 

Someone slams into you, seeking desperate refuge from the pierced militant, and you bounce off a plaster pillar. Pain explodes through your body as your left arm collides with the structure, causing you to stagger. You catch a glimpse of the person who had run into you just seconds before the next shot comes–

Red bursts from their chest and they drop like a stone. 

Niragi pulls the trigger once, twice, countless more times. People scramble frantically away from the ricocheting bullets and you duck behind the pillar to avoid being rammed into once more, although a hole is blasted through the top of it only moments later. 

Over the edge of the pillar you just barely catch Usagi hurling herself at Niragi, followed closely by Arisu, and less than a heartbeat later the both of them are flung to the ground. Enraged, Niragi jabs his rifle at Usagi and Arisu throws himself in front of her.

"You guys..." Niragi slurs, baring his teeth into another wide grin. Arisu stares down the barrel of his rifle, wide-eyed and defiant. "I'll fucking kill you all!" 

Arisu closes his eyes. He is ready to die, you realise, as long as Usagi is safe. 

Her eyes widen when she realises it too.

"Arisu!" Usagi screams. She reaches out for Arisu as Niragi pulls the trigger–

Aguni barrels forward, shoving Arisu to the side.

You stare in horror as the bullet pierces Aguni's shoulder in an explosion of sound. He falters, stumbles, but keeps running. The expression of shock on Niragi's face morphs to irritation as he shoots again and again - but no matter how many bullets strike through Aguni's body he doesn't stop. He hollers again, as guttural as the last time but with a fresh, new edge of rage, and crashes into Niragi.

With a force that could move mountains Aguni slams into the militant, wrapping his arms around him in a deathly embrace and continuing to run. Aguni tears past the smoke and petrified Beach residents into the hungry flames gathered at the lobby's entrance. He never lets go of Niragi even as the man struggles against his grip, pounding his shoulders with the rifle, even as the both of them plunge screaming into the raging fire.