𝓝𝓸𝓽 𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓖𝓸𝓮𝓼 | Katsuki Bakugou x Male reader

Chapter 23

I saw the trailer for the ballard of songbirds and snakes the other day and it looked great

I'm reading the book now and it's really interesting, who else is hyped for the movie?

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A clock. (M/N) could almost see the hands ticking around the twelve-sectioned face of the arena. Each hour began a new horror, a new Gamemaker weapon, and ended the previous. Lightning, blood rain, fog, monkeys - those were the first four hours on the clock. And at ten, the wave. (M/N) didn't know what happened in the other seven but he knew Ochaco was right.

At present, the blood rain was falling and they were on the beach below the monkey segment, far too close to the fog for (M/N)'s liking. The wave could leave its segment. If the fog also leached out of the jungle or the monkeys returned...

"Get up," (M/N) ordered, shaking Denki, Katsuki and Neito awake. "Get up. We have to move." There was enough time, though, for him to explain the clock theory to them. About Ochaco's tick-tocking and how the movements of the invisible hands triggered a deadly force in each section.

(M/N) had convinced everyone who was conscious except Neito, who was naturally opposed to liking anything (M/N) suggested. But even he agreed it was better to be safe than sorry.

While the others collected their few possessions (M/N) roused Ochaco. She awoke with a panicked "tick, tock!"

"Yes, tick, tock, the arena's a clock. It's a clock. It's a clock, Ochaco you were right," (M/N) said.

Relief flooded her face, probably because someone finally understood what she had most likely known from the first tolling of the bells. "Midnight."

"It starts at midnight," (M/N) confirmed.

A memory struggled to resurface in (M/N)'s brain. He saw a clock. No, a watch, resting in Kan Sekijiro's palm. "It starts at midnight," Kan said. And then (M/N)'s mockingjay lit up briefly and vanished. In retrospect, it was like he was giving (M/N) a clue about the arena. But why would he? At the time, (M/N) was no more a tribute in these Games than he was. Maybe he thought it would help (M/N) as a mentor. Or maybe this had been the plan all along.

Ochaco nodded towards the blood rain. "One-thirty," she said.

"Exactly. One-thirty. And at two, poisonous fog begins there," (M/N) said, pointing at the nearby jungle. "So we have to move somewhere safe now." She smiled and stood up. "Are you thirsty?" (M/N) handed her a woven bowl and she gulped down about a litre. Denki gave her the last bit of bread and she gnawed on it. With the inability to communicate overcome, she was functioning again.

(M/N) checked his weapons and put the spile and tube of medicine in his sheath.

Tenya was still pretty out of it, but when (M/N) tried to lift him, he objected. "Wire," he said.

"What?" (M/N) asked.

Tenya continued to struggle. "Wire," he insisted.

"Oh, I know what he wants," Neito said impatiently. He crossed the beach and picked up the cylinder (M/N) saw earlier. It was coated in a thick layer of congealed blood. "This worthless thing. It's some kind of wire or something. That's how he got cut. Running up to the Cornucopia to get it. I don't know what kind of weapon it's supposed to be. I guess you could pull off a piece and use it as a garrotte or something. But really, can you imagine Tenya garrotting somebody?"

"He won his Games with wire. Setting up that electrical trap," Katsuki said. "It's the best weapon he could have."

(M/N) found it odd that Neito hadn't put that together. Something didn't quite ring true. Suspicious. "Seems like you'd have figured that out," (M/N) said. "Since you nicknamed him Volts and all."