Paradosi
patreon
The Abyss (chapter 9)
🕑 Added 2024-10-08 22:27:34 +0000 UTCHe stared blankly at the monitor as Enkh-Altan’s clawed hand tapped a heavy beat on the other side of the room by the window. The house would have been as silent as the grave otherwise, its residents on vacation.
“It still feels wrong just waiting here like this,” his friend commented.
“I know,” Nobuto replied softly.
With the two strikes he already had on his license, sticking his nose into it now would only be digging a deeper hole, and Enkh-Altan’s hands were similarly tied since Gang Orca wasn’t involved. Neither of them should be aware that this raid against the Shie Hassaikai was even in motion.
It was nice to at least have some company as the uncertainty gnawed at his gut.
That he had also hacked into the camera feeds that the Police Force had set up around the area so he could stay on top of things, well, that was just the proverbial cherry on top of the illegal cake. It wasn’t something he would have risked if he had a choice.
“At least we get to watch Ryukyu and Nejire in action,” Enkh-Atlan husked in his scratchy voice. “Hmm, though I guess those two girls from 1-A are also kind of cute.”
“You’re back together with Amano, aren’t you?” he snarked in response.
Nejire had nothing but good things to say about the two new additions to Ryukyu’s Hero Agency. And seeing Uravity and Froppy in action now, he could see why Ryukyu wanted them, even if they still had a little trouble keeping up with her and Nejire.
He only hoped Nejire wasn’t harassing them too badly. He had to flick her nose after she kept wondering aloud about where the froggy girl kept her tongue when she wasn’t using it.
“Until she gets bored of me again,” Enkh-Altan complained.
Seeing the literal dinosaur trying and failing to pout was always an uncanny sight, seeing as half his face was a maw of teeth.
“There’s that saying about stones and glass houses,” Nobuto told him.
He returned his attention to the screen, moving between some of the feeds. Not being able to see what was happening underground was unfortunate, but maybe that was better for his nerves. This part of the plan was out of his hands anyway.
“There’s also that saying about the pot calling the kettle black,” his friend finally shot back, the feathers that crowned his head rustling as his head bobbed. “You and Nejire have been an item for close to two years now and you’re still keeping things from her.”
“I don’t need a lecture from you.” If this didn’t end in disaster, he would tell her everything. And if it did, well, it was a moot point anyway.
Nejire wasn’t the only one he’d been keeping secrets from either.
There was a snort to his side. “I’m surprised you told me with how paranoid you can be. My role isn’t important.”
Nobuto turned to him. “You of all people understand why some men are beyond saving.”
Enkh-Altan rumbled dangerously, but even if he towered maybe two feet above him, Nobuto didn’t feel particularly intimidated.
“I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” he continued.
Enkh-Altan deflated quickly. “This is still probably the worst plan you’ve ever had.”
Nobuto chuckled softly. “You’re probably right.”
He might have made a few changes as more information became available, but his resolve to see it through hadn’t wavered. If anything, finding out that Chisaki was turning his own daughter into Quirk-destroying bullets had only strengthened it.
Eri, her name was. The girl had already suffered more than most had in a lifetime, and failing to rescue her once already had stuck with Mirio, he knew, moreso than All Might’s retirement. He also knew it would lead to him acting recklessly today, and even with Permeation, Chisaki only had to touch him once.
The ground suddenly shook slightly, drawing his eyes back to the screen. A good chunk of the street had somehow collapsed into a massive pit.
Ryukyu and the three had been tussling with that Trigger junkie of a brute for so long that Nobuto got complacent. Jumping between the feeds again, it seems like everyone except for Nejire, who had collapsed from overusing her Quirk, had taken a tumble in.
“Shit,” Enkh-Altan said succinctly, joining him.
The sight of three figures that weren’t there before, standing at the precipice, had them both leaning in. With all the debris in the air, the dinosaur beside him made them out quicker.
“It’s the League of Villains,” said dinosaur rumbled. “That small thing with a fetish for blood is there. Naked.”
Himiko Toga. Of course he noticed her first.
“There’s also the mud guy and the marble guy,” he added, yellow eyes narrowed.
Nobuto frowned as he tried to find an answer that made sense. As far as he was aware, there was no link between them and the Shie Hassaikai. Shigaraki had kept a low profile after All For One’s capture maybe a month back now, so why were they here?
And only those three; the other four not showing up on any of the feeds.
“We might be forgiven for going in now,” Enkh-Altan commented.
“Are we going to say we just happened to be in the area?” he asked dubiously.
“If your plan works, then allowances can be made.” His friend stood, towering over him now. “Well, I’m going in either way.”
Nobuto sighed. He never expected it to go cleanly anyway. Fate was not that kind to him.
Cleaning up, he joined Enkh-Altan outside. Even in his casual clothes, the dinosaur heteromorph made for an impressive sight, his feathers rustling in the wind.
It wasn’t hard to spot the debris in the distance, and they set off in a sprint.
While Enkh-Altan would have made it there quicker had he been by himself, maybe it was for the best that he hadn’t. By the time they arrived at the scene, a monstrosity of flesh and rubble had crawled out from the pit, someone that could only be Chisaki stuck to the center of it.
The sight of what his Quirk was capable of took his breath away, a sight as magnificent as it was grotesque.
It seemed the monstrosity was only growing as Chisaki took material from the houses around him, a mass panic starting. It was only then that he noticed Midoriya, as well as the slip of a girl with silver hair clinging to his back. Eri.
That Chisaki was chasing those two down meant things had went from bad to worse. With Aizawa there, Chisaki should never have been able to use his Quirk in the first place.
“What is he doing?” Enkh-Altan asked incredulously to his side.
Turning back to Midoriya, who he had expected to be making a run for it, he instead saw him looking like he was about to do something incredibly foolish. The air around him was also sparking and twisting strangely.
Nobuto watched the boy launch himself quicker than he could follow with his eyes, producing enough air pressure to pepper the area with debris again. With a kick, the monstrosity that was towering over the neighborhood now was instead sent hurtling into the air, Midoriya somehow hot on his tail. The backlash that should have left him a broken wreck had never materialized.
His mind was already searching for an answer as to why.
Assuming the masochistic stalk of broccoli had not just undergone the mother of all Quirk Awakenings, it presumably had something to do with Eri’s Quirk. If she had a Quirk similar to Chisaki’s that was somehow repairing what Midoriya's self-destructive Quirk was doing to his body, then maybe he had a chance.
Either way, he would be rooting for the boy. Nobuto’s entire plan now relied on him.
“They’re still here,” Enkh-Altan rumbled beside him. He couldn’t see much at all himself with the state the street was in, but he trusted his friend’s senses.
“Let’s go say hello.” He kept an eye on the battle in the sky as he followed after the walking tank.
When they had found them, or at least two of them, Toga had since donned something like a schoolgirl’s uniform, and she was staring up at the sky with some awe. Bubaigawara meanwhile was muttering to himself in his black bodysuit as he hunkered down.
They both quickly sprung up with how loud Enkh-Altan was.
“Who are these jokers? Woah, he’s a scary one.” Even were he not speaking like that, Nobuto would be able to tell that he had more than a few screws loose.
Enkh-Altan lunged at him with a burst of speed, almost skewering Bubaigawara with his claws if not for some serious athleticism on his part.
“Hehe, do you want to teach me the error of my ways too, Algernon?” Toga crooned, and he immediately blamed his sister. “Just let me get some of your tasty blood…”
She lunged at him with a knife, or what she thought was him, and Nobuto let her, the sky drawing his eyes again. Even the clouds were being affected by the sheer force behind Midoriya’s movements. The boy’s Quirk had already been uncanny in how similar it was to All Might’s, but seeing it now, it really was like looking at a younger, less experienced All Might.
A smile slowly slipped on his lips as he realized Chisaki was going to lose.
“Hey!” Toga made a pout as she realized she had been played. “You can’t treat a girl like that!”
“Sorry,” he whispered in her ear. “Knife play’s not for me.”
She spun around, her pout growing worse when she didn’t find him. “Meanie!”
“A little help here! I’m fine!”
Toga left him to go help Bubaigawara, and he followed.
“Make some copies of me, Jin!” She was quick to stab at Enkh-Altan’s back, but he easily avoided her. “We’ll just have to beat them with numbers!”
It did buy Bubaigawara time enough to do just that, and now there were three Himiko Togas. Nobuto decked him in the gut before he could do it again.
“A ghost just hit me! That was nothing!” he wheezed.
His friend didn’t seem to mind fending off three girls. In fact, the dinosaur almost seemed to be enjoying himself.
It also didn’t stop him from throwing one of them into a wall, leaving a hunk of mud as that particular Toga fell apart like Dabi had.
They were all soon distracted by what was happening in the sky. Chisaki’s monstrous form had been torn apart from consecutive blows, and he lacked the material to replenish himself, being in the sky. Eventually, what was left had fallen back down to the earth with a thunderous rumble, blanketing them in debris again.
The two took that opportunity to slink away, and Nobuto’s eyes were on Midoriya as he fell to the ground, awash in a golden glow.
“Make sure Nejire’s safe. I’m going to keep a low profile.”
Enkh-Altan nodded, trudging off as he himself stalked closer to where he had seen the green-haired boy fall.
When he reached him, he saw Eri still clinging to his back, the glow emanating from her, or rather from the single horn poking out from just under her hair. It confirmed his earlier theory, though it seemed to be going haywire, forcing Midoriya to his knees.
Chisaki tried to take advantage, reaching in with a gargantuan hand, but his monstrous form was ripped away the second he’d gotten too close. Nobuto paused to stare as the hulking brute that Ryukyu and Nejire had been trying to subdue also reappeared, separating from Chisaki.
Chisaki had presumably used his Quirk to graft or fuse the brute to him.
He tried not to get lost in his own thoughts as Midoriya was still in dire straits, Eri’s Quirk only intensifying as it bathed the scene in its radiance. He couldn’t get too close, but he could do something at least.
Reaching out to touch upon her presence, he didn’t encounter resistance so much as something altogether stranger happening when he tried to lull her to slumber, the siren song of his Quirk being undone each time.
He was beginning to understand how it was her Quirk worked. It rewound the damage Midiroya had done to himself, and here it was rewinding whatever he tried to impress upon her.
Fortunately, Aizawa solved the conundrum by using his eyes to erase her Quirk temporarily, and she lost consciousness with only the slightest nudging from himself after.
His presence having gone unnoticed, it wasn’t hard to stick around as things wound down.
It was not all good news. Sir Nighteye was in critical condition, but it was hearing that Mirio had lost his Quirk that came as something of a shock to him. It almost didn’t feel real. He knew better than anyone just how hard Mirio had worked at his Quirk, just how pure his dreams were, only for it all to have vanished in an instant.
Maybe that was part of why in the span of maybe fifteen minutes, the plan he had meticulously carved out these past few weeks took on a new form.
He had intended to force Chisaki to use his Quirk to decrypt the hard drive, a simple enough goal even if the how had been anything but. The villain had shown the ability to get past security systems without a trace, so he thought it reasonable to assume that Chisaki could help him with his problem.
The past hour just showed him that there was more to the Quirk than he had thought.
It was admittedly all very spur of the moment, but he was inspired.
The next few steps were still unchanged, so when they had spirited Chisaki inside a transport, he followed, leaning against the cool metal interior as he kept a distance.
The bullets containing the drug that Mirio had been hit with had also been recovered, likely to vanish somewhere quiet as soon as the Safety Commission could get their grubby hands on them. How many of them would even lose sleep over the fact that it was the result of years of human experimentation on a child, he wondered.
The transport suddenly swerved hard, almost sending him stumbling.
“Woah, woah! It’s Tomura Shigaraki and the League of Villains!” he heard the driver’s panicked yell, sending those inside also into a panic. Even Chisaki stirred from his stupor somewhat.
Really, he thought. Just when everything was going so well? He cursed under his breath; with all the hubbub it wasn’t like he would be heard anyway.
Going through the vanishingly small list of options available to him, he wasn’t seeing anything that would give him good odds in a one-against-seven, and that was assuming there weren’t any mud doubles involved.
Still, the idea of throwing weeks of planning out the window grated on him even more.
The transport swerved again, but this time catastrophically as it tipped over and skidded along some portion of the asphalt, the impact grinding at his bones and leaving him woozy. Those members of the Police Force in the transport with him were in more dire straits, most of them having suffered injuries or been knocked unconscious.
Not that it mattered. He doubted any of them had a Quirk to seriously put up a good fight.
When he heard footsteps approaching, he forced himself to relax. He had to think.
It was just a bit of mud that he had fought in the forest. If they knew anything about his Quirk, it was just a shade of the real thing that was common knowledge. Moreover, their advantage was also a disadvantage, especially with a Quirk as destructive as Dabi’s. Nobuto could use him to cause all kinds of chaos.
Still, he couldn’t play this safe if he wanted to have a real shot here.
He had just pocketed his sunglasses when the entire back of the truck disintegrated, revealing Shigaraki just in time for his Quirk to stir and stretch out across the span of the transport.
Hate. So much hate and ego. Even with his Quirk unburdened, the sickly villain had a strength of personality to him that did not make him easy to influence. He did what he could still, but Shigaraki could immediately tell that something was wrong.
“There’s another hero in here,” he said in a nasally voice, touching his hands to the interior of the truck and causing it to rapidly decay.
It left him standing under the sun, right out in the open. Normally, that would not be something desirable, but Shigaraki just made everything so much easier.
That there were only three members of the League of Villains here, Dabi and Compress alongside Shigaraki, was also good news.
“I remember you,” Dabi croaked out as they surrounded him, and he let them. “How did you like the present we sent you?” A raspy chuckle sounded out. “You couldn’t tell?”
His Quirk was slowly worming its way inside, so he was happy for the banter.
“It was a good plan,” Nobuto admitted. “But I just had to stick my nose into things again.”
“You heroes are always so happy to sacrifice yourselves,” Shigaraki ground out. “You’re not even the main character, so why are you so smug?”
“Who says I’m not?” he shot back with a grin.
Nobuto could feel his Quirk turning on him as well, stroking his ego, changing small things here and there. It was not unexpected.
He turned back to the corpse man. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed your exploits, Dabi. You’ve been murdering a lot of people. You can’t help yourself, can you?”
“Heh. I’ve really become famous, haven’t I?” Dabi croaked again.
“What are you up to now?” he asked conversationally. “Thirty?”
“It was easy.” An unhinged smile had settled on his patchwork lips now. “You should have seen how they cried out for a hero to save them, even as they burned alive. It was pathetic.”
He didn’t let it get to him, even when his Quirk told him that every word was true.
Turning instead to Compress, who had lost an arm somehow and whose name was still a mystery, Nobuto could tell he had some doubts. “Some friends you have here, a manchild and a mass murderer. Haven’t you heard that saying about the company you keep?”
Shigaraki lunged at him, maybe not having liked his comment. He laughed as Shigaraki almost immediately had to retreat as flames blanketed the area, and he made sure they heard it.
“Watch where you do that, you moron!” Shigaraki spat.
“It’s his Quirk,” Dabi rasped out. “Just stay back and let me roast him.”
It wasn’t a bad plan had he still even been there, the blue flames the corpse man produced seeming even hotter than he remembered, so hot they melted the asphalt.
He didn’t want to reveal too many of his tricks either, as his plan wasn’t to win outright.
Compress’s instincts were good enough to suspect something, but not good enough to stop him from cracking his mask apart, allowing Nobuto to put his face to memory.
The older man jumped back as Dabi’s flames spread out like a hungry beast again, though he protested when they followed him instead. “Don’t underestimate him, Dabi! He is as much a showman as I am. If you keep playing into his hands, you’re going to do his work for him.”
“Tsch.” Dabi put his hands in his pockets. “He’s not a good match up for me.”
It made him a tempting target, but getting too close to the pyromaniac risked disaster even if he didn’t already have something else in mind.
Instead he moved toward Shigaraki, driving a kick into his cheek and dislodging the hand stuck to his face. He was a horror show even if one didn’t count the very human hands sticking to him all over. His skin was an unhealthy white or gray, his lips dry and cracked apart, and his eyes had practically sunk into his skull.
Shigaraki glared at thin air, scratching at his neck. “Ignore him. We’re here for Overhaul.”
Hook, line, and sinker, Nobuto thought with a smile.
He let them proceed, only keeping them harried so they didn’t get suspicious. They stood over Chisaki soon enough, his hands restrained so he couldn’t use his Quirk. He could tell they weren’t there to free him just by how angry two of them were.
“Not so high and mighty now, are you?” Shigaraki spat. “Who’s the final boss now? You even need third-rate heroes to defend you now.” He kicked Chisaki for good measure.
It seemed the two had a falling out at some point.
Nobuto saw his opportunity to act as Compress reached out his hand spitefully. What his Quirk had planted immediately took hold, and the showman proceeded to turn all of Chisaki into a marble, not just his arm like he had planned.
“Why—” Shigaraki started, only to find himself robbed of the two small boxes he had picked up containing Chisaki's dark work. The manchild was so on edge that he lashed out instinctively, almost touching him and ruining everything.
It made his heart kick up, and he loved it. These were the big leagues.
Nobuto had already snatched the marble that Chisaki had been turned into, all of them too close for Dabi to act unless he wanted to turn all five of them into ash. And he knew it too with the frustration that was just pouring off of him in waves.
It all made a very petty part of him very happy.
As Shigaraki furiously slammed his hands down on the block that was left behind, the metal quickly decaying away, he couldn’t help rubbing salt into the wound. It was Dabi whose ear he whispered in, delivered once he had been a ways away.
It was a repeat of the words his mud double threw at him that night.
“I win.”
