NeonHorizon: Hey, look; more content!
Hero killer. Sounds pretty cool. Of course…what would it take to get a guy like that to even talk to someone like me? Kugutsu skimmed the article as the train began moving, relaxing into her seat. Really. He would be a good potential member for the League of Villains.
Yes, she was now a member. However, she was still working with Giran to try to find more potential members. After the USJ fiasco, Kugutsu was determined to find Shigaraki the best possible villains. People with skills, strong quirks, ambition. Her favorite kind of people.
A smile curled her lips as she read an article that described a hero's untimely demise and she had to bite back a laugh. A hero killer. He would be perfect! Shigaraki would love it if I could bring him this guy! Maybe…he'd even…! The thought of a possible reward of some kind made her blush and she bowed her head to hide it from the other commuters around her.
Kugutsu was currently on her way to the mah-jongg bar to see Shigaraki, but it was a surprise. Sitting on the seat beside her was a bag packed with things she thought he might like. Some of it had been purchased at a game store, some of it had been handmade.
Giran had warned her not to give him the handmade stuff because it would make her look creepy and desperate, but she was sure that he was just making fun of her. Honestly, he seemed like the kind of person that got bitter when it came to love so he was probably just jealous. A crocheted Shigaraki doll was just endearing. Not at all creepy. Not even with the actual hairs woven into the yarn. Hairs that she had managed to salvage from her blanket when he had left her room.
Excitement ran through her veins the closer she got to her stop. She felt like butterflies were exploding in her stomach. The thought of presenting him with these gifts just made her feel so bubbly and euphoric. A high unrivaled by anything she had felt before. Even more pleasant than dancing in the blood of her enemies.
The walk to the bar was brisk and she could feel her heart starting to pound at a fast pace. She paused at the door in the alley, placing a hand over her chest and taking a deep breath. Trying to will herself to calm down so she would seem more composed and not at all like the hyper gremlin she was sure he saw her as.
The second that she pushed open the door, something felt wrong. Kugutsu was unable to place what it was, but there was a sort of tension. An "off" sensation that made goose bumps rise on her skin. She paused in the dim corridor, looking toward Shigaraki's room. That was where she went first and found it empty. His handheld console was plugged in, charging, but there was no sign of the blue-haired villain.
It was as she approached the door to the actual bar that the hair rose on the back of her neck. The girl bristled at what she was witnessing and immediately set a hand against the dark wall to her right. Kugutsu's object of affection was lying sprawled on the floor. There was a man more or less on top of him with wild, dark hair and wearing a red eye mask tied around the top half of his head. This man was holding a knife. Kurogiri was standing motionless behind the counter.
No…! No, no, no! The hero killer?! Her eyes widened when she saw blood pooling beneath Shigaraki on the floor. There was a wound between his neck and right shoulder, oozing crimson. No one hurts Shigaraki! Gritting her teeth, she kicked the door open with force. At the same time, the darkness on the wall she was touching peeled off of the wall and solidified into a shape at an alarming speed.
The man had no time to react and was struck in the face, sending him flying backwards off of Shigaraki. Kugutsu charged through the doorway, clutching the solidified shadow and changing its shape to a tentacle. It wrapped around the man's ankle and slammed him into the wall with enough force to knock the air from his lungs. She put herself between Shigaraki and the stranger, crouched so she was touching her own shadow on the floor.
When he rose, the man scowled down at her and adjusted his grip on the knife. "You impudent-!"
"No one touches him! You hear me?! I'll cut off what's left of your face and force it down your throat if you touch him again, you nose-less freak!"
Shift P.O.V
He could have taken care of it himself. All it would take was five fingers against the hero killer's throat and he would be dead. Normally, it might piss Shigaraki off that he had just been saved. However, he found his dour mood lifting when he saw her face.
Kugutsu's lips were twisted in utter outrage at seeing him get hurt. She was willing to murder this complete stranger in cold blood over a small wound he had inflicted. It made Shigaraki feel important. Probably even loved, if this was what feeling loved felt like. He had a hard time remembering.
As she fought against the hero killer, screaming obscenities and calling the man every bad name that could possibly exist, Shigaraki found himself watching with a sense of enjoyment. This had been such a bad situation, but it was turning around quickly. His fan girl, his first new member of the League of Villains, was putting her own life at risk to protect him.
For all her madness, she seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She used her quirk to control the solid shadow she had pulled from the hallway to keep him at a distance from her. Not only was she able to protect herself, she was able to throttle him pretty effectively. The hero killer was thrown across the room multiple times, receiving injuries that would leave most too stunned to keep fighting. When he did finally manage to get around her shadow and close in on the girl, Kugutsu resorted to kicking.
All the while, Kurogiri remained frozen in place behind the counter like an awestruck spectator. Shigaraki watched as the fight seemed to escalate further. A blade sliced into Kugutsu's arm, splattering the floor with dark red. The frown that formed on her face was unlike any expression he had seen her make before. Pain. Actual, sane person level pain. She looked like she might even cry.
Unfortunately, it was about to get worse. Kugutsu was unaware of the man's quirk. So when the hero killer lifted his blood-painted knife to his mouth, she simply looked disgusted. Seconds later, her blood was licked away and the girl's eyes widened as she found herself unable to move.
Shigaraki's pulse quickened, teeth gritting, as he saw what happened next. A knife pressed against her neck, a hand tangled in her hair roughly. Kugutsu shrieked, either in pain or outrage. It was hard to tell. What really mattered was that this nose-less creep was now touching Shigaraki's fan girl.
Stain was growling about Kurogiri opening a warp gate to take him back to where he had been, still holding the girl tightly and yanking painfully at her hair when Kurogiri hesitated. The knife's edge pressed tighter against her skin, drawing a trickle of blood.
He saw tears forming in her eyes and hated how it made him feel. He felt sick. He felt angry. Shigaraki was already pissed off that Stain was manhandling his fan girl, but now he was threatening her life. He was threatening to take away Shigaraki's one and only fan forever. Just the thought of having her taken from him made his blood boil and his stomach turn.
"Don't let him leave," he spoke before Kurogiri could use his quirk. "Not until he lets her go."
"I won't release this girl until my demands are met," Stain snarled in response. He yanked at her hair, momentarily lifting her off the ground by her scalp. The tears were starting to slide down her cheeks when he shook her.
Shigaraki approached at a slow pace, his eyes narrowed upon his own shadow on the floor before him. "She's mine. I…hate…people touching my stuff. It pisses me off. So I'll give you one more chance. Let go of my girl or I'll make you regret it."
Thankfully, Stain was either dumber than he seemed or he was just too distracted to notice Shigaraki's plan. Whatever the case, when Shigaraki's shadow came into contact with Kugutsu's leg, he got a nasty surprise.
The blue-haired villain's shadow twisted and solidified into a monstrous dragon head with jagged teeth. It clamped sharply onto Stain's leg, drawing the man's blood and forcing his attention away from the girl. She managed to thrash out of his hold, dropping to the floor and slamming a hand against her own shadow.
Shift P.O.V
Kugutsu could feel her heart racing, her face burning pink, when she heard Shigaraki call her "his". A fluttery explosion in her stomach made her want to giggle as she positioned herself at his side. Her shadow was stretching up into a monstrous centipede as she faced her opponent again.
Blood was wetting the front of her shirt, running down her neck from where he had cut her. Just the thought of this mask-wearing, blood-drinking, Shigaraki-hurting creep licking her blood. Well, it made her blood boil to think of it.
Before she could launch into a barrage of angry insults, Kurogiri cleared his throat and stepped in to mediate. To her irritation, the hero killer was allowed to walk through a warp gate, leaving the villains behind. Turning to the others, she bristled. "You're not…really letting him get away-?!"
"Of course not." Shigaraki itched at his neck, staring down at hers. "I'm going to follow him." A grin tugged at his chapped lips as he reached forward. Four fingers brushed the tender skin of her neck and a shiver ran through her. "Go get the med kit. You're going to take care of me when I get back."
"Wh-what?! No! Shigaraki-san, let me go with you! I can help!"
He drew his hand back, fingertips shining red with her blood. "I thought you were just crazy. I don't have any use for a stupid fan," he muttered. "Look at you. You're shaking. What? Are you scared?"
"Shigaraki Tomura, if you intend to follow him-"
"I'm not done." His cold gaze went from Kurogiri to Kugutsu and he scowled. "Well? Are you scared? I thought you were a fearless broker's assistant," he taunted. "So why're you shaking?"
Kugutsu hated to admit it, but he was right. Her knees were on the verge of buckling. She was trembling like a leaf. Her fight had taken a lot of stamina. She was used to solidifying shadows for just short periods of time, but the hero killer had drawn it out too much.
Curling her hands into fists, she knew that if he was anyone else, she would beat his face into a pulp. However, for whatever bizarre reason, she loved his face. She loved everything about him. Thinking about hurting him made her stomach uneasy and she felt her chest seem to tighten. "I'm…weak right now."
After conferring with his master to procure some Nomus, he left with Kurogiri to pursue the hero killer. Meanwhile, Kugutsu searched the mah-jongg bar for a first aid kit. She hated being reduced to a medic, but it was still a way to help him and his wound looked painful. He's so cool though. He didn't seem bothered by it at all. That guy could've cut his neck, but Shigaraki was totally calm.
She read through some articles as she waited for his return, wanting to look for more potential members. Preferably ones that she would not need to immediately pull off of Shigaraki and beat within an inch of their life. That would be optimal.
There's a serial killer bleeding people to death. But what's their quirk? It doesn't say. Hm. Oh! This one could be cool! Someone that burns their victims to ashes! That would be pretty useful. It says their flames are so hot that they're blue. Kugutsu tried to imagine it, but could only think of the blue flames on certain stovetops and that image was far from cool.
When Shigaraki returned, he appeared less than pleased. He gave her a beckoning nod and led the way to his room. He sat in his chair while she sat on the seat from the bar, grumbling quietly to himself. The villain pulled aside the dark fabric of his shirt to give her access to his wound; not once showing signs of pain from her cleaning it or when she taped some gauze over the cut.
He was about to turn away to start a game on his computer when his eyes caught sight of the blood drying on her neck. Biting his lower lip, he leaned closer to her and narrowed his eyes. "You're still bleeding."
"Oh…um…y-yeah, but I wanted to take care of your wound first." She tensed, heart seeming to do flips, when he reached for the gauze and their fingers lightly touched. Turning her head to the side, she avoided his gaze. "So did you-?"
"Shut up…I'm trying to do something."
"What-?" Kugutsu went silent when she felt gauze press at her wound. It was kind of a hard pressure and soon it scraped over the cut. She then realized that Shigaraki was trying to wipe the blood away. "It's…not that bad," she protested. The gauze was given to her when he got fed up with trying to clean the wound.
Shigaraki picked at the dry skin of his lip as he watched her prepare the gauze and tape to cover her injury. "What kind of psychopath risks their life for someone else? That's so stupid."
Her feline ears drew back and she shrugged. "I guess I just…wasn't thinking. I didn't want you to get hurt." It felt like a pressure was building inside of her. An irresistible urge was gnawing at her heart until it felt like a balloon about to pop. "I-I'm your fan. I'm your loyal fan…Shigaraki…so I…wanted to keep you safe!"
He stared at her for a moment before turning to start his game. "That hero killer freak. You should've seen what he did. He ruined everything. I'm so angry, I don't even know what to say." His free hand settled on her head, rubbing at an ear.