Chapter 4: Origins: Escape
Eri fell asleep not long after shedding all her tears. I wasn't surprised seeing as she had gone through that torture not too long ago.
She looked so peaceful in her sleep. As if all the pain she's experienced was nothing more than a bad dream. I want to make that a reality for her.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to sleep alongside her for now, I still had a few things to take care of. After reaffirming my resolve to save her, I knew I couldn't half ass this. I needed to take risks. Well, more risks than I already was. I would have to do something I was told to never do again; Rewrite my mind.
Taking a moment to calm my breathing, I pulled on that familiar energy that made up my quirk and I activated it; once more shortening my life. I swore I could hear a clock start a rhythmic ticking each time I used it.
I had been warned that any further alterations to my mind could potentially ruin my ability to read a person's body. Since then, I vowed to never use rewrite to alter my mind, but this time I felt like I would require it. Though I had received extensive training in the arts of silence and stealth, I felt I had to take into account that they taught me everything I know. Considering their already waning trust in me, I should expect they had some sort of countermeasure in place to subdue me.
At least that's what I was trained to do.
I activated rewrite and used it to increase my intelligence. Although it wouldn't teach me how to do things I couldn't do before, it would still be useful when I need it to come up with better on-the-fly decisions once things inevitably go wrong.
I couldn't just blindly believe things would work out perfectly, and I knew I wasn't capable of getting Eri out of here without thinking beyond what they taught me.
I felt the effects almost immediately. I could think faster and clearer than before, almost like I had a second me in my own head thinking for me. I was able to see the flaws in several of my plans and adjusted accordingly. It disheartened me to realize how little time I had left now. This change took up far more energy than I thought it would. Was I really that dumb before or is there another reason?
Still, I didn't mind. I had already resolved myself to my fate, but I would at least try to keep enough left over to get Eri set up for her new life. A month...no, even just a week would be good enough.
With that settled, I spend the rest of the time coming up with plan after plan to deal with the goons in the base as efficiently as possible. I wanted to wait about a few minutes after the usual shift change to reduce the risk of someone coming across any unfortunate goons that got in our way.
Once it was the right time, I slowly approached the door and bit my thumb. Blood slowly started oozing out and I controlled it to flow into the key slot and form a makeshift key. This is a lot easier than picking it the normal way. I also could have just broken the door, but I wanted to reduce the chance of whoever was on the other side being prepared for me.
Unlocking the door, I pulled it open as quietly as possible. I had already confirmed with my enhanced senses earlier, so I wasn't surprised to find our so-called caretaker asleep leaning against the wall beside the door.
Or at least, that's how he appeared. With the feeling that time itself slowed down, It took me less than a second to confirm that he was just pretending to be asleep and that he was completely alert.
So, they did expect me to try something. Slightly worrying, but it feels good to be validated.
I was trained to never waste an opportunity after all, and my first instinct upon seeing him asleep was to swiftly attack and ensure he would no longer pose an issue. Taking a second longer to consider things, I notice that I don't recognize this man either. Meaning he was likely placed here specifically tonight just in case we made our escape.
If that is the case, I have to wonder what his quirk might be. It could either be made to counter my abilities specifically, or more likely it should be able to alert someone or a large group of people should we actually attempt to escape.
Checking his body over once more in greater detail, I can see a few holes on his hand that he's placed seemingly uncomfortably close to his face for a sleeping position. His body also indicates he's ready to raise his hand to his mouth at a moment's notice. So likely a quirk activated by blowing air into his hands than? A whistle is it…
Well, that's the best I can come up with right now. Wow, thinking this fast is kind of fun. Less than two seconds have passed since I opened the door and I've already got a pretty good read on the situation. No, I need to focus!
Quickly deciding the best approach to this situation, I figured I had enough leeway to test how effective a later plan of mine will work. Using my control over my blood, I quickly formed a knife and threw it directly at his half raised hand. My plan was to quickly disable his arm to prevent him from raising it while blocking his mouth in time to stop him from using his presumed non-dominant hand.
Just as predicted, as soon as the knife entered his arm he yelped in surprise, clearly not being as prepared as he assumed he was given his previous confident posture. Curiously enough, he didn't appear to be as bothered by the knife as I had assumed he would be, given that he immediately went to raise the other one without hesitation. In fact, he just looked angry as he appeared to be getting ready to use her quirk. This guy is definitely a higher level than I gave him credit for.
Unfortunately for him, that change in planned hands still gave me just enough time to approach him with my superior speed and restrain both his arms.
Not that it mattered. Despite my increased intelligence, I was still a bit too careless. Before I could properly cover his mouth, I could see the great deal of air he previously collected in his lungs about to release with a loud yell. I had assumed the only way he could use his quirk was through his hands!
I can't let him yell out or everything is going to get much harder!
Panicking I unintentionally fell back on my training and performed a "follow through" in order to silence him quicker. Before I could understand what was happening a large volume of blood suddenly covered my upper body when my fist landed on his torso.
I hastily checked him over to see that despite some heavy internal damage, he was still alive, though he would likely need medical attention very soon if he wanted to stay that way. Still, this made me realize how deeply their training has affected me over the years. If I hadn't held back at the very last second, I may have unalived this man as well. I needed to learn better control. I refused to become a monster!
I didn't have much longer to consider that as I knew he would probably need to check in with someone pretty often if he was specifically assigned to watch us for tonight. With him unconscious, we were already on a short clock.
Without a second thought, I rushed over to Eri and began frantically shaking her to wake up. Eri, keeping up with her contradictory behavior, was a very heavy sleeper but she was very easy to rise once she was woken up.
She was slowly stirring awake, and by god she looked absolutely adorable! For a brief moment, I considered throwing all of my plans away to let her sleep just a little longer, but I knew deep down that would probably be a bad idea. Sigh, the sacrifices we must make…
'Eri, come on, we don't have much time! We have to go!' Gah it's times like these I wish I could speak normally! Still, that seemed to be enough because her eyes snapped open and she looked around in a daze for a moment.
"Onee-chan, where are we going?" She asked after rubbing her eyes a little. Un, definitely the cutest in the world.
"Wha-!" Ah, it looks like she noticed the blood.
We don't have time. We need to get out of here! Although I would love nothing more than to reassure her right now that everything would be alright, I knew she would see a lot worse by the time we actually escaped this place.
Not waiting for a response, I grabbed her hand and ran out of the room with her. I had long since memorized the layout of this place, so I had no problem navigating to the exit. Well, it'll probably be a trap. Likely the only exits I know of are being more heavily guarded. I could try to make my own, but that would take too much time.
Sigh, it always feels like there just isn't enough time recently. In that sense, I envy Eri who will have all the time she needs to build the life she wants after we get out of here. Speaking of Eri, I can feel her tensing up behind me and I glance back to see her looking at the new guy who seemed to have fallen unconscious by now.
I can already tell what she's thinking. I didn't understand it before but after this most recent change, it's very obvious now. That bastard Chisaki has thoroughly brainwashed her into believing every problem that arises is a result of her own actions. No matter how small a problem was, she always believed it was her fault it happened. I still don't understand why our treatment was so different. The only thing I can think of is her quirk. It must pose a greater threat to him than mine does.
I still don't even know what it is now that I think about it. Something to look into later I suppose. I only have a limited amount of time left now, so I won't even be able to help her with her trauma and conditioning. I will just have to trust the person I leave her with will have the heart to help her. I want to curse my inability to speak, but more than anything else right now, she needs me.
"...!" Tightening my grip on her hand I try to convey my support the best I can, though I'm not sure how much she understand with this stupid mask on. I need to remember to remove it after we leave.
'Don't worry, Eri! I'll protect you!' Is what I want to say to her while giving her a smile and squeezing her hand a little tighter.
"Un!" She gave a cute nod with a determined face. Gosh, she's so adorable! I wonder if her cuteness could be weaponized? If it could, we might make it out of here just by her asking nicely!
I feel like I'm becoming a bit strange after the change to my intelligence? My ability to read body language thankfully hasn't changed but I feel like I get distracted much easier.
For now I have to put aside those thoughts as I can sense the presence of a few more goons up ahead. From what I can feel, I don't think they're on to us just yet, so that's a plus. This just means I need to act swiftly to deal with them.
Seeing as my thumb had already healed in this short amount of time, I had to bite it again to give my blood an easy way out. I could force it through my skin, but it's a little uncomfortable, so I'd rather not.
As soon as we rounded the corner I spotted a group of 6 likely on patrol. Wasting no time, I pointed my hand in their direction and fired off several shots of blood bullets. Since Eri is here, I wanted to avoid anything too gruesome. Luckily my bullets still can't penetrate so that isn't an issue. It still traveled fast enough that they all probably felt like they were hit with a steel bat tho.
With a thud, 5 of the 6 collapsed instantly, but one of them seemed to have some sort of endurance quirk because he was still conscious even after being hit in the head.
I messed up again! I had assumed they all would go down instantly, so I wasn't prepared for the next shot just yet. Normally I would have charged at them and taken them down but I can't do that while holding Eri's hand! I'm starting to realize now that altering my mind definitely had some negative side-effects because I never would have made a mistake like this in training! That, or maybe it's because my training was almost entirely on lethal takedowns?
In any case, before I could fire again, he quickly pressed some kind of button and the alarms started ringing. That's just great, now the entire base is going to be after us!
Deciding he had caused enough problems, I gave him a kick to the head as we passed by and he went rocketing into the wall, finally unconscious.
HIs body twitched a bit before unceremoniously dropping to the floor. I can feel Eri shaking behind me, but I no longer have time to worry about that. I can hear several groups converging on our location already.
So, making sure I have a firm grip, I just keep running with Eri. We met several groups along the way, but I took them all out with little to no effort. That's to be expected of course, most goons are goons in the first place because their quirks were too useless to be much use anywhere else.
I could handle most before they could even get close thanks to my senses, but for those that managed to sneak up on us, they were quickly taken care of by my blood bullets.
We were finally approaching the exit and I could practically taste freedom but I also knew it was too good to be true so I constantly had my guard up.
*Click*
I knew it. It was faint, but I could hear the cocking of a gun. A revolver? Not very efficient, but it's actually pretty hard to get guns into Japan in the first place. But I don't really have time to worry about that right now.
With a yank of my arm, I pulled Eri to me, then immediately jumped to the side without giving her any warning. Barely even a second later, I heard a bang and tracked the bullet that sailed past where we were standing a few moments ago. And that seriously pissed me off. Had his aim been off even slightly it would have been Eri that had gotten hit, not me!
I'll be sure to make this extra painful!
-_-_-
[A/N: Sorry had a last minute trip last week so I couldn't post anything. Anyway, fewer changes take place this chapter from the original but there are a few. Still, this is the end of where I got with the old prologue so everything after this is new content. Origins should be wrapped up in about 2 more chapters for anyone curious. Also might set up a patre*n soon with a few extra chapters available in the future. Might even let you guys decide what I focus on if you're more interested in any of my other stories. Chao!]
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