Welcome back, and a huge thank you to marcelofreitas4 and Vasto-Lorde-Ash-Ketchum for Favoriting and Following – I am honored
Shout out to my awesome reviewers cxmgamingKR2, Villainsfan101, and Psy-Kick for last chapter. I'm sure you will all enjoy the events and bonding that this new chapter will bring. Let's just say there will be some dynamic to this duo as they continue their trek.
Enjoy!
Chapter 6 Only Criminals
Night was falling again, but luckily the distance they covered made up for the late start. A couple of times Eri would risk letting go of his sleeve to quickly pick up some snacks from burglarized convenient stores since he practically ignored the problem of hunger. To her, it was like he had detached himself to the things that were necessary to function as he focused on getting closer to his goal. Since leaving the apartment complex, he hasn't so as spoken nor looked at her from their earlier conversation. Eri munched on her scavenged snacks as her stomach grumbled when dinner time came around. She bit into a mochi; at the school she never really was allowed to eat sweets since Mr. Aizawa didn't want her to have a sugar rush.
Her red gaze went onto the man hearing a light rumble from his stomach, awkwardly she held out a mochi. His gold eyes finally fell on her after hours of ignoring her, "I'm not a fan of sweets."
Eri frowned at him, going through the grocery bag she collected to carry her goodies. She pulled out rice crackers towards him. "Here."
Overhaul scoffed at her, avoiding to look at his missing hands, "I'm not hungry."
The little girl nervously opened the bag, "Your stomach grumbled."
Overhaul narrowed his eyes, realizing the soreness of his muscles and the growing pain in his stomach from lack of nutrition.
Urging herself towards him, she held out the open bag to him. Figuring he might be less hostile if he wasn't hungry. Overhaul rolled his eyes as he lowered himself to be at her eye level as she shook some rice crackers out of the bag and poured them into his mouth. He noticed she was bolder throughout their travel that day, he was fine with that, her cowering the whole damn time was starting to annoy him by how much slower she would move.
Eri backed away from him as he stood up straight, she followed him once again as he was still eager to continue even with the area becoming dark with the sun already down. She was relieved when he didn't expect her to stay too close to him, but she could always feel his gaze on her to ensure she was still in his line of sight.
The little girl shuffled over the broken road with him near her, It's scary how destroyed the city is and there isn't anyone around anymore. Eri peered over her shoulder noticing him slowing down as he avoided using his quirk to fix the roads as he climbed over the large debris of broken asphalt and collapsed buildings instead. She heard him starting to breath heavy as though the additional effort to climb was wearing him down. Nervously glancing ahead of her and back to the struggling Overhaul – He's too tired, he might not be able to get me if I – She seized that thought from her mind knowing he hasn't used his quirk at all, and she was sure that he would use it if she tried anything. Even though he said he needed her, she wasn't sure if he still had the capability to heal her, and she wasn't sure if he would risk getting her hurt. But being under his torture before, she knew he will harm her regardless if it is due to her incompetence for listening.
Eri sat on the debris waiting for him, in the distance she saw a faraway glow. A part of her hoped that sign of life were heroes patrolling, but the other feared for it being other criminals that walked the abandoned streets. She jumped slightly as Overhaul stood behind her, catching his breath in winded gasps.
He narrowed his eyes, noticing the glow of fire in the distance. They have been fortunate to not come across other people, but he expected as they drew closer to Tokyo, the chances of coming across people were going to be higher. He would rather avoid any contact; he just wanted a smooth road in reaching Pops – there was no need for detours.
His gold gaze fell on the girl who looked towards the sign of life, "If you know what's good for anyone, don't make a scene. There's no telling who is over there."
Eri peered towards the fire, nodding silently.
"Good, come on. A couple more hours of moving should distance ourselves." Judging by how large the fire was, it was most likely criminals.
"They're bad guys, aren't they?" Eri mumbled sadly, gazing towards the destruction of a building, the slight hope of being rescued falling away.
Overhaul scoffed, "You're not going to find any heroes anymore, they're too busy for war. The streets belong to the criminals."
Eri scrambled back onto her feet, she gasped as the rubble fell under her. Overhaul moved forward trying to grab at her only to forget he didn't have hands. Eri threw up her arms, grabbing his sleeves – she winced hitting into the debris when it fell away to make a slight cliff. He gritted his teeth as he shifted his feet to ensure he didn't fall as well as she tugged onto his sleeves tightly. Eri stared up at him, seeing the strain in his facial features as he attempted to pull her up just by the empty sleeve.
"You're going to have to pull yourself up kid." He winced feeling her weight working against him as he slumped forward above the edge.
Eri grunted trying to pull herself up from his sleeves, "I—I can't!"
He cursed, bracing himself as he lifted her up with his forearms, just enough until he could grab her by his teeth to fully get her secured from the edge. He fell back on the uneven ledge with her falling on top of him. His mind went blank as they laid there gathering their bearings with heavy breaths.
"Get off." He remarked bluntly as the little girl shook and breathed hysterically into his chest.
Eri nodded pushing herself off him and made sure she stood on secured ground.
He stared up at the star lit sky, too tired to move with the burning sensation from the strain on his back and forearm muscles.
Eri peered back at him, the fright slowly disappearing from her with the thought of him going out of his way to grab her, rather him waiting to fix her from the aftermath of her fall. She watched him heave heavy breaths, trying to catch his breath from the incident. Eri sat next to his laying body, not trusting her footwork, especially how uneven the erupted road was. "Thanks Kai…"
"How many times do I have to tell you to not call me that?" Overhaul hissed out as he tried to slow his breathing.
She looked down at him seeing the annoyance in his gold eyes, but seeing how winded he was, she didn't feel that threatened. "Grandpa calls you that –."
"It's because he's practically my father. Besides, he rarely called me by my first name anyways." Overhaul remarked, Pops was all about professionalism. Even when he was a child, Pops would rarely call him Kai in public, mostly only when they were alone, but in the Yakuza compound it was always Chisaki.
Eri frowned at him, "I remember he would always talk about you, and he calls you Kai."
Overhaul stared at the stars again, falling silent with the uncomfortable wrenching in his chest. "Fine, just don't overuse it."
Eri nodded wrapping her arms around her legs as she waited for him to catch his breath. She was aware of his boundaries and his queues, her survival in the past was to understand the little changes of his demeanor of what was safe and what was dangerous. The little win over his name gave her some reassurance that he was in a good mood considering her accident. She glanced over to the fire in the distance and froze seeing a couple of shadows bouncing off the glow. "I think they heard us."
"Amazing, just what I fucking needed." Overhaul scowled, trying to ignore the achiness in his body. His gold eyes shifted to her, "Get out of sight. They might move on if they thought the noise was just some unsettled debris." He still needed a break; his whole back and neck was killing him from the boost of effort in straining himself to halt her fall.
The little girl scrambled onto the ground beside him, careful to not lean too close to the edge as voices were coming from under the pile of debris. She held her hands to her mouth to prevent her panic breaths from being heard. Overhaul took in a deep breath and ignored the loud pounding of his heart, carefully listening to rough voices around them that seemed to investigate the debris.
Eri shifted to get more comfortable by leaning on her side to stare at Overhaul for motivation to stay quiet with his gold eyes staring at her in warning to not move. She held his dangerous gaze, knowing her body would self-consciously become more quiet and still the longer she was under his terrifying gold.
The voices were louder, right next to them. Overhaul was irritated the girl felt the need to shift her body, as though she didn't understand this was life threatening. His eyes shifted to the edge noticing a flicker of movement behind the kid. Damn it, confrontation seemed to be inevitable.
Eri's eyes widened as she felt something wet grab her around the waist and pull her from the ledge. She screamed as some sort of water whipped her in the air above five men, they laughed seemingly excited by their haul.
Overhaul didn't miss the flicker of desperation in the kid's face when she was taken by surprise. Damn it all. He forced himself to sit up ignoring the burning sensation in his muscles. The Yakuza gritted his teeth as he stood above the debris glaring down the criminals that were toying with the girl as they sneered by her frightened expression.
Eri winced as she was waved around above the five men. One of them laughed, "Seems we got a rugrat, guess society now a days are going to make thieves start out young."
"L—let me go, I don't want to cause any problems, please." Eri begged.
The one whose quirk controlled the water moved her closer to him and sneered, "You ran into our territory, you got to pay up."
Eri noticed Overhaul standing up looming down at them. She cried, "Please let me go – I don't want it to be my fault."
"What? Your fault –?" One of the men didn't get to finish his sentence as shards of asphalt erupted from under him, spilling his innards as his stomach ripped open onto the spike that impaled him.
Eri whimpered as the criminal with the water quirk dropped and grabbed her as a hostage towards his chest while the others went on high alert.
"If you know what's good for you, drop her." Overhaul remarked above them.
The men froze under the golden stare that had a sadistic glean within it. Eri closed her eyes as another wave of ground shot out to her left, the criminal was sliced in two by the large stake that severed the whole chest. She cried feeling blood splattering on her face.
"Ok man! We don't want any beef!"
Eri grunted as she was thrown to the ground, her body shook by the red that coated the left side of her body. The men before her backed away slowly, hoping to leave with their lives.
Overhaul's dark gaze stayed on them, he shifted his feet leveling the whole debris he was standing on to shoot out stakes through the air.
Eri ducked, huddling in a fetal position as concrete and asphalt shot out above her creating a cavern around her. She clutched onto her ears as pained screams and crumbling echoed around her. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…
He couldn't risk word getting out about him, killing every witness would leave less headaches for the future. The filth were all skewered by the wave of reconstruction, not even given the chance to fight, for they were too busy running. Overhaul stepped down on the reconstruction, crumbling it with each step he took. He stood next to the girl as his deconstruction revealed the little cavern she was in. The rest of the area flattened, dropping the impaled corpses onto the road.
His gold gaze fell onto the child as she continued to sob in her fetal position. Overhaul sighed in exhaustion as he sat near her, giving himself another breather and to give the girl a chance to compose herself. After a few minutes had passed with her continued sobs, he snapped. "Get a hold of yourself."
Eri cried, shakingly trying to rub off the blood from her body, "Why did you have to kill them?"
"What else is there to do?" Overhaul stared at her seeing her struggle in getting the blood off her.
Eri breathed hysterically, "Knock them out, and lock them away."
Overhaul scowled at her stupidity, "If you haven't noticed, there isn't any authorities around to lock up criminals. The way I see it, it's better to eliminate any threat that is in my way rather let it go free and cause more issues."
"But why kill them? They were running away –."
"They started to run after I killed one of them, it's better to finish the job once it's started." Overhaul remarked bluntly. He gritted his teeth when a faint memory resurfaced of Pops asking him why he had to go so far in settling a dispute amongst another Yakuza clan that nearly ended the same way.
"B—but why –?"
His gold eyes stared at her darkly, "Don't be naïve, Eri. Has your little getaway with the heroes blinded you from the corruption of this filthy society?! It's all about power and greed, no one does something without the thought of gaining something out of it." He shook his head getting a flash of Pops in his mind after that statement.
"That's not true –."
"Oh really? Tell me, have the heroes asked you to use your quirk to restore something?" Overhaul snapped.
Eri couldn't help the thought from arising about Lemillion – but she wanted to do that, they didn't convince her… "I wanted to –."
"Using the gullibility of a child, hypocrites." Overhaul narrowed his eyes.
Eri shivered huddling into herself, No it's not true – he's lying, manipulating me… It's not true! Deku, Mr. Aizawa… they aren't like that!
Overhaul stood up, irritated that Pops' legacy had fallen to a failure and a cowardly girl, "Stop your damn crying! You aren't going to gain anyone's respect for acting so worthless! If you are sick of being used then learn to make yourself worthy of respect."
Eri halted her cries in shaky breaths hearing his statement. She winced as he glared down at her with an intense hostility.
"Get up, I'm sick of your crying and your shaking. We're leaving, you managed to get yourself filthy." He snapped glaring towards the city, determining where the closest residential area was located. His body was killing him and the kid looked like she was about to puke from the filth that was on her. Overhaul walked forward, he felt himself get irritated again when she didn't move, "Don't make me say it again."
Eri shuffled to her feet, hyperventilating with the sticky blood that slicked down her arm and face. She held back tears as her favorite cat pajamas and her stuffed animal was soaked in blood.
Overhaul's gold gaze took in her anxiety with the blood covering her, "Relax, you're going to get cleaned."
Eri nodded stiffly, walking next to him as she avoided turning her gaze to the bloodbath that flooded down the street. She tried to ignore the substance that was on her, but she couldn't shake the thought that it was her fault. It was because of her movement that the other criminals discovered her.
Once they came across the residential area, Overhaul kicked down the front door of the first home he saw. Eri winced at the destruction of the front of the house, she ran into the house as he sealed it up once they were inside. She rushed into the first room going into the bathroom to get rid of the blood.
Overhaul sighed as he finished up sealing every exit as he made his way to the room the girl ran into. He narrowed his eyes towards the door where the water was running, Eri's sobs couldn't be drowned out by the water. He grunted as he sank to the floor with his back resting on the wall outside the bathroom door. His mind blanked out as he continued to listen to the cries, too absorbed in the past.
The world is a cesspool, so many people had turned a blind eye to wickedness and misfortune – not caring that their actions are the reason to whether evil would be born or be able to thrive. He had firsthand experience on the vileness of the world, being thrown away like nothing but garbage at a young age and forced to fend for himself – disconnecting himself from humanity by killing whoever was in his way. But Pops saw something in him, something in the void gold eyes that had stared back at him. He never could understand what the old man saw… but he was grateful.
Pops gave him so much… education, a goal, a home and yet he couldn't show any repayment for that debt. For years as he grew up, he had tried to hold up the Yakuza's honor – destroying anyone that so as sullied the Shie Hassaikai's name. But Pops would scold him for it, trying to diminish that aggressive fire in order to mold it to something that can lead. He tried to reclaim the lost standing for the Yakuza, to give something back to the old man – but… Overhaul gritted his teeth envisioning Pops on his coma bed. I'm no better than the scum I destroy for dishonoring the clan… He destroyed Pops' legacy, the Shie Hassaikai had crumbled away with him.
I'm sorry Pops… He clenched his jaw as Eri's crying grew louder, Pops' granddaughter endured all his torture just to appease his goal to ensure the Yakuza would be in power again. "Look after her Chisaki." Overhaul slumped forward staring at the floor, he went against Pops' wishes and the old man will be disappointed in him more. There's nothing that can make up for what had been done… The damage was already done, the only thing that could be done was to rewind what started it all… Once Pops is restored, then maybe there was some way he could put himself to the old man's use. There has to be something I can still do for him.
Overhaul clenched his teeth, staring down at the empty sleeves – cringing at the uncomfortableness of his ghost hands as though he can still feel them self-consciously fist and flex by the anxiety and pain. All that power to create and destroy exploded in his face, all that ambition and arrogance made him susceptible to betrayal – made him weak and broken. It's my own damn fault for being so naïve, I should have been more charismatic rather degrading those villains. He sighed tiredly as his mind nitpicked the meeting he had with the League of Villains – he had flexed his power in attempts to intimidate those psychos, and that should have been his first red flag… Guess he really hadn't paid attention on learning from Pops on the importance of relations.
Eri couldn't stop crying, she feverishly scrubbed the blood off her body – making her skin red from the aggressive scrubbing. Stop crying! She begged herself, there wasn't anything she could have done… Those criminals wouldn't let go of her, regardless if Kai decided to intervene or not. She couldn't do anything – she consistently would be helpless and would always need the help from others.
She winced getting bombarded by past experiences and belittlements, hugging herself as she let the water run down her. Eri whimpered grabbing at her arms where the little scars from her experiment sessions with Kai still littered her body. Even with the constant Rewinds from the sessions, she still couldn't fully grasp or control her quirk in the past – she clutched her head remembering how she almost killed Deku when she couldn't control herself… And it was because of that, she stayed with Mr. Aizawa so he could stop her from hurting anyone. A flash of Kai breaking her to stop her quirk came back to her memory. She chewed the inside of her cheek, as long as she could remember, she had to be surrounded by a person that had the capability to stop her quirk – because she was too worthless to not learn to do it on her own…
He's right… I'm worthless and no one would respect me because of it. Eri hugged herself tighter, how many times at U.A. had she trained and tried to be of some use? How many times has Mr. Aizawa had to cancel her quirk out before she could even attempt to do it on her own? She felt like after so many months away from that compound she still hasn't made progress within her ability. Her main success was restoring Lemillion's quirk – but only because Mr. Aizawa always forcefully turned off her quirk if he felt she was getting out of control. For safety, she was only able to be freely consistent with the range of her quirk for a few minutes until it was Erased.
She shook feeling the warm water run cold, she hiccupped from the inability to continue to sob. Panic chilled through her on the thought of not being able to fulfill Kai's request – fear that she will be unable to heal her grandfather…Unable to give her nightmare some sort of reconnection. She shivered, not wanting to think of what his devastation and anger would look like… I need to do this, Grandpa needs me…
Eri got out of the shower, she was getting more unsettled as the water turned ice cold. She shivered seeing the bloodied and torn pajamas, she tightened the towel around her. The little girl stiffened as she left the bathroom noticing a shadow against the wall on the floor. She untensed noticing he was slump back asleep while sitting beside the wall. What is he doing? Wasn't his back hurting him earlier? Eri studied him, she couldn't help but think a childish thought of him actually guarding her door from intruders.
She frowned seeing the restless expression on his face as though he was having a bad dream. Changing into a baggy shirt and shorts, she cautiously went to the bed and pulled a pillow and blanket from it. She nervously put the blanket on him, she was sure he was in an uncomfortable sleeping position. The little girl put the pillow on the floor and slowly pushed and held his shoulder, making him slide from the wall so his head and side was at least laying on the floor.
Eri sighed in relief when he didn't wake up, she pulled the blanket up so it went to his neck. She rubbed her eyes and headed to the bed. Her red eyes widened and she gasped noticing on the nightstand was her stuffed cat spotless from blood. She peered back at her nightmare that snoozed on the floor. He fixed it… He could still muster those deadly glares that terrified her, but throughout their traveling and the moments where he would go on for hours without talking or looking at her, she would notice the shattered and exhausted expression on his face. As though he was in a constant mental trap that shut him out from the tangible world. Maybe the nightmare man is gone…
Let me know on your thoughts, I love to hear all of your feedback on this chapter and how you are liking this story so far.
I believe we might be on our halfway point – not sure yet, I'm still trying to wrap my head on future ideas, but I do have a broad idea on how things may go… But let me know what you think on any possible outcomes or scenarios and it might just make it onto the page.
I will see you all next time for Chapter 7 "Broken Road".
