Trigger Warning:
- gore
Re-Destro gave us one hour time.
Well, we just wasted fifteen minutes pondering on what to do.
Twice insists that we go save Giran.
Toga entertains the likelihood that Giran is already dead.
Mr. Compress groans at Twice's quick attachment to others.
I imagine a thousand scenarios to get out this situation, each one a bigger failure than the last. Personally, I do not care much for Giran, but this problem arose because he got captured. And now everyone is being dragged with him.
When Twice protests, Shigaraki pulls off his face mask with one swipe, and grins, "I've got an idea." He presses the button of his earpiece. "Doctor, you were listening, weren't you?" Daruma-san was. He seems excited at the prospect of a potential war.
Mr. Compress wonders if the high-end noumu are available to use, but Daruma-san insists that they are not.
Though Mr. Compress is disappointed by the response, Shigaraki is not so crestfallen. His smirk persists, and I try to comprehend what his strategy is. "How many hours do we have until that fatass gorilla wakes up?"
"If nothing interrupts him, he'll wake up in two hours and thirty minutes," replies Mr. Compress.
"Doctor, where's Dabi now?"
Daruma-san says that he is at the border of the Mie and Shiga prefectures.
"How convenient," Shigaraki gloats. "Let's go. Warp us, Doc." Understandably, Spinner dissents the idea. His logic makes sense: we don't know what we are up against, except an army of more than 110,000 soldiers. Even I want to know Shigaraki is thinking.
Shigaraki raises a fist in the air. He explains, "If there's one thing I've learned after fighting it for a month, that thing isn't invincible. It just has stupidly high HP." I try to recall what the word HP means from the occasional nights I spent video gaming with him. Isn't it a unit of health? Each player has one? The greater the HP, the more damage must be dealt to defeat the opponent. Oh, I have no clue! I lost to Shigaraki every time I played his games, anyway. Giving up, I catch Shigaraki slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand. "We'll through Gigantomachia at them and make them fight. That should tire the fatass out a bit." He covers up Twice's face with the mask and repeats his promise to destroy everything.
Suddenly, his plan makes sense. Gigantomachia's heightened senses allows him to locate Shigaraki anywhere in Japan. So if we go to Deika City, Gigantomachia is bound to follow. In other words, Gigantomachia is our trump card. Clever, indeed. But there is still something nagging at me.
I don't voice my doubts. Instead, we contact Dabi, set up a rendezvous point, and Daruma-san transports us there. Now I understand why no one was willing to talk much about the teleportation experience. Black sludge emits from my mouth, coating me into slimy darkness. When light appears, the sludge falls off me into a puddle at my feet and vanishes. Still, the feeling that I technically vomited all over myself makes me nauseous. No sooner than I think it, I dash to the nearest bush and release all that milk from my stomach.
I spare a moment to wash my mouth before regrouping with everyone else. We travel the rest of the way by foot. Toga, Twice, and Mr. Compress strike up a vivacious conversation, and Spinner and Dabi share the occasional word. It is only Shigaraki and I who are astutely mute.
Perhaps it is a bad thing. Because this gives me the chance to delve into my anxiety and paranoia.
Gigantomachia is the ace up our sleeves, but to even bring out the ace, the game has to be played. Re-Destro asked for a war, and a war we will give. But can I? Since I was recruited by the League, I have gathered intel, reported it, all without getting caught. In exchange, I have murdered all those who hurt me. I have killed innocents, too. I am about to murder my family. Every attack executed by the League had my planning and information. I can create solid battle strategies, but can I actually fight?
Slaughtering one by one in the cover of the night is one thing, a war is a completely different thing.
The decimation of the Phoenix mafia is nothing compared to a war.
This will be the first time I actively participate in a large-scale massacre.
Shouto's face coalesces with clarity amongst the torment of thoughts. It is riddled with disdain and contempt. Shame at all that I have done and what I have to do. The sight feels like a knife pierced my heart.
Can I do it?
For the first time, I grasp the discrepancy between theoretical and practical. It is easy to scheme in the safety of my room, but it is nigh impossible to enact that scheme in reality.
I alternately clench and unclench the handle of my cane in an attempt to soothe my nerves. It does not help. Rather, I feel my breaths shortening and heart pacing. My focus starts to blur in front of me. No. Not now! My foot trips on a pebble. I land hard on my hands and knees, wincing at the tiny scrapes. The gang stops and turns behind at the noise.
Shigaraki walks toward me and tells the others to keep going. He slips an arm under my shoulder and jostles me to my feet. Tossing an inhaler into my hands, he starts moving again. Much slower than earlier. Gasping a quick thank you, I breathe in the vapors of the inhaler. This is helping. Little by little, with each breath, the physical manifestations of terror subside. Although adrenaline still courses through my veins, it is steady now. I can see through my contact lenses better.
"I'm assuming that you were panicking because this is the first time you will fight in a battle?" he asks all of a sudden.
"You assume correctly," I murmur. I don't want the others in front of us to eavesdrop.
He pauses, waiting for me to catch up to him. This time, he keeps pace with me. I'm grateful for that simple gesture. "Think of all the assassinations back in England as practice, and the war as the examination. You have already built up the skills to do it, now you're just going to apply them."
"An examination that has only one question: Will I live or die? Funny how that single question is the toughest examination of my life."
He snorts, "It is. But there is a paradoxical, simple, straightforward method to answer that question." I look up at him, waiting for him to elaborate. "Kill or be killed. That is the only rule of every war. Depending on your choice, you will either live or die. And I think you know what choice leads to which outcome."
That sentence reverberates in my mind.
Kill or be killed.
The primordial law of nature and humanity.
The heroes do not have it in them to kill, but villains do.
"Okay. I can do this."
Shigaraki teases, "Never thought that Lucifer Morningstar would need a pep talk from me." I shove his side in retaliation. He guffaws harder.
I don't realize when we make it to our destination. In the distance is Deika City. Countryside area but with its fair share of architecture and forestry. A shame it will all be ruined soon. Mr. Compress notes one hour and forty minutes until Gigantomachia reawakens. Meaning, we have to fight for a minimum of one hour and forty minutes. That time frame does not sound very appealing.
I hope that we can have a delay before entering the fray, but it is crushed immediately when a hero of the Liberation Army arrives to escort us. We descend the cliff into the suburb streets.
It is disturbing that the city is a ghost town.
Especially when the number 116,516 flashes in my head like a beacon.
It's an ambush.
My cane swings downward so that its base lies in the grip of my hand rather than the head. My other hand rests surreptitiously against my thigh, prepared to trace any pattern of defense.
Just then, a man and a woman cross our paths. The man mockingly welcomes us into Deika City. Given the cadence of his speech, I presume he is a politician. The moment he finishes, a barrage of quirk-wielders come out of their hiding nooks and crannies. It was a bloody ambush, and we fell right for it.
Dabi, Mr. Compress, Shigaraki, Spinner, Toga, and Twice all become preoccupied with fending off their assailants. One smiles at my cane and charges at me. I swing the cane like in an arc and bash the ableist's skull in.
Twice shouts at the politician for Giran's location.
The politician motions at a tower at least ten kilometers away.
Oh, ten bleeding hells!
Do we actually have to save Giran? Kind of dislike the chain smoker.
But Shigaraki's word is command. If he says we have to move toward the tower after disintegrating two Liberation Army soldiers, we move toward the bloody tower.
Unfortunately, things often do not proceed as planned.
Toga gets separated by an explosion aimed directly at her.
And we cannot go back for her.
Kill or be killed.
Please do whatever it takes to return alive, Toga, I pray.
Note: I have copied some dialogue from one of the English-translated versions of the manga. The link to the chapter is here: .online/manga/boku-no-hero-academia-chapter-224/