Latibule

56 - ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏꜱᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴄᴀʀᴇʟᴇꜱꜱɴᴇꜱꜱ

Previously on Latibule:

I'm here for you, said the squeeze. And suddenly strength and hope flooded my body, a smile slowly making its way to my face. My heart started to beat happily again, the air that filled my lungs seeming fresher than ever.

Without warning, I wrapped Bakugou into a hug, the last bits of black fog rising from my hands as he returned the gesture, making the whole world disappear and be replaced with a sense of security I'd longed for for longer than I could remember.

Little did I know, that during my little moment of solace, somebody was watching us.

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Latibule — Chapter 56///The Cost Of Carelessness

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"So here's the plan," Midoriya said.

We were all standing in a circle, Bakugou's hand still ever so subtly touching mine as he kept throwing worried glances at me.

"We have to get back to camp, Bakugou will walk in the middle of the circle so it's certain he won't get snatched," the green-haired boy went on.

"I'll be fine by myself," the blond objected, his tone as harsh as usual.

"Let's go," Shoji said, getting into his place in the formation.

"Don't ignore me!" Bakugou yelled angrily.

I tugged on his hand lightly, a bit tired from the events of the day. "Come on, Katsuki."

The boy grumbled, defiantly walking on beside me despite his attitude towards it.

For the next few minutes, the only sound heard was our feet padding against the ground. Bakugou trailed at the back of the group, a few steps behind me. I was worried, sure, but I decided to give him the space his ego needed at that moment. Besides, I myself was pretty busy with filtering the emotions I took in as I did my best to mostly focus on the rest's optimistic attitudes rather than their tiredness.

I skidded to a stop. Something else had entered the air, a strong sense of... fear. It was horror, even, the black mixed with purple disgust.

"Guys," I trailed, picking up the pace to join the group. "There's someone ahead of us. We should hurry."

I didn't have to tell them twice as we all started running along the path. I almost bumped into Todoroki when he stopped, exclaiming, "Uraraka!"

Upon seeing the scene in front of me, with Tsu pinned to a tree and a villain around our age drawing blood from Uraraka despite Uraraka having locked the villain under her, I reacted immediately. In a moment, I shot a laser that cut through the plastic of the pipe, with which blood was being extracted from Uraraka's leg.

Understanding what was happening, the villain jumped, or rather flew, a distance away.

"Stop!" Uraraka cried.

Going against my assumptions, the girl stopped and looked over her shoulder. "There's too many people here now and I don't feel like being killed tonight. Toodles." She started to walk but stopped again, looking at our group (I couldn't make out who specifically as she was quite the ways away). A satisfied sigh left her lips before she disappeared into the woods.

I turned to Uraraka. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, who was that girl just now?" Todoroki added as we got nearer to Tsu and Uraraka.

"One of the villains, she was crazy," Tsu emphasised.

I looked off into the woods. Crazier than most of them... I could feel it. There was no hatred in her action, as there is for most villains, she seemed to enjoy it. The thought made me shiver. The villains who don't see anything wrong in their actions were the most dangerous, I'd gathered that much.

"We can't stay here too long," Shoji stated.

"Yeah, come on, join our group," Midoriya urged. "We're protecting Kacchan and taking him back to camp. We could use your help."

"We should stick together anyway," I added the obvious.

Tsu looked thoughtful "If you're protecting Bakugou, then shouldn't he be standing here with you guys?"

My heart jumped to my throat as I whipped around. A cold feeling spread in my chest as I, indeed, saw only emptiness behind us. But how...?