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Here's to the next chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 2 Shortcomings
Nagant drove until it was dawn to distance them from the prison to the outer edge of another city. It would be some time for people to evacuate and vacate the city before the swarm of escaped convicts started their slaughter. She figured they would lay low until things got chaotic enough with only criminals and authorities running the streets. Her eyes peered down at her prisoner uniform in disdain, We are going to need to ditch these once the streets are empty… She parked the car in a parking garage, figuring to catch some sleep before the panicked screams and sirens set in.
She reclined the seat back slightly, mindful of giving her not-fully-there companion his space. Luckily, he hasn't stirred since he fell asleep the night prior, and she would be grateful to get some sleep before he woke up. It wasn't that she was worried if he would harm her, it was more of not wanting to miss any ideal conversation before his mind becomes spent. She hoped him getting some shut eye outside the prison could help with his mental stability, and make this mission go a lot smoother.
He felt a small crank in his neck as he stirred, his gold eyes took in his surroundings, noticing the car was parked in a dark lit garage. He jumped as a knock on his window startled him, he stared at the woman as she gave him an apologetic smirk.
She opened the door, "You basically slept through the whole day, its night already. You sure are a heavy sleeper, you slept through the whole rampage of thieves going through the streets when the locals were evacuating."
He stared at her for a long moment and ultimately chose to ignore her comment.
Nagant scowled at the lack of response, well aware that he was there at the moment with the look of annoyance that crossed his features. Ungrateful bastard. "Well come on, everything is trashed below and it's a great time to get into new clothes."
Overhaul dared to look down upon himself noticing the grime on the uniform – she had a point. "Lead the way." He remarked cooly as he succeeded in getting himself out of the car. He could already feel himself reverting back to the need of cleanliness, it took some effort to ignore the anxiousness of being dirty and the need for assistance.
Nagant gave him a once over to determine if he could walk on his own before she descended the steps of the parking garage.
Overhaul scowled as she went ahead of him – practically showing off how healthy she was as she skipped down the steps effortlessly. He gritted his teeth from the strain on his calves as he continued down the steps, "Wait, woman."
When he turned the corner to continue to descend, he almost knocked into her. Nagant pointed at him, "Don't get snappy with me – and my name isn't woman."
He stared at her unimpressed, "Then what should I call you?"
She deflated, realizing he must not have caught her name, "Lady Nagant."
He scoffed at the alias and continued down the steps with her, "Fine."
She rolled her eyes, wondering if it was better if he was just unresponsive. "And you? 'The young leader of the Shie Hassaikai' isn't really ideal to call you by."
"Over—." He stopped in his tracks. A wave of pain struck when multiple painful memories assaulted him with that name. He closed his eyes taking it all in, forcing himself to endure it to ensure he didn't use it as a scapegoat. He can't turn it off anymore, he needed to stay sound.
Nagant peered at him curiously, noticing him wabble. She put a hand to his chest to keep him from falling down the steps when he was in one of his episodes. She waited, watching his facial expressions revert to different emotions before an indifferent expression erased the anguish. She noticed his gold eyes were blank of emotion once he opened them again, it was different from before. At the prison, his blank eyes were voided of mentality, but these blank eyes were guarded.
"Chisaki." Overhaul remarked, shifting his gaze to her hand until she dropped it from his chest.
Nagant frowned at him, hearing him take in shaky breaths as he made headway to the ground level.
Overhaul gritted his teeth, feeling overwhelmed by the lack of control over his body. He had always been in good shape, whether from reconstructing his body or just his regular routine of making an example out of the filth of society. He knew his physique was lacking from neglect of use within prison… but to struggle to go down a couple flights of stairs on his own? He was already slowly conquering the feat to ignore the nagging thoughts that wanted to bury him into insanity, the mere mention to be called Overhaul almost sent him over the edge. He closed his eyes again, reciting to himself that everything will work out, the woman would get her score and she will take him to Pops – whatever happens after is fair game.
Nagant grabbed onto his empty sleeve as the man headed into the open carelessly, "Hey, we are still in prison uniforms." She pulled him to the sidewalk before he could bring attention to themselves with the bright uniforms. She didn't miss how he visibly froze by that reminder as though he forgot their predicament entirely. So, it's all an act, he actually isn't fully aware. Nagant pulled him with her to make sure he didn't wander off until she came across a burglarized clothing store.
Overhaul let the woman pull him into a clothing store, he was mindful to not step onto any glass shards with his bare feet while she floated over it. She dropped his sleeve as she went to work on finding new clothes. He sat on a counter quietly as he slowly took in his surroundings. The street they were on had recently been under attack based on the small smolders from damaged buildings, the culprits may still be in the area. He doubted they would be targeted, but it wasn't out of the question if authorities were patrolling and assessing the damage done to the city.
Nagant glanced back at him holding out shirts to determine what would fit him. She came over to him, her approach broke him out of his daze stare that was recently directed outside to focus on her intently. She held out the shirts for him to see, his gold gaze dropped, internally cringing on the need for assistance. Nagant frowned noticing him go ridged as she helped him out of his prison shirt.
Overhaul closed his eyes on seeing the bandaged stumps that were severed above the elbows. He hunched over to keep his composure at seeing the permanent reminders of his failure, his shame of overlooking a psychopath's grudge. Shigaraki's mocking laugh rang in his ears with the burning sensation of his arms decaying.
Nagant paused before putting on the new shirt, noticing Chisaki's cool demeanor broke down upon seeing his injuries. As she thought, there was much more to him – there was certainly layers of trauma.
He took harsh short breathes in attempts to prevent a panic attack, It's in the past, there's no use in thinking about it. Gold eyes opened and stared at the unseen horror of Shigaraki's decisive moment to leave him crippled and powerless. He quickly snapped himself out of reminiscing before he could panic. He exhaled evenly just as his vision refocused on reality before him as the woman in front of him held a concerned look upon her face.
He stared at her floating in front of him and remarked, "You should have been more wary before striking a deal with the League of Villains. Nothing comes free with them."
"You're talking about this additional quirk All for One lent me?" Nagant asked curiously as she stepped back on the ground.
Overhaul shifted his gaze to his missing arms, "To them, everyone and everything are stepping stones that benefit them. There's no regard towards the throats that were slashed nor the backs that were stabbed to get the outcome that they wanted."
"Your arms…"
Overhaul gave her a forbidding smile, "Apparently the loss of my organization wasn't punishment enough. They had to go the extra mile to put me down without the ability to use my quirk while also robbing me of my hard work."
Nagant saw the cracks within his indifferent demeanor, she could see the hints of exhaustion and pain, "I was framed for murder to cover up the truth of the corrupted government."
Chisaki stared at her, noticing the slight faraway look in her eyes when she revealed that information. "Huh, how about that. Two different sides of the spectrum that came to the same conclusion about the government and attempted to better society in their own way… were ultimately defeated by the account of others."
Nagant sighed, smirking slightly, "I guess if you put it that way." She shook herself out of the past and went back to the task at hand, "Ok, let's get out of these clothes."
Chisaki felt slightly better in his skin with the fresh new clothes and the ability of having the remanence of blood and mud to be washed away in the bathroom in the back of the store. He flat out denied Nagant's attempts to wash his legs, requesting for her to just leave the sink's water running. He cursed under his breath as he uncomfortably balanced his leg on the sink letting the hot water hit the outer layer of grime. He gritted his teeth leaning forward in attempts to grab the pant leg with his teeth to get the water to wash more of his skin. His body was straining and the consistent reminder of how far he had fallen with the lack of his own stability, irritated him.
He cursed again by the humiliation of the inability of doing a simple task, "Woman."
Nagant leaned on the door, fully dressed in a black dress and combat boots, "Finally gave in?"
He scowled at her, ungracefully lifting his leg from the sink and almost slipped before he balanced himself.
Nagant pulled a chair from the store to the bathroom and forced him to sit down. She pushed him closer to the sink and grabbed his leg. She didn't miss the uncomfortable look that crossed his face as he averted his eyes to look anywhere else. She soaped up her hands running them over his skin to detach the grime, splotches of skin reddened under her touch.
"Can you get on with it?" Overhaul stressed, feeling hives breaking out from the anxiety of getting touched. His feet especially felt like needles were prickling him as she took her time cleaning him.
Nagant noticed the anxious hives breaking out and she tried to get his mind off of it before he had a break down and become a nonresponsive husk again, "Not used to having other people help you? You must have been quite the boss, strong even?"
Overhaul gritted his teeth, pulling his thoughts away from the hives, "That obvious huh?"
Nagant smirked at the sarcasm, "You must have been a threat to be put in Tartarus, can I ask about it?"
Overhaul tuned out the unsettledness of his body screaming at him whilst getting attacked to let Nagant continue getting the grime off him – he reasoned with himself that he would feel much better with all that filth off him. He didn't want to speak about his failure, but it was better than to focus on the unsettledness of getting cleaned by a complete stranger. "With my hands, I could reconstruct and deconstruct anything – I could fuse things together and reshape anything, didn't matter if it was living or objects. I was able to destroy things and put them back together – I was even able to bring people back from the dead."
Nagant halted his washing to stare at the man before her in shock, all that potential had been destroyed by the loss of his hands, "And they took your hands to prevent you from using your quirk?"
Overhaul tsked, the haunting laugh mocked him even more, "They thought it was fitting. I established a way to destroy the quirk gene and they thought it was more ironic for a person who was so dependent on his quirk to destroy others' quirks, to be rendered quirkless."
Nagant peered at him seeing the haunted look on his face as though he was reliving the event. She carefully lowered his legs, "I'm surprised with that ability you couldn't reconstruct your hands even after losing–."
"If I had destroyed them myself, I could have. And if it were only one hand, I could have. But they took both before I could even protect myself from them." Overhaul snapped, kicking off from the seat to stand.
Nagant held up her hands in surrender when the angry gold eyes landed on her, "Sorry I asked."
Overhaul remarked, "It's in the past, right now all I want to do is see the old man. So, let's get the green haired brat and move forward with our deal."
Nagant followed him out to the store as he stepped into slide-in dress shoes. "Alright, I'm sure the main priority for authorities is to capture escapees, staying within radius of the disaster zone is bound to get us the catch we're looking for."
"Focus on the areas that still have people within the affected zones, he wants to be a big shot hero. The more dangerous the area the better." Overhaul remarked darkly, thinking about that insufferable boy that had ranted about the greatness of being a hero.
Nagant mauled over the information, they would need to scout out the areas for a few days to determine the best location.
"Well looky here boys – fresh meat." A voice called above the building.
Nagant cursed, not realizing they had stayed too long in the store and drew attention. She scanned their location counting four targets. She smiled, "Come on guys, we just got out – the same as you. Can't you give us some slack?"
The four escapees jumped down onto ground level to surround them. Overhaul gritted his teeth; his mind went ridged by the thought of getting beaten by filth – it had been a long time since he has been so boldly insulted by mere scum from the streets.
"I bet you are a lively one, what ya doing with that dead weight?" The bigger of the escapees sneered at them.
Nagant noticed Chisaki was visibly angered by that statement, Good, his mentality might be here to stay… "Well, I figured he would be a gentleman and keep his hands to himself."
The escapees howled in laughter by her statement, shifting the atmosphere into a less tense situation.
She didn't miss the feverish gold glare, Oh, so this gets you lively? She shifted her weight to ready her rifle – in that instant Chisaki charged at one of the escapees. With the change of atmosphere, the escapees were caught off guard. Nagant aimed and took her shots – the two escapees in front of her didn't get the chance to move before her bullets splattered their brains onto the sidewalk. She jumped and shifted herself to aim her rifle at the last two.
Overhaul rammed his shoulder into his opponent's stomach and lifted his body up to use the weight against the other man. He grunted as the other man grabbed him and flipped them both to the ground.
Nagant took down the escapee that was about to strike Chisaki in the back when he was too occupied with wrestling with the other. She watched as her companion stomped onto the escapee's knee and aimed another kick right into the face.
She walked up to him as he continued to kick the escapee in the gut to subdue him from trying to grab at his foot. She pointed her rifle at the escapee's head, ending the futile fight as the rifle sounded into the empty streets.
Chisaki continued to kick at the lifeless body, determined to rid this feeling of being defenseless – he wasn't defenseless.
"Hey, it's over." Nagant commented noticing him continue with his kicks as his breaths became more sporadic. "Hey!" Nagant shouted trying to get through to him. She grabbed onto his shoulders, turning him swiftly to face her – his eyes were clouded with craze. "It's done."
He wanted to show he was more than dead weight, that he wasn't some useless sad excuse – he didn't need anyone's pity. No one's opinions of him mattered – no one's but the boss, but he will not fucking stand pieces of trash to look down on him. He could feel his body getting exhausted by the physical endurance, and it pissed him off by how weak he had become to be winded by mere kicks.
He felt himself get torn away from the piece of trash as the woman spun him around, he noticed her mouth was moving but he couldn't hear what she said over the loud whooshing of his blood and his labored breaths. He felt his legs give out on him and he brought both of them down to the ground as she attempted to hold him up. He breathed deeply, trying to catch his breath looking around their surroundings, taking in the bloody mess around them.
Nagant sat up on the ground in front of him just after her failed attempt to catch him before his legs gave out. His eyes became less cloudy as he took in their surroundings. She tried again, "The fight is over."
His gold eyes snapped to her, he took another deep breath and glanced down to inspect his clothes for any signs of grime or tears, "And we just got cleaned…"
Nagant stared at him, completely dumbfounded by his response – of all things… She started to laugh, "Yeah, I guess getting dirty can't be helped when you're on the run." Nagant helped him up to his feet, "Come on, we got some fishing to do."
Overhaul nodded and reconfirmed, "After it's done, you will hold up your end of the bargain?"
"Yeah, yeah, I will take you to your boss. Be patient, these things take methodical planning. We can't just expect the kid to come quietly, and we can't just waltz right into a secured hospital. Trust me, let me do the planning and it will work out." Nagant offered as she guided them down the silent street.
His mind was slowly decreasing from the physical ordeal he endured, he could feel himself slightly retreating behind his mind to recuperate. Now he was only half paying attention to what she said, he knew what this was. People use each other to get what one wants, it's the simple order of life – where the ones in control use the pawns. She had all the cards, and he hardly paid any mind of being that pawn for the woman – she was going to honor their deal with this arrangement. Whatever gets him to see the old man.
Overhaul lowered his gaze to the ground with a stiff nod, "I will hold you to your word…"
Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know on your thoughts of the different point of views from Nagant and Overhaul that paints how his stability looks like.
See you all next time for Chapter 3 "Hero Syndrome"
