Fly High, Burn Bright

Chapter 16

Seeing so many heroes suddenly rush in to help after struggling alone for so long brought me a new wave of strength, and despite the fact that my body was getting heavier by the second, I dodged around Shigaraki's attacks with greater speed than before. I saw his eyes narrow with worry, and he started to pull back in an attempt to escape. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hero from the neighboring agency taking care of the civilians, and a few more attempting to restrain Spinner along with the other villain, but best of all, the large red wings getting closer and closer gave me even more hope and willpower.

Never before have I been this happy to see Keigo. Before I knew it, he was already there, right beside me as we fought the leader of the League of Villains side by side, backing him into a corner. Although I was too mentally exhausted to use my quirk, I was still able to put up a fight, drawing my knives and becoming a careful hurricane of danger that forced the villain to retreat further and further away. They can't escape this time. They're outnumbered, and I already took care of the two out front - those girls were probably on look-out duty. I was mildly aware of the shouts from the heroes fighting the other two, and the distinct smell of something burning wafted through the air, but my resolve didn't waver. For the first time in a while, I was confident that we'd managed to get the League this time, and a victorious smile stretched across my face. 

That's when it went wrong. Above us, the skylight at the roof of the bank shattered, thick chunks of glass raining over us. Shigaraki had obviously expected this and moved out of the way, but if it hadn't been for Keigo's wings covering the two of us, we both would've been left bleeding with shards of glass stuck in our heads. My hands instinctively flew up to cover my head, and in my moment of distraction, Shigaraki gave me a cruel smirk and leapt up to the hole in the roof, the purple void of another villain's quirk that I'd seen so many times already in past battles sucking him in. Shit. We had him cornered, and he still managed to escape. How could I let this happen?

I almost felt like it was my fault - maybe if I'd managed to stall them for longer, or maybe if I didn't hesitate to stop them and used any means necessary to do so... A disturbing thought raced through my mind, and my eyes widened. What if the media affects me more than I think? If I was a little more ruthless, a little more determined, then this wouldn't have been a problem. I would've been able to take care of this all by myself, without any backup. When did I go soft? When did I start slipping? I grit my teeth in frustration. I should've just slit their throats when I had the chance. They would've deserved it. They hurt too many civilians for me to let them get off so easily. I should've killed the four of them when I still had the chance to do so. I shouldn't have hesitated. I shouldn't have given myself away by knocking out the first one. I should've killed them in the same cold-blooded way that they do.

I spotted the other two villains running to the skylight from the other side of the bank, but I wasn't having it. My hands moved on their own, and before I knew it, my right hand was already pulling the small vial of poison off of my belt, uncorking it and dipping the tip of my knife into the liquid. I had some deadly poisons with me, but not this one - it would just paralyze the target if it had access to the stream of their blood. Poisons weren't something I usually used, but if it meant that we'd have at least one villain captured from this disaster of a rescue mission, then I was more than willing to fight a little dirty. Still, the tiny drops seemed to weigh my blade down, but I did my best to ignore the heavy burden that the poison brought to my consciousness.

Although I was ready for it, the speed of the villains still caught me off guard - Spinner was already halfway to the skylight, abandoning the young boy I'd knocked out and leaving his scarred partner to fend off on his own. I narrowed my eyes, knowing it would be useless to try to stop him, and instead charged towards the other villain. He sped up as he saw me sprint towards him, but I tackled him just before he jumped towards the purple void that Spinner already disappeared into.

"You sure you didn't change your mind yet, princess?" He sneered as he tried to pull me off of him, but I stayed firm. "It would be a shame if I had to burn off such a pretty face." I could already feel him start to use his quirk, the air around me heating up with blue flames, and whatever hesitation I had disappeared as I slit into his arm with the tip of my blade, the paralyzing poison working almost as soon as it was exposed to his veins, the villain's body going limp beneath me as he stopped struggling to escape. As soon as I was sure that he had no chance of escaping now, I let myself turn away from the villain and look around the almost silent bank.

Keigo was sitting perched at the roof of the skylight - had he tried to stop the villains from escaping? Another hero was tending to the civilians who were still inside, gently checking to make sure they were all okay, and two others were scanning the overall damage that had been caused. The gas was almost completely ventilated out, and the small amount left wasn't enough to affect anyone by now. With the source of the gas being stopped, the outside was also much cleaner, and the fumes were swept away in the wind, but the pedestrians nearby, from what I could see through the bank's windows, seemed to still be suffering from the side effects.

Beneath me, the villain, although lying limply, was still able to blink and move his mouth, though it seemed to be taking him a lot of effort to do so. "You know, princess," he chided teasingly, almost as if he were the one with the upper hand, "if you wanted to be on top of me, you could've just asked. No need to be so forceful."

"I suggest you shut up before I cut your tongue out," I smiled down at him sweetly, but decided to change my position slightly, standing up but still keeping one foot on his chest to make sure he couldn't escape. I glanced around once again, my eyes finally landing on an officer who was now standing near the doors of the bank, and I waved them over, grabbing a pair of handcuffs from them to restrain the villain. I nodded at them in thanks before realizing it was the same officer that I'd left to take care of the first two girls. "Did you manage to arrest them?" 

The officer drew back slightly, their shoulders curling inwards and their eyes falling to the ground. I frowned a little - what, were they scared of me or something? I raised an eyebrow expectantly, still waiting for a response. "W-well, you s-see, t-they may h-have escaped," the officer finally stammered, and I inhaled sharply, digging my nails into my palms to get rid of some of the anger. It didn't help that beneath me, the villain was almost shaking with laughter, and I pressed my foot onto his back a little harder, trying to stay calm. 

I didn't reply to the officer and just waved them off, sighing with relief when Keigo landed on the floor beside me. I almost tackled him in a hug, but with so many people around, I knew it would be stupid - it would just start pointless rumors. Instead, I just gave him a tired smile that he returned. "Can you take him back to the agency and question him?" I asked, too tired to have to drag the villain all the way back on my own. "I'd do it myself but I still have that meeting with media I need to get to."

Keigo nodded, but furrowed his brows slightly. "Will you be okay getting back to the agency? You look like you're about to drop."

I waved him off with a small laugh. "I'll be fine. It's not like this is my first time fighting, you know. Just get this little asshole to the interrogation rooms and try to get whatever you can out of him."

With a defeated sigh, Keigo nodded and roughly picked up the villain, making sure to be careful not to give the villain any room to move before unfurling his wings and shooting through the broken skylight and heading towards the direction of the agency. I scanned the area one more time, and after making sure that everything was being taken care of, excused myself from the scene of the crime, hoping that the other heroes understood my position. As I started heading back to the agency, jogging at a steady pace, I checked the time. 6:38. Shit. Niko's gonna have my head.