บท 17: Chapter 17 : Pride Is The Devil

*A/N*: First fight scene I ever wrote in its entirety, I tried to make it as clear as I was imagining it and as close as their respective fighting style. It'll get better, even though I already find this one pretty smooth!

Don't forget to give power stones it motivates me a lot, compared to other authors who are motivated through money and p attreon I find my way more easy no? hehe

here's the discord :

https://discord.gg/pRaqNADp7C

The famous GhostyZ, the man the legend, just joined, you can come and say hello.

***

In an unfrequented street of Hiroshima, two kids were facing each other.

Having buildings on each side made the alley more or less shady, even though the sun was still shining... Well, it was already past 5 pm.

"So? Lil' bunny, you went as far as to ambush me, but why aren't you attacking yet?" Kurai's teasing voice resonated.

Rumi only growled back, lowering her stance further, and leaning on one leg, "Grrr…"

She continued, "Why ain't ya using your quirk?! Huh? You don't take me seriously too because I'm a girl?!" Her glare intensified.

"Huh?" Kurai raised an eyebrow.

What a dumb question, he thought. In his life as an assassin, he saw a lot of girls nearly on par with him. They used people's natural instinct of letting their guards down around females to their advantage. So being a top assassin, Kurai wasn't the type to underestimate girls.

He smirked, "No, not at all. It's just that I simply don't need my quirk to beat you."

"But... I guess I can humour you." He started walking toward her, his features changing ever so slowly.

Of course he could do it instantly, but why would he skip theatrics? Such an opportunity wouldn't come twice.

Starting from the top of his head, two black cat ears appeared, then his irises became more defined, more cat-like. The whiskers grew a bit too.

Going down, his nails became more elongated, and finally his long black tail started forming. As he was closing the distance between him and Rumi, while keeping eye contact, she could feel the pressure emanating from him growing more and more as he was approaching. Her animalistic instincts were screaming at her to move, but her body wasn't responding.

No, it was more correct to say that she didn't want her body to move, her pride wouldn't let her run away just because the enemy was walking toward her.

Now in his half-cat, half-human form, the form most comfortable for him, Kurai could feel his power and senses enhancing further. This transformation actually gave him the best traits of both species, this particular mix of genes offered him even more power, speed, agility and dexterity. Without forgetting to add a better sense of smell and a better hearing.

His footsteps became lighter and lighter, until it became close to soundless.

Rumi was sure that if she was a simple human it would've been impossible to hear him. Along with it, the pressure disappeared but she knew it was still there. It was just too overwhelming for her to feel.

Blinking her eyes, suddenly, she could feel a breath on her forehead, raising her head, her pupils dilated under the shock caused by Kurai.

He was now standing a few centimeters in front of her, looking down at her menacingly with his golden eyes.

It wasn't that Kurai was particularly tall, but Rumi was shorter than the average kid. Offering him another possibility to show off. He wasn't that petty, but things had to be done to tame a cheeky brat.

"Lil' bunny, can you feel this? This is the gap between us." He slowly murmured in her ear.

He started to go away, turning his back at her, "So don't try to bite more than you can chew, aight?" Kurai waved at her without looking behind him, and continued to walk forward, hands in his pockets. His features going back to human.

Meanwhile, Rumi was left there frozen, looking at his back moving away.

'What am I doing? What happened to me?' Tears started to garner in the corner of her eyes.

'NO! It shouldn't be like this!' She sniffled and held her tears.

'I shouldn't be scared of anything!'

'I want to be a Hero, a fearless Hero!' She forced a cramped smile on her face.

Rumi fixed her stance, and started running forward, making Kurai look back at her. 'Hoh! Interesting, little rabbit.'

Her top speed was pretty fast, considering that she didn't have a speed-related quirk, or anything of the sort.

No, in a way, her speed was hard to define, just like All Might being pretty damn fast even though his quirk wasn't related to speed in any way. It was more thanks to his overwhelming strength, and muscles that he was able to move that quick. Leaving all the 'speed' related quirk users in the dust.

That's why she could be compare to him, thanks to her strength and her quirk's boost, her speed was astonishing, she could clearly outrun most of the kids. And all that only with her physical abilities. 'It's praiseworthy.'

'But not enough.'

Just then Rumi sprung in the air with everything she had, bending her body forward to initiate a rotation.

When her momentum depleted, she started going down and her simple forward rotation became something bigger, something more deadly. Her aerial control was flawless, so the results were too.

Now that she was gaining momentum while going down thanks to gravity, she executed a cartwheel kick with the back of her heel in the direction of Kurai's head.

Like an axe coming to chop his head, her cartwheel kick was that deadly, but he simply raised his hand to catch her foot.

*BAM*

A sound echoed in the alley, the shock of the opposite forces was brutal. Kurai's feet even sank under the pressure of the kick. 'Dang, it wasn't a good idea to block without transforming.' He thought when a feeling of numbness started spreading on his wrist and arm.

Rumi, who was suspended in the air by Kurai, was even more shocked. He was the first one to ever receive this kick, and he blocked it instantly. Without his quirk to the boot!

Kurai threw her foot, seeing her doing an elegant back-flip to land on her feet, he commented, "Not bad, not bad, little Rumi."

Opening and closing his numb fist, he continued, "Say, do you want to make a bet on the winner?"

"I don't care!" She sprinted forward again, launching a flying side-kick but just before reaching Kurai she turned to his left, jumping on a wall. She used her leg power to jump from wall to wall, reaching higher and higher.

Then, when she felt that she couldn't climb further, she repeated her actions but went for Kurai this time. Holding a metal pole with her arms, she squatted in a bowlegs position, and instantly, she launched herself forward again, aiming to axe-kick Kurai's shoulder.

'Another acrobatic? Feels like she has more theatrics than me.'

This time Kurai simply dodged to the side, after the dust settled down, all he could see was Rumi's footprint on the concrete. It spoke a lot about her leg power, that much he was sure.

'Damn! Damn! Nothing's working!' Meanwhile, the latter was still running trying to come up with something else to break his defense.

'Arg! Too much thinking!' She stopped her aimless running and went for close combat instead, seeing that nothing else seemed to work.

Using her speed, she tried a push kick but Kurai blocked her with his elbow, sending her foot to the left. But Rumi profited from the momentum offered by Kurai and let her foot go to the left. She flexed her core and twisted it, sending him a hook kick from the left to the right, right into his face with the back of her foot.

'What a nice save, she has good instincts!' Kurai crossed his hands above his head and successfully blocked her kick.

Rumi foresaw this result and used her heel as a hook to mount his head with her thigh. Just when she was about to flex and twist her body, she felt a pair of hands on her inner thighs, leaving her no room to contract her muscles.

"I must say, you really surprised me right here…" Kurai acknowledged.

Rumi was still trying to twist her body to tear his head off, but Kurai held her in place firmly. She couldn't move.

"But your execution is incomplete, and you lack strength." He finished by saying before slamming her back on the ground.

"AH!" A painful moan escaped Rumi's mouth, when she opened her eyes, she saw Kurai on top of her, looking straight at her with those damn golden eyes.

"So what are you gonna do now, lil' bunn—' He didn't have time to finish his sentence that Rumi started trashing her feet and even tried to headbutt him.

Like a real furry, even down, she didn't want to give up, 'No! NO! I can't lose like this!' She was screaming in her mind, trying to get rid of him by any means possible.

She tried everything, a kick in the balls, a headbutt, even biting but his strength was too overwhelming, as if a boulder was holding her down.

"Wowow! Calm down! Are you sure you're a rabbit and not a dog?" Rumi glare intensified, her eyes were red now.

'Dang, I don't want to be seen like a bully.' Maybe it was already too late, he realised while pinning her down.

"Look, I'll release you if you promise to stop. Is that okay?" He tried to sound gentle, and he slowly took back his strength.

"Umph." She didn't answer through her mouth but she nonetheless relaxed her tensed body.

"Release me then!"

"No, not fully, I don't know what you could do."

Kurai continued, "So, do you mind telling me why you did that?" He lowered his head looking at her more intensely.

Rumi didn't back down and snickered, "And why should I?"

"Well, then I'll continue to think that lil' Rumi the Bully is just a muscle-head and a crybaby."

"Heeeh? Bully? Musclehead?! Crybaby!? Release me!!" At first she was only shocked but listening to him she started thrashing around.

"See… What did I say... Oi! Oi! Calm down!" He shook her body.

He raised his tone a bit, "How do you call someone who scared all his classmates, someone who wants to beat others non-stop, or someone who ambushes others to fight them? Huh? Isn't that the definition of a bully ?"

"..." Rumi didn't answer, biting her lips strongly, she kept looking at him. It seemed to Kurai that she was thinking about a lot of things but didn't want to talk about it.

Maybe she wanted to say something, maybe she didn't, but Kurai saw her eyes becoming redder and redder.

"And now you're gonna cry? Look… Basically, we are nearly the same, right? Our ambitions can be said to be matching, same for our skin and our animalistic traits…" He ended his sentence in his mind, 'Well, I can always revert back to being human.'

Rumi swallowed her urge to cry and felt heat rising instead, "Then why ain't they mocking you too? Why do they look at me with disgust and hate instead?! Why?! Didn't ya say that we were the same? SO WHY!?" She shouted at him at the end, anger replacing every other emotion she felt.

Their faces now very close, Kurai didn't know how to react to her outburst.

Simply because he stopped caring about other people's opinions a long time ago.

If people were mad at him for having different features, he'll simply ignore them.

"I just wanted to have fun, and have friends like the other kids…" Rumi resumed, letting her head fall back into the concrete.

It wasn't that he was apathetic or anything, his lack of reactions was coming from the situation at hand.

Just like the first time he was angered in this world, during that interview about Pr. Doofenschwartz, because it involved kids. Same thing here, kids under peer pressure, or not, ostracizing someone.

This was a problem as old as the world if Kurai had to be honest.

Rumi murmured, looking at the sky, "I prefer their fearful looks compared to their gazes filled with hate, disgust or contempt…"

His overreaction when it came down to kids wasn't a deviant side or anything.

It was more like an instinct. Just like a father wants the best for his kid. Kurai, who was robbed of his youth, in a country at war, just didn't want another kid to suffer the same fate. Or a kid suffering at all.

This is why it triggered him more. Though this time, he couldn't outright punish the other party, because they were kids too.

"I'm used to it now, so go away please!" She smiled, slowly trying to get out from his grip.

Her smile looked forced to him, but having been listening to her all along he didn't comment on it. He simply took his hands back, releasing her.

Kurai sat down next to her, "You know for someone who wants to be the top female hero you shouldn't lose against a mere kid, heh." He tried to shift the mood.

She turned back to him, and punched his shoulder. "Shut up!"

"You? a mere kid… tsk, then I'm Santa Claus...!" Rumi muttered under her breath, returning to her previous position.

Kurai looked at her, "Huh?...Anyway..." But he ignored it, glancing around he saw the damage inflicted to their surroundings.

"You could've gone eas—" Just then a policeman entered the alley, the sound of their fight was pretty loud after all. Fortunately for them, Kurai heard him from further thanks to his senses, so the policeman couldn't see them yet.

'Fuck If I get caught and my parents come to know it… Shit! They'll know it with their money I'm sure…'

Rumi, who didn't have an hearing as acute as him, was looking at him questioningly and wanted to ask what happened but before she could do so...

"Sorry! And good luck!" She heard, before Kurai started sprinting forward, he even jumped in the air, but the shades of the buildings were making her vision harder. [1]

'A tail?' She thought when she saw him disappear in the dark.

Kurai, who reverted to his full cat-form, passed the policeman, who didn't notice him at all. 'Sigh, I feel bad for leaving her there, but it is what it is. I hold dear this freedom.'

The rest of the day was pretty chill for him, when he got back home he did some body weight exercises, had dinner, watched TV and Miku even called him to know how his first day went.

Being someone who never went to school, when he woke up the next morning, he really came to know the pain of the students all around the world.

Though his mood improved when he saw a sulking pair of white rabbit ears. 'Seems like it was though, glad I ran away, ahem… The fight was finished anyway…'

He went behind her and circled his arm around her neck, "Yoo! Nothing bad happened back there?"

Rumi glanced at him from the corner of her eye, and sighed, "Shuddap!" She threw his hand behind her back. He left her there alone and now had the gall to come back and say hello? 'Assh*le!'

Fortunately, since it wasn't the first time it happened to her, the policeman 'only' grounded her for 30 mins about her quirk usage without a license...

"Oi! At least I warned you!"

"It's alright I don't care! Why did you come to pester me so soon in the morning?! Arg…" She groaned with frustration and annoyance.

Kurai smiled, seeing this playful smile, Akio would've run away now, "Heh? Didn't you say that you wanted friends? Rumi-chan~!" He bopped her nose and continued to walk forward, leaving a gobsmacked rabbit rooted behind him.

When she got her bearings back, Rumi started running after him, "What the hell did you call me, Bastard?!" She rolled up her sleeve, flexing her fist, and started to chase after him on the way to their school.

Kurai looked back and saw an angry rabbit running. He then teased her even more, and started accelerating too.

"Catch me if you can, nyaa!" [2]

***

[1] : I don't know who got a better hearing between a rabbit and a cat, but since the mc is a cat I went with that... heh

[2] : I shall never reproduce this heresy, ever again... It was creepy to write... sigh... Now I'm disgusted at myself.