When Gin and Kuroishi followed Rhys, it wasn't long before a voice accompanied by a fast moving body made itself known.
"HAHAHA! GIVE ME YOUR FINGER, KURO!" the sound of crazed laughter rang out.
The giant bone man's arm raised itself on pure instinct as a pair of feet planted itself onto his arm. Just as quickly as the figure arrived, the laughing man launched themselves away with said arm.
By the time the long haired Kuro lowered his arm, he saw just who it was. "Yubi..."
The grey skinned Gin raised an eyebrow. "You know this nut case?"
"...something like that."
The one Kuro called Yubi had a large grin on his face, something Kuro would note as normal.
Speaking of Yubi, this man was the shortest of the four present with messy blonde haired that seemed to constantly convey a crazed look, not to mention how the blonde colour seemed a tad dull. The crazed look was also shared in his eyes, both vibrant violet. It wasn't just a crazed look though, it was excited, energetic.
He was wearing the general orange jumpsuit with the upper part of the uniform dangling down behind him, leaving him shirtless. His body showed he was definitely used to fights though with the slight athletic build and muscles on his body.
Then there was that other man who walked closer. He was the same height as Gin roughly, perhaps just slightly taller. Either way, all three were dwarfed by Kuroishi anyway.
While Yubi grinned ear to ear, this inmate frowned shoulder to shoulder. He had longer hair than the shirtless Yubi and it was slicked back mainly due to the fact that he wore a pure, plain white bandana as a headband.
Similarly to Yubi, he wore a jumpsuit as well but had the upper part of it worn like other inmates within the prison. One noticeable difference was the colour of said jumpsuit was instead black and seemed to be more spacious, having the sleeve hang down should he hold his arm up. The spacious sleeves and the upper part of the jumpsuit gave it some samurai vibes in a way. The man's white eyes scanned over the two and back to his crazed partner.
"So, who are-" Gin was cut off as Yubi made his move, reaching into a pocket.
Pulling out a makeshift shiv, the shirtless Yubi held it up high, for all to see. It wasn't the best made thing as he shouted. "LET'S COMMIT YUBITSUME!"
Yubi brought down the makeshift blade, easily slicing through his index finger right to his pinky on his left hand. Four fingers fell bloodlessly to the floor and all Yubi did was grin and laugh.
While Kuro and the other man ignored the whole finger cutting that Yubi performed, Gin muttered out, "he's insane."
"Yep." came replies from two different people.
"Hehehe, Mejiro. Kuro's mine for now~!" Yubi called out with the same grin on his face, dropping the shiv there and then.
The white eyed man named Mejiro huffed without a word.
"Great," Gin rolled his eyes, "of course there's someone to stop us for some fucking reason. Did that pitiful bastard do the same thing he did to Gousen on you?"
The white eyed Mejiro turned and nodded. "That's right."
"..." Gin stared for a while. "Huh?"
Stepping closer, the dark jumpsuit wearing inmate continued. "Are you familiar with Rhys' quirk? It's a real pain to deal with."
"Does it have to do with that creep being super touchy?" With Gin's question, Kuro looked over while keeping an eye on the swaying Yubi.
"That's right. A simple touch is all it takes." the frown deepened on the headband wearing inmate. "His quirk, he calls it Pavlov, once he touches you he imprints 'rules' more or less. Programs that trigger a response of pain or pleasure. Follow his orders and feel ecstasy, disobey and experience waves of pain."
A whistle from one of the sadists. "No wonder that weakling got Gousen to follow him like some guard dog."
The other sadist, Kuro narrowed his eyes as he thought back to Rhys. "I knew something was up. No wonder he kept getting close..."
Suddenly, Yubi shouted. "Boring! Less talk and more finger cutting!"
"And you got hit too?"
Yubi just gave the bone emitting giant a large innocent smile. "Hm? No! No! I accepted it! I want to feel great!"
"Huh, just like you, Masochist." scoffed the user of Burn Out.
"Now," Mejiro continued, "I hope you don't mind, but unlike that freak over there, I want this feeling of pain gone." After pointing at Yubi, Gin just raised his fists. All ready to go.
"Then bring it bastard!"
In another situation or another time, this would normally be the part they would say that they'd save them from Rhys' quirk if they were heroes or even decent people. Sadly, they weren't heroes.
And they never would be.
The fight was already underway.
Out of the four, the first person to strike was none other than Yubi. Leaping right at the tall giant.
He started his own attack with his left fingerless hand, an easily avoidable attack right before four fingers shot out like spears.
Kuroishi didn't have much time to react though! As more and more long fingers came out of hand, like a barrage of spears.
As the long spear fingers jabbed into Kuro's chest, the giant sent a kick at the smaller inmate, grabbing onto the fingers to bring him closer. The slightest knockback didn't work for long though.
Suddenly, from Yubi's back came dozens of giant fingers of different sizes, but all generally large while some of the thinner ones propped him up like some sort of spider.
Finger: Yubi can sprout many fingers as possible from any part of his body in multiple shapes and sizes! Even his regular fingers can regrow and reshape!
"Already using your quirk, huh?"
With speed like a rushing spider, Yubi attacked once more.
From the sides of Yubi, two large and long fingers emerged with the full intentions of squishing Kuro to death. The long haired Kuro had just enough time to grab hold and stop the two large fingers from doing just that. However...
"Come on Kuro! Let's cut our fingers!"
The other fingers were still a problem. The dozen of other fingers came barrelling down like punches into the fluffy and long dark haired man's body.
As the barrage of pokes with the power of hard throwing punches slammed into the masochist, the bone quirked man started to grin.
Bones started to grow out of his chest.
While the two crazies duked it out, Gin found himself fighting with the white eyed Mejiro.
Well, a fight that Gin started at least.
The first few punches he threw were all dodged by the white-eyed inmate. So Gin thought of a plan. Attack faster. It was still the same result though, but there was a change! Mejiro used his hand to redirect his punch. It was something right out of martial arts!
"Oi! Let me hit you damn it!"
Mejiro just raised an eye at that. "And why would I?"
Again, the dodging continued.
The first one to actually land a strike was the enemy, Mejiro. A palm to Gin's chest to send him back. "Bastard!"
It was hard for him to tell if Mejiro was actually using martial arts, but the way he went about using his palms to redirect his blows and land a strong hit on him...
Gin couldn't shake the thought. "This guy is a martial artist!"
There were three reasons that some people thought of when somebody used martial arts in actual combat. In regards to a person's quirk. The first was compatibility, using standard martial arts to fit one's quirk. An example being using hand focused martial arts with a quirk to enlarge your hands. The second however, was the opposite.
If the first was to match with one's quirk, improving combat, the second didn't take the quirk into equation. Compensation. Incompatibility. Martial arts that didn't enhance a user's quirk in combat, fighting style that completely disregarded the quirk for reasons such as: a quirk too weak to be used for combat or a quirk that couldn't be applied to said martial arts.
They might be compensating for their weak quirk or just needed something to defend themselves. Who knows. Only them.
However there was a third reason for a person to use martial arts. A martial art that was solely unique to a specific set of people or even a single person. It was pretty on the same level as the compatibility reasons for martial arts. Sadly, that was a lesson for another time in the not so distant future.
Stomping his foot down, Gin charged once more. Faster, stronger. He will get a hit in. All thanks to a sucker punch. Mejiro got struck in the stomach, getting knocked back with a smirk that appeared on his forced frown. Eyes widening and popping out of his skull.
When Gin finally laid a hit on Mejiro, that's when 'it' happened.
"What the actual fuck?"
As the eye flew out of Mejiro's eye socket, heading straight for Gin, he went to whack it away...
Only for the eye to explode with a nice pop sound there and then.
"What the actual fuck?!" he repeated, louder.
Pop-Eyes: Mejiro can shoot out multiple eyes from his eye sockets which can float around and then explode! The bigger they grow, the bigger the bang! While the multiple eyes are fired, it is possible to still see through them (should he choose) until they pop!
Right now, Gin was surrounded by all sides. It only took a manner of seconds, but various white eyes poured out of Mejiro's eye sockets. Floating around like balloons in some slow shoot-em up.
He was in some eye bullet hell.
"Those eyes...are bigger?!" Gin didn't have much time to think about it as the eyes went out with a bang. "Shit!"
He was tossed around the spacious part of the ward like it was nothing. Explosions going on all around him and there didn't seem like they were stopping. More and more eyes kept pouring out of Mejiro's eye sockets!
Gin suddenly gripped something small and slimy...he assumed it was slimy, but whatever it was it felt weird. He went to throw it at Mejiro, with a throw similar to a baseball pitch, right as a tiny explosion engulfed his hand.
When he looked back at his left hand, his pinky and ring finger crumbled and the shards that remain fell to the earth.
Looking down at his grey skin, he noticed a few cracks.
"I think I gave you a good demonstration of my quirk," Shinoha looked up to see Mejiro walk forward, hands raised for battle. "Let's kick the bombs up a notch, shall we?"
Large bones appeared out of Kuroishi's chest in the shape of a ribcage, larger than what normally was accepted as they continued to grow, pushing away Yubi's many, many fingers.
Raising his hand next, bones shot out of his fingertips in a barrage of sharp bullets, stabbing themselves into the forest of fingers.
Yubi didn't have much time as his larger fingers that pushed against the large rib cage pushed back. Long sharp bones stabbed right into them like splinters.
Yet Yubi still smiled.
Even when the dozens of fingers retreated. Crouched down like a sprawled out spider, Yubi's hungry violet eyes locked onto Kuroishi's fingers as another set of fresher fingers emerged from his back, completing the spider look he had going on.
"Tch, I guess we're both freaks here. Aren't we?" The sudden call from Kuroishi with a grin clear on his face for all to see was contagious. Well, for his current opponent that is.
Screaming with laughter, Yubi's movements lost the human touch. Right now, he was like a true spider. "Yeah! Who cares what other people think!"
"Wha? What are you doing?!" shouted somebody, when Yubi looked over, he saw the face of someone his age. Not that old at all. "Why are you biting your fingers?!"
Yubi chomped down harder, ripping his own fingers off as he bit and chewed them like he was eating a bag of cheese curls. As he swallowed down the fingers that already regrew, the other person fell.
"You...you...YOU'RE A FREAK! FREAK!" the look in her eyes, the look of the person he spent a handful of years around. Someone he didn't bother to learn about. All he could see was the fear, the confusion.
Yet Yubi just smiled at them, fingers sprouting like nothing happened. His eyes were full of childish innocence, gleaming with interest at her own fingers, expression. "Ah, you wanna try Yubitsume too?!"
What a fun memory that was.
As their fight continued, the long haired prisoner kept missing his strikes. "Am I slowing down...or is he getting faster?" some bones stabbed into the ground where Yubi used to be. "I might have to shed some of this weight..."
It was if the bone giant was trying to squash a bug, a very tough bug at that.
A bug that was ready to leap into the air. When he did, Yukimaru didn't expect how high Yubi would get and as he came down...
Kuroishi stared at Yubi and the insanity stared back at him.
Yubi.
A mysterious inmate. No one really knew anything about him, not even Kuro who had met him outside of the prison on a few occasions in the past. Kuroishi had only met the finger fanatic a few times both in and out of prison, most of the time they met were IN prison.
The one thing he did know was that Yubi had a thing for cutting his own fingers. Yubitsume, finger shortening, something that Yubi loved. It never really affected him in the end due to his quirk, but severing his own fingers was something that drove him. Motivation.
There was also the deal with his name. A lot of information on Yubi was in the dark, including whether or not his name really was Yubi.
One thing was for certain though, he was definitely crazy. A lust for blood and battle, all for one simple goal. Yubitsume.
His desires were that akin to an animal. A beast that only wanted to satisfy its own needs. Biting his fingers, cutting them off with makeshift, poorly made shivs. Yubitsume. Yubitsume. Yubitsume!
"I shouldn't be the only one having all the fun!" a thought that happened early on. He just had to share his passion, his hobby. He could cut off his own fingers whenever, but what about others? They should learn about this cool new craze he just discovered!
When he discovered the practice of Yubitsume, he wasn't that old. Still a child at the time. Experimenting with his own quirk.
It wasn't before long that he had an accident.
Or an on purpose 'accident' at the very least.
It also didn't help that he had been watching a lot of yakuza related media, movies that showed it in practice.
When the accident happened, Yubi never felt pain nor saw any blood. His index finger came flying off and the first response Yubi had, was panic. It was shortly replaced once he tried to use his quirk, resulting in the exact same finger that was lost.
Right after this discovery, he chopped his pinky off immediately after. It grew back too. It was like nothing happened. It was like trimming a nail.
That's when his emotions shifted from panic and worry from telling his parents of the accident grew to dangerous levels of fun and excitement.
Yubi was able to pass his finger cutting off with the accident, but the feelings of wanting to do it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again still resided.
Every now and then the feeling resurfaced, stronger and stronger, the need to cut his fingers was too alluring like the sweet smell of honey. Sprouted or otherwise. Cut, cut, cut! It wasn't long before he turned to others and their fingers, fingers that had yet to be cut.
It didn't take a genius to see where that went.
No one was safe. If you had fingers, you were a target. No questions asked.
A string of assaults and murders followed Yubi for obvious reasons, but they all had something in common. The removal of fingers. It did spark some copycats out in the world and some who use cut off fingers for their own goals were shifted into possibly being the work of Yubi.
A detective sighed as he removed the cigarette from his mouth. "Yet another case of missing fingers." he mumbled to himself, looking down at the body of a young man, clearly in high school judging by the school uniform. "Why the fingers?"
"That's the fifth body today," another detective wearing a darker trench coat huffed as she kneeled next to the body, "we just found an elderly woman in the same condition a few hours prior."
Rubbing the lit end of the cigarette into a wall and just letting it drop there and then, the lighter trench coat wearing detective pulled out his phone. "..."
"Something the matter?"
"Yeah...they just found a sixth..."
For a while, Yubi was a hard man to track down despite all the efforts the police and heroes of Japan put in to try and stop him. It started to become a common occurrence to find someone, dead or alive, with their fingers cut off on both hands. The fortunate ones who lived couldn't really help, their reports and accounts couldn't track the finger cutter.
It was like Yubi never existed in the first place.
The only thing they could really add was...
"Yubitsume."
It wasn't just passerbys. It was everyone with fingers. Thugs? Yubitsume. Civilians? Yubitsume.
The madman even took on the yakuza, the place where it helped kickstart the addiction.
"Let's commit Yubitsume!" Yubi's voice echoed out as he cut his own fingers off in front of the yakuza.
"What the hell?" one of them muttered as Yubi stepped forward, fingers already regrowing. "Get this bastard out of here!"
"Come on! Yubitsume time!"
From his chest, multiple long fingers erupted, rolling out seamlessly in waves. The fingers bent and wiggled as they spread throughout the domain of the yakuza's estate.
Raising a stolen knife high, one of the many clutches of fingers pulled one of the restrained and captured yakuza members closer. Yubi being Yubi, grabbed hold of their hand, putting the nicely acquired knife to use. Right next to the base of the finger, slowly cutting through.
Ignoring the screams, the pleas. Yakuza? Didn't exist. Yubi's eyes were solely on the now cut off bloody finger that fell to the floor.
"Yubitsume... What a wonderful ritual!"
The last thing the yakuza there realised was: Yubi was fucking insane.
Eventually, Yubi would stumble across Kuroishi a couple of times and even get arrested, but that wasn't here or there right now. Yubi was already having the time of his life.
Holding his right hand out, his natural fingers extended outward, like spears yet again. "Hey, hey. So I've been hearing that a lot of people have been making super-moves! Both heroes and villains! So I wanted to join in too!"
"Wasn't that spider-like formation also a super move then?" the inmate with jagged bone teeth asked as ribcage bones acted as defensive armor.
"Haha! Yeah! Finger Spider! Now get ready for-" as the spear-like fingers shot out, more and more fingers grew out of them. More and more, all aiming for the target. Like a tree.
Due to what it resembled, Yubi would call this technique...
"Branching Path!"
The jagged teeth Kuroishi grunted as his bones fired out towards the finger freak, some of those sharp bones piercing the wall of fingers that sprung out and interlocked with one another.
Armed with a long bone, Kuroishi thrusted at the freak who sprouted more and more, it was almost never-ending. "Hehehe! Let's change it up Kuro!"
Kuro had no idea what he meant as Yubi wasn't looking at him in the slightest. No. He saw something else.
So Kuroishi braced himself with a tiny grin.
"So I'm fighting a martial artist huh?" Gin's eyes scanned the floating eye 'balloons' that were scattered around the place. There was definitely a lot in such a short amount of time. "The distance between us has widened again!"
Stomping into a sprint, Gin ignored the exploding eyeballs going off around them. Whether he was hit or not, knocked back or down, he got up and rushed again.
Forever chasing Mejiro in the bullet hell that was his white eyes.
It felt like he was being watched.
"The sooner you go down, the faster I can beat the shit out of Rhys!"
Mejiro stopped, turning on his heels. "You? Beat up Rhys? Don't make me laugh." the frown deepened on the headband-wearing inmate's face. "The one to beat him to a pulp is me!"
Whacking an eyeball away right before it exploded, the grey Shinoha shouted back, "then why the fuck are you standing in my way then?!"
"So I can make the pain of his shitty quirk stop for a while as I make him suffer until he dies!"
A thought of 'oh yeah' went off in Gin's mind. "He did mention Rhys' quirk did shit with making them sit through pain. Ah well. Not my problem."
Gin's body started to steam a little. "Then we'll see who'll get to beat his face into what it truly is: shit!"
With increased speed, the slightly steaming inmate closed the gap… only for his opponent to engage him head on, already sending the first strike of their sudden clash.
For the first time in their fight, Mejiro switched his strike. Instead of an attack down via the palm of his hand, the next strike that landed on used the side of said hand, like a chop or a cut.
Blocking it with his arm, Gin saw the other hand lunge forward like a spear. Gin didn't think much of it (asides the strength of the chop), but there was something he did admit to, silently of course.
Underestimating the power of the spear-like jab of the fingers. They broke into his other arm with ease.
"Shit-!" grey eyes started into white eyes. White eyes of a martial artist.
A palm hit a bag with a resounding whack. Multiple in fact.
"Remember, martial arts are for our body, mind and soul." a woman's voice echoed out through the dojo as the sound of palms echoed once more. "If any of you are planning to take martial arts with you into the world of heroes, you better stop right now."
Martial Arts.
Ever since the rise of heroism and that fact that could be your legal job, many dojos around the world that offered some form of martial arts or combat training peaked. While not every potential hero went to some dojo or class to learn, many still took the opportunity to gain needed combat skills.
However, this caused three things to happen with the martial arts business. Some places and teachers just let it happen, students are students and it might bring more students if a popular hero was stated to be one of their students. These types of dojos were the most common of the three.
While those kinds of dojos were the neutral ones when it came to students learning for future careers in heroics, the other two were positive and negative outlooks on the ever booming hero business.
The positive one focused on one key ingredient. Money.
They didn't care if someone used their martial arts to become a hero, a villain or some random vigilante no one thinks about. As long as you paid, you were taught. Prices for said martial arts could vary depending on the person or dojo. Some wannabe heroes would spend small fortunes on a dojo's lessons with mixed results. Some couldn't even afford to even learn and just went with a rather successful brawler style.
The negative one took it in the opposite direction.
They discouraged martial arts from being used in heroics, self-defence was still a thing, but actively used in hero work was discouraged. Certain places even expelled students for involvement or want for heroism, vigilantism or even acts of villainy. These kinds of places had the following in mind for their martial arts: self-defence, related competitions/events and finally, working the mind, soul and body. An exercise and mediation.
Those kinds of places were the least frequented due to their policies.
And this dojo, was one such place.
Located in Oita, Japan was a traditional martial arts dojo with a moderate number of students on the smaller side.
Within the dojo right now was a group of students, currently in practice by striking an iron palm bag before them. This dojo was one of the ones mentioned before, a dojo that only did martial arts for non-hero related reasons.
The master of the dojo walked around as she inspected how the practice was going. "Doing good, Mejiro." she put a loose strand of hair back behind her ear as she gave a nod to the white eyed student. "Keep it up."
"Yes!" a slightly younger Mejiro smiled as his palm whacked against the iron palm bag.
Ever since he joined the dojo, Mejiro showed incredible progress. He progressed through the materials used from rice, mung beans, sand, pea gravel and even steel shots. As he progressed, the tougher the materials within the bag became and so did his hands.
He brought his palm against the bigger than average iron palm bag with the same force he used before. Once the strike connected, the bag burst, dropping the materials within to the floor like some busted sandbag.
"That's enough for today, get some rest," the dojo master called out, letting everyone take a quick break and to head on home. This break also gave the dark haired Mejiro to fix the upper part of his gi, which was just as loose as what his future outfit would be.
"Broke the bag again?" she walked over with a smile. "We might need to get you something else to hit during iron palm training at this rate!" a laugh came out as she ruffled his short, dark hair.
"Master Shibagaki..." he said in the same way a teased child would.
Shibagaki was a tall woman, adorned in the same white gi as every other practitioner in the dojo, those hers had the extra additions of blues waves on all the lower parts of the uniform. Her hair was actually similar, dark black hair reaching down past her shoulders, halfway changing into a dark blue that also matched her equally blue eyes.
"Maybe striking the surface of water could be a good choice!" it was like a lightbulb flicked on over her head. "Let's try that right now."
When everyone went home for the night, Mejiro remained behind as he faced a large wooden bucket of water. Palm met water again and again. "So when will I see a change in this?" he asked, glancing up as his master took a sip from a cup.
"When the water feels different to hit is usually a good sign," her blue eyes turned upwards at the rising moon. "But it's getting late now, you should probably head home too."
"Just a little longer."
Shrugging, Shibagaki stood and headed back inside as Mejiro continued to strike the water.
When she returned, he was still going at it. Granted, she lost track of time for a bit, but seeing him continue to strike the water filled her with pride.
Shaking her head she walked back out there. "Alright, it's past midnight now Mejiro."
"Midnight? It's that late?"
"Yes, now that's enough." As her student retracted his hands from the bucket of water, she quickly scooped them up to inspect them, her eyes scanning before she finally released them. The same smile appeared on her face. "Your hands will be strong as iron. I look forward to teaching my techniques to you, my most prized student."
Wide white eyes immediately bowed. "Thank you, master!"
"Now, go get some sleep. Seriously."
Nodding, he already got a move on as he headed to one of the spare rooms in the dojo to rest for the remainder of the night. "Most prized student..." he muttered with a smile.
As the days passed on by, Mejiro kept advancing in the general practices of the Shibagaki Dojo, perfecting his hands through iron palm training and various other practices. Out of all students in the dojo, he was clearly the best.
Best enough to learn more than just the standard issued techniques.
Shibagaki sighed as she walked through the dojo doors. "Expelled another one, master?" he asked.
"...he wanted to use it in heroics...overheard him flaunting to his hero course buddies."
Mejiro looked back at the striking dummy before him. Sometimes new students joined and left the same day, some student's intentions remained hidden for years. He sighed, there were a few less students today then there were a couple of days ago. The same can be said for last month too. Last year as well. Still, it was enough to keep the dojo afloat though... thankfully.
Her expression changed suddenly. "Mejiro, if you're free when lessons are done, would you mind staying behind?"
"Sure thing. I'm free, why?"
"I think it's time I teach you some of those techniques I promised. Techniques only a prized student to carry on the legacy of the master can. You ready?"
"Yes!"
After grueling nights, Mejiro showed progress. Enough to be claimed as the successor one day. Shibagaki's star pupil had reached new heights. A true prodigy.
Suddenly, one day in the future, the dojo got visitors.
An act of dojo storming!
"We've come to crush your dojo!" one of the challengers shouted, clearly the leader of the bunch. "Bring out your best fighters!"
All Shibagaki had to say was: "Mejiro."
"Yes."
Stepping forward, the white eyed Mejiro got ready. The prized student dedicated to years of training. He was ready. His opponents though?
A single palm strike sent the first opponent flying into the wall.
"Shit," the leader of the pack of grunts grunted. More and more challengers came forward, only for Mejiro to wipe the floor with them. Some of them had already ran off, defeated or yet to go. "This was supposed to be an easy wipe!"
The blonde and pierced leader rushed forward, only to be striked three times. Chest, stomach and face. It wasn't much to say that he went down, again and again. Each time he stood until he was the only one remaining.
He was left in the dust.
"Do you know who the fuck I am?! You-"
"I don't care. Get out of here," Mejiro spat, sending him down again. "You've lost this challenge a long time ago."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck...you'll pay for that!" the leader shouted as he scrambled to his feet, rushing off into the streets.
"Good work, Mejiro." the dojo master commented. "As expected of my prized student."
It wasn't even a week later that the leader of grunts returned, this time his companions...changed. They clearly weren't the same and upon seeing them, Shibagaki had a bad feeling.
A book shouldn't be judged by it's cover, but some covers said it all.
Still, Mejiro knocked the leader down onto the ground.
"I told you that you'll pay for this. Don't blame me if you get sent to prison!" shouted the blonde leader as his companions attacked. Quirks went flying as Shibagaki went flying past, with skill that Mejiro had yet to obtain, they all went down. One by one, the way she moved between them was like water yet the way she struck them down with her palms, it looked like they were struck by stone...or iron.
"Using quirks? Are you really that desperate to win?" she asked, making sure the disappointment was clear in her tone. "Go home."
As she walked back with a smile despite the grunts of the fallen, Shibagaki fell forward.
"Master!"
Mejiro was quick. Quick enough to catch her as he spied the strike behind her back.
"I told you didn't I? You piece of shit." a gust of wind swirled around the grunt leader's hand as the grunts got back up. "Ransack the place. Take whatever. Beat up any lingering dregs."
Mejiro stood up as one of the grunts charged him and despite his back being turned, the white eyed martial artist dodged. Again and again.
No matter who tried what, the leader or the grunts, Mejiro's greatest taunt to them was the effortless dodging as floating eyes filled the dojo.
"How dare you. Dirty this dojo with your quirks and sneak attacks-" suddenly turning, a strong palm to the jaw sent the villain down.
"Are...are these eyes?!" one of the grunts shouted. "Where did they come from?!"
That guy didn't have much of a chance as he went down.
"Stop-" another one called out as his head smashed into the floor. No matter how many came at him, striking palms was all they received. Even when the leader of the group caused a small whirlwind to pick up in the dojo, spinning the eyes away and chucking anything like ammo at the white eyed martial artist. All were whacked away.
Mejiro didn't hold back as he closed the gap. He lost count of how many times he hit the pierced man before him. He simply didn't care. Not even when others still stood.
Before losing consciousness, the man called out. "Now!"
One of the grunts, armed with a knife lunged into Mejiro's back...and there was a sickening crack. By the time Mejiro turned around, he saw the black and blue haired Shibagaki...send the man's neck unnaturally backwards.
Eyes wide as she watched the knife wielding man fall backwards. "Master…?"
Despite what he just saw, a vision filled his eyes. A vision he didn't want to come true. Shibagaki lost her focus, eyeing the fallen man but another sickening snap echoed through the dojo halls. A man with bladed wrists that pointed in the general direction of the dojo master fell in the same exact way.
To avoid that vision, he struck. Struck at those who preferred bloodshed. No punches were pulled, pure power was used against them as they fell one by one. Even when quirks fired off.
But the time it was over, Mejiro knew. This was the end. Even when he felt the eyes of Shibagaki on him, he clenched his fists. It was times like this he was glad that no one else stayed behind at night.
Commotion was bound to draw attention...and right after they managed to get some recognition after the dojo storming too...
"I'm sorry, Shibagaki." white eyes turned elsewhere, anywhere but in front of him. Even when he was enveloped in warmth.
"You don't need to say anything. If it wasn't for me, if I didn't snap his neck when I saw him try to stab you...you wouldn't have-"
While he didn't push away, his voice sounded distant...as best as he could. "I...I used your teachings in a way that was forbidden. I let my anger get the best of me, I even killed them and made you...you...kill...I'll take the fall. Say I did it."
"Mejiro-"
Suddenly, the sounds of footsteps caught the ears of the two. "It seems we've walked in on a touching moment, I apologise."
It was two men. One in a suit and the other in a light brown trench-coat. As the trench-coat wearing man inspected the bodies, the man in the suit walked forward. "Once again, I apologise for intruding but my companion here got a sudden call to this dojo and I tagged along. You'd never know what you'd find." the suited man looked around. "It seems you two are in a bit of a predicament."
"I did it," Mejiro beat his master to the punch. "I was the one that caused all these bodies."
The suited man just stroked his chin. "Did you?"
"This was self-defence wasn't it?" the other man asked, only for Shibagaki to act faster than her student and nod. "Not to mention the son of a politician as well as some small time villains...well, thugs."
"If word gets out that he," the suited man pointed at the blonde, pierced man, "was involved. His father would do everything to keep him out of jail and shift the blame. Seems you might be as the kids say, fucked."
Though, seeing the reaction of the white eyed young man before him, the suit wearing man continued. "Perhaps I can help you two."
Both master and student looked like a fish out of water. "Help...? What?"
"You see, this young man's father..." the man's foot pressed against the blonde man's face. "Let's just say that he's been rather...cocky. My name can pull some strings to make it that you two have clean hands in return for some assistance."
"...what...what kind of assistance?"
"Master..."
"That young man," the man pointed. "If I heard right, it's Mejiro? Well, Mejiro. You are about to embark on a 'pilgrimage' for me. I need some extra hands in a project. For you, it'll only be a couple of months up to a year unless something comes up. It's a very easy job. You'll be back to the dojo in no time."
Looking between his master, Shibagaki and this new man, he sighed. "Very well. If it keeps my master safe."
The man stretched out his hand, awaiting a handshake.
A deal with a devil or rather, a sliver of hope.
There was no official criminal record, there was no reason for his sudden appearance.
He was surprised at what happened, everything went just as the man said. The son was arrested, sent to a small time prison. The cocky father was hit hard and lost more than he could have imagined. In the moment, it was surreal. Yet, all he had to do was spend time in a prison. A prison far, far away called Styx.
When he arrived, he had no real idea what to expect asides from becoming an inmate. The one thing that concerned him was the lack of his own criminal record thanks to that man's promise for the deal they made.
People would have theories on why a person with no criminal record was at Styx, without possibly consulting higher ups about it if they learned about it. If they did, they would think that he was there undercover, to gain an inmate's trust to get the info they needed without having to bother the one warden that could force the information out. Some might think that it was simply for protection while some forces outside the prison were dealt with while another would be that his crimes were restricted from those without clearance. Redacted information. Not even Mejiro knew the fake reason he was here. In the end, those were just potential theories if someone learnt about it or dug up information on him.
Despite his fears, no one questioned it. Nothing happened. When he first entered the prison, as he stood with some others and had their names called and files checked, nothing happened. It made him wonder: what was the fake reason he was here? He was treated like every other inmate after all, as if he committed crimes. So what was his file to keep the wardens and guards off his back? No criminal record would have drawn unwanted attention.
It bugged him for a while until he just gave up to solely focus on his mission. He took it as a blessing that whatever fake reason on his file kept the wardens and guards from putting him through interrogation on why he was here. It must have been a small, petty crime or something under a slightly different name. The man who made a deal with him must have done something on his end to make his new, fake criminal record keep everyone off his back, that was the only thing he could think as a reason. Whatever, it didn't matter now. He was truly a criminal in the eyes of the guards and that was enough.
His goal was entirely different from the made up reason he was in here. It didn't matter to him now though, his time was almost up anyway. All he had to do was just keep up appearances for a little while longer and do what he came here to do. He'd be going home soon.
A sudden kick from the steaming prisoner managed to break the clash. An opening had shown itself in the break away. Gin quickly swung his arm at the slightly turned around Mejiro.
Widened grey eyes watched as he missed. Mejiro smirked as he flipped around, already stanced for another round.
"So this is why all those eyes are on us huh?" Gin punched a floating eye away with extra oomph. "Cheeky bastard."
Mejiro prepared his palm, ready to strike. "Let's see if you can handle this technique then? My money is that you'll crack into pieces."
"Bring it bitch."
Not one cared for the sirens that were blaring throughout the prison.
"Hey! Mejiro!" Yubi shouted as the fingers sprouted from his back launched him into the air. "We're swapping! I wanna fight that guy now!"
"Don't just claim that right now!" Mejiro was ignored, swept up by a dozen long fingers as he could only see dozens of fingers before they vanished, leaving him now facing the giant that was Kuroishi.
Gin on the other hand...
"Oi! We were fighting jackass!"
"But you get to play with Yubi now!" the shirtless man grinned from ear to ear. "Your fingers can come off and grow back the same as mine! We're yubitsume buddies!"
The steaming Gin watched as more and more fingers sprouted from Yubi.
Though, for Mejiro, he got back into his battle stance. The fight with Gin would have to be for another time then. "I don't like my battles being changed on a whim, you know."
Kuroishi didn't have a response, just a tiny grin.
"Though," the headband wearing inmate added. "Perhaps you can handle this next attack. This next attack would have broken that last guy to pieces."
"Oh? Try me." Swinging his arms open, even with the bone ribcage armour on top of him, Kuroishi's grin grew.
"I hope you know what a kabedon is, cause this strike will make your heart pound."
Whether Kuroishi was expecting the strike so soon or not didn't even register. He was about to throw the bone armour away...but Mejiro was faster. His palm striked against the bone armour hard, really hard.
And the long haired masochist was filled with excitement.
The bones cracked. His tough bone armour broke. A single strike was all it took for his bones to crumble.
A smile graced his lips. "This is going to be fun!" the broken bones dropped off and Kuroishi stomped forward. "Let's have some more fun!"
Eyes floated into the air, pouring out in waves yet again. "Next time, a direct blow will send you through a loop."
"I'm looking forward to it."
More and more eyes filled any remaining open space around the two before. As bones began to pop out of Kuroishi, eyes began to explode.
The battle was already back on track.
Covering his face from the multitude of exploding eyes, Mejiro had used this instance to get in close, if only narrowly dodging a swing of Kuro's right arm. That's when the white eyes noticed that bones that would normally be inside a hand coated the fist like some sort of glove.
It only covered the back of the hand and the curled in fingers and they looked larger than normal too. Yet, as Kuroishi swung his arm… it was slow.
"Added weight huh." a sly grin appeared on the martial artist's face as he effortlessly dodged another swing, this time from the other hand.
As he dodged the slower swing, bones shot out of Kuro's shoulder, like darts! Piercing many of the floating eyes overhead.
"At least you're more durable than that other guy at least."
"That's not surprising."
Without hesitation, the taller inmate began his assault as the shot eyes popped out of the sky.
Close combat was what continued the conflict and at first, Kuroishi's size gave him the advantage...but, Mejiro's speed won out in the end.
Enacting an uppercut with his palm, Mejiro whacked the bone coated fist up arm, guiding it all the way to Kuro's chin!
A direct hit!
Enough to make the larger man stumble, just the right time for a follow up. This time, Mejiro threw a punch at the short-lived defenceless inmate. Making contact with the taller man's gut, a knee made contact with Mejiro.
In the same spot.
"Eh. I thought you were dazed more than that."
"I thought martial artists weren't supposed to drop their guard?"
Kuroishi's question made Mejiro jolt as something entered his leg. Looking at his leg and back to the inmate in question, Mejiro noticed a pointed finger. Bastard.
A projectile bone had managed to pierce his leg! It was small and nothing too troublesome to deal with, aside from the jolt of pain when it landed, but he could make it work.
"Lucky shot." it was hard to tell if the tone was supposed to be impressed or sarcastic, though the smirk that probably would have pointed to the former didn't really help either.
Breathing in, Mejiro vanished before the horned man's eyes. "Hm?" As Kuroishi blinked, he noticed a shorter figure up close. "Fast little thing, aren't you?"
Mejiro didn't say a word when he landed on Kuro's outstretched leg. Instead, he laid a three punch combo into the giant's face before he flipped off the leg, dodging a swipe of the arm.
After landing the impressive backflip, a large fist barely grazed him. "Wha-?!" pain erupted in his side. A larger sharp bit of bone had pierced his side!
"From the graze...you bastard..."
"If I can't win in speed, I'll just use other ways."
A chuckle from the martial artist caused the man with bone horns to raise an inquisitive look. "You got a good poker face, I give you that...but, aren't you just hurting yourself more to hit me?" a dangerous smile appeared on the fighter's face. "How many times have you used those bones? Pain tolerance be damned, you're hurting yourself."
Gripping the side-pierced bone, Mejiro had effortlessly ripped it out before slamming in on the ground. As the white bone made contact with the ground, it cracked.
"Your quirk can't last long battles. Not the way you just used it, but a drawn out victory is meaningless if that bastard gets away. I can't let that bastard get away now. So I've decided, the quicker the better."
With less eyes than before hovering in the air, Mejiro made his move. A sudden turn that made the horned man wary.
Before Kuroishi knew it, Mejiro was jumping from eye to eye high in the air despite the giant's methods to shoot the floating targets down.
Bone shot after bone shot, the martial artist kept jumping from one floating eye to another. Again and again.
Kuroishi Yukimaru continued despite the pain. It wasn't as easy as it looked.
The long haired man was forced to follow until Mejiro stopped on a much, much larger eye. "How long was that growing?" came the rather stoic tone from the masochist. No answer, of course.
Suddenly bouncing right off the larger floating eye, right as it exploded behind him, launching the martial artist rocketing forward with ever increasing speed, right until he got close to Kurosihi, ready to strike. The only thing Yukimaru could do was shed some bones to strike faster, though his swing wouldn't prevent what happened next...
Mejiro's palm slammed into Kuroishi's chest, the impact was harder than what Kuroishi had thought it would be. It was as if all the wind within him got knocked out, vision for a second blurred as pain graced his lips in a good way.
Though, it wasn't all without loss.
The bone coated fist of Yukimaru landed straight into the black haired man's jaw.
A giant slammed into the wall from the impact of the strike and the martial artist was sent into the ground. A trade of blows was all it took for the two to take five...or longer...
A hand twitched.
"Yubitsume, yubitsume!"
"Shut up!" The steam on Gin's body receded as he kicked the shorter blonde haired man away. "Cut your own off!"
Shinoha got a frown for that. "But I did..." whined Yubi as he pointed at some discarded fingers lingered around the area. "And yours too! We're yubitsume buddies, we're made for this!"
"Like hell we are!" he kicked the shorter, shirtless inmate whenever he got close.
He just had to have his fight switched out on him, right when it was getting good! Just for that-
"Get ready you little shit!"
-Gin was going to give that little runt the fight of his life.
"I'll cut the rest of your fingers off and we'll be Yubitsume buddies!"
Rhys could wait a few seconds longer.
For now he'll just have to settle to beat the snot out of this finger-licking guy's face!
Gin didn't really question why Yubi was suddenly licking his fingers. What he did know was that he was going to land the first hit as he dashed forward right as Yubi's head went flying back from the fast strike.
"If you're not going to pay attention, then get the fuck out of here!" punch after punch, Gin laid into the poor shirtless Yubi. He didn't get much out of his rush combo as a giant finger caught the punches and suddenly bent. Gin went face first into the dirt, crushed.
"Yubitsume is the only thing that's worth paying attention too." came the crazed response right as the flattened inmate was picked up by one of the bending fingers.
It was like he was in a noose with how the finger held him.
Raising the captive inmate higher into the sky before slamming him down into the ground yet again, Yubi's laugh echoed. "Come on! Come on! Gimme your fingers! They come off too right?! RIGHT?!" Gin was slammed into the dirt again.
The tight finger still clamped around his neck, a pair of hands started to open the airway. The finger was being pushed back. "I'll admit, despite the shit you're spouting, you're kinda strong. I wonder how you'd be if you weren't so obsessed with these fingers. Probably stronger, who knows."
Gripping the now loose finger, Gin swung as hard as he could. The result? Yubi went for a spin!
Around and around until Gin let go, letting the multi-finger man fly through the air and crashing into a wall as a few waves of steam stopped their emission from Shinoha.
If Gin was right, then Yubi would-
"AHAHAHA!"
-come right back. Seeing the multi-fingered inmate rush as him, sort of galloping with those fingers, the grey eyed inmate charged back.
Yubi opted to fire a bunch of fingers like missiles or spears once again, a grin wide on his face as his opponent suddenly turned and without much thought, began elbowing and punching the forest of fingers with steaming fists.
The grinning blonde watched as the sprouted, long fingers were bent and turned in ways that didn't look right.
"He's...breaking them!"
As soon as that sudden thought appeared, Yubi couldn't shake it. The ways the fingers bent to the side after Gin got his hands on them, bending, punching and snapping! The snapping! Oh the snapping! Yubi could hear it now, he could hear the snaps!
He was so focused on the broken fingers that he didn't even realise that Gin was right in front of his face. "He broke them..."
This was an opportunity that wasn't put to waste! Gin grabbed hold of his opponent's face and slammed it into the ground before he started his assault of stomps.
After thirteen strong stomps on Yubi's body in multiple places, a large finger blasted Gin into the air.
Coming back down was a bit of a problem now as dozens of fingers came swinging at him while he fell...or tried too. They weren't pulling their punches, that was for sure.
It felt like an endless assault before it suddenly stopped and that he didn't feel anything else...but the ground.
Finally landing on the ground, Gin pushed himself back up, as quickly as he could. Yubi was still there after all, watching as he traded the current fingers for fresh ones.
One thing was clear. Yubi was waiting on Gin's charge this time.
While he wasn't wise or knowledgable, Gin wasn't stupid. He was selfish, he didn't care about the person before him, the person he decided to go after just for shits and giggles nor did he care about the consequences of his actions. That didn't extend to the state of his own body and how that lined up for his current, completely arbitrary goal.
He wasn't that stupid.
Looking at his own damages: a loss of two fingers on his left hand, cracks in his skin and four holes in right arm plus the added (yet miniscule) mass loss from his quirk...he knew what was beyond the finger freak.
Gousen.
The whole identity mishap with Vito aside (even though Gousen still had a reputation without it), the bastard had a tough quirk when he used it. While he would live should his body crumble to nothing again (or ash) there weren't any noteworthy fire guys nearby that would put him back in action.
Sure, Gousen's quirk only granted a brief timeframe of increased durability, but that durability was his downfall. A strong enough attack during that phase...Gin could see his body shatter. Not to mention that this battle had already done some damage to him.
"Ah fuck it." rolling his arm around, Gin waggled his fingers in that 'come and get some' way. "Guess I just have to beat Gousen as quick as possible then. So hurry up and get thrown aside you little shit."
Pulling out that discarded shiv, Yubi raised it high.
"Wha?"
A short-lived thought of how and when Yubi picked it back up flashed in Gin's mind before it was deemed as useless information.
Multiple fingers sprouted as they homed in on the grey skinned inmate, all sides were under attack! The fingers landed into the ground like thrown spears or javelins, one after the other, the rained down like arrows in war.
When one of the elongated fingers managed to pin the dodging man down, he watched as Yubi jumped towards him. Instead of the fingers retracting into the man's body, it seemed Yubi was using that to come to him. Clever.
The shiv was clearly seen in his mouth and by the time he was overtop, a strong kick to the stomach stopped Shinoha from fighting off the many other fingers that pestered him.
Swinging the shiv in his mouth, fingers fell onto Gin's face.
Yubi's fingers.
"..."
Gin was lost for words.
Before the alarms blared, a young man in a straitjacket sat on the ground, before him was a cup. It was almost filled to the brim of that special red water he loved so much, the scent tickled his nose and it got him squirming in place. He had to wait, not yet. Not yet.
...Now! Out of sight! He dived face first into the cup, downing all the liquid, even after the last drop was gone. His tongue made sure of that, that was for sure.
Rising to his feet, the spiky haired man licked his lips. He could go for seconds, in fact he could go for seconds right now!
He did just that.
The vampire bared his fangs.