"Stop right there." A voice called out. Vito turned his head around to see a guard, another one! Finally! About time.
This guard was armoured from head to toe, a much for fitting attire for someone going up against a monster like him. "I was starting to wonder if any other guards were coming or not. Glad to know that there are still some that care about me."
Osamu gave the prisoner a once over. "Inmate Vito, return to your cell. Immediately."
"How about I don't do that? What then, mister guard?"
"Then," Osamu raised his fists, ready to go, "I'll have to bring you in." Normally, Osamu would have tried to talk an inmate down, but Vito was an exception.
A cruel laugh erupted from Vito as it echoed around the ward. "I wouldn't have it any other way! Well then, mister guard! I hope you're better than those clone bastards."
"So not even Bunri's clones could stop him. I really hope Muika is safe."
Vito had turned around at this point, grinning as he rolled his arms. His clothes and general appearance showed that he had been in fights before, yet he didn't look winded in the slightest from those fights. Osamu was really glad that Muika didn't come with him.
It was going to be a difficult fight.
When Vito suddenly charged, Osamu immediately acted. Following on with what his precious little sister saw. Thanks to that, he had landed a clean hit right in Vito's face.
He really needed to thank the armourers for this. Osamu made it a point to do that right after Vito was contained once more.
"Answer me. How did you escape your cell, Vito?" Osamu demanded, dodging a kick from the staggering Vito.
"Maybe, I just broke out? Ever think of that?"
"Impossible, the solitary confinement cells were specifically made so that prisoners like you wouldn't be able to break out."
"You know, when you're left alone with nothing to do. The only thing you can do is to train and exercise. Of course I got stronger than that pathetic, cramped cell!"
"Damn it," Osamu cursed. That wasn't something that he wanted to hear. There was no choice now but to detain Vito or to provide a distraction until Muika got to the wardens. Though, from the sound of their conversation, only Bunri's clones dealt with him so far, hopefully some more guards were on the way.
What an awful time for Vito to get loose. Right during a meeting when some of the more able guards were preoccupied.
His sister's quirk only saw Vito dashing at him, he didn't have much else to go with now that Vito's first attack was thwarted. He could use Bunri's help with his clones too. "Hope he's okay too."
There was no time to think about such things any longer as Vito charged, baring his teeth. No change in tactics, it was basically a repeat of last time.
Hitting Vito into the ground, the armoured guard stepped back from the downed convict. It wasn't going to be that easy. The hedonist was already back on his feet in only a matter of seconds.
Osamu tensed, Vito was already on the move for another attack. The difference this time was that despite punching the villain, he grinned, uncaring about the hit itself.
"Come on, I need to warm myself back up. Hope you don't mind me holding back a bit." Vito laughed as Osamu found himself on his knees. A sudden strong punch to the gut. "Huh? One punch is enough to take you down? My, how boring."
Hearing a neck crack, Osamu snapped his head up, seeing an outreached arm. "Huh?" Vito blinked as he was pulled forward as a tight pain formed in his now gripped wrist.
With a powerful uppercut, Osamu let the prisoner fly back. This time however, he rushed in, not letting Vito get up as quick as he did before with a strong kick.
Rolling on the floor, Vito rose from the ground as he spat out some dirt. "Now this is a change." He wondered if that lanky bastard's quirk also played a role in it too. Regardless, he charged back into the fray, engaging with the suited up guard, slowly using his quirk since the fight began. "I'll play with you for a little bit longer."
As the brawl continued, it was then that Vito realized something.
It wasn't his strength. It was that suit. Vito just assumed it was for some extra protection, like that bone guy he fought before. That suit wasn't just for protection, it was to help deal out damage!
Osamu's riot-looking armour was made specifically for him. In fact, it was made with him in mind. A real made-to-order type of equipment, it even sported the same hero grade material used by most hero support companies. A perk of Styx some might say.
"Oi, oi. Don't tell me you don't have a combat quirk." Vito's grin flickered briefly. "You can at least use your quirk for combat, right?"
The only reply he got was silence.
"Fine then, keep your quirk to yourself!" he yelled, rushing forward, leaving a nice compact crater where he stood. His arm bolstered with a surge of extra muscle beneath the skin.
What came next was a simple swipe. One might even call it a lariat with how he just swung it.
Though his movements were sloppy, like he wasn't even trying. The armoured guard didn't even have trouble dodging the powerful swing. The sloppy swings that followed would be rather pathetic if it wasn't for Vito at least packing power behind each swing.
The older Yomaura sibling couldn't help but feel like Vito was trying to force a quirk out of him. It didn't really make sense, he expected the ash blonde man to try harder if that was the case.
"Maybe, he's looking down on me?" he thought, easily punching Vito's face in as he did. If that was the cause of his sloppy movements then, "he's gonna make it more manageable for us to restrain him."
It was then that Osamu noticed something in his favour. Vito's form was slimming down. It was now or never.
Osamu formed a fist, as tight as he could. The suit's gauntlets clung to his hand as the guard felt it vibrate. Not even waiting, he quickly planted his fist into Vito's exposed face.
Then Vito went flying into the prison's wall.
"Gah! Fuckin' hell!" he couldn't even hold a grin as he winced at the sudden pain. Seems like things were piling up. "It would have been nice if it was your quirk or your own strength though." a sliver of blood escaped his lips. In its escape from the monster's body, its freedom didn't last long as the tongue came in and swiped it back up.
A darkened look overtook the slightly growing muscular man. "And I think that's why I'm so pissed off instead. Using shit like that to compensate." Osamu raised his guard, something felt off. "You have no real strength of your own...and for that...I'm not going to play around like I did before."
"So he was looking down on me!" He thought it was too easy when it came to knocking the inmate down.
He wasn't even taken seriously...only being played with.
Walking over to a bolted down table, Vito gripped the metal leg and with a powerful yank, ripped the table out of the ground, like he was pulling a weed out from his garden.
With great speed, Vito wielded the table like it was a flyswatter. Benting it over and over again as he tried to smack his current annoying fly down.
And it only got faster.
It was only a matter of time.
"He—" Osamu was smacked with the makeshift flyswatter. It sent the poor guard flying.
Osamu slammed into the wall, his protective layer of armour protecting him from the impact. "Urgh." By the time he looked up, as quickly as he could, Vito was already upon him.
Vito slammed himself down, standing right above him as he raised his arms, high into the air.
The only thing Osamu could do was block.
Or try to.
And down came the barrage of blows, trying to get past the outer shell to reach all the punchable flesh underneath.
Soon, the punches slowed down as Vito stood up. Sweat rolled down the side of his neck as he did. He had to give it to that armour, it took quite a beating and still looked like he didn't punch it that much. Man, technology progressed a lot since he was locked up.
Cracking his neck again, he wandered over towards the wall he was looking at before. "Now, let's see if we can do this uninterrupted this time."
The hedonistic inmate powered himself up as he started to pummel the wall as hard as he could at his current level. As soon as the wall took some sufficient visible damage, the orange eyed inmate stopped and turned to Osamu. A nasty grin flickered onto his face as he did.
Picking Osamu up, he slammed him into the wall with all his might. Thankfully, for Osamu, his armour was able to protect him from any further harm, but that didn't stop the wall from crumbling down from the new, sudden impact.
"Hello world!"
Muika ran as fast as she could with Penthus towards wherever the wardens were having their meeting. Osamu had briefly told her before where they were holding it, hopefully she would make it in time.
"Hey, who's that?" the janitor beside her pointed out to a running guard with large fox-like ears.
"I...think that's the new guard." She had never met the new guard, but she was informed of him. The fox ears were one detail that made it easy to recognize him.
That and the fact that once they were getting closer to each other, the more she had no idea who that was from memory.
Now that she could see his face clearly, he was definitely worried.
"Hey! Hey!" Hokori pulled up, panting. "There's trouble, I need to find the wardens."
"Huh, the same as us." the janitor scratched his neck.
"Um, I saw some guards, not even reacting to the alarm, some did, but the others were still walking around like they couldn't hear it." the pale newbie sweated as he looked back from where he had just come from.
"This...is my first time with this sort of alarm going off. My brother said that, uh, some guards remain in their position to keep an eye on the other prisoners in case they revolt too." Muika revealed, at least from what she was told. Of course, the guards lept into action but there needed to be guards keeping an eye on some other prisoners too.
"O...oh."
"I heard that some of the female inmates were riled up lately." Penthus added. "Probably a good idea to spread out some numbers here and there in case of more prison riots or fights, but aren't we falling behind?"
"That's right! We need to get to the wardens!" Once again, the new guard panicked and it wasn't helping a thing.
"Calm...calm down." Muika gave her attempts to try and calm the newbie and right now, she was the one with the most responsibility among the trio right now. Taking a minute to collect herself, followed by a deep breath, "it's...it's okay."
She tried to sound confident and thinking about the situation her brother put himself in, she needed to be convincing too, "I know where the wardens are and we're going to them right now. You need to remain calm."
"...okay." That seemed to do it. It took some time of course, but it worked.
"Just...just follow my lead."
The trio now ran towards where the meeting was taking place after quickly introducing themselves (even if it was only their first names), it was more so that Penthus and Hokori were following Muika's directions (or rather her brother's directions) to find the wardens.
"So, why are the warden's holding a meeting anyway?" Hokori asked as the janitor perked up before joining in.
"Yeah, I would assume that they heard the alarm, right?"
Muika however shook her head. "If they heard it, they would have dealt with it by now. I...I don't know the exact details of this meeting, but from the way my brother talked about it, it... sounded serious."
"Your brother?"
Muika jumped a tad at the fox's question as he had gotten closer. "Oh, ah you might have met him. Osamu."
"Oh! He's really nice!" smiled the fennec fox. "Really, really nice."
"Hey uh, focus please?" the janitor clapped, getting their attention.
The two stopped their little conversation as they kept up their pace. "Sorry," the two apologized in sync.
When their footsteps filled the silence, Muika decided to use this opportunity to learn more about the situation. "So... who is this inmate that caused this sort of alarm in the first place?"
"Some guy named Vito," the janitor answered. "There's—"
"Bunri mentioned the same name!" Hokori's ears perked up. "He didn't mention more than that though..."
The prison's counselor turned to face the janitor as they all turned a corner. "You know this inmate?"
The light browned haired worker just shook his head. "No, I don't really know anything asides from his name and that he is one of the inmates stuck in solitary confinement. You'd be better asking one of the guards that patrol there more often than just me."
"Any information helps." Muika tried to give a reassuring smile. She wasn't nearly as good as her brother in that regard though.
Penthus' lips only managed to twitch a little at the attempt. "As a janitor, I know next to nothing. The only thing I do is clean the wards during the night when most prisoners are locked away in their cells. The guard's barracks, kitchens and that during the day." he sighed, running his hand through his hair, briefly showing a red eye. "The stuff I know about Vito is from the rotating guards there when I'm cleaning the hallways. Just conversation when we're bored, really."
Hokori hummed. "I'm not so sure myself, but from Bunri's reaction, he did seem strong. Strong enough to inform the wardens."
The young woman returned her attention to the goal at hand. All they needed to do was inform the wardens about what was going on, then everything would go back to normal.
However, preventing them from going any further was the rookie guard as his large fox ears perked up as he immediately crouched, ready to pounce. "Someone's coming."
Running in their direction was a small group of convicts. It wasn't much, just a small group of four, but Muika immediately glanced towards the newbie if only for a second. She could hear a low, quiet growl.
The cogs in the prisoners' head turned slowly once they saw the trio, immediately thinking that they had a shot at this lot. The first sign of hostility shown from the approaching prisoner was met with a quick strike from the newbie.
Fennec Fox: A pretty self explanatory quirk, it basically allows Hokori to do anything a fennec fox can do as well as grant him physical traits of a fennec fox as well as enhanced senses.
"We don't have time to deal with you." the fast little fox knocked an orange jumpsuit wearing criminal down with ease.
Penthus almost thought that one of the other prisoners was going to attack both Muika and him, but that never came thanks to the fox's quick agility.
"We...we need to help him." Muika stuttered out, keeping her eyes on the convicts as she stood slightly behind him. They didn't have time to be held up by inmates.
"And how do we do that? I can't fight."
Feeling his strong gaze, Muika felt incredibly small. "Neither do I...but I— my quirk can't help, but I don't—"
He kept his gaze on the woman as she couldn't find the right words to say, the situation wasn't exactly the best right now as any words that came out of her mouth wheezed into nothingness, like the words itself never existed in the first place.
He was going to regret this, especially when it came to cleaning up.
Looking back at the fighting, Penthus rolled his head around, tearing his vision away from the nearby exit. "This is going to make my job harder, but..." From his hands, a clear substance secreted from his hands. Placing both sticky hands onto the ground, the small area around the prisoners soon coated the ground in waves. "Move, Hokori!"
Gel: This quirk allows Penthus to secrete transparent, clear sticky liquid from hands. He can send waves of gel to cover a small area of the ground from his hands or simply touch something to place a glob of it down as this gel is very sticky and anything or anyone stuck in it can be stuck for a good while.
"What the?" one of the inmates struggled to move, their legs covered in the transparent slime.
"Can't...move!" struggled another who was flat on his back. On the plus side, Hokori did manage to jump out of the way thanks to Penthus's warning.
Once the prisoners were easily restrained, the fox jumped up, almost tackling the janitor. "Thanks, Penthus!" the young fennec fox clung onto the janitor, who wiped his hands off with a handkerchief while trying to pry the fox off.
"Your quirk really helped out there and saved us time." Muika bowed, at least to show her thanks for his efforts. Doing something that Osamu never promised that he had to do.
Though, there was a second reason for her bow. "Great job, Muika. You really helped them out, huh?" That caused her to wince a little.
What could she do to help? See a random future that might not even be what they needed now?
She didn't like it.
"Thanks, but uh, I hate it," the janitor crossed his arms, looking back at the secreted gel.
Muika looked back up, briefly seeing a red eye among the mob of brown hair that hid it. "Why?"
"For starters, cleaning it is a pain!"
Ah.
"Will we be okay with them stuck there?" she moved the topic, getting a confident nod in return.
"Don't worry, they'll be stuck for a good while. A friend got stuck in it once, took us a while to get him out."
Before Muika could even think of replying, Hokori grabbed both of their wrists. "Let's go. Wardens. Now!"
"We are wasting more time here." Penthus agreed as he was dragged enough to get moving. Muika had to agree. Osamu was out there fighting after all.
She really hoped that he was okay.
Silence once more overtook the conversation.
"Are we close to the wardens, though?" the fox asked, wiping some sweat away the more they travelled.
"I think so..." Muika took in her surroundings, looking for any indication or sign. "Real assuring, Muika."
Thankfully, it seemed fate was on their side as Penthus popped into the conversation. "Is that it?"
Snapping back to reality, the younger Yomaura sibling saw the door to where the sudden meeting was taking place. "Y...Yes! It is!"
The trio stopped in their tracks as they came up to the said meeting room door.
In front of the large double doors leading into the meeting room, was a woman decked out in the same green military guard outfit as most other guards. She had light skin and soft brown eyes which were almost doll-like in the way she looked at them. Her blonde hair with brown roots dropped down around her shoulders as she stopped playing with the hat in her hands.
This was Kikazaru Sarugaku, another member of the Sanzaru within Styx, much like Mizaru.
Hokori ran forward, not even hearing Muika calling out to him to wait. "We need to see the wardens! There's a problem!"
Kikazaru however, just blinked at him.
"We got a serious situation going on!" Hokori rushed his words, his tone increasing a little as some words sounded more like yips.
Confused, Kikazaru just smiled. She tried following his lips, but it was just a mess of yips. With a wave of her hands, she gestured for him to both slow and calm down.
"This isn't—" A hand appeared on the new guard's shoulder, before anything else could happen.
"Please...calm down, she's deaf." Muika then gave a small wave to Kikazaru, who waved back.
The fox's ears slumped down. "Oh...sorry."
"She can read lips, but you were probably going too fast. I'm also not the best at sign language either, but—"
Penthus coughed, getting their attention. "I know a bit of sign language. Might be better for you to do it though."
Muika turned back to the deaf guard and tried her best, thankfully, Kika had already understood and had already stepped aside, letting them in and in they went. Kika spun the hat in her hand as she narrowed her eyes in the direction they came from.
"You're not coming?" Hokori asked the janitor, noticing that he had stayed behind.
"Nah, I was only asked to escort her here. Plus, I don't think a simple janitor's presence would be the best."
"Then...what are you going to do?"
Penthus scratched the back of his neck. "Gonna go hide for a while until things blow over. See ya!"
As they watched the janitor run off, they immediately ran inside to see the wardens. The moment Muika and Hokori stepped inside, the alarms stopped entirely.
"No wonder they didn't hear the alarm." Muika mumbled while Hokori just continued to look surprised.
Walking forward, they entered another room and there they were.
Sitting around a big table were indeed the wardens along with some other guards. Seimei and Eris were definitely the heads at the table here as around them sat some familiar and unfamiliar guards.
Tai was one of the guards sitting at one of the far ends and next to him sat Alexios. Across from them was Dahlia, Yukiko and the butler-like guard, Shimaru. Mizaru sat nearby Tai with a black cloth covering his eyes and next to him was another guard.
The guard next to Mizaru had his arms crossed, decked out in the same regular garb with the only extra addition was that of a black, lower face mask, covering from his nose down. His spiky brown hair was quite messy while his sharp brown eyes seemed to be constantly glaring.
Another guard present at this meeting was a one garbed in the general attire, not much change or accessories were added to it. His hat was positioned in a way that hid his eyes while his mint green hair draped his shoulders in a wavy way. His feet were firmly on the desk as he leaned back, holding a bottle gourd by the rope that was tied around it.
The other guard was a short woman with smooth chin-length soft grey hair with a pair of lively, bright blue eyes. Her uniform was grey in colour and was shorter than most other guards, having shorts rather than the long pants and her jacket having no sleeves. This was mostly because of her body. Instead of having arms and legs, she has a pair of grey feathered bird wings replacing her arms and a pair of bird-like legs complete with talons. She did lack a hat though.
She seemed very lively as she just smiled at whatever they were talking about.
And that was it in terms of people who came to the rather on the spot meeting.
While there were no seats in between Eris and Seimei, there were two empty seats on the opposite side of them. Muika noticed that a few other seats were empty too.
The meeting was really sudden and Muika had no idea what it was for, but seeing how little people were in this meeting, she could only wonder what sparked it.
"Muika? Hokori?" asked the eyepatched warden as she looked up to see the two guards, which broke Muika out of her thoughts. "What are you doing here?"
Before Muika could even get a word out, Hokori immediately shouted, "Some prisoner called Vito is out of his cell!"
It was then that all eyes present (save one) were glued onto them.
The single action caused Muika (and Hokori) to shrink under the powerful gazes.
And then, one of the wardens stood.
"So... that's what you're saying?" Yua glanced over to the information broker.
"Has my info ever been wrong before?" Ashita asked back as the two sat comfortably in the co-ed ward, a coy smile appearing on her face as she did. It was a small but prideful one.
"No." Yua had to admit, Ashita's information was quite accurate, especially when it came to people who just arrived at Styx. No wonder she was a skilled info broker. "And you made the connections with Chie's quirk?"
Ashita nodded, folding her hands together. "Well, yes." she paused, letting that fact settle in. "But, I was aware of that other quirk before Chie started causing a ruckus, but it was the effect that made me realize it was being used then. Koneko being an example of that quirk's involvement in terms of how fast Chie's quirk acted back then."
The stoic woman just looked at her, not breaking eye contact. If it was someone else, they might have gotten slightly uncomfortable with her gaze. "Why didn't you bring it up back then?" Yua asked unblinkingly. "Surely, it would have been important to bring it up there."
Ashita tapped the table, "it would have caused a problem."
"How so?"
"Since its a quirk, it involves that person to be at the scene of the irritation." she smiled and Yua already knew what would happen.
"And that brings us back to what you said when we got here."
"Exactly."
The oleander haired woman crossed her arms, thinking over what she had heard. "Then what will you do?" her tone was still the same as it had always been.
Ashita leaned back in the chair, as much as she could anyway. "Hard to really say, it's mostly used subconsciously, but there's no doubt that it was also used consciously in that scenario." She ran her hand through her dyed white hair, making the messy bob cut even more so as the brown streaks zigzagged and waved because of it. "There's also no real benefit in it for me to mention either."
Yua just sat calmly while she listened. "If she brings it up, then it might ruin a group." Yua closed her eyes, thinking about what she was told. "You mentioned that it was used consciously in that scenario unlike the subconscious uses, correct? I suggest that you at least keep that in mind to inform the others at some point."
She moved some of her hair behind her ear as she continued, "from what you told me about this quirk, that might be the best option. Even if it's mainly used subconsciously, you are the only person who knows the most about it and its user. So—"
"So keep in mind to tell them if something happens." Ashita shot Yua a playful grin. "Whether consciously or subconsciously. It can cause a problem for people. Anyways, thanks for hearing me out."
The info broker then began to tap her heel on the table. "Knowing what I know, it would be better if it just stayed subconscious, but even then, that would be a problem down the line. Guess I'll gotta inform the others if it goes too far."
"You're welcome, Ashita."
"So what are you two talking about?" Fushiko popped up suddenly like a whack-a-mole at the end of the table. She did pout when neither of them even reacted or jumped by her sudden intrusion. Not too far behind her was Chikuha and Inyoku, who seemed to have a few bandages wrapped around him. Those two seemed to be having some conversation, but Yua wasn't really interested in that.
"Nothing much," Ashita shrugged with a smile. "Boring stuff, really."
The woman with the short, black flared bob just stuck her tongue out. "Then you should talk about something fun!"
"Oh? Like what?"
Fushiko grinned, placing her hands on Yua's stoic face, her purple and black pinky finger forcing one side of her mouth upwards along with the other side. A faux smile lasted for only a second. "That, but without hands—ouch!"
"Don't do that."
Ashita couldn't help but chuckle, which only caused the poor bubbly inmate to pout. "Ashitaaaa! You gotta tell me what will make her crack!"
"Sadly—"
Their conversation was interrupted as their attention glanced over to a wall that practically exploded. Eyes drifted over to Chikuha.
"Hey, that wasn't me! Stop giving me those looks damnit!"
"...There's a person there..." Yua informed as they glanced back to the hole in the wall.
"Hello world!" An ash blonde monster greeted the world as he took his first step into the co-ed ward.
Most of the co-ed prisoners couldn't help but just stare at the intruder. He jumped a bit as he glanced around, the ward. "I guess this is the fabled co-ed ward, huh?" he mused, kicking a downed man.
They watched as an armoured up guard roll along the ground, coming to a halt on some broken rubble.
"Who the fuck is that?" they heard Chikuha in the background right before Inyoku shot up.
"Does it matter? He looks strong! I'm gonna fight him!" Bless his heart, he tried.
Ignoring those two, they focused on the man that had bursted into the ward as he scratched his chin. "Definitely a better looking ward, that's for sure." his eyes wandered over the occupants. "Huh, not what I expected, how long has it been?"
Fushiko kept her smile, bouncing away from the table. "Guess we better skedaddle!"
Vito sighed. "So much for this ward having a lot of people. Beggars can't be choosers though. Five should be enough."
He dashed in, closing his eyes as he reached out. His hand grasping around one of the prisoners he dashed towards. Lifting them into the air, he opened his eyes to see a white haired woman as a look of fear flashed before her eyes.
"Seems like my luck chose you." No time was wasted when he held onto her tightly, she even flailed about! But, before he could act any further, someone else touched him.
"Drop her. Now." with her hand on his arm, Yua Aoi was (stoically) staring the man down.
"And what if I don't?"
"You'll regret it."
It took a second until he realized what she meant, right as she was smacked away. His other arm was itching like hell. What did she do? A quick inspection of his arm showed a small part of his arm was red as well as a small little cut, probably when he had just smacked her away. He then caught a glimpse of that girl he had picked up.
Ashita glared the surprise convict dead in the eye, right as she placed her hand on his wrist. Vito raised an eyebrow at this before pain surged.
"Agh! Fuck!" releasing the info broker, he immediately grasped his burning wrist.
Ashita dropped, only to be caught (and not long after, dragged away) by Fushiko. "Let's get a move on, buddy!" Ashita appreciated the warm smile before Fushiko led them away from the violence.
"Right!"
The pain slowly resided as Vito clutched his wrist. Removing his hand revealed the number forty-seven which had been burned into his wrist. Confusion swelled in his mind as he paid little attention to the two who fled.
He will eventually catch up to them sooner or later.
"Now that everyone's fucked off, it's time to end this with a bang!" That explosive tone caught him off guard as he could feel the saliva build up in his mouth.
In the corner of his eyes, he saw a young woman with light bluish-green hair, grinning as she held some rubble from where he had entered. One foot was on top of the knocked out armoured guard, it was hard to tell if she was doing it on purpose or not.
Suddenly the rubble went flying. It was nothing that he couldn't handle. It was kinda similar to that crystal guy's quirk, despite hitting him, he felt nothing.
So why was she grinning like she won?
"Bang!"
Complete with finger gun, Vito was engulfed in sudden multiple explosions that erupted around him.
He managed to pick up some rubble to throw back, but that too blew up in his face. Keeping his eyes closed, he honed in on the laughter.
Then he charged.
"Ugh!"
"Got ya!" Slamming her into the wall, Vito opened his eyes as she set another explosion off, point blank.
Both of them could only see smoke, but the forty-seven branded inmate continued to push into the wall, before he jumped back, in case of any other explosions that might have gone off.
The smoke from the explosions settled not too long after as Chikuha laid on the concrete as sweat rolled down Vito's face.
Taking a second to breathe now that the bomber girl was dealt with at the moment, he felt something touch his leg. A quick response removed Yua from the scene for a second time.
As he whacked the flower haired woman away again, his leg was begging to be scratched. Though now that he got some thinking room, he swore that there was one other inmate that he could remember.
That very same inmate charged next, ignoring the fact that he was still wounded from Mulhall's attacks. "You seem to be strong. Let's fight!"
Watching the others fight this man got him pumped! Now this was a battle he was dying to get in on! His legs were a little shaky, but nothing that slowed him down too much.
"While you'll be able to move, don't push yourself. Just don't get into any fights or you'll risk injuring yourself further." The memory of Carna reminded him when he was stuck in the infirmary. Fuck that. He wasn't going to let this battle slip through his fingers!
"Hahahaha! I like you kid!" Vito couldn't help but smile at the rattlesnake's desire to fight. It gave him a nostalgic feeling.
As Inyoku jumped in, clawing at the large man, the same large man simply dodged each swing the bandaged prisoner threw out. It gave him a good look at the younger convict's face.
It held the same desire he did.
Was this a match made under the heavens? Did Fate itself bring these two together? Vito had no clue, but whatever it was. The gap between them was too big.
He had to applaud his tenacity though.
So he decided to reward that with an attack of his own. To his surprise however, the rattlesnake was quite agile. Agile enough to dodge his blows before he sharp pains grew all over his body.
The brat landed some attacks. Scratches mostly. As he scratched his itchy arm, he spat some extra saliva onto the concrete below. "How would he be if he wasn't injured?" That was a thought for another time, however.
"Hm? Why did you stop? Come on, let's go!"
Vito only laughed.
"Just for you kid, I'll give you the time of your life!" stomping on the ground, he gave Inyoku a glimpse at his strength. His muscles underneath bulked up right before he went in on his next attack.
It was something shared by the snake as well. They had silently challenged each other to a show of strength using nothing but their fists.
As Inyoku's punch landed against the muscular blonde's own. He could feel nothing but delayed pain. A scream of agony escaped soon after, causing the short inmate to cradle his arm.
Vito had won that contest of pure strength.
Yet Inyoku still managed to smile and after the pain subsided somewhat, he looked up to see Vito sharing a smile. "You're one messed up brat. I like that."
As Inyoku stood, the cradled arm was now limp as it dangled by his side. "Good, 'cause I'm not done yet."
It was like music to Vito's ears.
He tried to attack the younger convict, yet he found it much more difficult to move. "That lanky bastard never said anything about this."
Looking at his arm, he noticed that something was sticking to him. It was incredibly faint but still quite noticeable once he looked at it. Following the trail of what appeared to be ghostly strings, he quickly found the source. Someone else had arrived.
When he looked at the third party presence, there stood a young man with dark purple, slicked back hair. Reiji Maeda.
Sweat rolled down Reiji's face as he wondered why he did such a stupid thing. He was already cursing himself for joining in with all this chaos going on.
He was perfectly content with just avoiding this all together, letting all his fellow inmates (and the guards) deal with this problem. But now, for some reason, he got himself involved and worse of all, noticed.
The young man had convinced himself that he would help a little. Do what he usually did. Use his quirk unnoticed and get the fuck out of there before they caught wind. Staying down low all the while.
He shook like a leaf under Vito's intense gaze. It practically told him that he was next. "Stupid Reiji, making yourself a target!"
Yet he let out a tiny sigh of relief when Vito turned his attention back at the snake. Though, he did wonder if he should just book it now while he had the chance, but at the same time, Vito was a combination of things he didn't like.
Safe to say that he feared this cocky and powerful inmate who was re-establishing the prisoner hierarchy. Maybe that's why he chose to even use his quirk on him.
Puppet: Reiji can launch ethereal strings from his fingertips and if they connect with another person, he can control them like a puppet! Though, he can only control one person at a time, requiring him to disconnect and relaunch them at another target and when puppeteering someone, he cannot move a part of his body when moving one of theirs until the action is completed. Despite controlling another person, he can allow them to move normally but he cannot activate or deactivate their quirks.
As he pulled Vito's arm back as soon as he saw the bastard move. He couldn't help but feel like he was reeling in a giant fish that didn't take too kindly to the hook it caught itself on.
Reiji watched on in horror as someone resisted his strings with pure physical strength alone. "Or maybe, it's his quirk?" He had witnessed Vito's quirk a few times and that was a lot of muscles.
As Vito managed to take a swing at Inyoku, he pulled the hedonist's leg. It wasn't much, but at least it caused him to miss.
It was time to retreat.
Detaching his strings, he got ready to leg it as he watched Inyoku smack Vito's head with his tail. "What are you doing?! Can't you see that you're outclassed! Look at your arm!" Reiji, kept that to himself though as he watched.
He never felt as nervous watching a prison brawl before. Maybe because he was next in line for the pummeling. Yet he watched as Inyoku fought on, even with his either broken or dislocated arm.
The green eyed inmate watched both of them attack each other. Both lost in their own little world. It was like watching two animals fighting!
Granted, one of them did have snake features.
"Oi! I'm not fucking down yet!" Chikuha's snarl echoed through the co-ed ward as she grabbed pieces of broken rubble. "Yua! Let's fuck this shitstain up!"
Yua however just adjusted her pearl bracelet and her off the shoulders dyed jumpsuit. "You're seriously not suggesting to rush in without a plan?"
"Of course! That's what battles are! Why? Do you have a plan?"
"Obviously."
Chikuha just stuck her tongue at her. "Well, too bad! I'm going in!"
"How can you guys still fight that thing?" Watching the battle unfold, he was completely flabbergasted at their ability to continue. "You guys are losing! Trying again isn't going to change anything..."
It was then he had to cover his eyes as an explosion went off. All the while Vito's laughter grated against his ears. "HAHAHA! YES! THAT'S IT! ALL AT ONCE!"
All Reiji could mutter was, "god damn it."
Elsewhere in the prison, a prisoner had their face slammed into a concrete wall. "Don't just go attacking him in a single file!" shouted a random inmate. "Group tactics!"
"Fuck you." said another, before he too was suddenly hit and slammed onto the ground.
Bunri frowned as he readjusted his hat. "Seems like you inmates forgot what it means to follow procedure."
The dividing guard hated this, he had hoped that it wouldn't have happened, but no! These inmates just had to try and take advantage of the situation and see if it could help them escape somehow among other ridiculous reasons. Seriously, what were they thinking? He had no idea what went on in their heads.
They were also wasting his time too. With a prisoner like Vito on the loose, he couldn't spare to waste time with riff raff.
Once again, he was thankful that it was only Vito and not one of the more troublesome convicts instead. While strong, incredibly so, Vito was easier to handle when restraining him...the others, they were a bit more difficult, some more than others. Maybe because of that, he was willing to let his comrades and coworkers deal with the inmate for now while he cleaned up here.
As a prisoner rushed him, one of his clones pinned them to the ground. "You guys really did it now."
"Ah shit. I thought he was tuckered out!" that same prisoner who had opened his mouth just got a clone's elbow straight to his gut. "Agh!"
"Come on, this won't take long." the guard taunted, taking out another.
"Shit," one of the convicts looked around, noticing that their numbers were dwindling. There weren't that many clones, but soon the small group would be overrun by the guard's clones.
If there was one thing to regret, it was this moment right here.
As the prisoners were tossed and thrown around like ragdolls, one of the knocked down criminals held the aching pain that pounded on their forehead as the fresh smell of blood slowly poured down their face, eventually allowing them to taste the iron of their own blood.
Briefly flipping themselves over, they managed to get a grip on a door, hoisting themselves back onto their legs, even if it was a bit shaky. As he took some time to regain his bearings, he heard a slight movement behind the door.
"Wha?" An idea quickly formed as he grabbed hold of the door, noticing the slight dent due to some of the harder skinned inmates being tossed about. "Come on…!"
Forcing their quirk into action, they managed to extend their fingers somewhat longer than before to get a much better grip. It was then that the door had managed to creak a little.
It was a little too late before Bunri actually noticed what was going on. He saw one of the bloody prisoners he had whacked sense into opening a cell door as soon as he heard a metallic creaking noise.
"Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty!" grinned the prisoner, managing to pry open the cell door as their blood dripped onto the floor as they spied a tossing and turning sleeping inmate.
Tired eyes cracked open, frustrated, but that didn't last long. The prisoner's nose got to work, sniffing up a storm before the inmate leaped into action.
"Ha! Now you're done for—" the prisoner didn't have time to taunt the guard as he was taken down, the prisoner from the dark cell sunk their teeth into the poor sod's neck.
The bleeding prisoner, down on the floor, struggling to get the sudden attacker off him couldn't even muster an ounce of strength to save himself before he went limp.
Blood dripped down the red eyed yardbird's mouth as they finally let go of the victim's neck. The tips of his short black hair dyed in the blood of the fallen prisoner.
"What the fuck?!" another prisoner fumbled back. "You bastard!"
Bunri silently cursed as one prisoner tried to take him out. He needed to stop that prisoner from drinking any more blood, so he slammed his elbow into that criminal's neck.
"Be a good inmate and stay down."
That sleeping inmate, Rin, licked his lips as he jumped over towards another bloodbag of a human, faster than what they had expected him too. Once more, fresh blood painted the grey concrete floors.
It was during this time that the prisoners that weren't knocked out or being attacked by Rin fled. Sadly for a few of them, they never made it far as clones knocked them out. All the while Rin's tongue explored the insides of his fellow prisoners exposed neck, drinking in all that crimson liquid like it was the world's best honey.
Vampirism: Rin's quirk allows him to consume other people's blood in order to make himself stronger, faster and more durable for a period of time depending on how much blood he has consumed. It also makes him stronger during the night or in dark places while growing weaker during the day or in well lit places.
Bunri kept his eyes on the arm bound vampire, sending a quick glance to the lights as he threw a prisoner he knocked out to the side like trash. He noticed the prisoner crouch back down, just an inch away from drinking even more blood.
"Gyeh!" Rin's head went flying backwards. Like hell Bunri was going to let him drink any more blood. The clone who had kicked the vampire away grinned as the vampire flailed around like a turtle on its back.
The clone immediately dissipated once the vampire quickly got back onto his feet, attacking the clone at the first chance he could.
"Rin Yonaga, return to your cell. Now."
The vampire-quirked man just tilted his head over towards the original's direction. A large bloodstained smile greeted the guard in return, their gaze seemingly in their own world.
Bunri got into position as Rin fell to his knees, bending down to the one bleeding prisoner he was trying to drink from again.
The black haired man was denied once more. This time, the original Bunri kicked him away from the inmate as a clone grabbed the prisoner from behind.
"We've done this before, Rin. Return to your cell."
"Let me drink!" The vampire flailed in the clone's hold. He did manage to break free of his hold and immediately darted right towards Bunri's neck.
Nothing a punch couldn't solve.
"Seems I need to teach you a lesson again, Rin."
Maybe this time it'll stick.
Something was off. Fumma knew that much.
While most parts of the male ward seemed to be fairly standard, some of the other inmates had cheeky grins. Of course, when they crossed his path they immediately dropped it.
It didn't take him long after that to figure out what had happened. Multiple prisoners sprawled across the ground, some that he knew fairly well. One of which was Jin.
Fumma found himself hurrying over towards the 'trial' member of his crew. "Jin?" he crouched near the downed (and hopefully) future underling. "What happened here?"
Weakly, Jin opened his eyes. "Some prisoner, never seen him before," he coughed a few times as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
"Focus."
Jin only pointed in the direction he had walked off. At least, what he could remember. "Ash blonde, muscular guy. He—"
"I'll deal with this." Fumma stood, immediately heading in the direction Jin pointed in. He might not have been one of his own, not yet at least, but he was responsible for him. Even if it was just a simple 'trial' period. The man with jade hair heard Jin say something, but he was too far away now and he wasn't going to stop and hear about it now. He needed to be somewhere.
A nice angry smile overtook his features the further away he got.
...
Elsewhere, Akita was on her bed in the warm comfort of her cell. The plain, beige coloured blanket wrapped around her as a little bead of sweat rolled down her face before it was wiped away.
The long dark haired woman gazed in the direction of her cell's only exit. Someone was on the other side. "May I come in?" Hearing the familiar voice, the top dog sat up, reaching for her jacket.
"Give me a minute." she told the person on the other side.
Picking up the discarded jacket on the ground, she hurriedly put it back on as she glanced towards the now open cell door.
A figure stood in the doorway, a familiar face to match the voice. "Yeah?" one of her underlings, the woman with the broadcasting quirk.
She did say a minute, but she didn't think it would be taken literally.
"Something happened." the woman said in between breaths. That explained it.
Akita crossed her arms as she sat on her cell's bed. "What happened?"
And so, all was told.
"COME AND ATTACK ME! ALL AT ONCE!" The boisterous tone of Vito challenged his targets. He had easily dealt with the sudden attack from the kariginu wearing snake as his back was suddenly hit with many small explosions.
Though, when he glanced in the direction of the flower woman, she was keeping her damn distance. Despite all the chaos, she was still calm! It was like none of this phased her! It kinda pissed him off.
"At least look at the people who are trying to fight you!" Inyoku's shouting made him snap right into the sudden knee that landed in his chin.
The snake jumped back, just as a piece of debris entered his field of vision. Which meant one thing.
"HAHAHA! Take that you bastard!" Chikuha held a rock or with her quirk, ammo. Glancing around, it seemed she was running low on some of the smaller bits of concrete.
All the while, Yua just watched from the side. Enough for her to be in range of the muscular blonde yet away from the others.
Granted, she had to deactivate her quirk whenever Inyoku rushed in. It was...difficult working with people who didn't care about planning ahead. She would have prefered it if they had at least formed a plan with her.
"Tch," scowling, Vito rushed at the closest person he could punch. For him, that was Inyoku. To the snake, Vito came suddenly out of some smoke left by the debris' explosion.
Inyoku watched as his dislocated arm raised itself into the air, his hand clutching itself into a tight fist. The punch that followed was quite hard as it sent Vito staggering back.
Confused, Inyoku glanced back to see Reiji standing a far distance away as an ethereal string connected them.
The short silver-white haired inmate grinned from ear to ear. Now this was something he got behind. "Let's keep going!" Once more, he dashed into the fray.
Among all the chaos however, Vito couldn't help but enjoy himself.
Sure, he itched and had to spit out saliva now and then, but this was what he signed up for!
He swung at Inyoku, a powerful punch...if it connected. Inyoku, who had been on the attack too, was somehow able to dodge the attack without coming to a halt. It would have been impossible.
That left one conclusion. "That cowardly puppeteer."
It only took one look in their direction to both confirm it and terrify that very puppeteer. Heh.
Vito's head was knocked back with a kick soon after. Grabbing a hold of the snake's tail, he swung him around for a bit before throwing him away. The snake moving in a way that caused him to land like a cat thanks to those strings.
However, nearby in the debris, a figure was slowly coming to. "Ugh..."
The rubble from the broken wall shifted as an armoured figure weakly got to their feet. "You guys..." It took him a while to even stand without having to wince.
"Everything's so blurry. I'm not going to be able to stay up like this." So he decided to at least give the inmates a hand before he passed out.
His gauntlets vibrated. He took a single step as pain surged throughout the suited up guard. "No use..." Holding a continually vibrating arm, he picked up some debris from the broken wall. One of the larger pieces.
His arm continued to shake right before he fired off that piece of broken concrete.
"It'll probably do nothing...but I hope it helps..." Osamu crashed into the cracked ground.
The piece of large debris flew through the air. "Behind you." Yua called out, causing Vito to embrace the flying debris, face first.
While it did nothing to Vito, compared to all the other attacks, it did create an opening. Inyoku bore his fangs as he bit into the branded convict's arm.
Pain seared through his arm as he smacked the snake away, he glanced in the direction of the puppeteer who pulled the snake to safety and back down to his bitten arm, ignoring the taunts from that bomber woman. And then...
For the second time in his life. He fell to his knees.