PAPER FLOWERS ( k. bakugou )

chapter 22

' i don't need a hero '

━━━━━

Deep breaths. Seven, eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eight-

A knock.

"Kaede-sama," it's not difficult to figure out that the person standing on the other side of the door is Mr. Compress. He's the only one who adds a formal honorific after her name. As if she was some reputable personage. "The League is gathering at the bar in ten minutes, Shigaraki wanted you to come."

"I don't want to," Kaede simply answers, her tone betraying nothing of the plans swirling in her mind, tucking the letters in the envelopes and putting them back in the drawer. "It's probably some menial task that I have to perform."

"He added that he wanted you to socialize more to have better relationship parameters," a statement that makes Kaede's eyebrows furrow. She's already standing in front of the mirror she brought to Tomoe's room, masking the remnants of the tears that had flowed from her eyes, the stubborn set of her jaw, red rimmed eyes and raspy voice.

"That doesn't make any sense," she replies, applying one of those cosmetic powders she received from Toga the other day.

"That wasn't exactly verbatim," Mr. Compress points put. "My mind may have jumbled some things, but in the end, it is what Shigaraki wishes."

Kaede's reflection is looking at her with the same impassive look and she tucks a stray strand behind her ear, cursing how fast the growth rate of her hair is. It's already reaching her shoulders.

"Tell him that I don't plan on taking advice from someone who doesn't have any friends," she answers, the blow hitting her too. She wonders what hurts more, the fact that you used to have friends or you didn't have any to begin with.

"Will you not change your mind?" Mr. Compress asks and to Kaede's mind, it almost means another thing. Pertaining to the thoughts she's harboring in her mind.

The reflection's impassive visage turns into that of iron. Two eyes that were once cold and unfeeling are like red flames. Passionate. "Never."

Maybe it is like biting the hand that fed her, honed her power and gave her a purpose. Maybe this is betraying the girl who she once was. Maybe she's ruining the chaos swirling at her finger tips with this. Maybe she should just wait for a hero to rescue her. Maybe this is not the most logical of options.

But for once, there's a strange sort of clarity that's present in her mind, clearing away the chaos. Her name is Mizuki Kaede, she thinks and she's incapable and unwilling to leave her fate at the hands of others. For once, she will heed the call of her beating heart.

She is done with these qualms, all the maybes threatening to overwhelm her. She has never flinched before pulling the trigger, never felt ill at the sight of blood, she has never apologized for surviving, for thriving.

So she discards the maybes as fast as car moving at 180 kilometers per hour. No more hesitations impeding her choices.

Mizuki Kaede will break free.

━×━

Hair pulled to a Dutch braid (a failed one, with errant strands sticking out), Kaede folds the letter, places it in an envelope and leaves it lying on top of Tomura's gaming console. He'll find it. She left it in most obvious way possible.