Chapter 130: Chapter 130: Bye, Eri
The hero whose leg was decaying at a rapid rate had never been so thankful in his life to hear such terrible-sounding music.
It was because of that awful music that his leg started growing once more, letting him have the chance to continue being a hero even after this was all over.
Everyone was equally surprised, and while Izuku, Katsuki, and Gran Torino were less surprised, all of them were glad.
Shigaraki looked towards the music source and saw a girl wearing a green gradating to whitish-blue dress floating at the same level as them.
Her most distinguishable feature after the beautiful dress she was wearing and the flute she was blowing was that she had two horns poking out of her temples.
"You...? You seem familiar..." Shigaraki said as he fell straight to the ground after losing his momentum before jumping back up again, "I remember. That stupid Overhaul showed me a picture once of the source before he disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again."
"Now that you're right in front of me, I guess I can at least do that damn guy a favor to kill you since he did give me his most precious bullet."
Shigaraki immediately kicked the air and tried to get close to Eri after saying, but Eri wasn't slow as well and directly flew backward.
She knew about the dangers of being too close to him; she would become dust before she could even cast rewind on herself. Rewind wasn't a passive skill. If she didn't activate in time, she would still die.
"Tch!" Shigaraki knew that as long as Eri was here, he wouldn't be able to kill any of the heroes as her quirk was directly meant to counter his.
Falling back to the ground, Shigaraki thought of a new plan. But before he could even reach the floor, he heard the strange music for the first time, and his danger instincts rose to the highest point immediately after that.
He quickly activated his quirk, not caring about his surroundings (like he did in the first place), and soon he calmed down.
'What was that?'
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Seeing that Shigaraki was freefalling down, Eri immediately grasped that chance to rewind him.
Her quirk was initially meant for short-range combat, but now that she had her flute, it helped her extend the range of the effect to as far as music could be heard.
Which meant that the louder she played, the bigger the range of her time manipulation was.
They were currently floating less than a kilometer in the air, so the freefalling Shigaraki was still in her range.
Planning to end him before he could even touch the floor, she played her distorted music again.
"Orginal move: Sound of Rewinding Time."
She knew the speed of sound would be able to reach Shigaraki fast enough for her plan, but just in case, she continued playing her music.
However, what she saw was ultimately out of her plan.
Although the music had spread everywhere, Shigaraki wasn't affected at all!
"What?!"
Eri was so shocked that she even stopped playing her flute.
"What?" The nearby heroes didn't know what was wrong, so when Eri yelled out in shock, they were also startled by the sudden yell.
"Shigaraki isn't affected by my quirk!"
Now Gran Torino knew why she was so shocked.
'Time' is an intangible concept that existed all around us. We can't touch it, we can't feel it, we can't see or smell it.
The ability to even control 'time' was an ability for the Gods.
That was what Gran Torino previously thought before the appearance of time quirks.
But after the appearance of Shido and Eri, his view changed. Though not as stiff as the past, he still thought that anyone who could negate the effect of time was a monster among monsters, like the two children in All Might's house.
He never thought that they could get any more powerful, but Eri had entirely proved him wrong. But at least the powerful figures were on their side.
But now? Shigaraki had showcased his ability to negate Eri's quirk?
Gran Torino didn't know what to do or say anymore.
"So what now?"
"Only way to beat him is to make sure that my quirk is always active. Although I can use it continuously for an hour, Shigaraki isn't exactly just gonna use his quirk while standing there." Eri muttered under her breath.
Seeing that she didn't have other choices, Eri rushed towards the ground while ensuring that her quirk was always fully active. Though this was going to drain her stamina theoretically, her 'rewind' also includes restoring stamina.
"Rewind requires stamina to activate, but after I rewind myself, my stamina is replenished...how paradoxical.." Eri smiled as she zoomed through the air and immediately reached next to Shigaraki and aimed a kick.
"No, you don't."
Shigaraki's voice was calm as he activated his quirk in the air while blocking the kick with one hand and landing his other fist on Eri's face.
Eri just hurriedly ducked while she continued playing the flute. Shigaraki suddenly heard the music once again and backed off.
When they were one meter apart, Shigaraki couldn't hear the music, thus making it a very safe distance.
Eri was also puzzled. She could clearly see that Shigaraki's injuries were reversed for a fraction of a second before he backed off.
"How did you negate my quirk?" Eri spoke, loud enough for a person of one-meter distance away to hear properly.
From Shigaraki's side, he could see Eri's lips moving, but no sound could be heard, so he didn't reply and just used his quirk on the ground once more, causing the top layer of debris to all turn into dust.
Eri frowned when she saw that Shigaraki ignored her.
'Wasn't it usually the protagonist who ignores the villains? When did the roles swap?'
Her frown only deepened at the sight of Shiagarki bending down and touching the floor and immediately started playing her flute as well.
A visible sound wave appeared from the flute and resounded across the area.
The area in front of her, turning to dust, immediately returned to its original form.
After this one exchange, both Shigaraki and Eri had similar expressions and frowned now, but for different reasons.
Shigaraki frowned because facing against Eri was worse than facing against Aizawa. At least his physical strength was still there to be able to go close to him and kill him. But facing against Eri, he couldn't get too close as he would be rewound back in time before gaining All for One and potentially losing his life in the process.
So both his quirk and physical capabilities were rendered useless against Eri, making it a more challenging battle than fighting against all the other heroes combined.
The way he saw it, the only way to win was to take the opportunity of the gap between her playing the flute and closing in on her and killing her before she could do anything. After all, a person's lungs had limited capacity, and it was impossible to continuously blow a flute for an hour straight.
Eri was frowning because she finally discovered how Shigaraki had 'nullified' her quirk. She also solved the mystery as to why Shigaraki ignored her previously.
To be more precise, what Shigaraki was nullifying wasn't the 'time' embedded into the music. Shigaraki was canceling the entire music at once, thus negating the rewinding effect as well.
Sound is the energy things produce when they vibrate (move back and forth quickly). If Eri banged a drum, she would make the tight skin vibrate at a very high speed, forcing the air all around it to vibrate as well. As the air moves, it carries energy out from the drum in all directions.
However, since Shigaraki can control atoms and decay them, there was basically a vacuum layer acting as a barrier around him, preventing the sound from actually reaching him. That was why Shigaraki 'ignored' Eri's question, and was also why she could not affect him in the first place.
'Should I risk it?' Eri sighed and thought, her music never stopped playing.
The fight was soon left at a stalemate - Shigaraki couldn't get close while Eri couldn't deal any damage to her. Plus, the more time passed, the more Shigaraki was healing; another reason why Eri couldn't delay this any further.
Eri's fingers danced across the flute as she dashed towards Shigaraki. Shigaraki didn't face against her directly and immediately tossed a massive boulder at her while decaying it.
As expected, the boulder stopped decaying the moment it entered Eri's range, and if that wasn't good enough, the boulder flew back to its place on the building that had already disappeared.
Shigaraki's eyes were eerily calm as he dashed from place to place, hoping to recover his physical strength to his peak before attempting to surprise and attack her. Knowing that his most powerful weapon, the 'Enhanced Decay' was useless, he was annoyed.
But if there was one thing that he had after both brothers had fused to become one, it was patience. He had waited for three months to gain this power. He didn't mind waiting for another hour before ruling the world.
Eri hoped to catch up with Shigaraki and kill him. To let him live would be a mistake. A mistake that the government made with All for One. People like them should not exist if the world wanted peace.
It was people like them who made villains who they are. It was people like them who taught criminals how to be criminals.
Eri continued chasing after Shigaraki from house to house, though the majority of them were destroyed. Eri ensured that her quirk was always active, not wanting to risk anything.
Wherever Shigaraki went, a trail of destruction followed.
And wherever Eri followed, the trail of destruction was returned to its original look and shape, making it seem as though the destruction never occurred at all.
Eri couldn't help but compare Shigaraki to a dexterous monkey. He leaped, jumped, rolled, and sidestepped in every possible direction, dodging all the projectiles and occasional kicks thrown at him.
Despite her provocative actions, Shigaraki didn't retaliate as he realized that Eri never jumped in mindlessly. She would always be in the middle of playing her music when she kicks so that it would affect Shigaraki if he gets too close.
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The cat and mouse chase had gone on for more than an hour, and Eri was slowly accumulating mental stress.
The other heroes couldn't even help as they would only be a burden for Eri. Without Eri's help, they would all become dust when they even try to get close to Shigaraki, causing them to all grit their teeth in frustration at their own powerlessness.
Shigaraki had calculated the time she took during one of the breaks from playing the flute during the entire chase. Though he couldn't hear her music, he could see her lips pause for a second or so every five minutes to take in a deep breath before continuing the music.
And although the window was small, about a second or so, he was confident that he would be able to pierce through her heart and kill her immediately during that time.
5.
4.
3.
It was almost time for her to get her breath once more. As Shigaraki turned a corner, he didn't continue running. He prepared all his strength and tensed up while waiting directly behind the corner.
As expected, she had continued chasing even after losing sight after the turn. And predictably as well, the music stopped for a second as she turned the corner as well.
Shigaraki's eyes lit up as he hurriedly stabbed his hands straight at her heart, aiming for the kill.
Eri certainly didn't expect that, as Shigaraki had only run around for more than an hour straight, never stopping to retaliate.
'I became overconfident!'
Using the last of her reactions, she placed the flute directly in front of her heart, and though it might not have successfully stopped Shigaraki's stab, it had at least deflected it to the side, albeit barely.
"Bleugh!!" Eri spat out blood as Shigaraki's hand pierced through Eri's windpipe.
Her concentration was momentarily disrupted, and her quirk stopped activating for a second.
But that second was all Shigaraki needed to activate his quirk on her body.
Her body started to decay slowly, perhaps because Eri was rewinding all the damage done to her. However, because she was already struggling to breathe from the broken windpipe, her quirk was weakened, allowing the decay to spread at a rate faster than she could rewind the damage.
"Bye, Eri!"
Shigaraki announced as his other hand aimed straight towards her brain.
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A/N: I feel so bad, man. My heart was pierced seeing Eri suffer...My dear Eri!
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