2
In a society infected with superpowers, children are groomed and trained to want to become heroes. From the day they are born, as soon as they can understand the world that surrounds them, all they see is hero this and hero that.
Sickening. Disgusting.
For Kai Chisaki, society, no, the entire planet was sick.
Sick with Hero Syndrome.
All they did involved the heroes somehow: the movies they watched, the products they bought, the schools they wanted to study at. Everything was about heroes.
Disgusting.
Unlike others, he hated his quirk. The idea of having to touch anything, even people or animals, to activate it just made him feel gross. Whenever he had to use it, he would immediately disinfect his hands, sometimes his entire body.
As a child who had been homeless and orphaned, he hadn't trusted the heroes. He had only trusted one man his entire life. The man who saved him and gave him a path, a reason to live, a family.
The Boss.
He was the only human being, possibly the only being that he would ever care about. The moment the boss saved him, the moment the Boss showed him the Yakuza Honor Code, the moment the Boss told Kai about his dream of the Yakuza rising back from the shadows, at that moment Kai swore to help him achieve that dream.
No matter what.
He didn't regret his choices. Regret was for the weak and for cowards. And he was neither. He knew what had to be done. The Yakuza had to rise again. They were the only true power in Japan. Not the government, even less the heroes. If quirks hadn't appeared, then the Yakuza would still control Japan, instead of suffering a slow death in the darkness.
When the Boss had introduced him to Eri, he hadn't thought much of the girl. She was shy and scared. Understandable considering her quirk had killed her father in front of her and her mother had abandoned her. It was when Kai started to study her blood that he understood Eri's true value. The power of rewinding time until nothing existed. The power of destroying quirks forever.
The Boss didn't like his plan. That had hurt. It had hurt worse when the man told him to leave and never return if he intended to continue with his plan. And it hurt the most when Kai used his power to modify his brain to put him in a coma.
He would never forget the look on the Boss´s face when he realized what Kai had done.
Kai never cared about hurting others. When he used his quirk on Eri for the first time to harvest more blood and tissue, and she cried and begged him to stop, he just ignored her. But when the Boss, the closest thing to a father he ever had—that he would ever have—gave him a look of betrayal, his heart hurt.
He hurt his Boss, he betrayed the most sacred part of the Yakuza Honor Code. Even if the plan succeeds, the Quirk Society dies, and the Yakuza rises again, he will still be punished as soon as he heals the Boss and his acts are revealed. That day, he became Overhaul, the leader of the Shie Hassakai.
He didn't care. Because the Boss's dream would be completed. And that's all that mattered.
And now an insect was interfering with the Boss's dream.
When his men told him that Eri had run away, he got angry. When they told him that the grunts sent to capture her were missing, he got pissed. When the missing idiots finally called, TWELVE FREAKING HOURS after Eri's disappearance, and told him that a teenager had beaten them up and left them unconscious with notes taped to their chest implying they were pedophiles, he became a roaring volcano.
The two idiots had spent hours at the hospital being checked for concussions and later at the police station being interrogated over those notes and about whoever had assaulted them. They told the police that it must have been a misunderstanding or some prank. But the damage had been done. Because they had been wearing their masks—the masks that the Shie Hassaikai wore.
And now the police would be investigating them under suspicion of child prostitution or abuse.
He had ordered them to go to an abandoned warehouse, someplace not connected to them. And when the idiots had arrived, and after making sure no cop or some hero had followed them, he took care of them.
First, he made sure they gave him a good description of the teenager who had taken Eri. He was sure that this mysterious girl wouldn't have beaten up two strangers and left a little girl alone. No. Not in this sick society infested with wannabe heroes.
A green-haired teenage girl, maybe fourteen, green eyes, tanned skin, no heteromorphic traits, and diamond-shaped freckles on both of her cheeks.
He made sure every single one of his men, from his Eight Precepts to his lowest grunt, memorized that description and then sent them to find both girls. It wasn't like he could send a missing-child report. As far as the world knew, Eri didn't even exist. And for the plan's sake, for the Boss's dream sake, it would continue that way.
After three days of searching, they hit gold. A security camera showed two black-haired girls, a teen and a middle schooler, boarding a bus towards Funabashi. Based on the station and the maps, Kai realized they were going to Tokio. Why? He didn't care. It didn't matter. He sent his men to the train and bus stations near Tokio. One of them would find them, and then they would tell him, and he would take care of it.
And it worked. They saw them boarding a train towards the capital and informed Kai. He had a group follow them inside and gave them strict orders to not show themselves until he gave the order. When he arrived at Chuo, he gave the order. Predictively, the girl went after the grunts while Eri fled towards the city. After that, it was child's play for Kai to find her.
What he didn't count on was for the mysterious girl's quirk to be the ability to summon some type of teleporting creature. That would be troublesome to deal with.
No matter, first the girl, then the creature. And then Eri. He will make sure she finally understands what happens when she behaves like a selfish brat.
He took off his gloves. It would take a single touch to finish this. The girl crouched, one hand went behind her back, a cocky grin on her face. He ran, his right hand stretched towards her head, and she jumped. It wasn't a big jump; she went to the wall on her left, and with another kick, she leapt over his head. He saw her arm throw a second ball, and a new creature was released behind him.
This one looked like a simian; red-brownish fur covered its body, and white fur covered its torso, legs, and head. Fire flowed from its head. Golden armor covered its ribs, knees, shoulders, and elbows.
"Infernape, Smokescreen!" "IINNN" Black smoke came from its mouth, covering the entire alley. Kai couldn't see anything. A shape moved beside him; he went for it, but a punch to the gut intercepted him.
"Is that all the mighty and powerful Yakuza can do? No wonder you guys are extinct. Even common thieves are faster," she taunted him from the smoke. He went towards her voice, but a kick to his back shoved him to the ground. The hits weren't hard enough to hurt him; it felt more like they were taunting and mocking him. They could hurt him, but he couldn't hit back.
"I think I understand now why the Yakuza are nearly gone. Since primarily the leader of any group is the one with the strongest quirk, you yakuzas must have the lamest and weakest quirks ever."
Quirks. Quirks. QUIRKS! He was so damn tired of that fucking word! Everybody was obsessed with quirks. With their strength and their uses. That brat wanted to see a powerful quirk. Then she will get her fucking wish!
"AHHHHHHHH!" His hands touched the filthy ground and activated his quirk.
The ground shifted, and a mass of spikes sprouted around him in the shape of an arc. After a few seconds, the smoke dissipated, and his work came into view.
The entire alley was devastated. Spikes of 6 feet in width and length covered the ground; the walls on each side of the alley were destroyed and covered in holes.
"Wow. Man, those are some anger issues," the girl said. He looked up, and there she was, hanging on the back of the ape, with the ape clinging with its claws. Far enough that his spikes hadn't even scratched them.
A flash called his attention. At the opening of what was once a dark alley, were people. People with their phones and I phones and cameras out. People taking pictures. Of him. Of his quirk.
"I don't need to defeat you, Overhaul. I just need to put your face on the news and wait for the heroes and cops to catch you. After all, using your quirk to destroy a public space is a crime. And trying to kill a teenager for no good reason is a worse crime," she and her ape smirked.
Kai stood there. For five years, ever since the Boss introduced him to Eri, ever since he discovered what entailed Eri's quirk, ever since he took control of the Shie Hassakai and became Overhaul, he had worked day and night to destroy the Quirk Society. For five years, he destroyed and recombined Eri to harvest her blood and tissues, and then spent hours and hours studying and testing how to turn her quirk into a weapon. Five years of working in the shadows. Five years of avoiding the attention of the heroes and the government. And only in the past month has he made some progress. Slow, but progress. And now it is all gone.
That girl was right. The moment those pictures went online (and they probably are right now online), some pro hoping for more ratings would start investigating him and his associates. And eventually, they would discover his hideout. Worse, if they find Eri, they will discover his plan.
When an injured animal is cornered, there are two things that can happen. The animal will resign itself to its fate. Or it will attack and destroy what is in its path.
Overhaul didn't even think of any options. He just attacked the bane of his existence. No matter what, that girl will die.