บท 5: Origins: Confrontation
[A/N: Happy 2/22/22 Everyone!! Also reminder, "Cain" still can't really understand words. So she has absolutely no clue what they're saying most of the time outside of a few words she's heard quite a few times. If you want to know what is being said, all blurred dialogue is in the first Eri perspective chapter.]
"I ~~~~~. I ~~~ ~ ~~~ ~ bad ~~~~ ~ train ~~~. ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ planned." Said a masculine voice with a condescending tone. Of course, it had to be them. Nothing is ever easy, is it? Strangely enough, I think I could understand a few of the sounds he made this time without even looking at him…
Turning around I glared at the group of men, especially the black one with a gun, that somehow snuck up behind us coming from a hallway I distinctly remember not being there before. Guess there are still secrets to this place even I don't know. Great.
"Tsk, ~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~~, ~~~~~!? ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~! I ~~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~ sleep!" The big life stealer shouted at us loud enough to rattle my ears a bit. As always, before he activates his quirk, he appears to be extremely fatigued. I hope to keep him like that until I can deal with the others. I really don't have a reliable way to knock him out without getting close and I'm guaranteed to lose a drawn-out fight.
"Idiot, ~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~. ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~, ~~~~ ~~~~ I ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~." The black one stated. Probably saying something rude given the offended look thrown back at him.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!" The loopy one said(?) while trying and failing to pour down another bottle of whatever it is he drinks down his throat. Most of it was missed and spilled on himself and the floor, very wasteful. But given the smell, I'm not surprised he doesn't want to drink it. I know this is how he uses his quirk, but it seems like a pretty big drawback if he has to drink that every time. It always makes him act strange and uncoordinated.
In any case, he also needs to go first if I want to get through this as fast as possible. His quirk is more annoying than lethal but it's still the greatest hindrance in this fight.
"..."
At times like these, I wish I knew how to speak. I might have said something witty to anger them to take any advantage I could. I of course learned to act in such a way to convey meanings as well but such things would be largely ineffective against this bunch considering they would know exactly why I'm doing it.
Quickly moving Eri behind me I want to reassure her this would all be over before she even knew it, but settle for giving her a quick glance and nod.
Judging by their tensing muscles, it appears they understand I have no intention to surrender. It's not long after that I can feel the world get unsteady under my feet. A sign that the smelly one has wasted no time in activating his quirk.
Without a second thought, I activate my own quirk, as planned, and start rewriting my body to resist his quirk. It luckily didn't take much lifeforce to resist his quirk but I have been rewriting quite a bit today so I haven't exactly had a chance to adjust to any of them properly yet. That will make this fight a little more difficult than I would like but it's still doable.
In any case, now that the troublesome one has been pretty much invalidated, there has been a change in priority targets. The black one still has a gun and should he attempt to target Eri, this will get much more complicated. Luckily I already thought of that so without further consideration, I willed the blood-soaked bandages wrapped around my arms to unfurl to prepare my weapons. One forming into a makeshift shield and the other a sword.
Although their faces are covered I can see the surprise radiating off of them as I do so. From what I understand, quirks are limited to one per person so seeing me use a "second" quirk has forced them to reconsider a lot of things. Making them doubt their information will make them both more cautious and more sloppy. Two things I need for my plan to work.
Not missing a beat, I take off in a sprint directly towards the closest target, the big one. I would very much like to get rid of him first so I don't have to worry about a drawn out fight.
I could practically feel the panic radiating off of him as he noticed I was completely unaffected by the smelly ones quirk. Not to mention I went full speed from the start, something I rarely had the chance to do in training. This led to me getting close enough to slash at his tendons before he had a chance to react.
My blood-soaked "sword" managed to cut into him pretty deeply before it suddenly vanished from my hand and I was forced to retreat while blocking two bullets from the black one with my "shield". The crystal man then showed his namesake and appeared in front of the big one in a defensive position, seemingly worried about his condition.
Looking around I quickly found my "sword" exactly where I expected, in the hands of the thief. He started making sounds and judging by his body it appears to be in an effort to taunt me. Unfortunately for him, whatever it is he said appears to have angered the big one as he started shouting at both him and the smelly one.
Seeing as they were distracted, I used that chance to initiate the first step of my plan-
"Gaargh-!!"
-Without warning the "sword" in the thief's hands suddenly shot out and wrapped itself around his neck!
That served as a sufficient distraction it seems. They all turned to face him to see what caused that reaction, leaving quite a few of them wide open. Unfortunately the black one, the current highest priority target, was hidden behind both the big one and the crystal man, so I had to make do with the annoyance instead.
With none of them looking at me, I quickly formed a blood bullet on my finger and aimed it at the smelly one hanging from the ceiling for some reason. Still, I refused to make the same mistake twice, so I spent a few precious seconds creating a second bullet before I fired it.
*POP* "Oof!"
The initial firing was pretty silent considering the pressure buildup happens mostly inside my body so they only realized what happened after a vaguely loud popping sound echoed throughout the hall after he was hit right in his temple.
The force of the bullet sent him crashing straight into the sidewall and before he had a chance to process what happened, a second bullet connected directly with his forehead, immediately robbing him of his consciousness.
Unfortunately, this was enough to get the other three moving again and the crystal man proceeded to try fighting me again. His moves were pretty telegraphed seeing as fighting wasn't his strong suit, but he was still able to get a few lucky hits in due to me needing to block the occasional bullet from the black one.
The big one, thankfully, suffered enough damage to his leg that I could ignore him for the time being. He tried to get involved with the fight a few times but he was slow enough for me to dodge with minimum effort to his growing frustration.
The fight might have been over by now in this situation, but the crystal man proved to be far more durable than I initially gave him credit for. Neither of us could really injure the other so we were at a bit of an impasse. That is until the black one suddenly gave a shout of surprise in the backline.
They had been too focused on me and completely forgot about the bandage choking out their companion earlier. Perhaps they thought he could free himself with that sword he's always carrying around. As if my blood-soaked bandages would be flimsy enough to be cut by steel so easily.
I only had to stall for a bit of time and once he was out of commission, I willed those same bandages to strike at the black ones outstretched hand holding the gun. What I hadn't anticipated was it slicing straight through his hand, leaving him shouting in pain clutching his stumped wrist.
His wailing was again further proof why silence was key, as it too served enough of a distraction for me to get another hit in. This time, with the threat of the gun eliminated, I was able to use my "shield" for more than just blocking.
I noticed earlier, but he mostly limits his crystals to his arms, legs, and his back. If I had to guess, sprouting them anywhere else would reduce his mobility more than he's comfortable with. This meant his torso and above was wide open while he was distracted.
With a quick rush, I broke through his guard and slammed my crystalized shield into his chest with a thud. Then I willed the crystals to grow and stab him through while making sure to avoid any vital organs. Since I was avoiding ending his life, I thought this wouldn't be enough to take him out of the fight, so I followed through with a sharp uppercut to his unprotected chin. Sending him at least a couple inches off the ground before falling on his back groaning in between consciousness.
This meant only two were left and one of them was pretty much a non-threat after being disarmed. That didn't stop him from shouting something fierce at the big one that seemed to get a reaction out of him.
Quite frankly I was already planning to book it out of there with Eri since I knew he would be too slow to stop us. What kept me from doing so was his body suddenly radiating a newfound confidence after getting yelled at. I had no idea what changed, but I was always taught to treat confidence with caution.
I was right to do so because I suddenly sensed something that I hadn't before due to not focusing on him completely. I couldn't make out what it was exactly but it felt familiar to say the least. I was finally given a hint when he pulled out some kind of vial flowing with crimson liquid. Whatever it was, my senses were reacting to it.
I wasn't given much time to contemplate when, without warning, he rammed it into his neck and drained the liquid into his body. What happened next made me want to throw out everything I thought I knew about quirks entirely.
The big one suddenly started screeching his lungs off forcing me to cover my ears due to the volume. Next his body started changing not so subtly. His muscles bulked up ever further than they already were. Unlike before, his body suddenly radiated energy like he hadn't been near sleep deprived only a few moments ago. And most troubling, I could feel my energy slowly being drained from inside of me.
I knew the feeling very well, but I was under the impression his quirk required constant contact with his victim! This wasn't part of the plan at all. Worse yet, I could also feel it draining my lifeforce as well! And very rapidly at that!
That shouldn't have been possible, at least it had never done so before now. Though, maybe it had and I just hadn't noticed before? It was only after the most recent changes that I could accurately feel the lifeforce inside of me in the first place. But this was the first time I noticed even my horn reacting to the sudden decrease!
The situation just became beyond dangerous…is what I would have said if I hadn't finally identified the familiar feeling I was sensing from the vial.
It was my blood.
I didn't even have to wonder where they got it from because a few years ago, my silence training suddenly became very different or at least I thought it did. I was strapped to a chair, nothing too unusual for that type of training, and "Overhaul" would use his ability on me for hours at a time.
It was perhaps the worst pain I had ever felt up until that point. None of my previous training could ever compare. What made it strange was he appeared to be collecting the leftover waste from the training. I just assumed he was just trying to keep the area clean like usual, so I didn't think much of it. That was also around the time Eri started changing so I was more or less preoccupied with that.
But now it seems very clear that he was collecting pieces of me for whatever this transformation could be called. It might have been cause for concern and maybe even our failure, If I hadn't just spent the last few hours learning about all the neat things I could do with my blood!
"Huh?" That was all the big one got out before abruptly collapsing backwards right on top of the equally confused black one. His changes reversed and the pull on my energy ceased, though I was still pretty winded.
In any case, I guess that means I won? A bit anticlimactic I think but I won't complain!
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed my little Eri reaching out to me and taking a few hesitant steps. It seems I was pretty careless towards the end since I hadn't realized she was so close in the first place. Something I definitely have to keep in mind in the future.
For now, I could only offer her a smile while trying to catch my breath. Unfortunately this stupid mask got in the way so I could only try my best to convey a smile with my eyes and body language. Eri's a smart girl, if not a little loud, so I'm sure she'll understand my intentions.
I just wanted to gloat, 'See, Eri. I told you I would protect you!' and have her rub her squishy little cheeks against mine. Oh dear it seems I'm becoming a little strange again. Oh well.
"Onee-chan…" She said with little tears clouding the corners of her eyes. I might have been worried but I could see the relief and joy she truly felt underneath it all.
"Let's go Onee-" She reached out to grab my hand, and just before I could let her, every single one of my senses screamed at me.
"!!!" I didn't know what it was, I was getting signals from senses I didn't even know I had! Something dangerous was approaching, no, it was already here!
I was still too winded to make any quick movements so I did the only thing I felt capable of and shoved Eri out of the way…
*RUMBLE!!* PUCHI!*
Next thing I knew, before I even realized it, all I knew was pain. Looking down, I noticed several stone spikes jutting out of my body in a lot of dangerous places. That's probably not good…
"~~~~~ I ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~, Eri?" I heard someone say, followed by a familiar uncomfortable feeling.
And that's probably much worse…
-_-_-_-
[A/N: Wow guys, talk about jinxing myself. I completely forgot work was scheduled to be done on my house today. Thankfully, I remembered laptops are actually mobile, so I could finish the chapter as planned if not a little late. That aside, I wonder if anyone has picked up on the strange connection between Eri and "Cain" so far? Despite the fact that "Cain" can't talk and shouldn't be able to understand Eri, so far they've had no real trouble doing so even if neither of them have noticed. I wonder why...🤔]
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UncrownedKing
UncrownedKing One more chapter of Origins to go, then we'll have an intermission from another character's pov before moving on to the street life arc. Also haven't been able to really go over and edit this chapter like I normally would so if you spot any errors let me know and I'll fix them up.
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