Latibule

58 - ᴀ ɴᴇᴡ "ᴍᴇᴅɪᴄɪɴᴇ"

Previously on Latibule:

And then there was a little prick in my neck.

A different kind of tingling took over my body as I swatted a hand onto the back of my hand, as if to hit a fly. The fog of emotions diffused around me defused by the time I pulled out a small glass capsule. And though the fog had disappeared, everything still seemed foggy.

I felt myself lose balance and my back hit the ground. It only faintly hurt but I still felt the air expelled from my lungs. And just before everything went completely black, there was a flash of crystallic blue.

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Latibule — Chapter 58///A New "Medicine"

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It felt as if I was floating in emptiness. Even my heart felt empty. My head was empty, too — my own thoughts had quieted. I don't think there were colours. It wasn't black nor white, as one would read from an ordinary fiction book. It was just empty. Still. Silent.

Then, slowly, everything started to become clearer again. My feet started buzzing and there was a slight ache in the back of my neck. There was whistling in my ears, which soon turned into blurred words. For the first time in a while, I felt my heart pound. It felt as if it was fighting for my life while I myself couldn't consciously do it.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I felt how my whole body started vibrating to the drum that was my heart and out of nowhere, I was suddenly gasping for air.

Indeed, I was panting. My back was hunched, my field of vision consisting only of floor planks. I had never felt so alive. And yet I felt empty, as if something was missing.

A raspy voice broke me out of my daze. "It's about time you joined us, L/n."

I whipped my head up, leaning my back against the chair I was tied to. In a moment, I noticed a lot of things. Bakugou was beside me, his creased eyebrows indicating both anger and worry. I was sure it was those two emotions, despite the coloured wisps missing from the room. Weird. He was tied to his chair and handcuffed to keep his quirk at bay. It turned out I was tied, too, but not handcuffed. Even weirder.

In the silence, as Shigaraki was still waiting for an answer, I noticed a buzzing feeling. Or, lack thereof.

"What did you do?" I asked, my calmness seeming to surprise everyone in the room, including myself. I'd planned to sound angrier but, funnily enough, I felt pretty deenergized.

"You're feeling it, huh?" Shigaraki rasped again. "It's a new... medicine. How does it feel to be the first to experience the product of our new partner? How does it feel to be quirkless?"

The word seemed to bounce through my mind as I tried to make sense of it all, staring ahead emptily. Quirkless. Quirkless. Quirkless.

"You took my quirk?" I asked, hating how my voice broke. I avoided looking at Bakugou, not even knowing why. Fear brewed in my chest. It felt oddly comforting to know that the feeling was actually mine.

"Yes," Shigaraki nodded before his head turned slightly, his pair of red eyes now looking at Bakugou. "Now, as I was saying. You will join the League of Villains." He turned his eyes to me again, indicating that he was talking to me, too.

I racked my brain for a solution while Bakugou had apparently had enough of thinking. "Go throw yourself in the traffic," he said, barely controlling his anger.

"We had a deal, Bakugou, don't you remember?"

Shigaraki's words made the boy beside me tense up.

Shigaraki chuckled, nodding to the TV behind him, showing a fairly put-together Mr Aizawa. "And isn't it strange? The heroes are becoming the bad guys... Seems like they're not dealing with this very well at all."

I looked around the room, making eye contact with a scarred villain. His eyes reminded me of something I'd heard once upon a time, which gave me an idea.

Before Shigaraki spoke again, I decided to put my barely-okay plan into action. "You're right," I said. "It's despicable how people act once a soft spot is hit, isn't it?" I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes. "Hero and villain are no more than buzzwords, are they?"

"What?" Bakugou barked and I heard how his chair cracked. He'd probably rapidly moved. I didn't spare a glance in his direction, holding firm eye contact with Shigaraki as I kept my voice from quivering.

"And if the so-called heroes are the bad guys these days that would mean you are the good guys," I continued, relaxing back into the chair though my instincts told me to be ready to fight. "Fine, I'll join you." I drawled out the words, seeming pretty uninterested. Good thing I went through an I-want-to-be-an-actor phase.

Stunned silence filled the room. Bakugou, as was to be expected, was the first to break it. "Are you mad? What have they done to you?"

I turned my half-lidded gaze to Bakugou, as if I was to say the most obvious thing in the world. "They've just stated the facts, that's all. Besides, it's about time word got out about the true nature of heroes, isn't it? I've been wondering about it for a while, anyway."

Bakugou's shoulders relaxed as he caught on to my emphasised words and therefore, the plan, but he kept up his very convincing expression, saying, "So it was you who told them the training camp location, wasn't it?"

"Maybe, maybe not," I shrugged. Don't be stupid, Katsuki. If it was me, I wouldn't be bound up right now. Keeping up the same sluggishly laid back demeanour, I turned to the villains. "Let me out of here and we have a deal."

After the few moments of silence that followed, a guy in a black bodysuit said, "Well, that's a turn of events— No, that was to be expected!"

Did he just contradict himself? I thought. At the same time, Shigaraki straightened up. "Dabi, let her go. And release Bakugou, too."

The guy with scars and weirdly familiar eyes turned to the blue-haired man. "No way I'm letting Bakugou out, you'll just fight."

"We're recruiting him so we should treat him like an equal," Shigaraki reasoned. "And besides, if the girl's already changed her mind, it won't take long to convince him, either. On top of that, he's smart enough to know that he can't take us all, right? Plus we had the agreement."

I'm afraid he's exactly stupid enough not to know that, I thought to myself but kept my mouth shut, for everything was going according to plan at that moment.

"Twice, you do it," the man called Dabi drawled.

The one who'd contradicted himself earlier said, "Sure thing, no way!"

I tilted my head to the side. Wonder why he's like that... Must be his quirk or something.

"Do it," Dabi repeated, holding eye contact with me.

I was starting to remember why he seemed so familiar when Twice, the contradicting villain, untied the ropes around my arms and I could stand up, rubbing my wrists.

The masked man at the back of the room, the one we'd fought before everything had gone black for me, started speaking. I, however, didn't listen to him, only now having the idea to think, I hope the others got out of this well. If it's only me and Katsuki here, they must've, but... I remembered the injuries that some of my classmates, such as Midoriya, Shoji and Uraraka, had obtained. Who's to say they weren't more intentional with us?

Shigaraki pushed himself up, making me alert again. "Even though our backgrounds are different, everyone here has suffered. Because of people, rules and heroes who try to hold us back."

Bakugou sat still, rubbing his wrists the same way I had done. Then, just as Shigaraki said, "I'm sure you're the same," Bakugou looked at me.

I smirked. We got them now.