As you are all most likely aware, there was a DDoS attack happening to Ao3. That is why this is being posted late. People who waste their time doing such a thing are lower than scum, and those part of Anonymous Sudan, from one person to another, you should all seriously take a look at yourselves and realize that you will never amount to anything. You are all basement-dwelling turbo virgins, and I hope you all have the day that you deserve.
That being said…
WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS SCENES/MENTIONS/IMPLICATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING: CANNIBALISM, EXTREME GORE, BULLYING, ABUSE, BRUTAL DEATH, HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION, AND HEAVY BLOODSHED.
IF ANY OF THESE THINGS BOTHER YOU, TURN BACK NOW!
IF THE WARNING DOES NOT APPLY TO YOU…
THIS STORY IS A FAN-BASED FICTION
I OWN NEITHER MY HERO ACADEMIA NOR DEMON SLAYER/KIMETSU NO YAIBA
ALL I OWN ARE MY OCS
Now, onto the chapter!
[Beta Read by Doc43Souls]
[Vol 3 – 7: The Price Of Peace – Part 4]
"I don't get it, why does everyone I corner just want to run away? It's so rude~!" Natsumi taunted, stalking toward a beaten and battered thug. Blood pooled from their shotty ski mask, which covered their whole face except for their eyes, nose and mouth.
It was kind of counterintuitive to do that—the eyeholes, anyway—namely because of the fact it would no doubt get him identified quicker than not having his eyes exposed, considering that was what police and the like used to track criminals faster, minus DNA testing. The least the dumbass could have done was wear sunglasses. Honestly, Natsumi knew that thugs were dumb, but not this dumb!
There was a hole atop the ski mask, and there was an obvious reason as to why, what with the man's hair being made entirely of snakes, all of which were dark green, with red piercing eyes. They were nervous and afraid, their hissing reverberating through the building that they were in.
Speaking of the building they were in, it was a simple gas station just a few blocks away from a local library. The gas station was your standard Shell Gas Company-owned station. The inside was just as what was to be expected—a Slurpee machine off to the right, a plexiglass slider door freezer, a few shelves with on-the-road snacks, and a bunch of fridges to keep soft drinks and the like in.
Natsumi had originally been here to see if she couldn't win at one of those keychain gacha things at the back corner of the store, seeing as she had some extra money she had stolen from her last kill. Of course, that had been ruined because of this thug, and seeing as they were a crook… well, that meant they were free reign.
When the guy first walked in, he threatened the nice lady at the counter with a gun. Just a regular, standard, run-of-the-mill M1911. There were no attachments, not even a specialized grip, or an extended magazine—it was just a regular, plain old gun. The thug was probably using it because they lacked a flashy Quirk or something of the sort.
Boring. But just the right kind of boring to mean that no one would care if they were killed.
"S-Stay back from me, you creepy bitch!" The robber threatened as the store clerk from behind the counter recoiled from the loud voice. Natsumi, for her part, just tilted her head in a child-like fashion, one that would spark the idea of curiosity. And it would've worked, had it not been for the creepy smile that had been drawn across her face
"What? You think I'm creepy? Aww, that's just mean!" Natsumi said, holding back a giggle. "Oh! But you know what's even meaner? Robbing a store at gunpoint!" The white-haired, rainbow-eyed demon chirped, bringing her left arm up and over her head. As she did, there was a gleam in her right eye, and her creepy smile dropped into an emotionless frown as she spoke. "For that… you must die. Blood Demon Art… Transmogrification: Jormungander."
With a simple utterance of those words, Natsumi's left arm began to transform, white scales growing out of her ashen pale skin as her left hand split apart and reformed into the mouth of a snake. The skin on the back of her hand began to balloon, swell, and contort as scales began to appear. Two black, soulless eyes appeared out of the sides of the newly formed snakehead, as it hissed.
Coming out of the back of the snake were large rocky spikes, about 6 inches in height with cracks in the rocks, and they also seemed kind of wet. Poison dripped from the tips of the large dagger-sized fangs, its forked tongue sticking out and flickering in the air.
The snake grew larger than the upper half of Natsumi's body, which should have made her fall over. But, much to the surprise of the thug and the store clerk, no such thing happened. Natsumi simply stood still, a smile on her face as her rainbow eyes glistened with hate.
"You like snakes, right?" Natsumi asked, her voice dripping with anger as the veins in her right arm and forehead became more pronounced. Truthfully, she was angry. She had been having such a great day. Earlier she had killed a few drug addicts, which had made her kind of jittery. Apparently, blood with remnants of drugs like heroin made Demons a little twitchy but otherwise left no bad side effects.
Anywho said homeless people were asleep when she killed them, so at the very least, they didn't feel any pain. She knew that Midori wouldn't be too fond of her doing that, but then again, he did say that he didn't care how they got stronger, or who they ate so long as they weren't children and that everyone was free reign.
She had killed at least 5 homeless dudes in a row before she was narrowly caught by some newbie hero fresh out of hero school. Luckily for that plucky new hero, she was full and wasn't really hungry at the time. Plus, the hero was a newbie, and also probably just graduated, so she wasn't going to ruin his shiny new career.
Oh, and Midori was right, humans did taste like whatever her brain wanted them to taste like! For example, the last guy she ate tasted like cotton candy!
But now, she had no reason to be thinking of stuff like that. No, she was busy with this douchebag, and all of the problems he had been causing.
The robber aimed his pathetic little gun at Natsumi and began firing. The bullets only dented her skin, rather than actually piercing her body. They fell to the floor with not so much as a clang to the ground. It was really pathetic, and it further terrified the robber, who dropped the gun, and began scuttling away, before bumping into one of the shelves behind him.
Oh, how Natsumi loved to see punks like them squirm. After all, it was a thug like this one right here that had killed her. And she had vowed to kill any petty thug who would dare hurt someone. She wasn't going to let these worthless scumbags do any more harm than they were already doing.
"Oh…? Did you just try to kill me?" Natsumi asked, venom dripping from her new snake arm's mouth. The veins on her forehead began to pulse like a beating heart, and her smile had now turned into a full-on sneer, fangs bearing and all. "I mean… that wouldn't have worked anyway, but… c'mon, I'm only 13 you know. Killing a child is like, what… the biggest offence known to mankind, yeah?"
"F-Fuck you!" The robber spat as Natsumi grimaced.
"Ew, and you're a kiddy diddler, gross!"
"W-What!? No, I—"
Natsumi giggled as the snake arm recoiled, opening its massive maw as the robber's skin drained of all colour. A small little puddle began to form around his legs as Natsumi grinned ear-to-ear. Its hiss dwarfed the hissing sound of the snakes atop the robbers head, all of whom had shrunk into a defensive stance—not that it was going to matter anyway.
"Oh well, I don't really care. I've already snacked on 40 or so criminals like you for the last week or so, and Hosu's looking pretty clean because of it, yeah. One more can't possibly hurt, right?" As those words left Natsumi's mouth, the robber didn't have a chance to scream before the snake arm lunged forward and clamped its jaws around the man, swallowing him whole before spitting up the bones, all in a matter of seconds.
The snow-white-haired Demon's arm transformed back to normal as she covered her mouth to suppress a burp. Her mother didn't raise a messy eater, so it paid to have such a dynamic blood demon art. Of course, that was just one of her many abilities, and it only really worked on defenceless crooks. Jormungandr was weak, all things considered, and could be dispatched easily, so only used it on weak crooks like that one.
Looking over her shoulder, the cash register lady was hugging herself, shaking in fear as Natsumi frowned. What to do about her? "Hmm… hey, lady! How old are you?" Natsumi asked as the cash register jolted, squeaking like a terrified little mouse. She had orange hair, big, round, blue eyes and tears staining her cheeks.
"S-sixteen!" The lady cried as Natsumi sighed.
"Well then, you're lucky. My Lord says I can't kill kids so you'll just have to keep your mouth shut, m'kay? Or else I'll stalk ya and steal your money!" Natsumi said, putting both of her hands behind her back. With the half-assed threat out of the way, Natsumi left the gas station, content in what she had done. A few people were nervously staring at the building, some even were reaching for their phones, as if to call someone—a hero perhaps.
Natsumi didn't care, she simply kept walking, minding her own business. Hosu's law enforcement was stingy and only replied to calls if the situation was dire. The reason was because of the over-saturation of Heroes in the city.
Compared to Musutafu, which was a much smaller city, only requiring 60 or so police officers to maintain with the help of heroes, Hosu's force was 300 men and women strong, but compared to the nearly over 10,000 heroes that flooded the streets at every hour of the day… yeah, one could understand why the cops barely did their job.
If the cops were so useless, then why did the city have them around? Honestly, Natsumi didn't know, and she didn't care. She was more focused on making Midori happy and getting herself nice and strong so she didn't have to worry about being considered "weak". Though, the more she thought about it, the more she reasoned that being considered "weak" wasn't particularly something she needed to worry about.
And so, Natsumi aimlessly walked, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity. She wasn't particularly hungry, but then again, what kind of Demon would she be if she wasn't always looking out for something to eat?
As she walked, she thought about her other Demon comrades. Last she had checked, Ochako was somewhere in Tokyo attacking criminal organizations. Her Quirk had been something called "Gravity" and she also apparently had access to another ability. Not only did she have her Quirk, but she had a separate Blood Demon Art!
Natsumi wanted to complain, but Uraraka-san had said that it wasn't all that useful, all things considered, and a lot more sadistic for her tastes. Meaning, she probably wouldn't use it unless she needed to. It was that kind of hesitation that got her in trouble the first time, so perhaps Natsumi would have to remind her of that the next time they talked.
Then, there was Tsukauchi-san. She was all the way out in Hokkaido. She reasoned that she wanted some time away from the massive sprawling cities, and instead wanted to hunt in the rural areas, killing and eating mutantists and racists, as well as take down any members of the Creature Rejection Clan, or the CRC.
Frankly, both were doing more noble things than her. She was just picking off drug addicts, street thugs, and small-time villains. They were looking to hunt down the big guys! It was actually kind of upsetting, but oh well. She wasn't really out to hunt down the big fakes or the most evil of villains. She was out here protecting the common folk from the regular street thugs.
You know… provided they didn't see her eat the people she was hunting. Then they'd have to join them. Was it twisted? Perhaps, but she was a Demon. Midori said humans were cattle, and while she might have been human once, she wasn't a human anymore.
The only humans she could ever grow to care about are her mother and step-father, and even then she didn't want to scare them by reappearing in their lives. Oh, and Eri too. She couldn't forget about Eri. She was such a cute little bean! Always asking questions and being just the most adorable little kid she had ever met!
She wanted to squish the little girl's face and pull at her cheeks just like her mom did to her when Natsumi was a little girl. She was big sis Natsu and Midori was Big Bro. That was so cute! She didn't know what it was about her and little children but she always saw them as adorable!
Off to her left, she heard a scream, which broke her out of her thoughts. To her left was an alleyway, and in it was a woman and a group of men. They were mugging her, and trying to strip the poor lady. Degenerates. That was the first thing that came to Natsumi's mind. And it made Natsumi smirk.
She might've been a little full, but when scumbags were doing scumbag things, it was her duty to make them disappear for good. It was like being a vigilante! Except, you know, eating people. With that in mind, Natsumi stared down the alleyway, as her expression became serious.
"Welp, duty calls!"
xxXXxxXXxx
Eri had to admit, the daycare was kind of boring. There wasn't really much to do aside from play with mega-blocks and draw. And even then she didn't like doing that. Well, the mega blocks thing, anyway. She liked drawing, but only when no one was looking. The other kids at the daycare said that her drawings sucked. Big Bro didn't seem to think so, and his opinion was all that mattered to her.
Speaking of him, Big bro always lets her do other things like watch TV and read books. Or, at least try to read books. She was still learning how to properly read and write. It was embarrassing, but it wasn't like she was given an opportunity to get better at it.
The bad man never let her read. She was turning six years old in a little bit, and she couldn't properly read. The other kids were going to make fun of her for not being able to. It wasn't her fault that Mama let the bad man take her! It wasn't her fault the bad man liked to cut her up and drain her blood! So why did everyone have to make fun of her?
She didn't like those other kids at the daycare. They were mean. Well, then again, she was friends with Izumi-kun. And he was mean. But they were meaner than him! They said rude things about her horn, and how she looked mean and evil. They would always ask why she wore gloves. Eri wouldn't answer. Her curse was no one else's to bear but her own.
If they already said that she looked evil because of her horn, what would they say about her curse? They would only hate her more. So she never answered them. The only one who she might tell about her curse would be Izumi-kun.
Speaking of Izumi-kun, he was the only person in the daycare she liked. He was the first one to approach her, and the first one to not call her drawings bad. He actually liked them quite a bit! She was glad that Izumi-kun liked them. Because otherwise, she would have probably quit drawing.
Currently, Izumi-kun was off in the corner minding his own business, sitting there with a frown on his face as he watched everyone. He always did that. He said that if you looked scary and… in-tim-ah-dating that no one would bother you. She liked that idea, but he said that she was too cute to be able to be scary.
That made Eri feel a little down in the dumps. When she told Big Bro about it, Big Bro agreed with Izumi-kun! The rest of the day she had decided she wasn't going to talk to Big Bro. Because he wasn't supposed to agree with Izumi-kun. But that was on Tuesday. Today was Friday, so she was all over it now.
Izumi-kun saw her, and for a brief second his frown disappeared and was replaced with a neutral expression. Not a smile or a scowl, but just a flat line. It was better than what most people got, so that meant he liked her. He never smiled, namely because he said smiling was for nerds. She didn't think so, that, and on the odd occasion, Eri would catch him smiling.
His smile looked nice. It was less creepy than Natsu-nii-chan's smile. Natsu-nii-chan's smile was a little creepy. She remembered one time when Natsu-nii-chan came over at random and turned her fingers into little hedgehogs with bat wings. They were cute, but also creepy.
Eri was getting sidetracked. The point was that Izumi-kun was a meanie. Meanies became bullies and Eri wasn't a fan of bullies. But she believed that Izumi-kun could never be a bully. Izumi-kun might be a meanie, but he wasn't a meanie because he hated people, he was a meanie because that was how he acted. He treated everyone like that. Not just Eri or the odd person. He was a meanie to everyone.
Big Bro mentioned just before he dropped her off that those creepy guys were still there, watching the building. She instinctively had her hand in her left shorts pocket. It was in that pocket that the needle was in. Big bro said to use it if those mean people—the people who worked with The Bad Man—entered the building.
She didn't want to. Big Bro said it was going to hurt. But at the same time, Big Bro said that if she used it, she wouldn't be able to be hurt ever again.
"Hey! Horn!" Izumi-kun's voice called out to her. Eri looked over her shoulder and saw him standing just behind her. He was around her height, with black hair and blue eyes. Like her, he had pale skin, and he was wearing a white and blue striped shirt today. Yesterday he wore a pure white one. He was also wearing pants instead of shorts. Oh, and he was also wearing those cool light-up shoes as well. She liked the light-up shoes because they looked pretty.
"Hey, Izumi-kun," Eri said, turning to fully face him. He snorted, looking at her hand. "What's in your pocket?"
"Oh? It's just in case of… uh… emer-gen-sea… thing. Like, in case I get hurt badly, I have to take it. Like medi-sin… you know?" Eri replied. She was embarrassed that she couldn't say big words without sounding them out. Another thing that Big Bro blamed on The Bad Man. She blamed him too. He was the biggest meanie. But he actually hurt her instead of saying mean things.
"Hmph, that's baby stuff," Izumi-kun said, plopping down next to her with his hands planted on the ground and behind his back. "If you get hurt you're just supposed to tough it out!"
Eri frowned. "Not a bruise or a cut, Izumi-kun. Something like a broken arm," Eri replied as Izumi-kun hummed. They sat in silence for a little bit, before he scratched the back of his neck.
"Sorry…" Izumi-kun muttered. Eri looked at the floor. She noticed that the daycare worker—Todoroki-san—was nervously watching the window. She had white hair with red patches, and she had black eyes. She was wearing a blue shirt and a pair of white jeans. She was nice. She often played games with them.
Todoroki-san was never usually this worried. She had been a little nervous with all of the bad guys watching the place lately, but she never actually stared outside the window for longer than a few seconds.
And… she had a phone up to her ear. Eri could barely make out what it was she was saying, but if she paid attention it sounded almost like a report. A report to who? Probably a hero or something. Eri did pick up on the use of a different word though. Not "hero" but "dad".
"Dad… please I know you're busy but I need you to come down to the daycare. There are a bunch of thugs standing outside, and I have small children who can get hurt…. Dad, seriously... no, Dad… Dad! Listen to me I—oh that jerk!" Todoroki-san cursed as she began tapping on her phone rapidly, calling another person.
Except, it didn't matter that she was calling another hero, because the door was kicked open regardless. Several men with masks on their faces barged into the daycare, masks that Eri recognized. The little girl immediately got a chill up her spine as she cowered. They were here. The bad guys were here. She knew what she needed to do but she didn't know if she had the time.
"Where is she?! Where is that brat?!" One of the thugs screamed at Todoroki-san. Eri took out the needle from her pocket and pulled the cap off. The thug saw her and made a break for her. He was too slow, as Eri managed to jab the side of her neck with the needle. The needle hurt, but she cared more about not being stuck with the bad man to care about pain.
She remembered that Big Bro said to push down on the flat thing on top of the needle to get the blood to move. And so she did just that. She emptied the entire needle filled with Big Bro's blood into her body, and immediately after the fact, her muscles immediately began to seize. The veins just underneath her skin flared like they were on fire, and they bulged, looking like something out of a horror movie.
Izumi-kun stepped back, horror in his eyes as Eri bit back a scream.
The needle dropped to the floor, and just like Big Bro said would happen, the pain was immense. She felt as if her whole body was on fire. Her body shook with agony, as Big Bro's blood began to change her. She could feel it. She could feel the change.
But, before she could actually do anything about it, due to the immense amount of pain that Big Bro had warned her about, she slowly began to lose consciousness. Before her vision and hearing were lost, she heard a bunch of screaming, gunfire, and Izumi-kun calling out for her name before his voice was violently stripped away by the shot of a gun.
And just like that, Eri lost consciousness.
xxXXxxXXxx
Kai was ecstatic! Eri had just been returned, and the Eight Bullets were celebrating. Everyone except Rappa and Hekiji. They were out doing a mission. That was fine, Kai didn't really care all too much about that. The job was something that needed to be done. A rival gang started popping up on their turf, and they were even selling Trigger.
He wanted to restart the tests immediately, but when hearing that Eri was in a state of unconsciousness, Kai decided against it. He wanted Eri to be conscious of it this time. He typically used a pain-numbing drug to make sure she felt no pain during the tests, but this time he was going to make sure it hurt. To remind her that she was his and that she could never escape him.
Eri had made him very, very angry this time. She had grown too bold. That would have to change. He was going to have to punish her for that. That would be her punishment. And then, perhaps, he would lure this boy who had kidnapped her in the first place to the base and kill him in front of her just to remind her that everyone she ever met was fated to die.
No one stole Eri away from Kai Chisaki. No one stole away the secret weapon of The Shie Hassaikai. No one stabbed the Yakuza in the back and ran.
Just because Pops might've believed in pacifism, did not mean Kai did.
Whatever the case was, Eri was back in her room. One of the scouts that had returned her had said that she had jabbed herself with a sort of red liquid before passing out. She was still alive, though her heart was beating twice as fast. Kai would have to look into that at a later time because right now he was busy celebrating Eri's return.
"That went by a lot quicker than I had expected, Oyabun!" Toya, one of the eight bullets said, chugging back entire shots worth of vodka. He was a scrawny blond-haired man, wearing a blue shirt with a black tie, along with a pair of black jeans. Next to him was a man with a white mask over his head, and a pair of eye holes and a mouth hole cut out crudely. This was Soramitsu Tabe. Or, as Toya called him, the human vacuum cleaner.
"This is why you're the boss, boss!" Soramitsu remarked as Kai couldn't help but smile underneath his black mesh mask. Over the course of the two years that he had been running the Shie Hassaikai, he had always wondered if he had been fit for leadership. Now he knew better. Everyone liked him, everyone was loyal to him, and while he still had his doubts from time to time, he knew that everyone relied on him.
No matter what he thought of himself, he was the rightful leader of the Shie Hassaikai.
When Pops woke up from his Coma—correction, when he woke Pops from his coma, the Shie Hassaikai would be the strongest it had ever been. If Pops disowned him after that and forced him to commit seppuku, then he would. His only mission in life was to pay back Pops for letting him live in this world longer than he had originally been supposed to.
"Great work, Oyabun," Chronostatsis said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Kai couldn't help but place his gloved hand over top Chrono's, muttering a "thank you" under his breath. Now Kai could relax, knowing that Eri was back where she belonged.
She would never leave this facility ever again. He was going to strap her useless body down to that mattress and prevent her from leaving. He would feed her food, he would change her clothes, and he would attach machines to her body so that she didn't have to leave the room ever. The only time that she would ever leave that godforsaken room was when she would be cut up and made to bleed for the creation of the bullets.
Perhaps he was a touch angrier than he usually was. Perhaps he was overreacting. Or, perhaps not. Either way, Eri was never going to leave this building ever again.
And then, the lights turned red, the sirens of an attack began to blare, and everyone dropped their drinks. A serious expression took over Kai's face as he let go of Chrono's hand. "What?" Kai muttered. How? That made no sense, their base was hidden for a reason. No one knew where the Shie Hassaikai was. Not even the Pro Heroes. So how the hell could there be an attack? "Everyone, scatter. We will defend this base till our dying breath!"
"YES SIR!" The Eight Bullets replied, exiting the main lounge of the underground facility through the front door. Kai dug for his phone and dialled Hekiji's number. Unfortunately for Kai, the man didn't answer, making the Boss of the Shie Hassaikai curse under his breath. Chances were that Hekiji and Rappa were still dealing with that group he had noted about before.
"What shall we do, sir?" Joi Irinaka, or Mimic as he was known, asked. Due to his Quirk, Mimicry, he was able to jump into small surfaces and become one with them. As such, he usually appeared as a black stitched-up plushie with a white mask and hollow black eyes. He was the director of the Shie Hassaikai, which was two rungs under the leader.
When neither Kai nor Hari was around, Joi was the one in charge. The tiny little Zealot was often erratic due to his fanaticism, when times were rough, he became dead serious. Which was good, because he was one of the three backbones of the Shie Hassaikai.
"We get Eri and Pops, and then we leave. If these are the heroes, then we need to make sure we can move to another base without being followed. The Eight Bullets will stall the Heroes, and we will call them back once we make it safely away from our current location. We will have to destroy the research that we have so the heroes can't trace Eri back to us. Chronostatsis, you go get Eri. Mimic, get Pops, and I will handle destroying the evidence. Alright?"
"Yes sir!" Both Chrono and Mimic replied. Mimic walked over to a wall and jumped surfaces, and Chrono left through the front exit, with Kai following close behind. Instead of going straight, Kai went left. That was where the lab was. It would take ten minutes to cover the distance, even while running.
He had to be quick. While all of the hard work would be destroyed, it wasn't like he couldn't just re-purchase the equipment from the black market. It wasn't as if it wasn't cheap for him.
He just hoped the Chrono would be able to escape the heroes before they reconvened.
xxXXxxXXxx
Hari didn't know what it was he was supposed to have expected upon reaching Eri's room, but it certainly wasn't an unhinged door laying on the ground, with the mutilated bodies of the two guards that had been assigned to watch her. Blood decorated the walls, along with scratch marks and spilled out intestines.
It was like a monster had run through here. The more he looked at the corpses, the more he began to notice the finer details. The corpses didn't just have deep gashes—almost as if a creature with claws had dug through them—but there were large chunks of flesh and skin bitten out of their body. Faces chewed off and hearts missing.
Hari cautiously stepped over to the ruined entrance to Eri's room and saw something that he never wanted to see. Blood stained the room and the walls from top to bottom. It wasn't just the two guards who were killed, but more of them, as the bodies in the room—yes, bodies, it wasn't just one—were of multiple guards of varying ranks.
Hari was going to be sick. Eri was missing, which meant the monster had taken her, too. God knew what was going to happen to her. But whatever it was, Hari didn't want to be the one to have allowed it to happen. Reaching for his phone, he was seconds away from calling up Kai to let him know what it was he had found, only for a split second to pass, and for his arm up to his elbow to be completely removed.
The villain screamed in pain as he held his arm, or at least what remained of it. There had been a gale of wind right in front of him before the attack, but that was it. Blood sprayed everywhere from where the wound had been made, and it caused Hari to fall onto his remaining hand and knees.
He could hear something chew away at his limb—the sound of flesh being torn and skin being ripped into was something that he had been accustomed to hearing for obvious reasons, so that was a no-brainer. When he looked over in the direction of where the sound was coming from, he had expected to see a monster.
And had that been the case, perhaps he would've died knowing that this attack was the result of the rival gang that they had spotted. But that wasn't the case.
His attacker was someone else.
His attacker was someone who he had never at all assumed possible of such violence.
Two horns protruded from her head rather than one. Her hair was the same colour as it always was, though it was stained in blood. Her fingers were sharp with claws, and her arms now had red bands that looked like tattoos going starting at the wrist and travelling up through her arm. If there were any more of those tattoo-like marks, Hari couldn't see them, as they were hidden by the shirt that she wore. In her right hand was the rest of his arm, and several chunks were missing from it, exposing bone.
Eri wiped her face with her left arm, before looking over her shoulder. Hari's eyes widened in both anger and horror at what he saw. The sclera of her eyes were a bright purple, with the iris being a crimson red, and the pupil being a soulless black. They also looked foggy, almost as if she was in a daze of sorts.
Her mouth was smeared with blood, and her expression was drawn up in a sneer, the veins in her forehead and neck being more pronounced as if to show that she was furious. A faint growling passed through Hari's ears as he reached for his gun.
Upon doing so, Eri threw the arm away as if it were a piece of trash, before lunging toward him. At the same time, Hari had brought out the revolver he kept handy, aimed down the barrel, and fired all six bullets at Eri. Whatever she had become, it clearly wasn't human, and if he had to guess, Eri had also been the one to trigger the alarm.
If he died now, Kai would be next. Of that he was sure. As would the rest of the Eight Bullets. It was his duty as the aide of Kai Chisaki, leader of the Shie Hassaikai, that this rampage of Eri's stopped. Countless people would die, of that he was sure. At this point, this was beyond the project. This was beyond petty revenge that Kai probably had planned for Eri out of his spiteful nature. This was about protecting those he held dear.
All six bullets struck their target true, hitting Eri once in the neck, twice in the chest, and four times in the face. Horrifyingly, the bullets didn't so much as even slow her down. If anything, it only made her more angry. Even worse was that Eri had begun to regenerate the wounds.
Ripping off his mask and rolling to the right to avoid Eri, Hari bit back a shout of pain as what remained of his arm surged in agony. He would have to ignore it. This was more important. Eri needed to be put down. He just had to find a way to do so before things went from bad to worse.
Standing completely still and extending the right bang of his hair, activating his Quirk fittingly named Chronostasis, and impaling Eri's back with it, Eri flinched and hissed, just like an animal would upon being hurt. His hair could extend up to 10 meters away from him, but it was extremely rough on his scalp. Eri's movements immediately became slower than a snail's, and it would remain that way for ten minutes.
Ten minutes. With the rate that he was bleeding out, he doubted that he could even last more than a few minutes, let alone ten. If he was going to die here, he was going to do it while trying to find a way to kill Eri. To hold her off. He couldn't cross the distance between this part of the facility and get to Kai in time before falling flat on his face and dying of blood loss.
If this were to be his last stand, then so be it.
Just as he was about to reload his revolver, the bands on Eri's arms began to glow a bright red. A yellow aura surrounded Eri, as her movements—still slowed, mind you—began to speed up. It got to the point where she was moving faster than a blur, which shouldn't have been possible! Despite that, it was exactly what was happening. And after just a measly 10 seconds, just as Hari was able to fit the chamber of his revolver in place, Eri's head whipped in his direction, her teeth bare for the world to see, as she lunged forward.
Swinging his only remaining arm at the same time Eri closed the distance between them, Hari was able to slam Eri into the wall. All it served to do was make the girl even angrier—a trend he was beginning to notice—as in response to that, Eri bit down on his wrist. Blood sprayed like a stream of bursting water as Hari screamed in pain.
Eri didn't stop there, as not only did she bite his wrist, she was beginning to eat his wrist. In a matter of seconds, far faster than he could react to the pain, she had completely eaten off his hand. Hari couldn't stop screaming in pain. But as if that wasn't enough, at that point, Eri seemed to regain some sort of consciousness. No longer was she in a feral-like animal state. She was fully there. Her eyes looked less foggy and more clear, and with it, he had hoped for her to be horrified.
But instead, there was only a great, big, smile on her face. The kind of smile that appeared when someone was beyond delighted with themselves. "Big Bro was right…! I do feel stronger!" Eri said, looking at her now claw-like hands.
"Big Bro?" Hari thought, confusion and pain washing over his face as he struggled to get up. Whatever. That didn't matter. What mattered was that He had to get up, somehow. He had to run, to warn Kai about what was happening. To have him Overhaul him so he wouldn't be in pain.
He didn't care about putting Eri down now. It was clear that it was impossible.
Eri, somehow, was stronger than an adult human now, and it was what was allowing her to fight him head-on without caring.
Somehow, her Quirk had evolved to not only rewind things but fast forward herself, and perhaps others.
Somehow, Eri was able to regenerate what should have been fatal wounds all by herself.
Somehow… Eri had become a monster.
Either way, Eri needed to be stopped somehow, if that was even possible. Just as he had begun to rise from his fallen form, he had accidentally moved the gun, making a noise.
It was then that Eri looked over at him. A scowl took up her visage as she raised her left clawed hand, and scratched open her right arm. Blood began to seep from the wound, and when it did, it began to transform into a black-tipped spear.
"You and the bad man wanted my blood so badly, right?" Eri asked, tilting her head as her eye gained a cruel gleam. "Well then, you can have it."
Those were the last words Hari Kurono heard, as his head was ripped off of his shoulders by the blood arrow created by Eri.
The rampage had only just begun. And Eri wasn't going to stop until everyone in the damned facility was dead. Then and only then could Eri live in peace.
-To Be Continued-