Chapter 4 - Fall

Ｎｅｗ Ｙｏｒｋ, ＵＳ

ᴀ ꜰᴇᴡ ʜᴏᴜʀꜱ ᴇᴀʀʟɪᴇʀ

Stane's manor was a roomy place.

Origami believed that it had the supernatural power to send them to a new room they had no idea of every time they stepped 10 feet within it. That thought persisted for about the first few years they worked for Victoria, now at least they were able to find Victoria's favorite "armchair and fireplace room" without getting lost.

"Aah, there you are," The witch of the castle herself greeted them as they stepped through the giant pair of mahogany doors, "Sorry for bothering you after curfew."

The visitor smirked, "I'm sure this is more important than my rest, ma'am."

"Oh. And here I thought it wasn't like you to sleep at this hour, anyway."

Origami rolled their eyes before closing the antique brass handled door behind them. Their eyes darted around the room, taking in the gothic sight of the fire red illuminated interior as if it was their first time again. Intricately carved wooden beams surrounded several chain suspended black-steel chandeliers, underneath them was an array of bookshelves, each taking 3 of the 4 cardinal directions, with a row of large lancet-shaped windows filling the last spot. The world outside the windows was dark, the moonlight hidden far above the thick winter cloud giving the fireplace every chance it had to engulf the room in its color, making the sight of Victoria Stane on her worn leather armchair even more intimidating.

Though, were it not for the fact that her entire body was being held together by bandages, you'd not expect her as anything but another human.

"Maybe it's time we start leaving the rooms disintegrated by Marianne as is. Instead of renovating them," Origami started to joke, "That way anyone will always know where they are… with the less there is."

Victoria reached a shaky, bandaged hand out to her side; to a small end table that had a pitcher and whiskey glass on a tray—both only had water in it.

"You're telling me what to do with my own house, Origami?" Victoria teased them as she took a sip from her glass.

"I'm just saying that maybe we don't want any of our new guests to starve themselves trying to find the restroom."

"Maybe that's a good thing," Victoria said, "Gives you less of an opportunity to court them in one."

Origami couldn't help but to laugh at that. They didn't want to bring up her health, even as a smalltalk; the fresh seemingly unused cane beside her armchair told much. For now, after knowing that even Victoria was rather unabashed with her condition, made them much more relaxed.

"Speaking of our guests. I want you to note some changes for tomorrow's briefing," Victoria waited for Origami to let themselves come closer, after which the face-shifter finally noticed the small tablet on her crossed lap.

Victoria tapped the screen a few times, and what followed was the buzzing of something small in Origami's nightwear pocket.

"These are the routes you will use tomorrow to pick them up," Victoria continued as Origami picked up their personal smartphone, a small chuckle escaped her lips, "It seems Freesia insisted I let them get to know each other along the way."

The face-shifter beside her made no noise to indicate their thoughts on the manner except for a scoff. They were used to the antics of some of their guests by now that a request as harmless as this was nothing more than another extra errand to run. They'd wished that they could've been told this a few hours earlier, though.

"And what will I be driving, ma'am?"

"Just take one of the MTAs in our inventory, I don't think anyone would notice too long of a stray bus going out of town," Victoria waved them off, "Just make sure to pick all 7 of them up at their respective stops."

That was when Origami stopped reading right in the middle of the digital message Victoria sent them and looked up, "7, ma'am?"

Their handler glanced sideways at them, "Oh, right. Rosalyn Bayliff will be joining us after all."

"Sorry?"

"Yes, it seems that she contacted my personal number yesterday like Wilsk did. I can't tell yet if she is showing the same enthusiasm he is currently, but we'll know tomorrow, won't we?" Victoria immediately noticed the uncharacteristic silence of her helper and turned her head. A single undressed eye gazing upon Origami's frozen expression, "Something wrong?"

Origami, realizing their rigidity, woke themselves up to reality once more, "... Did she tell you why?"

Victoria played around with her tablet until she was in the chat logs that she seemingly had with Rosa, "Not to my knowledge, nor did she outline it in her message, no."

Origami merely gulped, "Right. Erm, sorry, ma'am, but… I don't suppose that's a good idea."

"Oh? And why is that?"

Victoria repositioned herself until a quarter of her body was facing them, and half her face was looking at them. And thanks to this, it became clear just how fresh her wound was, as a hazy red was coloring the middle of her white dressings that covered the one half of her face, right where her missing eye was. Even so, Origami could feel the sharpness of her gaze, both the missing one and the one remaining. They were cornered, she needed an answer and it hadn't occurred to them to make one beforehand.

"She turned us down at first, what changed her mind?" Origami said, "And right at this moment? It all feels very coincidental, doesn't it?"

"Good question. I would like to know as well," Victoria responded, her posture relaxed with how she started to put one of her feet up against the other, "I haven't had the time to look into it myself, having to handle my injuries… but I don't believe it raises any concern."

"Even more reason to postpone her invitation, isn't it?" Origami challenged, "She needs to be properly oriented. This mission takes place during several days give or take, there's no reason why she must be here for this one. I-if it's too troublesome to gather the necessary manpower—"

Victoria then hummed, stopping them completely like a speeding car to a wall, "I seem to recall considering her as a candidate for her workplace reliability and good instincts. I doubt there's much more she needs to know about us that she had not had an idea of already."

Then, she stood up, with much difficulty, before limping herself to the fireplace with the help of her cane. Every muffled clop, clop, clop, on the red carpet was like a thudding in Origami's head.

"And manpower, Origami? Really? Did you not forget why we needed this taskforce in the first place?" Victoria scolded without looking at them, "I want all 7 of them here by morning, tomorrow, I hope I have made myself clear."

Origami blinked, she didn't seem to want to ask more about why they insisted against Rosalyn Bayliff's involvement in the first place. Which was good, but they knew 'good' was the utmost luxurious of all the handler's generosity.

Without wanting to incur her curiosity more, Origami bowed curtly, "Crystal, ma'am."

But they did so while clenching their fist behind their back. They'd have to think of a way to get rid of Bayliff themselves.

Ｎｅｗ Ｙｏｒｋ, ＵＳ

ɴᴏᴡ

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!"

Rosa was stumbling through thickets, both whole and broken; but mostly, completely, destroyed.

The falling… no, the thrown tree had almost got her, if not for the fact that it bounced an inch past her head on an alternating elevated ground behind her. Her surroundings weren't so lucky, though, because it did catch almost every other tree in its way, scraping off the dried bushes and hill-dirt in the process.

Fortunately for her, the rolling of the tree was stopped by something metal and seemingly large down the hill — not that it would roll up the hill to try and hit her again, but she was lucky enough that something caught it in the first place. And she was about to see what it was the moment she freed herself from the treelines, and into the deafening car alarm.

Rosa had a moment where her heart stopped when she saw on her right what she recognized as the city bus to be overturned in the middle of an empty and debris filled road, the tree from before jutting out from the front entrance.

She bit her lip, no point saving them for now, whoever they are. Her attention was shifted into the giant metallic gates on her left.

Her bare feet doing their best to power through scratches and cuts to close in to the smallest sliver of security and salvation. Her heart burned with every hasty inhale, energizing her to leap over the debris of other trees that were in her way.

The second the gates were right on her face, she immediately wrapped all her fingers around the rusting pickets and made noise with a BANG BANG BANG.

It didn't budge.

"No!" Rosa couldn't even laugh at the absurdity of it all. In desperation, she tried to match against the noise of the alarm behind her, "Come on! HEY! IS SOMEONE THERE?!"

She wouldn't be able to know if there was, the gates were covered by another layer just 2 feet behind the one she was touching, and it allowed no visibility towards the other side and granted her just the sight of cold dark metal plates.

Rosa banged her fists on the first gate once more in irritation. What now? Should she hide in that overturned bus? That seemed like the only choice she had at the moment. The bus alarm had died, and the silence was overwhelming her, making each and every one of her rising emotions feel like tidal waves crashing into rocks. It felt like a countdown—tick, tock, tick, tock; as the new stage was set and the enemy was closing in.

However, the moment she swiveled around on her feet, someone greeted her.

Rosa's chest almost burst open in shock, leaving behind only a momentary awareness to recognize a cowboy hat and a rather overlarge duster coat, both belonging to a figure sitting upon one of the fallen trees from up the hill.

The figure was staring intently with soft eyes, treading that fine line between mysterious and comforting, and said; "You best be standing right where you are, feller."

"Who the hell…"

There were snapping twigs in the distance. The emptiness of the locale intensified its echo. Rosa gulped.

"Cause yer covered in mighty lotta cuts," The figure said again, "And I heard she can smell them there blood, wherever you run."

Friend? Foe? Rosa couldn't properly deduce. The cowgirl in front of her was unarmed, but after what happened, she couldn't be sure. The fact that Rosa couldn't catch her moving with any of her 5 senses was enough to trigger an alarm in her head. There was no way this woman was— No. She didn't have time to be thinking about this.

"Fuck it!" Rosa cursed, deciding that this girl's character would show regardless of whatever she chose to do, and so she chose to run towards the overturned bus.

Mira, the cowgirl who was left behind, sighed to herself and looked down towards the underside of her coat.

"Can't say I didn't warn 'er, right, Ephy?"

For some reason, all he could envision was deep brown eyes.

"See? This is why I called you weak!"

The still image of Hikari crossing her arms while smugly looking down on him then took over.

"Since you're too busy thinking about me instead of saving your friends!"

Sirius was this close to raise his voice and scolded Hikari for mocking him in front of his new workmates when the teenage girl cried at him a loud and deafening HONK! which brought him out of his trance.

He suddenly realized the weird sting on the edges of his crown the moment he opened his eyes. In an instant, the image of Hikari disappeared and what replaced her was the sight of Freesia under his crouching position; the petite woman framed within eyes in a state of tunnel vision. He must've hit his head on something, he could still feel the lingering feeling of losing his consciousness even if it was only for a second.

But that honking noise hadn't gone away until after a few seconds he woke up, where he realized that it gave him an idea of where he was.

Once the blur in his eyes seeped back, he got a better look at his surroundings. Without a doubt, the bus was on its side, there were cracks on the window where one side had fell on top of the asphalt road, light from the sun can now directly fall into the interior and shine the wreckage within, and there was an odd large indentation on side of the bus' roof that gave him the impression that something large and heavy had crashed into them. He couldn't see Origami nor Mira—the former being too far upfront and the latter most likely (and hopefully) had left the bus before it tumbled, but he could see Mathias' figure unmoving a few feet near the indented doors.

"Hey… Lady, are you alright?" Sirius instinctively said, letting himself make a bit of distance from her.

"I'm fine, Sirius," The woman under him groaned, "What happened?"

"Don't know," Sirius bit his inner cheeks. His uneasiness grew when he realized that whatever had hit his head was preventing him from remembering the sequence of events that lead to this.

He heard the sound of footsteps approaching him, making him remember the 1 other person with them that had momentarily escaped his mind.

"A tree crashed into us," Grace said in a rather more-annoyed-than-concerned voice. "I saw. Hell of a thing. Must be my unlucky day. That's what I get for missing this month's horoscopes."

Right. He remembered now. Bus. Tree. Crash. Bing-bang-boom. God, he needed to stay away from Hikari and her humor for a while.

"How are you doing that?" Sirius pointed out to the way Grace was standing. It was as if gravity moved sideways for her. She easily walked through the seats towards the two of them as if nothing happened to the bus, but Sirius could see from her expression that she was being wary of her surroundings like they were.

"Not important. What do we do?" Grace closed her face towards Sirius', her direction still adjacent from him, so now he was awkwardly staring at her lips and nose, "Did Stane get our distress call?"

"She did, don't worry—" Freesia was in the middle of pushing herself up, bits of broken window glasses below her crackled at the shift of her weight. But then she realized it wasn't the sound of broken glass, but her smartphone, which had unfortunately been crushed by her weight. "Oh. Oh no."

Sirius felt a sigh starting to come out his throat, but stopped it at the last minute to keep his calm. "I'm going to check on Origami and… erm, Mathias. I didn't see Mira leave but I'll assume she's safe."

"Oh, this is just like Hong Kong," Grace grumbled as she started to squat down, but with her height, she was still somehow still in line with Sirius' field of vision. "Would you believe me if I said that Mira also ditched me in the middle of the Chinese mountains? It's true! That dang fight-nut! I hope she isn't dead yet, because I'm going to give her a piece of my mind first—"

A loud shushing noise stopped her. Sirius and Grace quickly switched their attention to the spot the Mathias was, and saw the dark brooding man shoot them an uncharacteristically furious stare full of daggers.

"Be quiet!" He hissed, "Or we're dead!"

Grace lifted her hands up in compliance, and the way she stammered made Sirius realize just how hard she was trying to hold herself from panicking. That prattling earlier must have been her way to cope with a distressing situation, "Right. Right. Sorry, I'm just a bit shaken as you can see. But I—"

"Sirius."

And she stopped again, "Okay."

As he heard his name spoken in the middle of Grace's rambling, Sirius shifted his gaze once more to Mathias, who was currently slowly walking over towards him and the two women while brushing off any broken glass off of his vest.

"New plan," Mathias tried his best to make his voice as low as possible, but the hardness of his expression was pretty distracting the moment Sirius got a good look at it. He didn't seem like he was going to want to do this halfheartedly. "We're sitting ducks. Whatever is out there is definitely targeting us. Like it or not we have to ambush them before they can cut off our exit."

"W-where is our exit?" This conversation was like a riddle that Sirius was able to solve. A back and forth between two soldiers that Sirius had no trouble playing along in, "You mean those gates from before?"

"No. Freesia is the only one who can directly contact Victoria's number. We'll make our way to the forest and lose our trail there," Mathias brought a finger up to his chin, contemplating, "If it comes down to it, we'll fight, and we'll buy some time for the ladies and Origami to escape."

Sirius responded with a curt nod, before looking around his surroundings, spotting his suitcase stuck under one of the seats, and taking it with him. The four of them then slowly walked to the front of the bus, reaching the spot right under the front entrance, where the day sun was shining down on them like searchlights. Mathias was the first to shoot upwards, until his upper body was above the entrance, his pistol held close to his center.

"All clear," He said without even letting his attention go down to the rest of the group.

Sirius himself was occupied with another person with them. He saw Origami lying with their leg up to their face as he lay on top of the driver's door. He tried calling to them softly, hearing only grunts and a slight shift of broken glass.

"Hey! Origami! Wake up!" Sirius tried again, this time a little louder. He reached out to remove the red necktie from their bus driver uniform that was partially covering their face.

He did receive a reply from the face-shifter then, accompanied with a deadpan albeit unscratched expression, "I had hoped you'd find me in this position in… different circumstances."

Without missing a beat Sirius slowly lifted them by the crook of their neck, thinking they were injured, "You'll be fine."

"Oh. Thank God. I definitely wouldn't have been able to tell myself."

Sirius tried his best to ignore whatever rambling they had left in them, for him it was the best case scenario that Origami was just in shock and didn't know what they're saying. He felt a weight was lifted off of his shoulder when Origami was helping themselves up instead.

Freesia took over in taking a brunt of Origami's weight. "You think you can climb over that door?" She asked absentmindedly.

"Maybe if you kiss my boo-boos first I can—"

"Quit taking so long," Mathias' gruff voice had cut Origami's words, right in the middle. Sirius could tell, even if he wasn't under Mathias' gaze, that the former soldier was giving the most deadly stare.

Origami mumbled something akin to the words 'you're no fun' and readied to jump up the hole. Only to stumble on their own legs the moment they leapt and had to be caught by both Freesia and Grace before falling.

"I knew it. Your legs' busted," Freesia said as she clutched Origami's upper body, even the face-shifter themselves looked confused and out of it. Freesia turned to Mathias, "We'll have to take turns carrying them out."

Mathias took a second to contemplate the plan offered, before holstering his gun again, "Alright."

Origami was then softly mewling like a cat as they were hoisted up by Sirius, who was the second to climb out after Mathias. The latter was tasked to catch Origami right after Sirius hauled them down. The two women followed suit; Grace almost falling sideways in the process until she turned off her Quirk.

They all gathered at the front of the bus, the giant metallic gates were now in view but not one of them had the confidence of expecting it to open any time soon.

"Doesn't seem like anyone's waiting to ambush us," Grace said, both her hands clutching Freesia's shoulders in a vain attempt to hide her towering height behind the significantly shorter girl.

Freesia, on the other hand, was more worried with another one of her colleagues, "Oh my, Matt…. Your head!"

"Hm?" As Mathias was helping Sirius carry Origami by both of their shoulders, he noticed a cold trickling feeling going down his crown, "Ah. Hm. I'm fine, I can still run. Origami's more important."

"No, what if you have a concussi—"

Mathias swiftly reeled back as Freesia was reaching to palm his bloody head, letting go of his hold on Origami. "It's fine. We don't have time to heal up now. Let's think about that after we get somewhere safe."

Sirius couldn't do anything but watch as Freesia's shoulders drooped and backed off. Personally, he agreed with Mathias. Right now they were left with hopefully five adults in good physical condition, assuming Mira got out safe before them. In these circumstances, there's no telling how safe they were. Hopefully the blaring alarm in his head that someone was watching them was wrong…

Seeing Sirius having to prop up Origami by himself, Mathias reached down to his hidden holster again and armed himself, pointing the pistol upwards towards the sky, "On my mark, we'll move east, and we'll move fast. We'll take short breaks every 10 minutes once we are sure—"

Then, the swordsman's grip on his suitcase's handle tightened as soon as he saw something jump out from behind the other side of the bus, only to have his knuckles lock in place in surprise as a loud CRACK! rang throughout the debris-filled road, followed by Freesia screaming Matt's name.

A fist had collided with Mathias' face. He stumbled just a bit on his feet, a man of his stature wouldn't fall so easily, but the assailant quickly took advantage of his disorientation to lock both his gun-holding arm on his wrist with their hand, and his neck with a thick timing chain.

"Don't move! Or I swear to God I'll break his neck!"

Sirius knew manic, a lot of people he dealt with over the years did many frenzied acts in a fight or flight state in the middle of a Singularity attack; this was one of them. He couldn't see, but he bet both Grace and Freesia were frozen upon where they had stood as well, watching this assailant—a tall woman of 6 '5, dressed in disheveled office wear—wrestling Mathias for the freedom of his joints, and winning.

"You… You're—" But before Freesia could finish her stuttering, the office lady shouted again.

"Origami! You piece of shit! I should've known you're the one behind this!" She said, her fury filled eyes shifted their attention towards the person Sirius was holding onto, not fazed even with Mathias struggling in her grip.

Rosalyn Bailiff just needed a few seconds—just a few seconds, to vent her rage. This entire morning had been the worst in her life so far, and this realization that it was because she was actively being put on a hit made her snap. She didn't know who the other four strangers with Origami were, but they couldn't have any semblance of goodness in them to be working with them.

Sirius was thinking of how unlucky of a situation he had found himself in, particularly because of the fact that if not for holding onto an injured person he would've been able to unsheathe his katana and strike her before she had even gotten close to Mathias. He gritted his teeth as he watched helplessly as the gunman struggled against the tightening cord of the timing chain around his neck that Rosa had probably found from the bus' wreckage.

"No. Think for a second, Sirius. If you engage her, you're risking fighting an unfamiliar opponent. Everyone's life would be at risk!" The swordsman steadied his breathing and relaxed his grip on his sheathed weapon, "It's safe to assume she destroyed the bus… right? What did she mean by Origami being behind… this?"

Speaking of Origami, the moment he thought about them, he felt their body shiver in his hold. A small shift of his gaze saw a horrified expression on the face-shifter's currently worn face.

"I knew it! I should've known this was a trap! I'm a fucking idiot for thinking you'd just let me off the hook after rejecting your stupid organization!" Rosa spat, "You slime! Rat! Yellow-bellied, lily-livered, chickenshit!"

"Listen to me—!"

"Couldn't even kill me yourself so you got a Living Quirk to do it?!"

"Miss Bayliff, you—!"

"How about I let it eat YOU here, huh?! How'd you like that!"

"ROSALYN!"

"WHAT?!" Rosa shot her head towards the woman in the turtleneck, "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

Mathias stopped moving the second he saw Freesia stepped forward to shorten her distance with the woman who just punched him. A confused look was plastered on his face, and was plastered on Sirius' face as well.

"I-I don't know what's going on, but… my name is Freesia Roth, I'm supposed to be the one m-meeting you," Freesia's hands spread out in front of her, as if gesturing the office lady to put her colleague down before she fears the latter would suffocate him, "You're Rosalyn Bayliff. You were scouted, yes? You turned us down, but you changed your mind."

Rosa eyed the lady up and down, her grip on the timing chain that had fastened seemed to loosen a bit but she was still on guard, "... That doesn't answer my question. Who are you?"

Both Mathias and Sirius exchanged worried glances, as if unsure if either of them should take the opportunity to take Rosa down in a joint attack, or see where Freesia was going with this.

"I-if you can just let our friend go, we'll gladly explain everything," Rosa's unconvinced squinting made Freesia adjust her strategy. She spread open her outer suit and let herself seem bare, "Look, I'm unarmed. Were all— Sirius, Matt, please put down your weapons."

Sirius was hesitant at first but ultimately followed her orders, Matt on the other hand was still hypervigilant, "Freesia, this is absurd—"

It took a loud but brief "Just do as I say!" to convince him, without first earning a defeated sigh out of the gunman. Mathias let his glock fall onto the asphalt just before his shoe, which he used to kick it backwards and out of his reach. Finally, he was let go, the timing chain was quickly set loose from his neck, leaving a line of motor oil behind. Both him and Rosa immediately made space between each other, each not wanting to let the other catch them off guard.

Matt was on Sirius' side once more, making the latter's tenseness reduce.

"Thank you," Freesia smiled softly, her hand flying to her chest as she sighed in relief. Rosa, too, mirrored her ease by letting the timing chain in her hand slack, "I'm glad we could resolve this in a quick and calm—"

KRA-KHOOOM!

An explosion had transpired near them, the shockwave in the ground brought almost all of them to their knees, but oddly no heat nor searing pain came surging past them; just the shock of hearing a loud crashing nearby. Something did explode, though, as Sirius could see from where he had almost fallen to his knees that the bus had suddenly titled its head up, as if something heavy had fallen directly on top of its side and bent it in the middle as it came crashing through the metallic hull.

Rosa's face whitened, she was in a position where she could clearly see the underside of the bus, and how it then suddenly exploded outwards—gears and metal frame torn asunder, to reveal a childlike figure waltzing out unscathed.

"Shit!" was the only thing she could muster before the entire world was spontaneously spinning around her.

For Sirius and the rest of the people there, their jaws dropped as they clearly saw what had happened. A blur of white and black materialized next to Rosa like lightning, and sent her flying with a single punch. A gust of wind and tremor washed over the swordsman from just how fast Marianne had moved, and now he was completely on the verge of collapsing.

"M-Marianne…" He spoke up under the wishful thinking that at least the girl before him would still be in the condition to retain her humanity, but he knew that the universe won't grant him that.

He found himself staring into those voids Marianne had for eyes once more. The entire upper half of her face was covered in black goo, and her hair was swimming in the air as if she was underwater. Sirius was monumentally unconfident in the fact that this confrontation with Marianne would be the one where he'd come out unscathed, to the point where in a deep corner of his brain he wished he would wake up and realize this was another dream.

It wasn't until Mathias had yanked him up by his arm did he stop staring at the Marianne-thing, and let his gaze fall onto the sight of his female colleagues running, and Mathias staring madly at him. "RUN!" The gunman screamed.

He, in an effort to pull both Sirius and Origami out of the spot where they sat frozen, didn't spare even one look at Marianne. Sirius was almost stumbling as he followed Mathias' lead into the treeline while pulling Origami along, each step making his fear-induced sensory deprivation disappear, and his nose suddenly caught something he hadn't smelled before then. Gasoline fumes.

Like a switch in his head was flicked, he leapt into a depression on the leaf-filled ground along the treeline, pulling Origami in with him while Mathias followed suit. Then, both spark and sound engulfed him, as a flaming BOOM! robbed him of his senses once more.

Fortunately for him, he wasn't dead yet, but the ringing in his ear, and the scorching heat on his back, from being close from such a powerful combustion made him wish he was.

It took him a second to open his eyes, and he was quick to absorb the fact that both Mathias and Origami were safely rolling around beside him without any sign of serious scorching. He also noticed a bright shine from where the bus had located, and the second he turned his head to face it, his face was met with the warmth of fire.

Sirius saw a giant black smoke from the burning rubber and metal reach for the gray sky. A fire like the one he saw some weeks before had submerged the bus' shape. His eyes saw movement behind one of the fallen trees near where he had hid, and saw Freesia and Grace safely cowering from the explosion. His heart relaxed. He saw his suitcase a few feet from the fire, but otherwise unscathed. His heart relaxed once more. But then another one of his senses picked up a noise, something like the cries of a little girl from nearby. His heart sank.

"Ow…" It said, and it was immediate to him who it was.

With a pant, Sirius stood up, his eyes now seeing the wide chaotic road. Now holding his breath, he scanned for movements, and noticed a tiny figure lying shivering amongst the debris. He couldn't see black goo anywhere on her face, just the expression of being in absolute pain, and a blackened and burn white nightgown on her being.

Both worried and relieved, he took the first step to approach her, only to find himself stopping again when he saw a shadowy figure coming out from behind the fire like a part of the flames itself. A black coat and cowboy hat formed into view, with a large pulsing red spear in her hand. Mira the hunter approached the cowering Marianne, and didn't even wait for her to get close, before raising her spear in an intent to puncture.

CLANG!

It seemed Mira had not yet realized how fast Sirius was to have been able to unsheathe his suitcase-sword from the ground and parry her piercing spear in one fell swoop. The cowgirl backtracked a few steps, giving herself distance from the swordsman, now standing in defense over Marianne's figure.

"What do ye think yer doin'?" Her question was innocent, almost childlike, as if it didn't occur to her that she was going to kill a little girl.

"You—!" Sirius' words were being interrupted by his bated pants, both fueled by confusion and exhaustion, "Why are you—!"

She stared softly at him, before passing her stare down to Marianne. Once she realized what was going on, she put her hand on her hip and looked at him in exasperation, "Relax. I'm not going ta' kill 'er. I'm just going to break them there ankle joints ta' make sure she ain't goin' nowhere."

"Why?!"

"Why?" Now her gaze darkened, "Yer askin' me why ah don't want a rogue Livin' Quirk walkin' around, killin' folks?"

Sirius suddenly felt cold, despite the fire burning brightly in the background behind them, and his mind replayed the sound of Freesia telling him how much more dangerous Mira can be than Marianne if she wanted. Now that he had a good look at her glass-like spear too—an oddly shaped bladed one at that, as if someone forged a kitchen knife onto a long piece of rebar—did he feel that even her weapon had something to hide.

He looked behind him, towards Marianne, and found himself staring at eyes, not ones full of void, but the eyes of a young girl unsure of what was going on. He immediately placed his attention back onto Mira, and he loosened his stance.

"She's not a Living Quirk."

CLANG! went the sound of metal against metal, as, despite Sirius' wishes to avoid battle, Mira had made the first counterattack. The both of them trade blows, taking any hope for Sirius to negotiate with each strike.

This scuffle taught both of them a few things about each other. For Sirius, he couldn't believe how good Mira was at changing her tempo. First she'd walk, then she'd suddenly leap to strike. Slow to fast, to slow again, making it impossible for Sirius to predict until the utmost last microseconds when her strikes landed. And for Mira, she found it impressive how quick he was; both in learning her patterns, and his responses. She was sure that the most fatal mistake you can make when fighting him would be to let the game play too long. He seemed to be only aiming for her weapon too, perhaps under the suspicion that it might be the key to her powers, disabling her from landing any meaningful blow.

The both of them also realized another thing: neither was going for the killing blow. At this realization, Mira laughed, because while Sirius might feel that this tirade was pointless, she on the other hand was glad to invite any chance to fight her heart out.

If that was the case, good. The requirements for her Quirk to activate were now set.

"Fall."

Sirius didn't know what happened, but the moment he saw Mira tap the blunt end of her red spear on the asphalt, his heart stopped. A second later, he was on his knees, his sword fell out of his hand, and there were screaming inside his head.

The ground beneath him was consuming his weight. He was sinking.

"wͥhͭy ͪdͧiͬdͭˢnᵖ'ˡtͤ ͣˢyͤouͪ ͤˡsᵖavͫeͤ mͥe ͩsͦᶰiͭrʷiͣᶰuͭs?ͭ ͦ ᵈᶤᵉ"

Sinking.

"ˢwͥhͬyͥ ͧˢdʷiͪdͤ ͬyͤouͣ ͬrͤuʸnͦ ͧaˢwͣaͮyͤ Sͫiͤrˢiͥuͬsͥ,ͧˢ ᵖdˡoͤnͣˢ'ͤt ͪrͤˡuᵖn ͫaͤwaͥy,ͩ ͦᶰsͭhʷeͣᶰ ͭwoͭuͦldͩ'ͥvͤe ͥdͭieͪdͧ ͬfͭˢoʷrͪ ͤnͬoͤthͣiͬnͤgʸ"

Sinking.

"ʸWͦhͧy ͬaͤrʷeͦ ͬyͭoͪˡuͤˢ ˢalͥiʷvͥˢeͪ ʸiͦtͧ sͪhͣoͩulͩdͥ'ͤvͩeᵏ ͥˡbˡeʸeͦnͧ ͬˢyͤˡoᶠuʸ ͦyͧouͬ'ͤrʲeͧˢ ͭnoͣ ᶠhͣeͥˡrͧoͬ ͤyoͤᵖuͥᵖ ͪdͣᶰiʸsaͩpͥpͤoͩiᶠnͦtͬ ᶰuͦsͭ ͪSͥᶰiᵍrˢiͪuͤs ͩsͥhͤeͩ ᶠdͦiͬeᶰdͦ ͭfͪoͥᶰrᵍ ˢnͪoͤthͩiͥnͤgͩ SͧˢHͤˡEͤˢ ˢDˡIʸED FOR NOTHING!"

Sirius, unable to even start to understand what was happening to him, was already swallowed by his own inner voice, along with voices of many of those from his past. Finally, he was on his knees on top of the cold asphalt, clutching his own running heart, while Mira stared down from above.

Soul Communion, a cruel, but effective power. Before her, anything that understands the concept of emotions will spill it all over themselves, to the point where any emotions not parallel to hers can overwhelm even a Living Quirk. Against a monolith of battlelust like her, anything less than complete subjugation to the heat of war was doomed to be overwhelmed by their own insecurities.

"Hoo-wee! That sure was fun!" Mira said as she walked away from Sirius' trembling figure, letting him absorb the darkness of his own suppressed feelings by himself, "Ah' hope this don't mean you won't ever spar me again, though."

Now, she was before the sight of a bowing Marianne, her back turned towards the hunter.

"An' I hope you snapped out of it 'fore I don't regret nothin', kid," Mira lowered her voice, her spear raised and ready to strike.

Until she heard… chewing? Mira made the mistake of stopping herself right as Marianne turned her head towards the cowgirl, revealing the sight of her biting into some of the fallen tree barks. Black veins grew from her eyes and mouth, and the burns on her back were starting to heal. Mira didn't take another second to let it attack first.

But just before the tip of her spear had punctured the girl, Marianne grabbed it with one hand, and snapped the tip cleanly in two.

Mira was quick to change into the defensive, but she knew anything Marianne would throw at her would hurt regardless; and threw at her Marianne did. The tip of the red spear that the little Living Quirk had broken apart it now used as a projectile, if Mira didn't already have her spear in front of her to block it, that tip would have penetrated her chest all the way through like a bullet.

It definitely kicked like one too, as just having the tip ricochet off of the spear's handle was enough to send her flying a couple feet back.

"Aw, sassafras…" Mira breathed out to herself as she woke back up to reality only to find herself lying on her back with a broken spear, and a black-eyed Marianne standing before her.

There might have been a full conversation Mira could have had with herself in contemplation of life and the meaning of the universe in the single second she realized she was completely open to Marianne's attack, but it would have been stopped by her getting taken aback from something suddenly hitting the Marianne-thing on the side of its head.

"Over here!"

At first, the Living Quirk girl didn't stumble on its feet, just slightly tilted to the side. Until a shout from behind it made it swivel and bare its teeth, and it hissed at the assailant.

"Yeah, that's right! Come at me you terrifying little shit!"

Rosa was already on her feet, with no sign of having been punched by a Singularity on her taunting expression. In her hands was the timing chain she had scavenged from the bus' engine, which she used to swing around like a chain weapon; to any intelligent species this was a clear invitation to battle, and the Marianne Singularity was happy to respond.

Mira watched as it left her alone on the asphalt, leaving her chuckling to herself as the adrenaline started to stabilize in her bloodstream. The cowgirl glanced down at her spear, and said; "Well, we can't fall behind now, right?" and watched as its surface pulsed like liquid.

Meanwhile nearby, a flurry of sharp, supersonic attacks struck both the asphalt and the debris on it, sending rubbles of black and brown high onto the air. Each strike missed the Marianne-thing just a millimeter before it zig-zagged out of the way, making Rosa's advantageous distance quickly reduced. The Living Quirk quickly went on the offensive the second it reached a safe spot near Rosa', sending a clawed hand to rip out her torso. But Rosa wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, and leapt back while sending another strike of her chain down on the Living Quirk's head.

The Marianne-thing felt its physically enhanced body shiver at the force of faster-than-sound chain landing on its crown. It could feel a part of its mass shaven off in just that one strike, making the Living Quirk snarl in anger. But it hadn't fallen yet, the Living Quirk quickly reached to grab the chain that had struck it, aiming to pull Rosa closer with its superior strength.

Seeing this, Rosa responded in kind, seemingly already knowing what the Living Quirk aimed to do. She twisted her wrist in a swift motion, and the chain in her hand danced along with the rhythm, becoming a lasso that would trap the Marianne-thing's wrist; stopping it from moving its upper limbs.

Rosa saw the violently furrowed expression on the Living Quirk's black-eyed face as it realized what had happened to it. After she remembered how quickly it had broken the bus in half, she suddenly didn't feel very confident in her simple steel chain. Fortunately for her, Mira was already on her feet and had entered the arena once more; with a spear in her hand, no more, but a sword; a straight-bladed one handed sword. Which she used to strike at the Marianne-thing's thigh, spilling oozing, corrosive slime all over the asphalt instead of blood.

The Living Quirk snarled as it lost control of one of its host's limbs, and was on one of its knees as a result. Disoriented, it thrashed around upon where it sat, focusing on the chain currently tying its wrist, and with just a single move it broke some of the chain links that tied one of its hands with ease. Mira was in the process of backing away despite having a clear shot of the creature's nape, as it had not been yet time to resort to that. Because of this, she was in danger of being in the strike zone of the Marianne-thing's sharp nails; an armament able to carve out a tree like paper. If it weren't for Rosa tugging sharply at the chain in her hand, pulling the links tangled around its neck, it wouldn't have missed Mira by a hair's breadth.

This deadly banter went on, with the Marianne-thing amazingly capable of taking both Mira and Rosa on equal footing. Watching them from afar were Origami, Mathias, and Freesia.

"—I didn't really expect her to actually… you know, lose her high ranking job a month later. And since I did threaten her once, I guess she thought I did that to get back at her—"

Origami's narration colored the sounds of metal against asphalt, shouting, running, and all the ambience one would find in a fight against a Living Quirk.

"—so when I first heard about the firing, I didn't actually think much of it. She didn't want to be involved, anyway, right? Worse case scenario, she sees me walking down the street and break my neck… but then she called up Stane's personal number—"

As Freesia ran her hand across Mathias' cheek, analyzing his new bruise, she flinched ever so slightly every time the Marianne-thing screeched in anger.

"—and I was like, fuck! Stane doesn't know about her discharge or whatever, right? And now Bayliff's going to demand compensation, and Madam's going to ask me what the hell happened—"

"—and so here we are," Origami said as they wrapped up an abridged version of what they thought were the events that could've led to this situation.

While they laid on top of the grassy treeline with a handful of unnaturally looking red flowers growing out of where his leg injury should be, watching the fight unfold along with their two colleagues, they braced themselves to be scolded by Victoria Stane's right-hand-woman, but it never came, as she was too busy conversing with her other coworker.

"If I can just find my gun, I can stop all of them at the same time—"

"We agreed that we won't do anything until Grace comes back," Freesia scolded, her hand backing down from the man's visage once she was completely sure that the bruise on his face from the initial punch wasn't medically serious, "Trust in Muriel. Her methods are… irrational, but she works fast. She'll make sure Marianne won't be super destructive—"

"And how is this less destructive than letting me use my Quirk?" Mathias argued, rubbing the spot where Freesia had touched.

"Your Quirk," Freesia's sudden freezing tone halted Mathias' thoughts, "is too risky to use on multiple people like this. You don't even know what would happen if you use it on an irregular like Marianne, don't you."

Mathias just blinked at her in defeat, even if he had multiple excuses strapped under his belt like the magazines he carried along there was no way he could talk back to Freesia.

"Besides," Freesia added, glancing back at the fight, and at the office lady who was currently busy doing her best trying not to get killed, "Did you see how she just took a full punch from Marianne and came out unscathed?"

At this reminder, Mathias also took a realized glance towards Rosa. "Must be her Quirk," he deduced, despite not having yet to familiarize himself with her files.

"... If Miss Stane is right about her, then this fight is already under her control. We'll wait until this breezes over," Freesia sighed in relief, "That way, we'll have a lot to talk about how you'll explain this to Victoria."

That was when Origami flinched at Freesia's sudden snap aimed at them, "I swear to God, I didn't think that Singularity would be here. I really just wanted to bribe her to turn back."

A loud CLANG! brought their attention back onto the main attraction. As the three of them were reminded once more of the deadly brawl taking place, Mira the hunter could be seen clutching a shattered sword; seemingly not from an attack by the Living Quirk a few feet before her.

"Watch where yer aimin'!" Mira barked towards the woman across the battlefield, finding it hard to believe that this was the second time her weapon had been broken in the span of one day.

Rosa, realizing she was being shouted at, cried back while still spinning around the timing chain above her head, "Don't get in my way, then!"

"𝕀'𝕝𝕝 𝕗𝕖𝕖𝕕 𝕠𝕟 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕤! ℝ𝔸𝔸𝔸𝔸𝔸ℍ!" The Marianne-thing screamed.

Mira couldn't activate her Quirk in these circumstances; an ally in vicinity, and an enemy that did not oppose her in battlelust. So she did the only rational thing she could think of at that moment; from the point where her blade had shattered, she stabbed the palm of her free hand. Blood gushed out of the cut, but none had spilt towards the ground, as the shattered blade seemingly had started absorbing it.

The cowgirl lifted the handle above her head and perfected her stance, her enigmatic blade had discernibly regrew back its initial sharpness and returned to its former state. "Don't'chu dare fall asleep on me now, Ephy!"

Noticing this, the Living Quirk girl took a moment to catch its breath (not that it physically needed to). It knew that letting this facade prolong would only shave off more and more of its mass. This realization made even a rational monster like it forget why it was fighting in the first place, all it knew was that its life was threatened.

The moment it noticed both the hunter and the office lady making their move, the Marianne-thing snarled in kind. A response best suited for a mindset completely swallowed in self-preservation.

"Screw it!" Mathias cursed. While his own judgment was telling him to not risk using his Quirk, he couldn't afford to wait until someone dies. He was already hot on his feet, scanning the terrain for a clue where he might have kicked his pistol, only to realize he forgot to account one thing that he saw wasn't where he thought it would be anymore.

A whirlwind of blackness leapt past the fallen trees, swiftly gaining distance towards the fight even above the debris-filled asphalt, until he leapt and found himself landing right in the middle of both Rosa and Mira's attacks.

Neither woman was given enough time to fathom what had just landed in front of them, just that it had parried both the falling chain and the piercing red blade in just two swift strikes.

Even the Marianne-thing, at the sudden sight of Sirius' back facing it, stopped to recognize the familiarity of the figure.

"Stop! Stop it!" A katana was held in an offensive position in front of his crimson eyes of indignation, and both Mira and Rosa stopped in accordance with his command.

"You—" Mira started, her brains trying to fathom how he could possibly have broken free of her Quirk's effect yet. Was the opposing emotions he had in parallel to hers a fluke? Or was he somehow able to get a grasp of her power's technicalities in the short time that passed after experiencing it? Then, Mira noticed the shaking in the swordsman's grip, his manic eyes, and the way his head twitched as if hearing something still shouting in his ears; he hadn't broken free. She laughed, "Golly!"

"Are you all blind?! You're ganging up on a kid!" Sirius said with a trembling voice, his eyes madly darting left and right at both his opponents, "Whuh—! You—!"

Oh, not good, Mira took back her ecstatic laugh. Sirius Wilsk wasn't completely here yet, and she embarrassingly might have something to do with it. Even Rosa, who didn't have the slightest idea what was wrong with him, caught wind of his appearance and backed off in wariness.

"𝔽𝕠𝕠𝕝…" Marianne-thing's voice echoed in the sudden silence. Sirius slowly turned his shuddering head past his shoulder, and saw oozing black goo seeping away to reveal one-half of a human's face.

The screaming in his head subsided, and what's left was the sight of deep brown eyes.

Suddenly, a loud electronic beep came screeching all over the terrain, followed by a blaring grating noise of something gigantic being dragged along a metallic surface. It was deafening enough for Sirius to hear it, despite the phantom whispers in his ears, and it seemed like that everyone else in the vicinity too was taken aback by the explosive noise. They all could see where it came from; the gates that were once closed off the road had suddenly started opening; two layers of impenetrable layers peeling apart slowly, to finally show the silhouette of a woman on a cane.

The metal gates stopped moving, and silence was all that was left; that, and the intense stare hidden behind a pair of coral-orange glasses.

"Good show, everyone," Victoria Stane's listless tone of voice filled the surroundings, "Yes. Very good show indeed. But I suppose that'd be enough for today, don't you think?"

The sound older woman's cane tapping the asphalt was echoing throughout the dead winter tree, and as she walked further and further from the gate Sirius could see that behind her was Grace Ulster, who, compared to her cheeky attitude from before, was now sporting an expression one would find in someone awaiting their siblings to be scolded by mommy. He couldn't even begin to wonder how the scholar was able to scale that high of a wall to begin with.

"Miss Roth," Freesia's high pitched yelp could be heard responding to Victoria calling her name, "Would you be so kind as to prepare the medical kit in the first floor, southside living room?"

Freesia exchanged worried glances with Mathias, before she then walked past the others and went ahead inside the entrance without speaking another word.

"Ma'am…" The gunman started, watching his colleague leave without him had made him restless, "If I may explain—"

But his words were cut short as a black gloved hand was raised, "I shall hear all of it later."

For both Sirius and Rosa, this entire turn of events were jarringly unnerving. The presence that Victoria had over his colleagues (and for Rosa, this group of strangers) were undoubtedly significant, and the two of them felt that speaking up was something beyond their capabilities before her.

"Mister Brahms, Miss Sabatiel," Both Rosa and Mathias then focused their attention towards her at the mention of their names, "I have prepared the necessary equipment for you two to present your findings from your last mission. If you'd be so kind as to set them up for us, please."

A pregnant pause consumed the atmosphere between the two Specialists. Mathias took a moment to find his gun, before following the path Freesia had taken earlier. Mira, while still holding her sword out in the open, followed the gunman, but not without a brief "Anythin' you say, baws," right as she started cleaning her oddly balanced hat, that never seemed to fly away during her fight, with her sleeve.

But then, the cowgirl stopped just before Sirius and the Marianne Singularity, tapping the former on the shoulder and gave him a wide toothy grin, "Should be wearin' off 'bout now, that Quirk of mine. Let's do this again, sometime!"

"You're insane."

Sirius couldn't believe what he just blurted out, but what was more surprising was that Mira took no offense to it. "Ahahaha! That ah' am, my friend! That ah' am!"

Before he could even think of responding once more to Mira, she left, leaving the swordsman with the three others still in the middle of the road. She was right though, Sirius thought to himself. He felt like he had just woken up from a nightmare and was in the middle of regaining his mental stability.

"Now you two," Victoria started, her hands now gesturing towards Rosa and Sirius; the newbies, "I'm sure this is all very confusing to you, but I'll explain in due time."

She then approached the disheveled office lady first, her gloved hand already reached out to close their distance.

"Why don't you get yourselves patched up," Victoria said as she brushed the dust and debris off of Rosa's undeniably expensive suit, "And we'll begin with today's mission."

It took a moment, but Rosa definitely had snapped awake from her trance the moment Victoria stopped speaking. The office lady roughly slapped the Handler's hand away with a backhand, and she took a few step backs from her.

"N-no! You're all—! How the hell can you just ask me that a-after… after everything!" Rosa stammered, stumbling all over her words. It was clear her exhaustion was catching up to her.

But Victoria only eyed her slowly, her monotone gaze unchanging. "My dear. What did I promise you when I first sought you?"

Rosa blinked, "I-I… wait, that doesn't matter now! I don't have a job anymore! That deal's off!"

"Is this true?" But that question didn't seem like it was aimed at the office lady, as Victoria's eyes were now glancing towards her aide: the face-shifter, Origami, who was staring back at her with a grim expression. "But surely you came here to negotiate something, right?"

"I wanted my job back, duh!" Rosa seemingly had found her footing again, as she felt comfortable to raise her voice now, "But I don't care anymore! I'm going home! Don't bother taking me, because I'll walk!"

Victoria watched as Rosa threw the bus' timing chain onto the ground, swiveled, and huffed away like a distressed horse.

"You should at least have your wounds checked, dear," Victoria kindly reprimanded, even if Rosa was already a good deal of distance away.

But the office lady was rather stubborn, "I'm fi-huuihuihuine—", to the point that she couldn't have foreseen herself collapsing in the middle of the road. Though, it seemed that she still hadn't lost consciousness; "Okay… five minutes."

"Mister Wilsk, if you will?"

Sirius shot his head at Victoria, startled that he suddenly heard his name called. Victoria just stared at him with hopeful eyes, as if saying that she would like him to help the other rookie, please. For a moment, he'd thought of doing so without a second thought, but realized that there was another one of them still waiting to be referred.

The swordsman glanced again to the Living Quirk… no, the little girl, behind him, and his eyes widened when he saw how small and thin she had become. Those void eyes of her other half could never be forgotten from his mind, making the stark contrast of remembering that and seeing this… significantly smaller sized, atrophied form gave him a whiplash.

"Ah, Marianne," Victoria's voice chimed in, taking Sirius' attention. There was something wrong in the way she said it, Sirius thought, as if she had just remembered the little girl's existence, "Why don't you get something to eat? I need you to help me with one more thing, will that be alright?"

Marianne looked up, her breathing was rather raspy, and she looked at Victoria with eyes of weakness and exhaustion. Even her voice was like sandpaper to Sirius' ear, she sounded so starving when she opened her mouth. "Yes, Miss Victoria…"

Sirius was left standing speechless, watching Marianne pick herself up while in tatters; a burned nightgown on her figure and asphalt dust on her pale skin. Victoria too had left his side, and started walking towards a helpless Origami, with only Rosa accompanying him now that she had picked herself up and limped towards the gate past him.

The swordsman was this close to reaching out to try and shoulder a brunt of the office lady's weight, only for her to instinctively pull her arm back and look at him with annoyance.

"I'm fine," She spat, emphasizing on the word 'fine'. At this point, Sirius would rather just curl up into a ball and rethink his life decisions, but then Rosa—as she started walking away—spoke again, "... Worry about the girl."

And that made Sirius' attention shift. Marianne was falling behind, walking so slowly with her pace. He quickly reached for her side, carefully making sure that he wouldn't startle her and awaken her other half again, and stayed with her until they got inside the manor on the end of the road.

"Now then," Victoria's voice was like stabbing daggers to Origami, now that it was just the two of them and the face-shifter couldn't run away, "What shall I do with you?"

I'm still alive! Have a Christmas gift cause ur epic 👍

Anyways, a couple things to say, uhhh. So I changed Effy to Ephy, that's Mira's sword. Then, ah, notice that last time I said something about thaumaturgic psychology? Oh yes so basically in this universe studies relating to Quirks I call thaumaturgy, which basically means "miracle studies". Lastly, villain submissions are still open! No rush or anything, though.

Someone remind me if there's a list of cool fonts you can use on FF, sometimes the fonts I copypaste gets deleted after I save it in the doc manager pepesadge.

And that concludes this mini-arc! Don't forget to review!