Vigilante

Sixty One

- Kosuke's Point Of View -

"Alright! We're gonna check the surrounding area and meet back here at dusk unless one of us fires off a flare, got it?" I surmised as Katsuki, Kirishima and Kaminari stood around me.

"See ya later, then!" Kaminari peaced out, prancing down the path.

"I'll go this way!" Kirishima said, his wings poking out of his back before he lept off and flew over the trees nearby.

"See ya," Katsuki nodded to me, and I nodded back as we split and went the opposite direction of each other. This was usually how things went. We would first travel to an area, stay there for two to three days to make sure we had covered the entire area, and then move on. It was the second day at this particular place, and since yesterday was mostly spent with the new group, not much in terms of searching for the mastermind had been done.

So there I was, jogging around with my eyes peeled for signs of human life and/or demonic creatures. Kaminari had been sent the way that Deku had come from, so he would probably be the safest. The rest of us were as uncertain as usual.

I was out for a good six hours before I finally headed back, with no luck in finding anything. I did stumble upon a demonic beast, but it was so small that all I had to do was step on it, and it was gone just like that. When I returned to the base camp, I found that Kaminari was back, but Katsuki and Kirishima weren't. No flares had been set off, so all must have been well.

"Hey, welcome back!" The musketeer greeted with a wave. "Nothing either?"

"Nada," I confirmed, moving and sitting across from him with a sigh. "Been here long?"

"Nah, maybe fifteen minutes," He shrugged. "The others weren't here when I got back, so I assume they're out hunting for dinner."

"...Yeah," I narrowed my eyes. It didn't make sense that Deku, Todoroki, Uraraka and Iida had gone off to hunt something for dinner since we already had more than enough to spare from last night. My intuition was telling me something was off.

And that's when I recalled that Deku and his group didn't have flares, so they couldn't call for help if they needed it. Maybe Todoroki could do a big show of his magic abilities to get our attention, but still.

And that's when what I had just predicted happened: a huge ice spike rose with a bone-chilling shake in the ground, alerting me that something was terribly wrong. "Kaminari, get ready!" I yelled, doing a quick chant and then slipping inside my shadow. Appearing at the area of ice, I found the four in the middle of a fray with some powerful looking demonoids.

The second the situation registered, I fired off a flare, just in case Katsuki and Kirishima hadn't seen the ice block. With that done, I leapt into battle, my knives out and ready. There were seven demonoids, all with their signature brains out and beaks for mouths. As I was fighting one and controlling a shadow to fight another, I noticed there was someone else, two someones in fact.

One was dressed in black with a bunch of hands clenching around their body--mainly their upper half--and the other looked to be made of mist, which was crazy in my opinion. Since they weren't helping, I assumed they were hostiles, maybe even generals in the demon king's army that had gone out to do reconnaissance.

Either way, they were enemies that needed to be put down.

"AKAGURO, BEHIND YOU!"

"Fuck!" I cursed as I dodged an arrow from one of the demonoids. Demonoids have always been mindless drones controlled by the demon king, but likewise they have always been skilled in their particular area of combat.

As I rolled to my feet, I found myself farther away than I had realized, and almost a foot away from the two generals. "That one's so annoying," The handman said to the mist person, pointing at me. "Kill it."

"As you wish," The mist person started towards me as I readied my weapons and opened my mouth to start chanting to bring up the handman's shadow. However, a yell stopped me.

"DON'T TOUCH MY WIFE!" Katsuki exploded the mist person, who jumped backwards. Seemed to be fine even after a direct hit, which confuddled me. Then I paused.

"HEY WAIT, SINCE WHEN WAS I YOUR WIFE?!"

"SINCE I BIT YOU, DUMBASS!"

"NU-UH, THAT IS NOT MARRIAGE, KATSUKI BAKUGO!"

"WHY DON'T YOU SHUT UP AND--" Katsuki's eyes widened as he looked at me, which made me blink before I recalled that we were in a battle, and that look must mean something was coming towards me. However, it was too late.

"KOSUKE!"

"AKAGURO!" Two hands were thrust towards me, both desperate to save me as the handman's hand wrapped around my throat. Before I could even think to dodge, to take their hands, to do anything to preserve myself, it was all over.

Shigaraki's hand clamped down on my neck, all five fingers connecting with my skin. Suddenly, I was no longer in battle, no longer in a forest, but now on a bed, looking up at the league of villain's leader. Everything came back to me.

"Sorry, but I'm not generous enough to disintegrate you on a cliff, so I think I'll just do it right here," he sneered down at me. "See you in hell, traitor."

"... See you in hell," I said, my lips pulling upwards. And then, my eyes closed as my body faded under his grasp.

I was finally done.