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Quirkless Existence Chapter 14
🕑 Added 2023-07-05 15:32:47 +0000 UTCSummary: With Chrono slain, and the magnum opus of Overhaul’s horrendous inhumane research in hand, Izuku heads out to find her daughter. Meanwhile, Eri continues her flight from Overhaul, even as the Yakuza boss doubles his efforts to attempt to salvage his operation someplace else.
Chapter 14: Downfall of the Yakuza
Mimic didn’t stay long enough to see how Chrono would capture the other one, as his focus remained solely on the little brat he was transporting to Overhaul. Though he had his misgivings about this, as with his quirk, he could be slowing down the damned heroes more, who at the rate they were going would overrun the place in an hour. Still, he was a loyal man and dedicated to the cause, so long as Overhaul made it out, they could start over, even if it took years to do so. And all that hinged on the two girls at the heart of the operation, one of which he carried through rapidly formed tunnels towards his master.
For Eri, she as terrified as she didn't know what was happening when Kai used his power, it never did stuff like this, but she knew in her heart that she was going to see him again and that scared her, she didn't want to see him ever again, she liked being with her mother who made her feel safe, made her feel content and never yelled or hurt. Always hugged her and smiled like she did something good even when she told bad stories. She wanted to return to her and knew she needed to do so before Kai caught them as he was going to be super mad about everything happening. She found her chance when she was slid through an empty hallway, the hole appearing on the other way which would continue to take her through dark tunnels.
She didn’t know what or how, but she knew this might be her only chance. So, like how her momma would have done, she moved without thinking, shifting just enough to avoid the hole in the wall and start running away, an act which angered the man in the walls. ‘Dammit! She’s a slippery one.’ Mimic thought to himself as he tried to capture her again, but her small size proved a challenge as unlike before when he caught her and Midoriya off guard, she was very much aware of his presence within the walls, scurrying about like a damn rat, he had to continually increase the pressure to try and box her in and capture her before his boast ran out.
Narrowly avoiding another pitfall, Eri's bare feet continued to carry her as fast as possible, she didn't know where she was going, but she did know she couldn't stay still long as if she was captured by whoever was hunting her, she would be returned to Kai, an angry Kai. ‘I need to keep running, I can’t let them catch me!’ She thought to herself, panting and red in the face from the exhaustion and fear but when the very walls seemed to be against her, there was little a 6-year-old child could do, a point made apparent when a massive wall, sprouting from the ceiling, crashed down right in front of her, the shock sending her onto her behind.
Seeing his chance, Mimic didn’t hesitate as he opened another pitfall right under her. “Got you!” However, his luck too wasn't much in the situation as before Eri fell in, a figure came sliding in faster than most humans could sprint and grabbed her, saving the girl.
“No, you don’t!” The figure in question, Slidin' Go replied as she turned tail and rushed back the way he came, with the confused but safe Eri in his hands. He didn’t know where Midoriya was, having been informed that the two would most likely be together, but considering the walls were his enemy, he assumed that Irinaka must have had something to do with it.
“What?!” The yakuza roared as he chased after them, warping and changing the landscape of the base to slow down the pro and capture his prey, preferably killing the damned pro in the process but much to his annoyance and panic, the costumed moron just kept on sliding along, dodging whatever he could throw at them.
Ducking underneath an attempt to clothesline him with a part of the wall, and with one eye remaining on where they were going, Slidin' Go smiled towards the little girl in his arms, trying to calm her scared soul. "Hello, little miss! I don't know about you, but I can imagine your mother must be mighty worried about you right now." Eri’s eyes widen at the mention of her momma. She had been told to be wary of strangers, but all this seemed too strange to be random, like when her momma managed to throw her what she called a birthday party. Was this stranger a friend too?
“I’m not letting you get away, hero!” Behind them, Mimic kept up the pressure, but Slidin' Go proved just how much difference there was between a trained and experienced pro-hero and a Yakuza thug barely used to a serious fight as even while retreating, Slidin' Go made himself an annoying target.
Mimic, from his spot in the wall watching this unfold, felt his panic continue to rise as the best he could do was close off paths and try and lead them to where he wanted them to, but he wasn’t sure this would work as the trigger would wear off soon, already he could feel its effects starting to dissipate and it wasn’t like he had another to inject himself with. ‘Dammit, dammit, dammit!’ He thought to himself as he worked himself to the bone to try and create paths for them to take without giving it away, of course, he could just crush them but he wasn't sure he would be able to get Eri to Overhaul in time
‘And to make things worse, those damn pros are getting closer every second, I can’t keep switching attention between them, I need to make a choice.’ He thought to himself as he spent part of his time helping against the invading pros, hence why it took him so long to find where Midoriya and Eri were, a choice he was regretting as even with his aide, the guys above them were being pushed back. The aboveground and first floors were already lost. So he placed all he had into his next gamble.
“You’re too important to master Overhaul!” He roared at them through the walls, with Eri looking about terrified while Slidin' Go glared, keeping his eyes straight ahead as he knew it would be useless to try and find the man when he was obviously within the structure itself. It would be tricky to deal with, especially since he had run ahead of the others, but he knew what each of the Yakuza big hitters could do, and knew that the only way that Irinaka could be doing this was if he had taken trigger, giving him a limited time window to capture them both of them, especially with how much he must have been exerting himself.
Realizing that this was an endurance match, he promised that he wouldn’t be the one to lose. “I’m not about to let you take her, criminal. We came here with a purpose and we’ll see it through!”
Line Break
Not too far from where she killed Chrono, Midoriya was dealing with problems of her own, namely trying to find where Eri was. As she didn’t know too much about the place, or where that bastard Mimic could dump her daughter, she resorted to asking any and everyone that she came across. If they proved too unwilling to speak, she barely spared them a second glance as she ripped into them, attacking them like a rabid animal with punches, kicks, teeth, and clawing at them.
She had just finished dealing with the 3rd group, holding up the only survivor by the neck against the wall, the sight of which was horrifying as she stood in a torn and bloody kimono, holding a man twice her size like he was nothing as she choked the life of him, her eyes ablaze with worry and rage. “Where is she?” She released her grip, just enough for the man to respond.
The Yakuza in question replied as fast as he could as he had tried to fight her, along with 5 others and she had killed the other 4, in one case, ripping an arm off and beating the other guy to death with it before she moved onto him. “I…I don’t know…!” She tried to tell her, but she only grew more unhinged in her desperation. Another useless thug.
“Then you’re useless.” She tightened her grip and kept on squeezing, even as the man tried to kick and claw at her, she didn't let go as she watched him go blue in the face as his struggles wavered before they ceased, with his eyes rolling back as his limbs fell limp, dropping the corpse, she staggered for a moment before she righted herself and turn and ran off, continuing her search through the labyrinth of halls of white lights, grey doors and piping and wiring that seemed to go everywhere.
All seemed to be a haze as she searched, her eyes never ceasing as they looked for any sign of her Blessing. Her clothing strained against her increased bulk, but even as it tore and ripped, she didn’t so much as blink as she turned a corner. ‘I need to find her fast! I will find her!’ Up ahead of her, she found another group, bigger than the last but despite the fact most were her size if not a little bigger, she didn't slow down and instead, saw red and barreled towards them with a roar of rage.
Seeing the terrifying sight approaching, the group flinched, not knowing what to make of it. “What the-who the hell is that?”
“It’s the girl!”
“She’s the girl, she’s built like a fucking tank!” One of them bulked up, becoming twice his size, almost too large for the hallway and rushed her. He didn’t know much, but he knew that Overhaul would have their heads if they didn’t capture her. Izuku, maniac and desperate, was still Izuku and read the situation like a book and compared it to her many notes on pros in action. Thinking of when she saw Endeavour take on a villain much larger than him, she followed a similar attack to what the Flame Hero used.
Jumping up towards him, her supercharged muscles carried her further than she had ever leapt before, with far more speed and power as she pulled back her arm and punched the villain straight in the face. There was a crack as his nose gave way and he fell back, being carried by the sheer power of her strike as he came crashing down on his back, out cold. Izuku didn’t stop there as she rolled off him and rushed the rest of now scared thugs, who had just seen their big gun knocked on his ass by a frankly, terrifying muscle bond feral girl. “Where is my daughter!” She demanded, their hesitation costing them as she didn’t give them time to think of an answer, not hearing anything from them, she punched another in the gut so hard he vomited before she backhanded him into the hall where he slumped to the wall.
Moving onto the next, he tried to use his quirk, levitating pieces of gravel he had on his person and firing them at her, but they did even less than the bullets as they did hit, but only seemed to anger her. He wouldn't live long enough to regret that choice as Izuku hit him with an uppercut so strong, his jaw went flying in a bloody arc, the man scream's coming out horse, inhumane with the missing jaw, screams that ceased as Midoriya spun on a leg and kicked the man in the chest, breaking several ribs as he was sent into a wall, slumping to down without a word.
Seeing this crazed woman tear through them, they attempted to fight back and found that she didn't so much as flinch as blows hit her, it was as if she didn't feel them. Midoriya was feeling them, but she had been through so much worse thanks to Overhaul and was determined to save Eri. This combination of experience and resolve proved too great for them as she tore through them like an enraged bear would through baby deer. “Shit!” One unlucky man cried as she grabbed one by the arm and swung him into the wall, a crack sounding from the impact as she swung him again from the dent, she made with him in the concrete into the other wall before tossing him as hard as she could into the lone survivor as he tried to flee, the impact from a broken body crashing into him sending the man onto his stomach.
It would be just his luck, that while trapped underground in this maze, he would fall funny and feel his ankle break as he hissed and crawled from underneath the body of his friend, too scared to care that he had just seen his brutal death. “Fuck, my leg. You broke my leg!” He screamed in agony as Midoriya walked up and slammed her foot into his other leg, his calf to be accurate, breaking the bone to such an extent, it stuck out in a bloody resemblance of a twisted game of peek-a-boo.
“Now it has a matching set.” Midoriya glared at him like he was an ant, so sympathy or mercy for him made him whimper, her gaze sending the fear of God through him much like Overhaul, but where the boss looked at any and everything as tools to be used, abused and discarded, she looked at him like she insulting he breathed the same air as her as if she wished to break him like twig for the mere joy of hearing his body crack and shatter.
Crouching down, she moved her face close to his own, close enough that he could see the smaller pots of blood that stained her once clean, innocent features. “Now, unless you want to have your head broken open like an egg, you’ll tell me what I want to know.” She instructed him, with no hint of him having any options to refuse.
Knowing this, he nodded his head as fast as he could. “Y-yes!”
Line Break
Further back, with the heroes that had entered, they noted that the walls had been still for a while now, far too long for this to be a trap to get them to lower their guard. “The wall’s stopped moving.” Big 5 placed a hand on the walls, feeling them out and sure as one would expect, there were solid once more.
“Does that mean Irinaka run out of trigger?” Stylist asked, the man checking to see how much fiber he still had as unlike the top pro, Best Jeanist, he couldn’t manipulate all fibers, only a certain kind created from his body. Because he was the source, he had to converse the amount he used, restricting him from the larger operations but he quite liked underground work.
“Or that he’s focusing on something else.” The police officer noted, she unlike most had been able to keep pace with them, or at least keep pace with most of them.
“Slidin' Go?” Big 5 asked.
“He went on ahead through the gaps, but we can focus on that later,” St replied before she turned to the police and other pros that had followed them down. “Continue the assault, you know your jobs, don’t falter for a second!” She didn’t know why they had to destroy the evidence; all she knew is she got her marching orders to ensure that nothing relating to the research that the Shie Hassaikai was conducting was to ever see the light of day. The pros and police nodded their heads, as she turned to the one other person present, their guide through these halls.
“You recognize this part?” She asked the woman, a member of the Yakuza through marriage if she had been their inside woman for a while now, or at least one of them, even giving them a window when the least competent of the night shift would be on duty to further increase their odds. Once they penetrated the underground labyrinth, she had met up with them and been their guide ever since.
The orange-haired woman wrung her hands together, nervous about this entire thing but she still replied. "Yeah…not he didn't change the layout too much, just moved us around," Jun replied. She pointed ahead. “The labs shouldn’t be too far from here.” They followed her instructions and quickly found a room that seemed to be a lab of sorts or an experimentation chamber as in the center of it was a bed with multiple straps to hold down whichever unlucky bastard ended up in it. To the side lay a computer, an older model that connected to anything more than a power outlet, next to it were bookcases with notes, books and jars of unidentified substances.
None of them cared for them as Stylist looked towards the assembled group. “You heard the lady, when we get there, you know what to do.” Most of them rushed in and began to destroy anything and everything they could, smashing beakers, ripping up notes and lighting them on fire. It wouldn't be long before the entire place was trashed, its secrets dying with the organization that discovered and cultivated them.
This attempt to destroy all that Overhaul hoped to build was interrupted by some new Yakuza members who turned the corner and saw them. The pros saw that they carried with them bags and cases, presumably filled with cash and other irreplaceable assets. “Dammit, I thought Irinaka was keeping them back?” One of them cursed once they saw the pros as they dropped their stuff and rushed them, weapons flashing while quirks activated.
“Don’t let them stop you!” They cried as the pros watched them approach, getting ready for another short bout.
“You ready?” Stylist asked as Big 5 merely chuckled as he cracked his oversized knuckles.
“Please, I can take on 50 more of these suckers. Let’s show them the power of the meta liberation.” Big 5 replied.
"Let's." Stylist and Big 5 jumped into the fray, joined by other pros as they subdued and handled the threat, handing them over to police to escort them out while they continued deeper into the dying beast.
Line Break
“Overhaul…” The man in question turned around, and with him was Nemoto, the only one of the Eight bullets whose use wasn’t rooted in combat. What they saw was mildly surprising as Izuku stood not even 10m from them. Her once clean kimono was torn, shredded and covered in dirt and blood, the darn thing seemed to barely fit her anymore, appearing close to form-fitting clothing that was still a size too small. The girl in question looked just as bad, covered in filth and the blood of who knew how many of his men she tore through to get to him.
But it was her eyes that grabbed Overhaul's attention, as they didn't look like the eyes of a scared animal or an angry beast, they looked closer to what they appeared like that day, only now they lacked that distinctive warmth and were filled with murderous intent.
Unafraid, Overhaul addressed her. “I’m surprised that you managed to get this far. I can’t help but wonder how?”
Panting for breath after she sprinted all the way here, barely stopping long enough to kill anyone that tried to stop her, Midoriya kept her gaze locked on him, completely ignoring Nemoto as she knew he would be a non-factor with his quirk and lack of fighting experience. “I can be persuasive when I want to be.”
Overhaul mockingly clapped at that; the man had calmed down somewhat from his earlier ire. Instead, he focused on Midoriya's body and noticed how it had grown substantially, being taller than himself and if he was correct, it was still growing but she seemed to suffer so side effects. “And full of surprises as well, I can see that you’re experiencing first-hand the power of Venom, though because you’re the source, it seems that it has an even more powerful effect on you.” He felt rather silly for never dosing her and seeing the results if her frail body could be such a treasure drove, that if his theory was correct, this supercharged version would be his California gold rush.
“Can I assume that Chrono won’t be joining us?” He asked, surprised that she wasn’t brought to him by force by his assistant, but he had expected that he had failed when he didn’t respond to his call earlier, a notion that had never happened before.
“You don’t have the luxury of asking about other people,” Midoriya adopted a classic boxing position, her gaze turning into a glare. “Where is Eri?”
Overhaul, in the face of this enraged parent, snorted. "Figures. After all this time, you'll still be a one-note person." He would have thought she would change a little in their time together, but not. It at least meant that once he secured them again, he could deploy the same punishments, only now he wasn't going to be so forgiving. “All this noise, and for what? Another failed escape? I know that you couldn’t have just had a shive on hand, you knew this was coming.” Not when she had known about this.
Midoriya didn't back down, previously she would have glared by complying but now she matched his confidence with her own, even if she was bluffing for parts of it. “This won’t be like last time; I’ll make sure of it.”
“I see that I’ve been far too lenient with you. When this is all over, I’ll make sure to correct that.” Overhaul relaxed, looking above her. Before she could wonder what he was looking at, she was hit with an out-of-nowhere extreme sense of dizziness, with her vision going hazy and crossed as she started to see not one clear Overhaul, but three of them.
‘What?’ Leaning on the wall, she fought to retain her balance as she recalled that she had felt like this, which combined with the information that Kizuki had been able to uncover, led her to realize that this was the work of Deidoro Sakaki's quirk. Looking at where Overhaul was, her assessment proved accurate as hanging from the pipes that ran above their heads like an insect, was the masked drunk, a bottle of sake in hand as he tried to drink more of it to increase its effects on her, though owning to his weird position, most of it poured to the floor.
“Sorry little lady, can’t have you doing anything crazy. But man! You sure left some serious carnage to get here!” Sakaki laughed as he continued to drown himself in booze, with his target falling to her knees as she gripped the floor, trying to get back up.
“Did you have any role in this attack?” Nemoto asked her, and even in her quasi-drunken state, she answered, forced to be the power of Nemoto’s quirk.
“I did.”
“Who did you talk to, and how?” Nemoto asked another question as she gripped the floor hard enough that her fingers started to dig into the tile and concrete floor. Despite her misgivings, she was forced to answer, outing her one true ally on the outside.
“Chitose Kizuki. She managed to get wireless earpieces to me every night for over a month now." She couldn’t tell what Nemoto thought on that, and Overhaul could have been just a good actor, but it didn’t seem like he recognized the name.
“What did you do to Hari Kurono, otherwise known as Chronostasis?” Nemoto asked while Izuku's fingers dug ever deeper before they started to curl inwards.
“I beat him to a bloody pulp before heading out to search for Eri.” That part she didn’t mind revealing, her face split by a demented smile as she recalled the ecstasy of pummeling him into a chunky paste, how the thrill that shot through her at finally being able to take even just a small vengeance on him for all he had done to them.
Her crazed smile, combined with her bloody and ragged appearance seemed to unnerve the black-cloaked Yakuza as he didn't continue the questioning for a moment, a small shiver making him shake in his boots but she caught it just fine, and took sick pleasure in making him react like that while she planned to give him a similar treatment to his fellow Plague masked wearing Yakuza member as she gripped some debris in her hand.
Finally, he asked her for a follow-up. “So why are you here?”
"Because Mimic was the reason we were separated, and he'll only do that if it was funneling her back to Overhaul, so I decided to head to where he would be to catch her." She had only realized that after she managed to find someone that could answer her questions. Thanks to that, she left him alive even if she had broken both his legs.
‘This feeling…I remember it.’ As she answered the questions, her mind wasn't just filled with fantasies about a brutal murder, but it was also analyzing her situation. She recalled feeling something like this, just to a much lesser extent the day she had been kidnapped. It was a trip to be sure, but she calmed herself and managed to clear her vision enough that the triples she had been seeing before were mealy a hazy double stopped midway from splitting. She wasn't going to be accurate like this, but it was enough.
'Just like Kizuki said…his quirk seems to affect the target's sense of balance…' She turned her head just a little and looked up at the Yakuza drunk, seeing that he wasn’t too far from her, within throwing distance. Having heard enough, Overhaul signaled for his agent to cease the questioning, if he wished for more details, they could discuss that later in a secure location.
"I see, well then, let's take care of her," Nemoto said as he pulled his gun and fired, aiming for a non-lethal area but was surprised when the bullet stopped in her flesh, still visible having barely pieced through the thick, harden muscle that made up her frame. Izuku barely let out a peep as she backed up, setting herself up. “Oh? Impressive. It would seem that trying to capture her with small arms will be useless.” Nemoto wondered how he’ll do this when his boss stepped forward.
“If that’s the case, I’ll handle her.” Overhaul stated as he reached for his glove to remove it.
“…” Midoriya muttered a response, but it was too soft for Overhaul to hear.
“What?” He asked her, getting her to look up his way, her eyes ablaze.
“Not again.” She said, even louder as she, despite being under the effects of Sloshed, turned on a dime and pulled her hand from the ground, it coming up with a handful of crushed tiles and concrete and throwing it as hard as she could at Sakaki. The drunk was caught completely by surprise by this as the debris pelted him like bullets, cutting into him as he yelped in pain.
“Fuck!” Cursing, he both dropped his bottle and lost his grip on the piping, falling to the ground and knowing that he was in for a hard landing. “What the he-!” His eyes widened as Izuku leapt from her place on the floor, her other hand pulled back as far as she could take it. As he took in the sight of her, it was the wild, unchained fury in her eyes that sobered him up as his drunken haze was replaced with a bone-chilling fear as he gazed into those pools of acid that sought to burn him so badly.
“Die.” Midoriya didn't say more as she punched the man, but rather than be sent flying like so many before him, she hadn't held back in the slightest, needing to ensure he didn't get back up as her fist pierced straight on through, shattering past his sternum, pulverizing the parts of his lung in the way, taking a good chunk of his heart and out the back with, through his now severed spice. The massive damage to his body sent him into shock as his upper half twitched just a little while his legs folded back. After a moment, he stilled as she pulled her bloodied arm back and let his corpse fall to the ground with a wet splat.
Paying no heed to the dead man, she turned back to the other two, as Nemoto had his gun trained on her, the man shaking in his boots at the sight of this girl killing his comrade with so little effort, so little care as she took some steps forward, closing the distance. In contrast to him, Overhaul was the picture of calm as he barely sparred his broken bullet with a glance, his gaze trained on Midoriya. "Now that wasn't very hero-like, now was it, Midoriya-san? Do you know hard it is to bring back the dead?” He just knew that he'll come back some form of different, even if he repaired the damage done to his brain from the lack of oxygen.
Midoriya snared his way. “I don’t care about how hard things are for you, I’m never going to let you hurt Erie ever again!” Overhaul didn’t so much respond with his words as he did with his quirk, slamming his hand onto the ground and shattering it, sending spikes made from it her way as he jumped back to avoid, grunting as a bullet hit her leg a little under the knee, like the other 2, it didn’t do any serious damage but it reminded her that they weren’t alone.
Taking advantage of how his master shifted the battlefield, Nemoto started to fire on Midoriya before taking cover and shooting from a new spot, trying to keep her on her toes and forcing her to split her focus between the two of them. “If capture through conventional means is off the table, I’ll have to take you down the hard way. The master will put you back together when we make our escape.”
“Dammit!” Midoriya cursed as she pulled her arm back just in time to avoid a spike taking it from her, all while she couldn't do anything about the shooter, only being able to shift her head around and cover her eyes and ears to ensure he didn't damage her hearing and vision, two things she barely needed at the moment as the hall turned into a much wider space thanks to Overhual’s quirk shifting the battlefield to suit him and Nemoto and disadvantage her.
Knowing that he must have limited rounds in that gun of his, Midoriya counted the shots in her head and was lucky enough to see him behind a pillar, pulling a fresh clip after his last shot, giving her a rough estimate of how much each one held. ‘That was 13 shots…’ She noted as she ducked to avoid his fresh assault while keeping an eye for Overhaul as she sidestepped his attempt to skewer her on the floor.
When he sent another her way, she saw that it was coming too fast for her to dodge, using her knowledge of pros once more, she came up with a counter. With her one hand, she used her massively increased strength to hit the side of the incoming spike with a heavy palm strike, sending its tip flying to the side. In nearly the same moment, she raised her other arm and blocked the now blunted spike with her forearm and while it hurt, it was much less than what Overhaul intended as she knocked back some ways, but remained on her feet as he flexed her leg's muscles to retain balance.
Still, despite her keeping up with the attack, she knew that she wasn’t making any progress as any second now, Eri could be dropped into this and she knew that Overhaul wouldn’t hesitate to threaten to harm her, or just attack her regardless, Eri’s welfare be damned as the twisted man could just ‘put them back together’ once he won. Gritting her teeth, she raised her forearm to block a shot from Nemoto which would have hit her face, leaving her forearm, even more, cut up as the bullet ricocheted, carving a small but painful trench in her arm as it flew into the ceiling.
'I need to take care of him before Eri can arrive. Do I use it?' She reached for her side but stopped herself. She wasn't a crack shot, having never even touched a gun before today, much less fired one. She needed to close the distance first and make sure she had a clear shot before she even thought about that. more than that, he needed to save it for Overhaul as it would be pointless to use it on Nemoto when his quirk in the situation was more an annoyance than a threat. ‘No, too risky, also Overhaul would see it.’ It wouldn’t help that if Overhaul even suspected she had it, her chance to use it on him would evaporate.
After her last retreat, she found herself close to the bloody and still corpse of Sakaki, from his back and sides, she saw that he had some knives, the kinds she had seen used by performers on TV.
‘I can use him.’ An idea formed in her head as she jumped for him.
Line Break
Moments later, as Nemoto moved to take another shot at her, Midoriya rushed him with Sakaki’s corpse as a shield. ‘Does she think a corpse will stop us?’ He wondered to himself, it wasn't very smart seeing how the man was already dead and even then, it was foolish for her to assume that he felt any kinship to the rest of the rabble of the Eight bullets, a point he proved as he started to fire on her, some of the shots hitting the corpse but a few getting through the hole she left in him and hitting her. "Nice attempt, but only I stand above the rest which is anything more than fodder!" She did surprise him when with a yell, she threw the body at him, dodging out of the way, he aimed for her, her head clear and an easy target-
Only for him to pull the trigger and get nothing but a heart-stopping click as the firing pin found nothing to strike in the chamber, with him realizing too late that he had fired his last shots on her approach. “No bullets,” Midoriya smiled, having lucked out when he fired the last 3 shots he had, even if one had struck her shoulder, she barely felt it as she closed the distance.
Seeing her approach, the man panicked and jumped back, with Overhaul moving to rise a wall of spikes between them to give his bullet time to reload, but Midoriya prepared for that as from her ruined sleeves, 2 knives fell into her hands, knives she had taken off Sakaki's corpse. Before the man could react, she threw both of them at him, one missed him but the second didn't, stabbing right into the chest, puncturing a lunch as the man fell short while she jumped back. Because of this, he was skewered by Overhaul's spike wall like a pin cushion.
Smiling at her work in handling a second bullet, she watched as the man spasmed and coughed up blood that leaked through his mask, his gun falling to the ground from his limp hands. She walked forward and gave him a patronizing pat on the cheek, before ripping the mask off to see the dying man in his final moments as the light faded from baffled and terrified eyes. "Lucky for me, your fodder buddy has alternative weapons at hand." The man didn't so much as respond as the light faded from his gaze, dying from the multiple stone spikes piercing through his body. Oddly enough, without the mask, he looked like some nobody, a man that would blend in well in a crowd and most likely worked in some office somewhere
Overhaul felt his early irritation return as he couldn’t believe he had been tricked like them as Midoriya turned to him, a little shaky on her feet but her adrenaline and determine more than enough to keep her going after what felt like hours of fighting. “Well, it seems I have to get my hands dirty.” Overhaul asked her, at the same time doubling his efforts to capture her as he sent spikes and teeth of stone not just from the floor, but from the walls and other piles, forcing her to run away from him as she found that he gave her no new openings to exploit, not when it was just the two of them.
Watching as she defended herself and accrued more injuries, he couldn’t help but ask her. “I hope you weren’t planning on my holding back, you of all people know I don’t need to.”
Ignoring his taunting, Midoriya kept herself focused on the situation at hand, even s her body grew just a little more, providing her further strength but it wasn't going to mean much if she ended up running through. ‘Think, Izuku, think!’ Rolling out of the way of another attack, she got up and had to run to avoid its follow-up, the mass of spikes catching her side, mercifully, not too deep but it was still painful, only adding to the number she was gaining. Sparring the man, a glance, she saw that he hadn't even moved from her spot, not that he needed to when she hadn't managed to get close to him.
‘His quirk is overwhelming, I can’t keep this up for long, it’s a power that’s nigh unstoppable if used correctly.’ As much as he hated the man, she couldn't help but praise the quirk. Having seen it time and time again, she could think of so many ways he could have helped others, with such power, he could repair damage to cities damaged or destroyed by fighting in a fraction of the time it took repair teams to work. He could save people trapped in cave-ins or collapsed buildings in minutes by just repairing the structure to allow other first responders in, he could even do the job of first responders with a touch.
Healing quirks were rare, which was why U.A. allowed Recovery Girl to work well into her 70s as in the 35 years she had been their nurse, they hadn't yet found something that could replace her. Overhaul was that and so much more, and here he was, wasting it for some foolish power trip, a delusion of reverting the world to a time when Yakuza meant a damn. It made her blood boil even more than it already was.
In that moment of rage, she realized a way in as Overhaul the quirk was nigh unstoppable, but Overhaul the man was very much just that, a man. A man that had never needed to learn how to fight, a man that seemed like he didn’t even do much exercise for anything more than staying healthy. That’s right, the power, not the man!’ Even from this distance, she could see how skinny his frame was compared to the 3 bullets she had killed. She also recalled how his quirk only worked on objects and people he touched with his hands; it wasn’t like he would use it on any part of his body.
‘He doesn’t move like someone who used to fighting up close and personal, he wouldn’t need to when a touch from his hands is enough to turn anything to paste or dust!’ She had watched Bakugo fight for years, she had seen how dozens of pros fought both in person, in old clips and on the news. When she compared them to Overhaul…he moved sloppily, he was fast, yes, but his movements were nothing like that of them. If she focused hard enough, she could read him and predict his moves.
Ignoring the growing number of cuts, however deep they were, she finally found her opening as she dashed right for him, catching the man off guard at what seemed to be an insane move from her. ‘If I avoid his hands then,’ Snapping one of the points of a spike she dodged, she grabbed onto it as a weapon, Overhaul raised a hand to block it, and as soon as he touched it, she let go and ducked underneath, seeing the surprise in his eyes as she punched him in the liver, the force of her impromptu strike sending him flying as he coughed up bile in his mask. “I have a chance!” She cheered, celebrating her first of what was hopefully hits against the Yakuza boss.
Rolling to a stop, Overhaul looked at himself and saw to his fury that he was dirty, his clothes covered in dust, same as his skin. And it was all the fault of one petulant girl! “You little-!” He didn’t have time to react as Midoriya closed the distance once more, hand fist already pulled back. Having seen what those strikes can do, he instinctively raised his hand to grab hers and blow it to pieces, but Midoriya had seen his counter coming. Using her forward hand, she knocked his hand off course, freeing her to strike him across the face with a wicked right hook which knocked his mask loose, while teeth flew clean from his mouth.
Not giving up momentum, the hand that had knocked him clear of her came right into it, striking with him an open palm right across the face which knocked his mask clean off of him as he was sent flying, in complete disbelief that she had managed that. “I can take the pain, can you?” She asked him, jumping in place as the excitement at making this bastard bleed did wonders for her exhaustion, it was as if she was getting a second wind, one that was followed by her body growing even further, ripping her sleeves apart and revealing her muscular arms, covered in scars both old and new.
Hearing her taunt, Overhaul decided to screw the rules, screw the long term, he wasn’t going to let things fall here, not to her, not to anyone! Without so much of a thought, he repaired the damage she had done to his face, not that it looked all that good to begin as with her continually touching him with her god damn dirty hands, his skin starting breaking out across his face that was now as feral as Midoriya. “I’m not going to let you, or anyone else, ruin all my hard work!” He slammed his hands down onto the floor, and the room erupted as the area around him up to 10m away turned to dust, before reforming into new spikes, larger spikes with additional protrusions coming off of them.
Sending this forest of stone and concrete towards Midoriya, she lunged out of the way, hiding behind the destroyed remains of other spikes and pillars when she could, smashing those that got through. With her heart pumping so loud it nearly drowned out everything else, she kept an eye on Ove-on Kai. The man was on a rampage, not thinking nearly as much as he had been before, which was a mixed bag for her. She was planning around him thinking about his next play, as she could account for that but now, he was just throwing whatever he could her way, more than once nearly crushing her underneath multi-ton spikes.
‘He’s gotten faster! I can barely keep up!’ She thought, taking another glancing blow to the arm which made her hiss as she rolled away from her previous spot. Seeing that she had no other option, she reached for her pistol with one hand and picked up a spike with the other, gripping both tight but keeping the gun hidden.
“All or nothing,” She whispered before she charged him, the spike held at the ready in front of her.“Chisaki!”
