*Trigger Warning: Scenes depicting violence, assault, drug usage, and mild gore are shown in this chapter! Discretion is advised!*
Chapter 41
Rainwater misted the ground when I arrived at the Radio Kaikan Building. It had been drizzling on and off outside that I used one of the plastic umbrella bags they always kept at the entrance to carry my damp duck umbrella. The arches of my feet had nearly been rubbed raw inside my Birkenstocks, but I pressed on. Even if I had predicted the sudden spring rain, I never wore the right shoes for it anyways.
I texted my sister that if I didn't check in at a specific time to be concerned, a safety measure we'd put in place for each other for dates and meet-ups. I had to talk myself down at least five times before I went through with the meeting; even if I had been friends with him for eleven years, I still didn't technically know the real SmallMight. Regardless of my paranoia, I was overall feeling good and ready to face the day, whatever came. Finally, I was going to meet SmallMight39.
"I can do this. I can do this," I repeated the mantra to myself, trying to drown out the sound pollution of the building with my noise cancelling headphones and Disney show-tunes. After playing Kingdom Hearts, it was surreal hearing Roxas singing in my ear, but Jesse McCartney's version of "I'll Try" was much more uplifting than the depressing original by Jonatha Brooke, and it gave me more motivation to actually go through with the meeting. I had scheduled the meet-up two hours after I clocked out from work at five on purpose, giving me time to calm down and to not risk being late and missing my online friend altogether. Of course now that meant I was saddled with the anxiety of waiting, so I spent the next hour and a half shopping in one of the figure stores. Walking down the rows of gachapon, I spied the row where I'd met Izuku officially for the second time and thought of the old proverb of 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet,' grinning wryly at just how accurate the saying was. Eying the shelf of All Might figures, I noticed a small display of them I hadn't seen before, one that had a label for Might-T at the bottom, and quickly scribbled the number of one of them on the back of my hand to purchase later.
Watching the various customers peruse through the eclectic wares, I ruminated over which person was the online friend I'd talked with for over a decade and who was here to shop. My eyes landed on a bulky, blonde man in a dark grey overcoat and a face mask hovering by the more ecchi figurines of Uwabami and wonder objectively if he fit the bill, recalling a conversation comparing my mother's oncologist to the pro-heroine's Serpentress Quirk. While I could appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making the figures, the way he was aiming and snapping photos of the more gratuitous panty shots of the blonde snake hero with his cellphone made me keep a wide berth. It's not like I had a thing against overweight men, but it was difficult to convince people that otakus weren't all creepy, pervy neck-beards that lived in their parents' basement when examples like this kept bringing down the curve. I quickly admonished myself for this line of thinking, knowing that I, of all people, had no right to judge others solely based on appearances when I was guilty of similar, misunderstood behaviors.
Then it occurred to me- in all the excitement, I had not once specified what I looked like. I quickly PM'd SmallMight39 a message describing myself as 'the tall, curvy brunette girl wearing the white Assassin's Creed hoodie and denim jeans,' realizing belatedly after sending it that I resembled a gender-bent version of Desmond Miles if he had a ponytail, glasses, was overweight, and wore Melissa McCarthy blue jeans. I still had time before we met up at the Ginza Lion restaurant in the basement level, and while I wasn't overly fond of meeting people at a pub, it was public and a decent place to recharge after being overwhelmed by so much anime merch crammed into one building.
Hungry but not willing to buy dinner just yet, I decided to pick up a quick snack from the ground floor convenience store. I refrained from selecting the common salmon onigiri after an incident involving accidentally purchasing a mayo flavored one by mistake during a closing shift at Enterprise with my remaining pocket money, and instead chose two fried riceballs.
While waiting for the Sunkus cashier to finish up with her customer, I noticed that the person in front of me was the kid I'd seen loitering near the gachapon machines, although instead of toys and other souvenirs, he had a huge armful of Fat Gum red bean buns and dagashi candy. With his wispy, pale hair and thin limbs, the kid reminded me of a poor man's Kevin McCallister. While it was normal to see kids shopping by themselves in Japan, it was unlikely that all those sweets were groceries for his family. He's going to blow through all of his pocket money if he buys all of that candy... I watched him fumble around in his coin purse, counting everything out on the counter despite barely being able to peak over it. His dark eyes stared hungrily at the colorful packaged buns before he reluctantly picked up all of his groceries and stepped out of line to put back his arm-full of sweets.
"Wait- how much more do you need?" The boy only stared at me, perplexed by my offer, before I asked the cashier. She told me the remaining total and I quickly handed her the amount in full.
"Thanks," he mumbled as she bagged the rest of his goods, giving me a quick bow before snatching it away and disappearing into the crowd. A warm feeling settled in my stomach as I placed my own goods on the counter, reading the cashier the All Might figure number I had scribbled down on my hand. She came back with two figures and read my total. Only then did I realize that I now didn't have enough for two All Mights. It was supposed to be a peace-offering of sorts, though for who I didn't know, unsure if Smol or Izuku had either of these figures. Sighing, I relinquished one of them and grabbed the bag, deciding to go to an ATM later.
Handful of coins left, I contemplated on whether I should break my no-caffeine rule by grabbing a Ramune matcha green tea as my lips stretched into a yawn. I had pulled an all-nighter working on my comic, unable to sleep until I had spell-checked every translation and sent it off to the Xerox place to have it bound by the end of my workday. My body and wrists ached from the extra strain, but it had all been worth it. Four copies of Vigilante Knights Issue #1 rested in my bag in plastic protectors, one for myself and the other three for Izuku, although it was still up in the air on whether or not he even wanted them at this point. If he didn't, I'd just save them to sell at NatsuComi. I thought about bringing one for SmallMight, but I had promised Izuku that he would have the first copy and I couldn't afford to make any more copies of it until my next paycheck. Maybe I'll just show Smol my copy and get his opinion on it...
I was about to input my coins into the vending machine by the kiosks when the same kid came back moments later, face pale and a manic cheerfulness. "Hey! Good to see you. How have you been?"
"Umm..." I began, confused by the sudden friendliness by this stranger. "Fine..? How are you?"
"Oh I'm great, thanks. I can't believe I ran into you. I had no idea that was you in line when I saw you. You look good."
"Err... thanks, I guess," was all I could say. Was else was there? Did I know this kid? "I'm sorry, I'm having a bit of a brain fart. Have we met before?"
The kid's smile became more strained. "What are you talking about? Of course we've met before! We talk to each other all the time."
I ran through my memory of where I had seen this kid's face before but was coming up blank. Outside of being a Kevin McCallister look-alike, I couldn't place him anywhere. Then I remembered why I was in Akihabara in the first place.
"You're SmallMight39...?"
"That's right."
"...Seriously?"
"Yep. That's me." The revelation had been a bit more underwhelming than I had expected. This child couldn't be SmallMight. It was still too early, and the kid actually looked as old as how long SmallMight and I had been friends- then again, what did I know? People lied about their age on the internet constantly, and my age math was terrible. It was entirely possible that this kid was SmalMight and that he had showed up early just like I did and was waiting out the clock.
"You're a lot... younger than I expected."
"I get that a lot." My brow furrowed in thought. Preconceived prejudices aside, it was possible this kid could be SmallMight. He was certainly short and seemed friendly enough, but something about this encounter felt off.
"Okay then what's my name?"
"Your name?"
"My handle," I clarified since I never revealed my real name online. He grew silent, a major red flag. "Which Pokémon do I draw the most?" More silence. "Who's my favorite pro-hero?" His eyes darted towards the bag I was holding.
"...All Might?"
I sighed in exasperation. So he wasn't SmallMight39... then just who was this kid? Was he trying to con me like those kiosk salesmen that always tried to sell me something because they thought I was a tourist or was he pretending to be friends with me as a joke? Did he want more money or did he have a mental disorder that didn't let him understand social norms too?
"Look, I think you have me confused with someone else-" I glanced down at my watch. If I didn't shake this kid soon, I would miss the time the actual SmallMight was supposed to meet me. "-and I'm waiting for the real SmallMight so-"
"(Please help me)," he said in a rush, only it came out as 'purizu heruppu mi' with his accent. He mumbled something else quickly, but I couldn't make it out. My brow furrowed. Why was he talking to me in English?
Deciding to play along, I asked him "(What's wrong?)" but the kid only gave me a confused look. "(Are you okay?)" I asked, changing my answer but nothing registered on his face. It appeared he only knew the words to ask but didn't understand the response, and for whatever reason he didn't want to say it in his native language. I tried to think of something simple to say in English, but no matter how simplified I made it, everything got lost in translation. My head started making connections after remembering a YouTuber vlog I had seen when I'd been doing research on living in Japan that showed a stranger walking up to talk to the ex-pat like they were best friends. Usually it was an indicator that they were being followed or feeling unsafe because someone was stalking them. Normally it was women, but I could imagine kids could be victims as well.
I observed his excitable nature and manic expression, adding to the list of red flags as a wave of maternal protectiveness swept over me as I wrapped my arm around the kid's shoulders and squeezed him tight into my side. "Oh my gosh, it's so good to see you! I almost thought you were someone else with that new haircut of yours," I gushed with false cheer, the kid stiffening awkwardly under my embrace as I pulled out my phone. "While I have you, I need to show you some of the drawings I did for this week's comic update." I typed something quickly on my phone and showed him the screen.
Are you being followed? Nod for yes or no.
He nodded and answered, "These uhh... look really good." I tried to reign back my panic by keeping my smile and avoided looking around the store as I lead the kid around. It was hard to figure out point-blank who was following him, since everyone kept to themselves in the store. Then I spotted a rotund figure wearing a face mask, sunglasses, and a dingy coat hanging out by the kompeitō candy a little too long and watched as he ducked away from my gaze. A coincidence, surely... but the fact that I couldn't see what he looked like underneath the overcoat and face-mask felt sinister to me and that he had blocked one of the main paths towards the exit.
"Thanks. By the way, I saw your bean buns. You like Fat Gum, right?"
The kid paused before mumbling, "Yeah... He's cool."
"I think so too. I like his positive body image," I rambled while ushering him to stay close, squeezing my arm around him to increase the friendly act. "In fact, I think I saw some figures of him nearby. Why don't we go check 'em out while we wait for everyone else to show up?"
"Uhh... yeah. Okay," the kid nodded, deciding to play along as I lead him down the different aisles of souvenirs and snack-shop items. This wasn't like Home Alone where I could lead the bad guys into a bunch of pre-set traps that would leave them with comedic yet horrific injuries. I had to use the space I had and disappear. Thankfully, I had a knack for wandering, something that had always given my camp counselors cause for worry.
We're on the ground floor and need to leave, but the guy is probably going to be watching the main exits. Could travel to higher floors but he would just follow behind us unless we lose him somehow. Elevator's out of the question. Escalator might work but emergency stairs give us cover...
Since I was in the habit of looking for quiet areas to detox, it didn't take me long to find them underneath a glaring red exit sign. I started weaving my way through a maze of figures in an effort to subtly lose our pursuer without giving away my goal. I kept passing the AmiAmi and hero meet-up advertisements on the walls with every trip up and down the escalator, the man predictably following after us, always a few paces away while I pretended to look at hero figurines. After the fourth time, we were far enough away that he would have trouble keeping up with us. Once my foot touched the bottom step, I veered us out of sight towards the back of the store, dragging the kid behind me. Once I was sure we weren't followed, I pressed the iron-bar with my elbow and nudged it open.
Thankfully no fire alarms sounded as the weighted door gave way to an outside view of the street through the slots of the barred windows but no more than that. There was no getting someone's attention from all the way up here. I pulled up the Favorites tab on my phone, thumb hovering over the dial pad. I eyed Izuku's phone number that sat below Gabby's number but shook my head. There had to be some other hero agency nearby or a police station I could call. What was Japan's version of 911?
"What are you doing?"
"I'm calling the police-"
"You can't!"
"Why not!?"
"There's-" the kid hesitated, "-you just can't! Not the police! Anyone but the police!"
I frowned, wondering if this kid was terrified of going to the authorities because it would make his situation worse or if this kid was wrapped up in something that was going to get him into trouble. Would they even be able to do anything if nothing had happened- or worse, what if it turned out I was just being paranoid? What was the point of getting the cops involved if a crime hadn't been committed? I could already hear the reprimands ringing in my ears.
'Don't be so dramatic, Alyssa.'
'You shouldn't have gotten involved with other people's problems in the first place.'
'Just leave the real hero work to the actual pros.'
I ignored them as I ordered, "Okay then, go up! Up up up!" trying not to let my voice echo too loudly as we started trekking up the stairs. If the man had followed us, most attackers would assume we were trying to leave the building, so they would never think to go onto higher floors. That was my logic as the kid quickly surpassed me on the stairs, my feet clunking awkwardly on each step as I clung to the rail to pull me up. 2F, 3F, 4F, 5F... We were going to be hitting the conference hall soon if we kept going at this rate. Oh god, why had I thought this was a good idea?
"(Fuck these stairs...)" I panted, my thighs burning and feet aching from the blisters of my sandals with each step, but I had to keep moving. Suddenly, a door a few flights down burst open, followed by an odd sort of snuffling noise, almost like the person was smelling something foul in the air.
"(Shit!)" I yelped, startled by the door. The snuffling stopped and a third set of footsteps thundered up the narrow stairwell, growing louder with each footfall. Maybe it's just a coincidence and that person has a cold and is in a hurry to be somewhere than ride a crowded escalator... I thought optimistically while picking up the pace. The boy started taking the stairs two-by-two while my legs struggled to keep up, but it was like lugging two large sandbags up a mountain, and the next exit door was still another flight of stairs away. Rather than follow after him, I stopped and crouched down on the next ascending staircase and waited, hiding on the bottom stair. My heart thudded wildly in my chest as I listened to the fast approaching footsteps, sneaking a peak of the figure from the gap between stairs. His overcoat was open, revealing a tan, scale-covered body with sharp armored claws extending from his hands like a mole's. A numb part of me thought he resembled a Sandshrew with the claws of a Sandslash as he lumbered up the stairs before going into other stats and details about the pokémon, including that they were based on pangolins and that they rolled into balls when attacked.
Legs too tired to run anymore and backed into a corner, I hoped my hunch was right as I listened to him run up the last flight of stairs. Finally in my line of sight but still hidden, I plowed into him and shoved with all my might, causing his arms to pinwheel backwards. A brief moment of panic and guilt rushed through me as I clung to the arm-rail to keep from going down with him. Oh god, I just pushed someone down a flight of stairs! What if he's innocent and the fall kills him!? I'll be charged for man-slaughter! I almost reached out for him as he clawed helplessly through the air, watching in abject horror and relief as he curled reflexively into a ball and came crashing down onto the staircase like a giant pillbug, the large ball rolling and bouncing down the stairs and picking up speed. A pained groan at the bottom of the stairwell indicated that the guy was still alive before I felt a tiny hand grasp onto my wrist.
"Come on!" my accomplice urged, yanking me towards the Floor 8 door before shoving it open. Signs indicating a pro-hero Meet-n'-Greet with someone named 'Giant Snake' littered the hallway, recalling seeing signs like this posted everywhere on the directories and many escalator rides. Instead of running towards the people who could potentially help us, the kid was tugging me in the opposite direction, away from the crowd of people.
"Wait...!" I wheezed, leaning down on my knees as I pointed weakly towards the conference room. "Heroes...! Maybe... they can help!"
"No way! No heroes!"
"Look, kid... you're not leaving me... with a lot of options here," I sucked in another breath, giving him an exasperated look. "If you did something wrong... heroes can't legally arrest you for a crime."
"That guy on the stairs... I've seen him before. I saw him at one of the agencies. He's one of them!"
"'One of them...?'"
"A mole. I saw him talking to one of the pros, some lady, I don't know. He's bad news."
I swore silently inside my head, wondering what sort of spy thriller, crime show scenario I had wound up in, and jogged after the kid down a hallway past the conference hall before I spotted it. "Elevator..!" I declared, gasping for breath as the kid darted to the left and smashed the button for Down so hard I thought he was going to break it as we waiting anxiously for the carriage to arrive. An empty car greeted us as the doors opened before we fled inside. We were almost in the clear-!
Shouts from a handful of bystanders cried out as a pink tendril darted towards the kid and wrapped around the boy's waist, yanking him back until he was on the ground, dragged away from the elevator. I grabbed onto the kid's outstretched arms, trying to pull him back into the elevator car as the kid struggled to break free. It was only until I was trying to pry the rope free that I realized that the pink lariat wasn't a rope at all, and that I had forgotten one other thing about pangolins that Sandshrews didn't have- they were anteaters, and they had long, prehensile tongues!
I clung on, desperately glancing around for any help or outside assistance. This was still basically a ten tier strip mall, so where were the security guards? Where was the private security team for the event, the rent-a-cops, the heroes? We were ten feet away from a conference room full of hero enthusiasts and yet not one person had turned to look at the ruckus outside. The kid must've come to the exact same realization that I had- no one was coming. He then let go of one of my hands to form a white crystal no bigger than a box-cutter in his palm before he slashed at the tongue wrapped around his waist. The man howled in pain as blood gushed into the air, causing him to retract the remaining bit of his tongue, spraying a red trail on the ashen tile floor. I dragged the kid back onto his feet and smashed all the buttons I could inside the elevator car just to get away. The doors closed on the horrifying image of the man running towards the elevator car and both of us collapsed onto the floor with relief.
"What... the hell... was that!?" I exclaimed after some time had passed. Rather than answer my question, the kid shrugged and ripped into one of the fue ramune boxes that had a little figure of Fat Gum on the label and started pouring the candy into his mouth like Skittles. "How can you possibly eat... at a time like this?!"
"Ish parr ah mah Qwirkff. I cahn creahte crishtahs, but I haff too eat to make anyffing guwd." I frowned through the explanation but understood, having too many conversations with my sister while brushing our teeth. The kid swallowed as began peeling open another fue ramune, though his hands were shaking over the candy packet.
"Here. Eat this," I sighed, handing him one of my riceballs, no longer hungry after watching the bloody display from earlier. "You're going to need all the fuel you can get."
The kid, who had still been clutching a slightly bloody crystal, pocketed it and quickly wiped his hands on the sides of his tattered hoodie and said, "Fwanks," before taking the onigiri and undoing the wrapper before basically inhaling it like Kirby. My nose wrinkled, wondering why someone would try and harass this boy, but then again bad people didn't always need a reason to pick on someone.
"Just hang on a little longer, okay? I promise, I'll get you out," I watched the numbers slowly tick down the elevator counter. "Do you know any safe places that you could hide, someone to stay with? A friend? Relatives?"
He nodded. "Mah shwister."
"Okay. Do you want me to call her?"
"Nwoh shellfffwone-" he swallowed as the fourth floor dinged, opening the door to a crowded store but no waiting passengers before shutting again, "-but she works at a café nearby, I think."
"Okay. Let's go there. But first, we need to get this guy off our backs."
"How do we that?"
"Still figuring that part out..." The kid shoved another riceball into his mouth. Hiding in the bathroom and waiting him out was a possibility, but the man could just as easily go inside since they were both male and then the kid would be trapped in a small confined space with the man, and I didn't think social norms would keep that pangolin from entering the ladies room. The second floor dinged, opening up to another hallway littered with kiosks and then closed. "I'm Alyssa, by the way."
He swallowed. "Hitachi."
"Hitachi... Like the grill?"
"No, you're thinking of a hibachi."
"Oh... so the motorcycle."
"...You're weird."
I gave him a wry smile. Suddenly, there was a crash on the roof of the elevator car, causing the lights to flicker as the car stalled and shook from the weight, nearly triggering the seismic sensors. "(WHAT THE FUCK!?)" I exclaimed, adrenaline spiking as dread settled in the pit of my stomach. This guy was tenacious! Did he pry the elevators doors open and jump onto the roof of our car?!
Already on my feet, I smashed the Open Doors button until the doors opened and then bolted like a racehorse bursting out of the gate, no longer trying to look inconspicuous in the crowd.
"Follow me!" Hitachi called out, leading me towards an emergency exit instead of the front entrance. He was a few paces ahead of me when I felt my side knock into a display case, knocking me off-kilter and causing me to drop one of my bags.
"Sorry!" I apologized on reflex, even though I hadn't knocked anything over or hit anyone, scooping up my goods and moving towards the door that lead to a back alley. However, there was no sign of Hitachi. The only person there was a tall, burly man with the grey overcoat hunched over in the alleyway. Oh gross, was he taking a piss against the wall? My brow furrowed in disgust, adding yet another reason why drinking alcohol was a bad idea before I heard the sounds of a muffled cry and saw a flailing hand jutting out from the bulky silhouette: he had Hitachi.
The man appeared to not have noticed me as I clutched onto my bagged umbrella, quietly sneaking up behind him before I swung with all my might, bringing down the yellow tip onto the back of the blonde man's head with a loud CRACK! It didn't hit as hard as I wanted it to, the umbrella being too flimsy and short for my height, but I didn't want to give him a chance to recover, already moving into a horizontal strike, aiming for his undefended side. I was about to go for the final up-diagonal when the man spun around and caught my umbrella. My attacks appeared to have completely bounced off of him, confusing him more than hurting him as he lifted the umbrella up into the air, bending the metal stretchers while my hands still clutched onto the duck-head handle.
"Owww... heeeey, what was that for?" the man whined with a lazy drawl. I blinked, confused as to why the man trying to restrain Hitachi regarded me as the bad guy. Upon closer inspection, I realized that he was the man from earlier eying the Uwabami figures and that, without the mask and overcoat, resembled a personified rhinoceros, with his mouth distending into a snout with a short horn, wide shoulders plates, and thick grey skin. The jacket had a Security patch sewn into the side along with an Uwabami Fan Club patch. Had I misinterpreted things?
"WHY DID YOU HIIIIIIIT MEEEEE?!" he wailed, tears freely pouring from his wild eyes as he charged forward and slammed into me. Apparently not. It was like getting hit by a linebacker, knocking me back a few unsteady beats before I stood my ground, not one to go down without a fight. Reestablishing my stance, I braced my feet and grabbed onto the man's outstretched hands as I pushed back, using my height and bodyweight in lieu of strength to keep him from knocking me over, dropping my bags in the process. It was like two gladiators in a fight, each trying to throw the other person onto the ground.
"Run, Hitachi!" I gritted my teeth, unsure if the kid had still stuck around after being released. I twisted my grip, trying to turn the rhino-man's assault into something more breakable, but he instead used the weakened momentum to shove me into a wall. I felt the brick mortar scrape into my side as I pushed against his grip. He was so strong, his body-weight had to be mostly made of muscle.
Pinned against the wall, I flailed helplessly in his tightening grip until I did an impromptu headbutt, having recalled seeing something like that in a self-defense video on YouTube. The impact rattled all the way into my teeth, knocking my glasses slightly askew and stunning my attacker for a second to break free. No one wins in a headbutt, I thought, shoving past him as something orange ran down one of my lens before dripping onto my cheek. Blood..! It was blood! I sucked in a breath as I pulled away my blood covered fingers from my hair, panicking for an entirely new reason, breaths starting to become short and quick. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes before I swallowed my fear, turning it into rage. It was like I was some sort of cornered animal (despite that my attacker was more animal-like than I was), so like any cornered animal backed into a corner, I did what came naturally. Something that I had repressed with years of behavioral therapy: I bared my teeth at him and let out a loud, guttural hiss.
I snarled, growling louder than any feral cat, agitated, low and trying to use my height to my advantage by making myself look bigger and tougher than I was, reverting back to the bad habit of imitating animals on sheer instinct as words to properly express my feelings failed me. The animalistic approach always tended to speak volumes louder than human speech. 'Stay back. Do not approach me or you'll regret it.' I also knew from personal experience that if you acted crazy enough, people tended to leave you alone. In this scary, confined space, I had no qualms of throwing away all social norms if it kept me and the kid alive.
"Ooowh, keetty's gwot kaws," a voice purred in amusement. I turned to see the pangolin from earlier, blocking off my escape. His long tongue lolled out of his mouth, the end of which was bound tightly with torn makeshift bandages. Startled by his sudden appearance, I didn't notice his associate until the rhino man tackled me from behind, forcing me towards Hitachi, who still hadn't left and was now arming himself with a nine inch crystal like, holding it like a dagger.
"Not show fasht!" the pangolin man sneered at the kid, "Yew gownah weave your girlhend eehind, heroh?" He raised a claw and lowered it towards my throat, saying something along the lines about loving an excuse to 'tear the flesh from my bones' that would have sounded a lot more menacing if he didn't have a lisp.
"Get out of here, Hitachi!" I shouted. "Go get help!" But the kid didn't run away. Instead, he threw a crystal at the clawed man, but he easily deflected with his tail and thick scaly hide.
"Eashy nowh. Yew keep fhrowwing crishtals, and I'll have my asshosiate breahk her nehk." I glared up the pangolin and the emotional rhino, knowing he'd do it too. Scared as I was, his taunts only made me angrier. If these guys decided they didn't want any witnesses or Hitachi decided to run, it was game over. No bonus life, second chance, or overtime for this round.
"Let her go!" Hitachi called out.
"Or what? What awre yew gonnah dew?" the pangolin smirked. Hitachi grit his teeth, holding his crystal out towards both of the large men, not seeing the lithe woman standing behind him. It was Uwabami- or someone that looked very much like her. It was hard to tell since this was Akihabara, home of cosplay, and she had a lot of extra support gear on her. I recognized her from one of my sister's fashion magazines, Technologique, suddenly remembering that her name roughly translated into something like 'giant snake.' Normally I avoided at looking at ads or fashion magazines unless I was designing an art project that involved cutting out pictures and hodge-podging them onto canvases, but I recognized the Medusa-like snakes in her blonde hair. She was supposed to be at the Meet-n'-Greet on the eighth floor. What was she doing here and why was she wearing Warrior Queen's sentinel bracelets? Weren't they stolen?
Relief changed to horror as I watched her hand shoot out and grip onto the back of Hitachi's tattered hoodie. He tried yanking her off, even trying to pull off his own jacket and fight her off with the crystal clenched in his hand, but she held fast. She pressed a gadget on her wrist that sprayed a dark mist onto his face, causing the skinny boy to go limp.
"NO! Let him go!" I shrieked as blood dripped down my face. I should have been more panicked about the head-wound, but I didn't really feel it. All my mind could focus on was how this was a white hoodie and that I needed to wipe away the blood since any blood I got on it would effectively ruin it. Oh, and also Hitachi's safety.
The woman paused to give me a perturbed look, like I had just spat in her coffee. "...who the hell is this? There wasn't supposed to be any witnesses."
"Uhhh, well, she just kinda uhh showed up with the kid and uhh-" the rhino man gushed, face flushed excitedly as he became shy in the serpentress' presence.
"Shut it, Kasai," she snapped, causing him to sniffle slightly and whimper 'sorry, boss' as she muttered. "I should have known better than to hire you bunch of animals. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." She then turned her pointed golden stare towards the other mutant in the alleyway. "And what the hell happened to you, Arikui? I thought you were supposed to be a professional. You swore that the Crazy Zoo gang could handle this for me."
"Da brawt cuwt mee wiff his cwistahls and-" the pangolin babbled angrily before the woman lifted up a manicured hand with blood-red nail polish.
"Nevermind, I can't understand a single word that's coming out of your mouth right now," she sighed in exasperation and adjusted her look towards the ninety pound boy she had dangling from her manicured hands. "So... is this the kid?"
"Yeah. I saw him create those diamonds earlier with his hands. We're gonna be rich!"
I blinked. Diamonds? They wanted Hitachi for diamonds? His crystals looked more like quartz than diamonds, but then again that had been before he had eaten the riceballs. I pulled against my captor, snarling angrily at the idea that someone would exploit this kid's Quirk for their own personal gain.
"Whah da hell ish wrohng wiff dish shickff?" Arikui asked. "Shome kinduh caht Qwirk or shomfing?"
The woman gave me a once-over and smiled knowingly. "My my~ I didn't think that there were any genuine Quirkless people left in the world," she said with a chilling, saccharine smile. "Take her away to some place quiet and dispose of her with the rest of the garbage."
"Touch me and you'll see just how sharp m-my- my claws are!" I stammered. How did she know I was Quirkless?
"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it, freak?" My bluff called, I simply continued glaring her. A crowd had gathered at the end of the alley, gawking at us like we were some sideshow act, phones raised to record and tweet the event. Why were they just standing there? Why wasn't anyone doing anything? Why weren't they helping us?!
"No cause for alarm, everyone. Just dealing with some petty criminals. Thanks for your continued support," Uwabami smiled, exuding a false charisma towards the concerned crowd, hearing cheers of 'oh my gosh, it's Uwabami!' while her hand secretly pulled something out of a miniature compartment in her purse- a syringe with a green colored liquid. Suddenly there was a scream of 'NO!' in the alley so loud it startled even me. Then I realized it was my own. I thrashed against Kasai, struggling against the iron grip until I was pinned against the wall. In an actual fight, I had no knowledge of any real self-defense techniques. Even if I had practiced, I couldn't remember any of them- fat lot of good that did for me now, trying to hit someone with thick, rhino skin.
The closer Kasai pinned wrists to my face, the better look I had at his hands. Even with my vision blinded partially by the stream of blood gushing down my face, I could feel that he was wearing gloves as the old, musty fabric scratched at my wrists, but not just any gloves- Box Spring's gloves (or at the very least, a convincing replica). Hoping that they worked like his gloves too, I focused on getting on my hands free and grabbed onto his wrist and began twisting it away until his knuckles were turned towards his chin. Then I squeezed down on his palm and felt a slight mechanism click together as three springs launched out from below the knuckled sights, knocking the rhino's chin up as if I had performed a perfect palm strike. One of the springs sliced the side of my cheek as it knocked off my already askew glasses onto the ground. I fumbled for them in midair before I heard a sickening crunch underfoot but continued my mad dash forward, running out of reach from the pangolin's shortened tongue.
Without thinking about who or what I was hitting, I slammed my body into Uwabami's, trying to swipe away her hand away from the unconscious Hitachi. The kid dropped onto the ground like a sack of flour as we crashed to the ground. Gravel and cement cut at my hands as I skidded on the pavement. My knees were soaked from puddles of rainwater on the ground as I fought to remain on top, trying to grab the woman's wrists. Her skin shimmered with geometric shapes, lines running over her skin like a 3D animation model, glittering in the light like little diamonds, almost like it wasn't real. The three snakes she had pinned back with a clip had come undone, hissing angrily at me, but made no effort to attack me, even as I kneed their mistress down with my weight.
"GET OFF OF ME, YOU FAT BITCH!" the model shrieked as she squirmed in vain underneath, but I refused to budge, having too much experience of wrestling my sister for dominance. Even with all her gadgets, this woman was barely one-twenty soaking wet and was five inches shorter than me. Her goons, too concerned with appearances, had made no effort to try to help her, just standing there in a panic as the crowd of people watched me wrestle the Snake Hero to the ground. "Let go of me, you psycho!" she screeched, trying to pry my hands free from her hair that for some reason felt like I was grasping at air. In all of that fuss, I had barely noticed the sting of the needle stuck in my palm until it caught on something, plunging the syringe deeper into my skin. An icy cold fear set in at the sight of the needle and blood pouring from my hand before it was replaced by the sudden punch to my jaw. One second I had been looking at my hand, and the next I was staring at the wall, my head having whipped around from the sheer force of Uwabami's punch. Tears welled into my eyes as pain flashed from my cheek and unleashed a reflexive sob. I had always avoided getting hit in the face, so to have two injuries to an already hyper-sensitive person during an emotional day was a lot to handle.
Blind with hurt and rage, I slammed my palms down onto her wrists, staining both of them red until I finally broke whatever mechanism the manacles had to release Warrior Queen's weapon compartment as a gaseous liquid began spurting out of the support items like a nearly empty Whipped canister. Liquid and gas sputtered from release nozzles, covering both of us in a spray of noxious chemicals. The overly saccharine odor coated the air like bad cologne. I tried holding my breathe but I had gotten a whiff and now felt the world start to spin. Sound and sight blurred as my moment of triumph was brief as I felt the world begin to become hazy, like I was swimming through soup. Stay... awake... Gotta... save... say... were my final thoughts before my consciousness slipped away and felt my life flash before my eyes.
Author's Note: References are "I'll Try" by Jonatha Brooke/Jesse McCartney from Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland and Oumagadoki Zoo. By the way, fun fact: the original Radio Building from Steins;Gate doesn't technically exist anymore, since the game came out in 2009 and the building was torn down in 2011 and rebuilt with more floors in 2014. It still looks the same from the outside and you can still see a ton of stuff for the series outside of merchandise for purchase (I think I once saw vending machines with a different character standing next to it on one of the ground floors).
Also, Happy Holidays from me to you!
Hero/Villain Profiles
Villain Name: Kasai
Quirk: Rhinocerus
He has all the attributes of an Indian rhinoceros.
Fun Fact: He is based on Spiderman's the Rhino and the same namesake as Kasai from Horikoshi's Oumagadoki Zoo, including his love for Uwabami.
Villain Name: Arikui
Quirk: Pangolin
He has all the attributes of a scaly anteater, also known as pangolins.
