tw: canon level violence

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"You're finally awake." 

(M/N) is met with uncomfortably bright LED lights when she stirs, a pitiful comparison to her usual greeting -- a kiss from her husband at dawn, or the sight of the familiar windowsill that sits in front of her at-home office. She groans and tries to blink away the nuisance of such horrid illumination, but to no avail. Attempting to block the light with a hand, she's initially shocked to find that there is something, a rope, perhaps, restraining her from doing so.

She moves to examine her surroundings, but when she does, she almost doubles over at a prominent pain that jolts through her arm and strikes her heart, immediately pulling her from a drowsy state by drawing out a sharp gasp from her feeble chest. There is a chronic pounding in her head that worsens as she coughs when regaining her control of herself, her throat aflame and dehydrated, her lungs dry and unnaturally elastic. It was a miracle that she was event conscious, but due to the sporadic adrenaline spike, (M/N) was active for the time being.

Her head turns when she hears a voice speak from her side, distracting her from focusing in on her current state.

"I feel like I'm experiencing some kind of deja vu... the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it?" Her eyes widen as a figure steps forth from the shadows.

"You-" (M/N) breathes, feeling her heart close with white anger, "You-!" Shigaraki laughs, slightly throwing his head back as he does so, arms wrapped around his stomach as he delights in the incredulous expression cast across his victim's face.

"Yes! Me!" he exclaims mockingly, "Oh, I bet you never even guessed that we'd be behind this, did you? Because of all the safety precautions the heroes took? How naive." (M/N) narrows her eyes and glares at the blue-haired male, trying not to let her wince show because she knows the moment she even suggests weakness it'll all be over. So she puts on a brave faces and leers at Tomura with a flushed face and furrowed brows, and a forehead that is completely drenched in sweat. 

"What the hell do you want from me?" (M/N) demands, "Compensation? Am I some kind of lure to here? Do you really think heroes will come?" The villain first looks surprised, then entertained when inquired about such subjects -- almost jesting in the fact that the older woman was so defensive and deflecting.

"Unexpectedly, you stole the words right out of my mouth." Shigaraki smiles warmly, then shakes his head. "But no, I don't think heroes will come. You shouldn't either." He starts to pace in front of his captive with a cocked head swaying from side to side. When he reaches a spot directly in front of her, he stops, then turns to face the female bound by tight restraints. 

"Do you know why I brought you here?" (M/N) scoffs at his question.

"What, so you can kill me? Lure heroes here? Get closer to my family?" Shigaraki can't help but start to laugh at the woman's response, finding hilarity in the simplicity of her replies.

"Ah, such worldly thoughts. As expected from you," he chuckles, a hand floating above his mouth, " But no. Instead, I was thinking I might be a little gracious and host a nice get-together." Shigaraki hums and grins as (M/N)'s face pales and he beckons forward a familiar face.

"Come meet your senior, Nakamura." Subsequently, Shioto emerges from the darkness with a bowed head and hands tightly clasped in front of her. Her figure is rigid, stiff, tense, forcibly commanded and unwillingly controlled. Her behavior is so unordinary, so pitiful (M/N) almost feels sorry even looking at her.

All that emotion is gone, however, when the brunette slides close enough to Shigaraki so that he is in his captive's field of vision once more.

"I can't believe you." There is no room for anything else but disappointment in (M/N)'s voice. Shioto seems to notice, and flinches at the frost-laden tone her senior now speaks to her with. She fumbles with her thumbs as her shoulders quiver, trembling under the invisible mass of the world, the burden of guilt and shame weighing heavily upon her back. 

"I-I had no choice," she stutters, voice hushed as she says her excuse, "The doctors said the disease was incurable because it was tied to his quirk, (M/N). The only way was to remove it and I- there was no other way to- the doctors couldn't-" 

"Bullshit! You would rather betray everyone than live out the best and only times with your son?" 

"If he could live longer, there would be more happiness!" Shioto's voice grows louder. "I could finally know what it means to be a mother after all the struggle I endured!" (M/N) lets out a breath in disbelief, cystically shaking her head in attempt to understand the logic behind her junior's actions. 

"You're so selfish. Have you ever thought about what happens when a child loses their quirk? I imagine the pain is like ripping part of their soul away from them, Shioto. All this for... you to be happy?

"Do you think Atsushi would've wanted this?" 

And it's this phrase that causes Shioto Nakamura to snap.

"Don't tell me what's right for my son!" Shioto suddenly screams as she jerks her head up, revealing a flooding stream of tears streaking down her face, "You never knew the pain of being a mother with a child like this! You never knew the heartbreak! You will never know what it's like! You will never know what it's like to lose five hopes!"

"You think I don't? I fucking do!" (M/N) shouts back, pulling on her restraints while struggling in her chair, "I know what it feels like to watch your child lose their war! I would choose to die if it meant their happiness! To watch their bright eyes turn dull and their mouth to lose that natural smile is the worst feeling in the entire world! Because I know that it means that I failed them as a mother! That I failed them as a caregiver!

"You are an absolute disgrace, Nakamura! You disgrace all the good-willed and desperate mothers who cannot conceive children! Because you dishonor them like this! And you dishonor yourself by dealing with the villains for something so selfish!" 

(M/N)'s labored breaths are the only sounds that fill the warehouse as Shioto cannot come up with anything to say in response to her tirade. 

Moments pass and Shigaraki sighs, unamused by the quarrel. He shifts to place his thumb and three fingers on Nakamura's shoulder, leaning in so that he's able to murmur softly into her ear, his voice almost coaxing the female to follow whatever his tongue says.

"I'm just as appreciative of sentiment as the next person, but this wasn't what you were hired for." He wears a smile as he informs her. "I suggest you keep doing what you were told to do. And not have any second thoughts unless you don't want us to keep our end of the deal." Shioto immediately nods, albeit stiffly, though what's important is that she agrees. Tomura seems pleased as he hums and hands her an L-shaped object covered in a white cloth.

"Go on. You know what to do."

The complete feeling of dread finally settles in (M/N)'s gut as her junior unveils a pistol.

Shigaraki notices the look on her face and smiles deceivingly, then speaks, as if to comfort her before her seemingly inevitable death.

"Your junior here, your kind junior, requested that you be killed in a humane manner." Shigaraki pauses to grimace at the thought. "It's apparent that she views weaponized superhuman abilities as inhumane." (M/N)'s gaping mouth is enough to show how she feels about his incessant commentary that rubs salt on the already searing wound. Her eyes shift to rest on Nakamura, who doesn't return the glance and instead pathetically focuses on loading the gun and preparing for her role as the executioner.

It only takes a few seconds for both women to come face-to-face with one another, and lock in on a wordless conversation. The hanging threads of despondency weave through the air when the previously happy dynamic between the two colleagues shatters completely in this inescapable mess.

(M/N)'s pleading gaze bears into Shioto's sorrow-filled one as the younger woman starts to cry, hands shaking and seemingly unable to follow through with her promised actions. Without setting down the gun, the junior quietly sobs her apology in their verbally one-sided, silent exchange.

I'm sorry (M/N). And the older woman almost forgives her, but not before she sniffles as something in her stare changes within seconds.

I'm sorry I just can't do this to you.

The moment Shioto moves to turn the gun towards Shigaraki, he lunges.

He moves in a manner that displays prior knowledge of betrayal, like he anticipated that the younger woman was going to turn on him the moment she held that pistol up. She gasps as her eyes catch him weaving through the air, and she fires into the shadows, missing the villain every time with miscalculated shots. Tomura exploits this moment of weakness to the fullest, a wicked smile curving his lips upwards as he decreases the distance in between himself and Nakamura.

All of Shigaraki's features are upturned in ecstasy by the time he's close enough to wrap his whole hand around her neck.

(M/N) watches with wide eyes and trembling irises as Shioto disintegrates in front of her, her headless corpse collapsing onto the ground as blood spills from her exposed airways, crowned with flakes of dead skin and rotten flesh. Tomura clicks his tongue and takes a rag handed to him by a hand that snakes out from the shadows. 

"What a shame," he sighs, shaking dust off of his hand and wiping it down finger by finger, "Can't believe we wasted such a useful quirk on her." He reacts to the subsequent silence as if there was a murmur of agreement that followed his comment, then leans down to pick up the shiny pistol laying on the floor. 

He examines it for a bit with a pondering stare, a swirl of inexplicable feelings clouding his eyes, and (M/N) takes this opportunity to get in the her last words in. 

If anything, she thinks, she might as well not give the League the gratification they seek.

"So what happens now?" It takes everything in her to keep her voice from quaking. "Are you going to disintegrate me too?" Shigaraki entertains the notion for a while, a slight smile shaping his lips as he tilts his chin up to the ceiling and squints his eyes at the fluorescent LED light. Humming, he suddenly steps back, takes a new round of bullets from his pocket and loads the pistol.

"Oh no." He cocks the gun and points it at (M/N). "I just rethought my choices on whether you deserve it or not."

There is the sound of a breath being held and limbs tensing seconds before he fires, but no indication of eyes being closed.

After, a bang, clatter, and thud, then the sound of shattered wood hitting concrete.

And the warehouse falls deathly silent once more.

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end of season,,, 1? there were never really seasons to begin with but <3 <3 i need a few months to prepare for the next arcs of this story!!! the book will be on hiatus until then ;)

thank you all for supporting me in this journey!! <3

Version A, Too will return in June/July!