Dual Fates
Chapter 9: Dark Alley
The training grounds that Ochaco, Uviel, and Mina have visited, was covered in buildings that many students could crush without getting into too much trouble. Ruined buildings, rubble on the ground, and countless debris floated into the air when Uraraka pressed her fingers together. The pinky grinned before she swiftly flung an odd substance from her hands and hit the rocky targets, Uviel noted that it was acidic considering how it was sizzling and melting it.
The redhead's hand tightened on the grip in the center of her staff, though upon doing so it retracted into a smaller shape and jump-scared the poor girl. "AH!" a cute squeak left her lips when it happened, causing the rod to fall from her grasp. Very quickly, frantically she tried to grab it before it would hit the ground and when she did, a relieved sigh escaped. "That was close..." those mumbled words were followed by a quick close of her eyes at that moment, she wouldn't have known what would happen if it hit the floor... Viewing the said rod once more, those blue eyes examined the very object curiously. It's the size of my forearm now... That's weird. mentally speaking, her attention was soon gained and looked over when Ochaco called out to her, with a soft wave of her hand.
"Hey, Saito! Why don't you try?! I mean, try swinging that staff and see if you can't figure it out!" Beaming brightly, the brunette ran around and began to touch every piece of debris near her feet, soon bringing her hands together. All fingers touched and forced the ruble to rise into the air, pure excitement could be seen on her face while she grinned.
"W- Wait, I can't! Hatsume said that it can manipulate the vibrations and direct them, to the point where it can even crush the very ground! I can't use it on the debris, especially since you're standing behind them!" Uviel exclaimed in panic when profuse sweat fell from her face, she didn't want to practice her rod against someone and accidentally hurt them. Those rocket boots were adorned but she dared not waste the energy it needs for flight, for only a practice session. She felt pretty confident about being able to learn how to fly with them during the tournament, so being the lazy girl she was the redhead didn't feel like using them.
"Huh? Is that right?" Uraraka lowered her arms and hummed in thought at her words, the girl didn't know that. "Oh! I know, why don't you just swing it at those buildings and see how you can manipulate those vibrations, then?" her cheerful question made a sense of reluctance fall on the redhead's shoulders, which only made the brunette confusedly frown.
A sigh left Saito's lips when her shoulders slumped over, the girl already looked exhausted just by the mere thought of swinging the rod countless times. "Fine..." that was all she replied with before making her way over to a ruined apartment building, rather slow about her pace, however, she did nonetheless and groaned after taking note of the tall structure. "This is gonna take me forever...ugh..." her groaning made Mina and Ochaco curiously blink and stand there, they both wanted to observe her practice for a moment.
"Oh by the way, Saito? What's your reason for wanting to be a hero?" Mina's question forced her to halt several feet before the tall structure and watched as her blue eyes met hers.
"Well, it's...personal, the only thing that matters is that I'm here...right?" Frowning, pain could be seen on her face when her bored and lazy eyes remained glued to black and yellow ones.
"Hm...I suppose so; but hey, if you ever need to talk, Uraraka and I are here for ya!" The pinky was just as cheerful as Ochaco when they both gave her an encouraging thumbs-up, which in turn, only made the redhead sweatdrop. Regardless, she nodded and sighed before viewing the building again.
If I ever told them, they'd hate me...mostly, because I never wanted to be a hero, to begin with. I hate all of this running around, it's so tiring. I'd rather try and achieve my life goal rather than run around smacking villains with my staff... Hm, it's sort of like baseball isn't it? Swinging a staff or something long to his the target, then see them fly. Heheheh...yeah. her monologue echoed when a faint smirk played at her lips from the dry joke she made.
Her hand rose and those blue hues gazed upon the rod's retracted form, before giving it another tight squeeze on the black grip. The redhead jumped and gasped at the sight of it extending out within a blink of an eye, therefore, her attention went back to the structure. This time determination replaced her once bored feature and her focus sharpened until several flashing images flew through her mind as it had before.
Uviel didn't question it this time, instead, she allowed those images to flood her mind and took advantage of the info that was given. An image of how she could hold it, watched a simple animation run through her mind of how to spin it, the redhead did exactly that and copied those images. Spinning it like a baton and twirling herself around in place, the very rod was swatted out to the side with its prongs pointing at the building.
Nothing happened...not even a simple quiver beneath her feet, however, she remained in her position and continued to ponder on the matter at hand. "How can I manipulate the vibrations...? How can I even get vibrations to start up, so I can manipulate them?" her mumbled words fell upon deaf ears, no one heard as her contemplative eyes stayed glued to the ruined apartment building. As the cybernetic girl remained in her position something caught her attention, a strange, metallic button hidden behind the lip of the grip that faintly glossed from the surrounding light. Her gaze narrowed at the sight before reaching her thumb very slowly, over the button.
The metallic button gradually slid sideways and once it did, all three of the girls gasped at the sight. Uviel's blue hues lit up with shock when she saw blue volts sparking and connecting to the long prongs, followed by a heavy vibrating feel of the rod that would more than likely tear someone's arm off. She mentally thanked the heavens above for her cybernetic strength to hold onto such a thing...any normal person would've felt their entire arm turn numb and fall off. Her arm was vibrating blindingly fast that it was difficult to even see it other than a very odd, blur of black from her hoodie's sleeve.
Knowing that the button activated the staff, her attention returned to that apartment building and when he viewed it, she tried a single swing to test it. Bring it out to her side and swatting it to her opposite side across her torso, a heavy, metallic sound reverberated. Those blue bolts sparked swiftly and coated the ground ahead of her, not seconds later did it uproot and crush. Everything crushed up into large chunks in a wide-spread radius that seemed to catch two smaller houses behind the apartment and cause the building before her to crumble.
Both Mina and Ochaco stood dumbstruck and chibified at the sight, while Uviel simply remained in place with a wide-eyed frown. The Decennial Tremor can do this?! her shocked monologue exclaimed and one foot stepped back, it sort of terrified her that vibrations could be amplified so far to the point of crushing earth.
"Whoa! That was cool! You think I could try swinging it?!" the pinky's voice met her ears and snapped the redhead out of her astonished state. Stars hysterically twinkled in both of the girl's eyes after Uviel turned her head to see them, which in turn, nearly made her die of embarrassment from the attention she was getting.
"N- No, you can't... The vibrations in this staff could hurt your arms if you tried holding it, I'm the only one so far that I know of, that can hold it," nervous, the cybernetic girl rubbed the back of her neck and averted her blue hues to the side. If the staff vibrated like that, it was certain it would've taken blood from those girls if they tried to hold onto it.
She cares! Ochaco's mental words were filled with appreciation and beamed her usual bright smile. "That's fine, haha thanks for the heads up!" both she and mind giggled, soon returning to their training while the redhead simply sighed.
A sweatdrop fell to the side of her head and a groan left her lips, she really wasn't looking forward to this but that didn't mean curiosity wasn't getting the better of her. Despite the exercise she was needing to do before the festival, training with the staff seemed to pique her interest right now. Discovering what all it can do, the redhead decided to take as long as she could to learn all of its perks.
However, while the girl trained with her Tremor, Haru had other plans before she'd jump into her own practices.
The brunette was tailing the two girls that gossiped about her best friend during lunch and the most deadly glare bore into their backsides, adorning a strict frown that would scare just about any normal citizen. Though her bangs hid most of her features from her lowered head, those blind hues not once moved from those girls.
Most students were having their next classes and those girls in front of her were apparently skipping them, they continued to giggle at each other as they walked. They looked like your average high school girls that didn't even take part in the heroic classes, Yukimura didn't seem to care in the slightest of what she could make out of their appearance.
The girl on the left giggled to the other and lifted a finger, making water droplets form in thin air an inch above it. The other girl simply laughed at whatever joke the water-quirked girl made and put a hand to the side of her mouth, shielding her whispers from no one in particular. Soon they both laughed, they continued to do so during their leave from the front doors of the school.
Haru kept on their trail, being as quiet as a snake that would slither to their prey, and very slowly her porous dagger was pulled out of the hilt which remained on her hip. Her upper lip curled to allow her tongue to touch the tip on one of her snake fangs, watching as they left through the gate to go hang out somewhere.
With little to no sound, she vanished...only a leaf was stirred from the air during its fall from a nearby tree. Those girls who conversed with each other wandered down the sidewalk giggling and in the shadows, a dark silhouette zipped by so swiftly that it made one of the girls squeak.
The water-quirked girl jumped at the sudden movement and made her best almost tumble when she collided with her. "What, what is it?!" her best friend exclaimed in question as she watched the other sprint ahead and felt her grasp her hand.
"I s-saw something move in the shadows!" hesitant in her words, the water-quirked girl answered and ran around a corner of a dark alley to try and hide... However, it wasn't the brightest idea to do, either. Her frightened hazel eyes aimlessly viewed everything around her in hope of finding the culprit in the shadows, while her friend coward behind her with her arms close to her chest.
"Something move?! What do you mean? Like...a monster or a killer?" the friend's yellow eyes widened at the latter being mentioned and whimpered in fear.
"A monster...~" a low voice echoed further into the dark alley and spooked both of the girls, who only screamed at the abrupt occurrence. Very slowly they saw the dark silhouette lift a dagger from the side and its blade glinted in the shadows, scaring the girls even more. A pair of feet, adorned with brown shoes from U.A's uniforms, stepped out of the shadows, and eventually the entirety of Haru's frame did the same. Fury, deadly, cold hazed eyes strictly bore in their direction and made the girls scream louder.
"Y- You're Haru Yukimura! You're the girl that hangs around that mannequin redhead, right?!" the water-quirked girl exclaimed in fear and took several steps back, even more so at the sight of the brunette inching closer at a much faster pace.
"A monster..." Haru repeated and her odd, sadistic grin grew no her lips, showing glinting fangs protruding from her upper teeth. Gradually her dagger was lifted to her mouth, allowing herself to pierce her snake fangs into the holes to extract her own venom. As she tauntingly paced toward the girls, her head was tilted to the side a little to keep her fangs in the holes and the image that the two girls saw was something only a villain would have. "I'm not the monster here...~" that smirk opened after she spoke those muscly, dark words and kept her blade raised.
Before the girls could even mutter a word, Haru appeared before the yellow-eyed friend and slammed her into the wall hard enough for her head to hit it. Rendered unconscious by the force, the friend slid down the wall and cause her hand to lower. The water-quirked girl screamed and tried to sprint out of the alley until a hand grasped her shoulder, rammed her against the wall as well, and ran the tip of her dagger mere inches from the side of her face into the surface.
Those hazel eyes wavered at realizing, that her life could've ended right then and there if Yukimura hadn't avoided stabbing her. All she saw were struggles and contort on her face, her attention wasn't on her anymore but more on...trying to control her own actions. Haru's blind hues lit up with recognition just in time before the blade had hit her, she had forced the blade to move a couple of inches away in time. All that could be heard was a quick, metallic, clang, and panting breaths from the snake girl's lips. "Go... Don't hurt my friend again," her dark words from that simple statement, changed to a happy one when she gave her a beaming, closed-eye smile at the end.
All she received was a scream and sensed the girl struggle at pulling her friend out of the alley. Haru, on the other hand, sighed with that smile dropping and felt relief that she gained control of herself. Kill them, they hurt your friend.~ a whisper in her mind spoke and all she could see was a quick flash of a malicious open smirk in the darkness. "No... I want to be a hero, I won't listen to you," Yukimura mumbled to herself and walked away, her hand returning the dagger to its hilt on her hip. "I won't be like my father..." lastly, those words were whispered and a strict, determined feature replaced the relieved look she once had.
However, in the darkness of a nearby alley across from the one she was in, watched her carefully with a contemplative stare. She's fighting it...but why? their mental voice was masculine, quietly spoken, and nearly emotionless as they watched her backside travel back to U.A. She continues to fight who she really is... those last words echoed as the view of her moved in a slow-motion scene, her backside and her long, low ponytail swaying to either side.