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“I’ll kill you.”
Despite the venom in her words, Ochako’s voice is hoarse.
“Walk then,” Toga taunts. Her tone is unbearably sweet, playing up an undeniable innocence that does not belong to a girl who’s murdered dozens.
Ochako lays on the ground, bloodied and broken, surrounded by fragments of buildings and scores of smaller fires. She stares up at the villain, who stands no more than three feet away, with an immeasurable amount of disdain. Smoke rises from the fractured terrain in wisps. It frays Ochako’s vision and catches in her throat, stealing the words off her tongue.
And Toga, bright-eyed and zealous, watches Ochako like a child would their favourite teddy bear.
“Come on,” Toga sing-songs. “Walk towards me.”
Ochako fights her own limbs to get herself into a sitting position. She coughs violently, either on her own blood or the dust in her lungs, she doesn’t know, but she strains her arms with everything she can muster to ensure her head doesn’t hit the ground again.
Toga laughs like Ochako just told her the funniest joke she’s heard in a while. “I bet you can’t even take a step.” She skips around Ochako, then leans close to her battered face.
Her next words are spoken like a woman drunk on love. “You look so beautiful like that.”
She tilts Ochako’s chin upward. Toga’s hand is delicate save for the heavy callous at the base of her forefinger no doubt from years of wielding a knife’s blade with great force and precision. It’s a simple, gentle gesture, but Ochako feels like a porcelain doll under her touch; exquisite, yet all too fragile.
The villain smiles sweetly and Ochako grows deathly aware of the fact that Toga can see the resolve in her expression waver.
“Do you think I’m pretty too?”
In a single fluid motion, Ochako manages to summon the last bit of her remaining strength to push Toga off of her. Toga stumbles back and smiles wider.
“I’ll take that as a yes!”
“It’s a no,” Ochako snaps, glaring with a storm in her eyes.
Toga frowns like an injured puppy. “Don’t make up lies like that. I know how you feel about me.”
“You don’t know anything,” Ochako rasps.
“Oh, but I do,” Toga sighs, dreamily. “You killed a hero for me tonight.”