Chapter 3: First Contact
"Uh, who's there?"
She holds out her knife and gets in a defensive position, scanning the small bedroom with her eyes.
"Come out or it'll get nasty..."
She seems to be on alert, frightened even. The madness that usually swarmed in her eyes has been replaced by fear, creating the look of anxiety and distress. Was it because I caught her doing something she shouldn't have? Is she scared that the League caught word of this? Well, might as well as her straight up, what else could I really do right now?
"Chill, it's me, Deku."
I slowly enter the room she's in, my clothes ragged and dragging along the floor. I place my hand on the door frame as my legs start to give out to exhaustion. I haven't eaten anything well in so long. I don't think I'm in any condition for a proper fight, mainly the reason why I've just been knocking villains out instantly. I realise now that if All For One really was here, I could never defeat him, much less kill him. I really do need some proper rest.
"Hm...Deku...So YOU'RE who I'm dealing with..."
Her voice is filled with a sense of disdain...but there's a cold anger in her eyes. She lowers her weapon but still remains wary of an attack.
"You're a little worse for wear, aren't you? What happened to you?"
"Stuff, your group of villains keeps targetting me...so I really haven't had time to take care of myself, why do you care?"
She continues to glare at me, her eyes narrowed with malice.
"Because I want to know..."
Her scared expression shifts back into her usual cold, cruel smirk.
"And maybe... because I want to see you suffer..."
She takes one slow step towards me, her weapon raised once more.
"If you know what I mean..."
"Do you seriously want to fight? We're both not in the condition to fight, are we?"
I let out a strained cough through my tattered mask and look dead ahead at her. She snickers in response and lowers her weapon once more, a more twisted smile spreading across her face.
"What's wrong...little hero? Afraid to fight an 'unarmed woman'?"
Her words seem to strike a nerve in me. I think to myself: Huh? Unarmed woman? You killed hundreds of people, you're using that as an excuse? I fail to notice her slowly creep forward, trying to make use of this and press her advantage.
She suddenly places one hand on my shoulder in an affectionate way. Her hand on my shoulder knocks me back to reality and my eyes are met with her cold stare, followed by her smile as she pulls up my mask to see my face, her eyes still holding that dark, menacing glint. Our eyes lock, and for a moment, it seems like I've regained everything I had before all of this. That moment didn't last long however, as her hands make a quick motion as she pulls her hand up.
"Or are you maybe...too WEAK?"
Immeadiately, she swings her short blade towards my face but my Danger Sense quirks kicks in and alerts me before any harm comes to my frail body and I manage to duck my head under the blade and I launch myself back using One for All focused towards my legs. The force of my jump knocks her back a bit as she stares me down, and she moves her blade to her mount and licks it clean. There she is. The Himiko Toga I know.
"Fine, don't say I warned you."
I immediately set up a pink smokescreen with my quirk, covering the small bedroom to limit her vision, then using my blackwhip tendrils, I knock her knife from her hands grasp. Within another instant, my tendrils wrap around her and I throw her to the wall using them without moving my body an inch. It's not like I can move it that much anyways, I'm seriously exhuasted. Sure, it's a scummy way of winning, but it works.
As she's knocked to the wall, she growls, her ears flat against her head as the wild, predatory look of a predator who's been cornered scatters throughout her face. She doesn't seem to have noticed that I've taken her weapon away, so she's caught off guard when she realises what's happened as the smokescreen slowly starts to clear.
"You...you little..."
"Look, I've beaten your stupid leader Shigaraki to the point where he's literally just sitting somewhere having to recover, do you seriously want to do this?"
Her eyes narrow even further and she hisses like a snake clearly having just been insulted.
"Yes...I do."
She swipes her knife along the wall of the building, sending chunks of concrete at me as she continue charging forward...but this time, instead of aiming for my body, she heads for my mask, probably hoping to knock it off so she can strike me directly.
"You're weak and pathetic like the rest of heroes..."
There's a cruel venom in her voice as she gets closer and closer and she manages to slash my mask clean off, revealing a cold broken face underneath, with red, bloodshot eyes and eyebags likely from my lack of sleep. My face seems to fill her with disgust and she hisses again in anger, before making another lunge at me - aiming for my throat as she draws near.
"You're weak, pathetic, and useless..."
After she slashes my mask off, she lands a short distance from me from the force of her lunge and I stand there, unable to react. Not because of my physical strength or anything, but because what she said...her words are...correct.
"I know I am..."
I put back on my torn and ragged mask, one devoid of all hope. You could even mistake me for a villain if you saw me without my smokescreen. I turn back to her, my arms swaying lifelessly from my sides, and my blackwhip tendrils stop thrashing around, and fall to the ground.
"So then why even become a hero..."
She glares at me again..with those cold and unfeeling eyes, like those of a predator about to strike.
"Why even bother when you know you're weak?
You're pathetic...
...Why don't you just give up?"
I contemplate myself for a minute, why don't I just give up? It's not my life means anything anymore, why should I try so hard to protect everyone when I can't even protect myself? The reason is clear as day to me however.
"I can't...for the smile to be put on everyone's faces...I can't stop..."
Then I set up another smokescreen so she can't see. Then using One for All, I strengthen my leg and then dash at her, and kick her against the cold, brick wall.
As she's launched against the wall, she lets out a pained grunt - the sound of someone who's just suffered a debilitating blow. But somehow she remains upright as she growls at me again.
"You're worthless...
You can NEVER understand the thrill of victory that villains like me get to experience!
We deserve our power, because we've EARNED it with our blood, sweat and tears!"
The hatred in her voice is even more prominent now, her gaze narrowing as the predatory look returns to her eyes, but with a lot less force than before. I'm stronger than her. By a landslide. I think she realises this as well. Villains like her are rare, most would just bow down and beg for mercy, but she's fighting till her very last breath. Respectable in a way. Most heroes don't even have the determination she has.
"Sure, yeah whatever, all you do is murder and throw away your lives."
I start to feel...weak? Exhausted even? That kick of mine seems to have weakened my leg, and it becomes a struggle to keep on my feet as it wobbles and gives in to the pressure of my upper body. I can't do this much longer, or else I will probably collapse.
"I've had enough of this."
Using my blackwhip tendrils, I grab a hold of her neck and wrap multiple around her entire body. Demobilising her for the time being as my body grows weaker and weaker. I lift her up off the ground from her neck, choking her and trying to weaken her. She tries to struggle against the tendrils, but they're too strong. Her breath comes in loud, pained gasps as her neck begins to feel the squeeze of the tendrils.
"LET ME GO!"
She glares down at me, her eyes wild with furious anger. There's a predatory hunger, an unquenchable lust for the feeling of triumph in those dark, empty gazes. But I think we both know, she's not fulfilling that hunger at all. I'm clearly winning here, and the only danger I'm in is caused by my own self-negligence.
I then proceed to throw her against another wall in the cramped bedroom, with much MUCH more force then before.
She lets out a blood-curdling scream of pain as she collides with the wall - a scream so painful it feels like a part of my very soul is being ripped from my body. She coughs violently as her small lungs try to force in the air that was knocked out of me and she looks across the room towards to me again. Rather than that cold glare, her face is now streaked with tears, but she still glares up at me, her ears flattened against my head with pain, her eyes filled with unfeeling hatred.
"You...you bastard..."
I menacingly walk over slowly to her, my tendrils lashing out behind me, giving off the impression that they're ready to strike again.
"You never stood any chance against me, just accept it."
She manages to stand up, coughing blood as her ears remain flattened against her skull, her vision blurring as she struggles to maintain consciousness. Despite all of this, she still stares with a defiant look on her face, unwilling to accept defeat.
"You'll have to kill me first...
...Or does your 'justice' prevent you from doing that?"
I use one of my tendrils to grab her throat yet again and push her against the wall with it. I hold up my hand in a punching position and it starts to charge with One for All, and starts to light up with neon red streaking down my entire arm.
"You think I won't?"
Her eyes widen in terror as I begins charging what is probably the strongest attack my his arsenal, but she refuse to let me see her fear. She snarls at him defiantly, refusing to beg for her life.
"Do it.
Do it and prove you're better then me."
Her voice is filled with a mixture of anger and hate, but she dares me to end my life right then and there...her eyes remaining cold and empty. Staring into them, I realise something. They're the same cold, empty eyes I've seen everywhere for the past few months. That dead, emotionless stare following me everywhere I go, in the windows of buildings, puddles of muddy rainwater and more importantly, the mirrors around the city.
It was the same look as mine.
As shes pushed firmly against the wall by my tendrils, I'm unable to deliver the killing blow yet again. That look on her face. That cold, dead stare. The exact same as mine. It seems to make me lose myself in thought yet again, as we both stand there, panting desperately for any oxygen that could have made it's way into this dingy little room.
That blow from earlier onto Toga against the wall, it seems to have made quite the commotion as suddenly, the door behind me gets busted down. I slowly turn behind me to see a person dressed head to toe in a sleek, black tactical suit adorned with silver circuit patterns that glow with an eerie blue light. In his arm is what seems to be a modified Pistol, seemingly his quirk to modify and manipulate weapons at will. A cool quirk, if the pistol wasn't aimed directly for my face.
"A hero? Don't take another step!"
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone