Kanna had scarcely gotten into a combat stance when a numbing pain shot through her shoulder.
She staggered backwards, pressing hard against her flesh to slow down the profuse bleeding. Painful numbness screamed in her arm. The bullet had torn right through her entire shoulder and buried itself in the concrete wall behind her.
Jelly Girl moved again as more gunshots rang out. The hero released a pained yelp this time, collapsing to the floor as the bullets struck her thigh. Like before, she was able to avoid the kill shots, but still not fast enough to avoid getting hit.
Shit, this is bad… I’m not bulletproof. It’s only a matter of time before I get hit somewhere vital. I’m a rescue hero, not a combat hero. I need to run! I need to escape—
Kusanagi moved in a flash of black, kicking the wounded hero through the door.
Wood crashed all around Kanna as pain shot through her back. Her vision blurred. Screams erupted. She craned her neck up, looking for the assassin—
Fire lanced through her thigh as a cold boot pinned her down.
Kanna screamed in pain as the assassin increased pressure on her bullet wound. Cold sweat broke, and she felt as though she would pass out there and then. Kusanagi raised a pistol at the squirming woman, aiming for the dead centre of her forehead this time.
The muzzle flashed.
Kanna spread into her liquid form. It saved her.
Transparent liquid sloshed around the bloodstained bullets, slithering off the stairs and plopping onto the first floor. The liquified woman moved furiously towards the open back doors. She should be impervious in this form for now, but she had to keep her focus before she started to solidify again.
Another loud thud cracked the floorboards behind her.
She glanced back at her assailant. Kusanagi’s visor was down now, and two blood-red irises were visible, staring coldly at the fleeing hero like a hawk in pursuit. The assassin’s eyes glowed fiercely—
Pain tore through Kanna’s whole body, and she reverted to human form before crashing into the alley walls. Her body trembled uncontrollably as though she were having a seizure.
What… is happening…?
The woman arched her back in pain and accidentally flung herself into a garbage bin. The pain left temporarily, but returned the moment Kusanagi threw the trash aside. Kanna moved desperately, bombarding the assassin with trash before finally managing to crawl out of the bin. She ducked behind a wall, frantically looking for something to cover herself.
An unused blanket caught her eye, and she draped it over her body immediately. She still didn’t know how the assassin’s quirk worked. But whatever it was, it was somehow causing her pain through eye contact. Her heart raced against her desperate breaths in the horrifyingly empty alleyway. Where did the assassin go—
A black figure lunged from her side and slammed her against the wall.
Agony burst through Kanna’s body once again, but it quickly left as soon as she turned her draped back towards the assassin. The woman broke into a relieved smile; it was working.
Jelly Girl darted erratically, trying to throw off Kusanagi. With the blanket over her, she wouldn’t be able to see what the assassin was doing as well. And that only meant that she’d be no different from a sitting duck waiting to be shot if she remained in this desolate alleyway.
Kanna sprinted out into the open highway, running towards an oncoming black limousine.
~ ~ ~
“Oh boy, I’m so pumped about the reunion session! Let’s turn the music up!”
The black-haired man winced slightly as the music from the car’s speakers practically doubled in volume. He had a tall, slender figure with messy, shoulder-length hair that partially hung in front of his face. A black eyepatch covered his right eye, a souvenir from the Civil War that had taken it away three years ago.
He focused on the road, trying to ignore his friend singing along loudly in his ear as though he were holding a microphone.
“You’re always pumped about everything anyway, Hizashi,” he replied in a voice barely audible over the hearing damage going on beside him. “What’s the difference this time?”
“The difference is, all our old colleagues will be coming along for the karaoke session, yo!” The man with a cockatiel’s tuft for his hair gestured excitedly. “Hey, hey, Shota! How many clones do you think Ectoplasm is going to produce this time?”
Shota Aizawa cracked a small smile. There was no way he would admit it in front of his loud-mouthed friend, but he was looking forward to seeing his old classmates again. Perhaps they’d even—
A figure flashed in front of the car without warning.
Rubber squealed against concrete as Aizawa jammed the brakes immediately. The car managed to stop before it hit the woman who had dashed in front of it, but she collapsed to the ground anyway. The two men left the car to check on her.
“Hey, lady, are you alright?” Aizawa helped the dazed woman up. She was dressed like a hostess, although her face looked vaguely familiar to him.
His eye widened with alarm. There were cuts and bullet wounds all over the woman’s body, as though she had just come back from the frontline of a war. Her lips were pale, her skin flushed. She was in need of serious medical help. Aizawa fished out his phone to call for an ambulance—
A shadow loomed over the concrete. Aizawa gasped in recognition at the sharp edge pointing out from its side.
Gritting his teeth, he spun around and unsheathed a dagger from his side pocket. Steel clashed as he blocked the incoming knife right before it took out his remaining eye. Aizawa flung his weapon to the side. The figure in all black landed smoothly on his car’s bonnet like a cat and pulled out an assault rifle.
An assassination out in the open?
There was no time to think. Grey flashed as he tossed his binding scarf forward, redirecting the assassin’s weapon just in time. Bullets sprayed holes into the car, and he took the chance to yank the gun towards him.
His breath caught.
The assassin had inconspicuously tossed a grenade at him as well. Aizawa reached for the woman to protect her with his body—
A powerful sound wave sent the grenade flying away from them. Hizashi stopped his hypersonic scream promptly and grabbed his friend, pulling him behind their car for cover. The ground shook along with the powerful explosion, but they were safe for now.
“Are you okay, Eraserhead?” Hizashi peeked over the car hood. “Did that get her?”
“Don’t think so. Be on your guard, Yamada.” Aizawa approached the blackened road dividers where the grenade had landed. If the assassin was quick enough, all she had to do was hide behind them to avoid the explosion. Which meant…
The hero looked over the dividers. There was nothing. He pulled his yellow plastic goggles down, every fibre of his body preparing to counter a surprise attack.
A strangled scream broke his focus.
Aizawa swung around, eyes ablaze with shock. The assassin had somehow gotten behind them and was now choking the woman with a piano wire. He gritted his teeth and flicked another dagger forward. The assassin tilted to the side, but Aizawa wasn’t aiming for her.
There was a soft twang as the dagger sliced through the piano wire, causing the assassin to lose balance.
She caught the weapon before it could fly any further while flipping off her victim’s body. The assassin raised her hand, preparing to plunge the dagger into the woman’s back instead.
Aizawa tossed his scarf again. The assassin caught it this time, although at the cost of losing her grip on her victim. The hero’s body lurched forward with a shocking amount of force as she yanked it towards herself.
Eraserhead jumped over her wild swing with a somersault, using the momentum to kick the dagger out of her hand. She attempted to sweep his leg in retaliation, but Aizawa dived backwards to avoid it.
Concrete met his palms as he pushed his body up again with a kip-up, striking his target’s head cleanly. A red iris stared hatefully back at him as part of the assassin’s mask broke off. She lunged towards Aizawa.
An elbow swung in his direction. He leaned back.
A knee burst towards his chin. He pushed it back down.
A foot whistled the wind in his ear. He caught it and swung the body hard.
The assassin’s body left the ground as she used her other leg to kick him away. Aizawa let go, but not before whipping his scarf at her face. She dodged it with an acrobatic flip.
She’s so fast…
“Present Mic, get that woman out of here!” Aizawa called out. “I’ll hold this villain off!”
Black flashed from the side of his eye the moment he finished his sentence. He sent his scarf out again. It hooked onto the assassin’s leg this time, and he yanked her back to the ground.
“Don’t even think about it, punk.” Aizawa rushed forward, twisting his scarf to add another hook onto the villain’s body.
But the assassin wasn’t aiming for the woman.
She turned around, rifle back in hand. Aizawa’s body tensed. He couldn’t move fast enough this time.
Bullets rattled as he flinched.
The man fell backwards, clutching his stomach where a few bullets had struck him. He gritted his teeth and used his torn scarf to stem the bleeding. Thankfully, the bullet had not struck any vital organs. But he would be at an increasing disadvantage the longer the fight dragged on. He had to end this fast.
Another powerful sound cone pushed the lunging assassin back into the car. Present Mic sucked in a deep breath and prepared to scream again but he fell to his knees all of a sudden, coughing blood. Panic and confusion flooded Aizawa.
What’s going on?
The assassin turned to face him, and a paralysing pain shot through his body as well. His vision blurred, but he could still see her red irises glowing slightly. Aizawa mustered his strength, struggling to stand up.
He didn’t know who this mysterious villain was, but her glowing eyes seemed to be a side effect of her quirk, just like his quirk erasure power. If he had guessed correctly, her power had something to do with quirk cells as well. There was only one rational course of action right now.
A splatter of blood burst from his mouth as Aizawa forced his quirk open despite the overwhelming pain. The familiar surge of his power flowed back into his eye, and the epileptic affliction left his body.
“Eraserhead, move!”
Aizawa leapt out of the way without a second thought. It was obvious what his friend was about to do.
“DIE!”
Present Mic unleashed the full power of his quirk this time, ripping out the gravel with the sheer power of his sonic scream. But the assassin was still faster.
“No!” Aizawa could only call out in warning as the assassin leapt over the sound cone, hurtling straight for the woman—
“Yah!”
A steel boot met the assassin’s face without warning, sending her sprawling on the ground.
Aizawa’s eye narrowed through the glare of his quirk. This mysterious person who had come out of nowhere was completely covered in an unfamiliar-looking costume. His gear looked worn out and outdated, while his fighting stance was that of a simple boxer. Who is he? Friend or foe?
“You wanna get to them? You have to go through me!” the person shouted in a surprisingly young voice, sounding somewhere in his late teens to early twenties.
Aizawa shifted uncomfortably, now acutely aware of how much blood he had lost. He wheezed painfully; he was in no condition to fight much longer. This guy better have some skill to back up his words, or everyone was going to be in serious trouble.
The assassin stared at the masked vigilante for an unusually long time, before abruptly leaping off the highway and swinging away.
Aizawa heaved a sigh of relief.
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