Konukoru City was in chaos. A storm had formed in the nearby forest of Tia seemingly out of nowhere. The forecast said that they could expect some rain later down the day, but nothing close to an electrical storm, quickly appearing in the forest, along with lightning, and then moving fast into the city.

It looked as if it was being pulled by something, closer into the city, but it became clear that there was something wrong when the storm settled just on top of the Super Animal Safety Commission's headquarters- not to mention the murder of crows that appeared out of thin air and surrounded the building.

Onlookers were surprised by their sudden appearance, as well as the sudden thick metal layers completely locking down the building. At first it didn't seem like much, but a few civilians that hadn't stepped back after seeing the dozens of crows circling around the building and the eye of the storm closing in, saw how a small hole was open on the door of the building, and a bunch of crows immediately flew in and got inside through it.

Police and heroes had been called, trying to figure out what was going on, but usually the SASC itself was the one that took care of animals going out of control, and they had locked themselves up from the assault of the crows.

They tried their best to try to get the crows to leave, but then, one of the police cars was smitten by lightning, creating an explosion that sent police officers and heroes flying. Then it became clear. Somehow, a bunch of crows were attacking the SASC itself, and stopping anyone from getting close.

And what was worse, the crows seemed organized, and in control of the very storm localized around the building. Lightning ran down to the heroes and the police carrying a battering ram to try to bust open the building to get the people inside.

What was even more worrying than that, was the clear sight of the hole the crows had used to get inside, was now closed shut, welded shut. The police officers had their guns stolen by the crows, and heroes were quickly targeted as they arrived, either by lightning raining down on them, or a large number of crows following a larger one going after them and forcing them to defend themselves from a doesn't talons and beaks.

From the rooftop of the building, Oji-san and other old ravens looked down on everything. Yami and a few other ravens flew down with the younger crows, guiding them and not letting the heroes and police get any closer, cawing instructions to each other, and to Gorogoro up into the cloud, whenever they needed a lightning strike.

All of the oldest crows were here, overseeing the operation and making sure nothing came in and out of the building after the youngsters inside had dealt with their greatest enemy. There was nothing more that the old crows wanted than to carve the Whisperer's flesh themselves, but they were marked by his quirk, and were at risk of being controlled by him again should he talk.

That's why only young crows that were born after they escaped from the Whisperer joined Izumi and Himiko in their mission to finally eliminate their greatest enemy, and get rid of the organization that forced them into hiding.

They had complete and utter faith in Izumi, the greatest crow that the murder had seen, to the point where her origin didn't matter. She had shown she was strong enough to take down the Whisperer. They also had faith in the new friend/stray cat/honorary crow that was Himiko to honour that friendship.

Oji-san looked down, giddy from seeing so many chicks he'd helped raise and taught go on and cause mayhem, all in the efforts to have their greatest enemy finally killed and avenge all their fallen brethren and the old ravens and crows like himself. He could barely keep himself from joining in, but remained still, chest puffed, proud, and cawing instructions at the brave chicks. He wished Izumi and the crows inside the building luck again, hoping to hear the signal of mission complete soon.

Down on the ground meanwhile, the heroes were getting restless. More than a few had been injured, some critically, by those damned crows and their lightning. None had suitable quirks to get them in the air, and the ones that did, couldn't do anything when a lightning went straight at them.

A few sidekicks had to be pulled back from the eye of the storm, clearly incapacitated just by the smell of charred flesh, and the way some bodies just stayed down after the lightning hit, not getting up.

"Just how long is this going to go on for!" A hero screamed over the incessant sound of the crows cawing along with the ringing in the ears from so many lightning hitting so close.

"The HPSC said they were sending back up!" Said another, trying to remain hopeful. "Let's hope they get here soon!"

22 - Crow's Revenge

Himiko sat down, without bothering to avoid getting messy from all the blood on the floor. In her mind, there was no such thing as getting dirty by blood. The crows nibbled and ate part of their victims, standing on top of the bodies of both workers of the SASC, and what remained of the hunters of the Order.

Despite going on a rampage and killing a few of them, Himiko had still received heavy damage from Overkill's double punch, and could feel her chest complaining about the way she moved just a moment earlier.

She clutched her chest, catching her breath, blood all over her mouth and face, but her manic smirk unable to fade away from her face. How could it? Despite her pain right now, she was having the time of her life, hunting alongside Izumi and the crows, drinking the blood of villains and becoming them, it was the best high ever!

Still, she couldn't stay here forever. She trusted the crows to tell her if any other hunter showed up, unaware that all of them had already been killed at this point, so she used this moment to rest up a little. Shiro and a few other crows hopped closer to her, bringing her the severed hand of one of the workers.

"Ow~ Aren't you all sweet~" Himiko's smile widened, and blushed deeply, petting the crows and grabbing the hand over her mouth, moaning in pleasure as bloody still poured from the wound and directly into her tongue and mouth. "Hmmm~ enough rest~ Still need to suck all those baddy hunters dry, and finish emptying out the building~"

She said, getting up and groaning in pain from her chest again, but pushing forward, grabbing the needles of her Blood Cape and going over the bodies of the hunters.

"We aren't done with you all~ hehe~!"

Himiko and the crows still had things to do, and they all trusted Izumi and the crows underground to deal with the Whisperer by themselves.

Good luck, Izumi-chan~

Izumi glared at the Whisperer, finally showing himself. She made a quick check of the current situation, giving a quick look to all the animals that he had brought with him. Her theories of most of the quirked animals she hunted down for the SASC coming from their own headquarters themselves seemed to be alright, considering the clear number of quirked animals, possibly all of them bearing quirks of some kind.

In just the quick glance she gave them, Izumi could tell that he had brought a pack of wolves, dogs, cats, boars, a big quadruped with antlers or horns, possibly a bull or a moose, a lion or some type of big cat, and what seemed like a bear with a mutation on his head. There was also what looked like a snake or at least its skin around the Whisperer's neck.

She wanted to take a closer look at each and every one of them, analyze their quirks and prepare plans to efficiently hunt them down, but was at least glad that there weren't any missing crows among them, so she could let loose without worrying about it, but she needed to act fast.

Izumi was aware of how powerful voice quirks were, Urusai had helped her incapacitate three professional villains at the same time just minutes earlier, so she knew she needed to stop him from speaking right now.

"Ho–"

"FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUH!"

The moment he opened his mouth again, Izumi forced all the air in her lungs out, being able to do that almost instantly thanks to her control over her own breathing, and let out a high pitched whistle that combined with her voice changer inside her helmet, increased the frequency even more, drowning every other sound. The Whisperer's voice was no match, and the old villain doubled over clutching his ears, while the animals around him also wailed and squirmed in pain.

Without taking a break to inhale air, and feeling the gush of wind coming from the crows flying away to avoid even the slightest bit of contact with the Whisperer, Izumi raised her rifle, and shot at him.

BANG!

The Black Bullet with the reputation of piercing through anything and anyone, feared by heroes and acclaimed by villains, went straight towards Masuta's head. It would have pierced him and made his head explode, but he had come prepared for this.

The bullet slipped off around his head, as if there was a forcefield around it making it impossible to keep going straight. The bullet didn't slow down, but with its trajectory changed after slipping off him, it went straight into the throat of the bull, which Izumi now realized had its horns cut midway through.

The bull wheezed and stumbled upon itself, coughing up blood and falling on its side, on top of more of the Whisperer's animals. Masuta widened his eyes, seeing just how close he had been from dying, but feeling relieved from preparing for the confrontation.

But he had made the fatal mistake of looking at the Impact Increase quirked bull die and fall, instead of looking at Karasu, who had already reloaded her rifle, and shot at his knees.

BANG! BANG!

Unlike the defenses around his head, the Black Bullet didn't divert when getting close to his legs, but didn't manage to pierce him either. Still, they were shots from Black Bullets shot by a close range rifle, and the force behind them was incredible.

Masuta's knees were pushed back, his right one being hit first, and his left one short after. His knees didn't shatter instantly, the bullets hadn't been stopped before they could do that, but the force behind them still pushed his knees back, painfully pushing his legs off the ground and backwards from the rest of his body.

Izumi was satisfied after seeing the enemy who had caused so much pain to her family fall face first into the floor like an idiot, while groaning in pain. She quickly noticed how the bullets had failed to shatter his knees though, learning that despite not having that powerful defense of his head on all his body, there was something else protecting him.

"Ugh, get her!"

He managed to growl out, his face still on the floor. The crows had already flown past back of Izumi, so she was alone for the moment. It was good to see the Whisperer's quirk in action though, as she learned that apparently it didn't matter if the animals had recovered from the ear ringing whistle yet, if they were in range, they obeyed.

She quickly jumped back, avoiding being bitten by a wolf, and kicked it on its face to keep it away. Next was a literal flying cat hissing and going straight at her face. It impacted into her helmet and scratched it, but Izumi pulled it off by grabbing its back with her claws. The cat mewled in pain and stopped moving, and Izumi threw the body into the face of a dog with its mouth on fire, who whined after the impact.

"WEOOOOFHH!"

A wolf barked at Izumi, sending a blast of air that knocked her off the ground and sent her flying back. She grunted and rolled in the floor, getting back up quickly, only to find the strange bear she spotted earlier right in front of her, on closer inspection realizing that it had three heads.

The bear roared and swung its arm at her. Izumi instinctually used the rifle in her hands to try to block it off, but fighting against the strength of a bear was no use, and her rifle was ripped off her hands and thrown around the hall. Izumi grunted her teeth, keeping herself from losing her concentration when the bear's claws hit her on the chest with that very same swing of its claws.

Her suit was torn open in four long lines following the bear's claws along her body, but the Hunting Vest underneath it helped her survive the would be fatal slash. Izumi felt her legs stagger from the force of the blow, threatening to fall to her knees, but managed to keep on her feet and step back by sheer force of will.

"Take the rifle away from her!"

Masuta barked, getting up as well with his hands on his knees, hurt, but not broken. One of the wolves ran up to the rifle and grabbed it in its mouth, and started running towards its master and the lion that hadn't moved from his side.

The three heads of the bear roared at Izumi, but she didn't let it intimidate her. She wasn't helpless anymore in close quarters, and could fight back even to mighty animals by using her claws. Speaking of, she surprised the bear by jumping forward this time and burying said claws into the head and eyes of the central head, making all three of them roar in pain.

Bear skulls were seriously hard, and could even endure a shot of a regular rifle to the head, but Izumi had hunted her fair share of bears already, all coming down with a single Black Bullet or Arrow, and with her claws being made from the same material, that hard skull was nothing but a thick eggshell.

The three-headed bear was temporarily stunned, and lowered his heads to clutch the damaged one. Izumi caught a glimpse of the wolf that took her rifle at that very moment, despite the other two heads of the bear roaring at her, and standing on its hind legs to appear bigger and prepare to attack her with its claws.

Izumi wasn't intimidated by its roars, so she also wasn't when he stood up and towered over her, hiding the rest of the animals behind it. She grabbed B-Tip, snapped it open, and tensed a Black Arrow on it. The bear was wary of her, still roaring and not attacking her immediately. It wasn't mindless, and understood that Izumi wasn't someone that it could just brute force through. Unfortunately, its intelligence was its downfall, as Izumi wasn't durable like it, merely a very powerful glass cannon.

Izumi enjoyed the tension on her arms as she held the arrow, feeling B-Tip wanting to unload and let out all of its tension. She aimed straight at the bear's chest, and released the arrow before it decided to stop trying to scare her and attack her again. The Black Arrow shot out of her bow at incredible speed, going right through the bear in a split second, piercing flesh, muscle and bone alike. It soared through the hall, and went straight through the wolf carrying her rifle, ripping a whine out of him and pinning him to the ground, with the arrow half buried there, the other half still inside the wolf.

The right head of the bear coughed up blood, so Izumi grabbed another Black Arrow and nocked it on her bow, feeling the tension burn her arms. She let it go, snapping the bowstrings to relax and sending the arrow flying right through the bear's left head, making it recoil back from the force of it.

The body of the bear twisted and spun as its left head was pushed back, and fell to the ground with a thud, its right head unresponsive. There was a brief moment where no one did anything, just stood there, glaring at each other. Izumi had just taken down the largest animal under the Whisperer's control, but she didn't relax because of it, and neither did Masuta show worry or disbelief, keeping himself calm, and ready to act the moment Karasu reached for another arrow.

Izumi took that moment to scan her surroundings and take a closer look at the animals still remaining. There was still that lion right on Masuta's side, and she confirmed that what he had around his neck was actually a snake, and not the shedded or otherwise skin of one. Whatever that forcefield around his head was, probably had to do with one of the two, and if Izumi had to bet, it'd be on the snake, which could also protect itself the same way.

There were also several more wolves, boars, a few more cats and dogs, bats clinging to the walls, a weasel and a falcon. She didn't immediately see any clear signs of what their quirks were, so she decided to focus on the Whisperer, her actual target.

The defense around his body seemed to come from his clothing, and was pretty impressive to be able to hold out against a Black Bullet. Izumi decided to test if it could handle the higher strength of a Black Arrow. But she knew that the Whisperer was waiting for her to draw another arrow for him to start his counterattack. Even if she went forward to go for her rifle, right in front of the corpse of the wolf she had killed earlier, he'd be able to react faster than she was able to reach it.

She'll just have to target his head at the moment then. That hypothetical quirk of the snake must have a limit, after all, neither seemed to be holding an air mask around them, so Izumi came to two conclusions in that brief moment in which neither party moved.

One, air, or whatever of the snake's choosing was exempt from being redirected and slipped away right before reaching the forcefield. Or two, only things coming at high speeds were pulled away, so air wouldn't be among them.

No matter which of the two was it, she had the perfect way to counter them: fire. After just only very few seconds, Izumi moved, wiping the blood from the bear that had splashed into her helmet when it coughed blood, and flicked her wrist, getting three Flaming Darts in her hand.

"Water wall, now!"

The Whisperer shouted, and the weasel ran forward, compelled to move by his voice, just as Izumi swung her arm in an arc, throwing and snapping the darts, igniting them into white flames.

The weasel opened its mouth, and shot out a column of water a hundredfold its size, spreading around the hall until it stretched into every single wall, the floor and the ceiling, creating a wall of water right in front of it in an instant. The flaming darts were snuffed out the moment they passed through the water wall, thick enough for the darts to be wrapped in water completely even for just a moment, being enough to even snuff out Shiro's flames. With all the momentum lost and the fletchings burned and wet, the darts came to the other side of the water wall slow and moist. Masuta caught one of them in the air, and smirked, managing to protect himself from yet another of Karasu's tricks.

"Hehe, you think I'm so foolish to come unprepared for tricks I already have intel of? I was always prepared for every quirk of my cr–"

B-Tip's strings vibrated from the unreleased tension of an arrow just shot, the Black Arrow piercing through the water wall as if it wasn't there, and going straight for Masuta's neck, or rather, the snake. The arrow was affected by the forcefield around his head, but due to being aimed lower than the previous attempts at his head, it slipped downwards, and hit Masuta in the chest almost at full force.

The Black Arrow miraculously failed to pierce him, but unlike the bullets, it was much bigger than them, and the sharp tip made it even stronger at piercing bodies, thanks to being shot from the super-optimized to deep penetration bow B-tip.

Instead of piercing him on the chest, the Black Arrow instead hit him with the full force of an arrow capable of going right through a bear like it was nothing concentrated into a very small point in his chest.

The force of it broke the Whispere's ribcage, and even sent him flying backwards, coughing up bile and gasping for air while clutching his chest in pain, while the arrow merely bounced off and clattered on the floor.

While he was gloating on his perceived invulnerability and boasting about his preparation, Izumi didn't wait with her arms crossed. She had just nocked another arrow in B-tip the moment she noticed he wasn't being wary of it anymore, and shot him while he was distracted. The end result was Masuta being knocked down into his back clutching his chest in pain. It was good to see that despite not being killing shots anymore, the Black Arrows still hurt like hell.

She wasn't about to waste another great opportunity, so while the Whisperer was on the floor cursing and clutching his chest, she jumped over the corpse of the bear, and grabbed her rifle with her spare hand, pointing at the weasel and shooting it in the head.

It fell dead to the ground along with the water wall, no longer being supported by its quirk. Unfortunately, Masuta recovered enough to realize he was at a disadvantage, and opened her mouth.

"Fuck! Kill her! Rip her body into pieces!"

Izumi had to step back again when the falcon flew right at her, scratching her helmet. She swatted it away from her face, the helmet protecting her from its talons, and shot it in the back while it fled. But instead of hearing it cry out and fall into the floor, the falcon shifted in the air, as if it was a 3D model glitching out in a simulation or the image itself was lagging, and maneuvered out of the way. Izumi clicked her tongue, cursing the waste of a Black Bullet and having to deal with another great defensive quirk. She let the falcon go for the moment before wasting more precious Black Bullets trying to figure out the limits of its quirk, as Izumi also had to avoid getting jumped by the rest of the wolves. She stepped back and kicked one that got too close and tried to bite her leg.

She strapped the bow around her shoulder as if it were the strap of a backpack, and threw a flaming dart with her newly freed hand, hitting a cat straight on and engulfing it in flames, making it run around, panicking and setting a few other animals on fire.

The boar pushed away past the wolves, and charged at Izumi. It was so telegraphed, dealing with it should be extremely easy, just shoot it on its head and step back to eliminate the wolves next. But Izumi didn't stop counting her shots, and knew that her rifle was currently out of Black Bullets.

The time it took her to step away to reload the rifle was enough for the boar to suddenly divide itself into five, and rush at her all at once. She widened her eyes, and realized that if she didn't start running right then and there, she would get trampled by them. The other animals seemed to also realize this, as they got out of their way to not get in the way of the now five rushing boars.

Having to run and get away from the Whisperer wasn't ideal, but she needed space to both reload her rifle and deal with the boars. Managing to load back up her rifle as she ran, Izumi turned around, breathing steady despite her running, and shot one of them dead in the face.

The other four didn't stop despite one of themselves being dead now, and kept on charging. If Izumi stopped to shoot at the boars, she'd easily get one or two more, but she realized that if she did that, the other two would reach her and knock her to the floor, where they could more easily trample her and bury their tusks on her.

So right after taking her shot, she turned around and kept on running, deciding to not give them the chance to catch up to her. She was tired, but kept her breathing steady to not lose unnecessary energy and keep on running, seeing Pitcher's corpse and puddle of blood and acid in front of her after just a few seconds of running. She decided to make use of it again, and flicked two Flaming Darts into her free hand. Izumi clenched her teeth and jumped into Pitcher's headless body, feeling her foot sink a little into her half dissolved body. Before the acid could get to her, she jumped again, throwing the darts back while she skipped over the acid puddle.

Two of the boars didn't have time to move out of the way to dodge the puddle of acid, with their other two copies sandwiching them in the middle, straight into the acid puddle. If they ran over it fast enough, they would only just suffer minor burns, and Izumi didn't know if that was enough to dispel the copies, they seemed more resilient than other cloning quirks like the one the pro hero Ectoplasm has.

The darts set ablaze in the air shortly after leaving Izumi's hand with a spark. They flashed through the air with their white flames, but instead of hitting the beasts, they hit the floor right below the two boars in the middle. The ones on top of the highly flammable acid.

The puddle burst into flames as the darts impacted into it, quickly spreading through the puddle and burning to a crisp the two boars on top of it, and the remains of Pitcher's body. Seeing the sudden burst of flames, the remaining two boars circled around the fire, slowing down a little after seeing the other two burn away and stop moving, dead.

Izumi reached for the cross of different halls, and dug her claws into the corner to turn to the right without needing to slow down. The boars slipped on the floor, trying to slow down to turn right and follow Izumi, but the moment the first came into view Izumi shot it straight in the head, killing it.

The last remaining boar was smart enough to divide itself into three, two more boars splitting off from its sides right as Izumi blew the head of the one in the middle. It seemed that the moment there was only one boar, it would quickly split into more, thus improving its chances for survival.

The newly split boars were too close to Izumi for her to avoid them, and she was tackled into the ground, after the boar ran right through her legs. She groaned, feeling her control over her breathing and heartbeat falter for a moment because of the pain. Izumi forced herself to regain her composure, and spread her legs to avoid the charge of the boar. Instead, the boar went straight into her torso, pressing his body right into her and trying and failing to dig its tusks into her.

The Hunting Vest protected Izumi, but the boar's thrashing still hurt, especially with its weight on top of her and the constant hits into her chest and torso from his tusks. She had to be careful to avoid his legs from stepping over her thighs, while trying to push the animal away, to no avail. She dropped her rifle in order to use more strength to try to pull it away, but she wasn't strong enough to push it off of her, and it easily swatted her arms away with its snout. Izumi had to be careful, as her arms weren't protected by her best.

Izumi greeted her teeth after the boar tried to bury its tusks into her gut again, and pushed her into a wall by dragging her into the ground. She used the pain to focus her mind, hearing her heartbeat loudly inside her head. She grabbed the boar from its head, making it squeal in pain from the metal claws digging right through his flesh and into his bones. It thrashed for a moment, trying to swat her arm away again, but she had dug her claws too deep, and the boar instead tried to squeeze her into the wall. But before it could crush her into the wall, Izumi reached for its throat with her other hand, and squeezed the fragile flesh, digging her fingers into it..

She felt flesh and warm blood pour out as she ripped off his skin with a quick pull. Her eyes immediately locked into the last boar again. It was completely still, but seemed to be frozen, twitching a bit as parts of his flesh bulged out of it, but quickly protruded back into it.

It was trying to split again.

Fueled by adrenaline, Izumi pushed the corpse of the boar off her and stood up to the last boar, who stepped back, twitching in fear from her. She was covered in blood, her helmet splashed with it, arms covered almost to her elbows, and her chest a mess from all the blood that poured off of the last victim's throat as she killed it.

Izumi checked her sleeves. They had been ripped somewhat when she was trying to defend herself from the thrashing, but it seemed like the Flaming Darts strapped to her wrists underneath were intact, and she still had a few.

She flicked her right arm forward, doing several things at the same time. She snapped a dart into her hand using the trick she had learned from Himiko, then used the inertia of flicking her arm to throw the dart right away, snapping her fingers and igniting it with a spark.

The blood soaked state of the dart didn't stop it from bursting into flames, not being as strong as being submerged in the weasel's water wall, and the Flaming Dart hit the frozen boar in its face.

The fire quickly spread through its body, and he ran, hitting the walls and squealed in great pain. Dodging it in this state was incredibly easy for Izumi, who had put her breathing and heartbeat back in check. She could see that the boar's flesh was still bulging out, trying to split, but it seems that it couldn't just keep splitting endlessly.

Izumi had suspected as much after seeing the boar originally split four copies, and the next time just two. And then, after killing it until only one was left again, it tried to split again, but clearly was struggling. Setting it on fire would completely stop it from splitting altogether by burning all of its flesh.

The boar stopped moving, becoming just a pile of meat burning away as the flames turned from white into a warm orange, and let out a nice smell.

Right then, a few crows flew back, and landed on Izumi's shoulder.

"Finished scouting already?"

"Yes."

"Good, let's move. There's a hawk that might be a problem." Izumi said, nodding and getting back her rifle.

The crow cawed and flew off, and Izumi started running after it.

"There's no use in running away, Diana! Or do you prefer going by Karasu? Is that to show off your control over my property?" The Whisperer's voice echoed through the hall.

The crow guiding Izumi hissed but didn't stop, and Izumi didn't let his voice distract her. They all wanted nothing more than destroying him, but weren't going to let this hunt be turned into his favour.

"Everything you tried hasn't worked out! I've prepared for everything you can throw at me!" Masuta continued, as he continued on the path led by the trail of boar corpses and blood, followed by his army of animals, finally stopping after reaching the last burned corpse.

"I see you dealt with the specimen with the Full Body Mitosis quirk!" He shouted, but then turned to look at the bats that had been following him crawling in the walls, as well to the remaining wolves. "Find her."

He rubbed his chest, still hurting from the arrow that was shot at him. His suit almost gave out from it, being near unbreakable protected him from getting pierced, but the pain was monumental.

"K-124-13."

A spider crawled out through Masuta's suit on his call for it, making its way through his suit as if it wasn't an impenetrable shield. It had long legs with two yellow rings on each of them, and a large abdomen. With its legs spread, it was big enough to fit in the palm of a hand.

"Reinforce the suit. And don't slack off. Make it thicker. I don't want to ever feel that arrow again, got it?"

The spider twitched as the effect of his quirk activated and forced it to obey. It lowered its head, and started producing more silk, hardening it and making it the same hard yet elastic consistency that used to weave his suit. Before crawling back inside the suit, the spider looked forward, sad that it was making it more difficult for Masuta to be taken out by this mysterious attacker.

"I'll admit, Karasu," Masuta kept on, as he followed the wolves as they tracked her by the scent, "not anyone would be able to breed my previous batch of crows to create these magnificent new quirks."

Izumi gritted her teeth under her helmet after hearing that, but kept on moving forward. The crows had found that while she was trying to kill the Whisperer, so she wouldn't fall for his taunts. After all, she was very aware of that hunting method, as she was planning on doing something similar.

"I even noticed that you are also wearing some durable material. I'm quite proud of my suit, one of my finest achievements was developing the quirk that made it possible. If I had to wonder, you are wearing something made out of the corpse of a dead, quirked animal, am I right? Was it one of the ones that we made you hunt as Diana?"

He gritted his teeth at that, not bothering to show through his voice his displeasure at that, as he kept on following her trail through the wolves. His hand clutched his chest all the way, still in intense pain from the arrow shot.

"I bet you had fun making fools out of us, huh? Was it from the deer with the Nemean Fur quirk? You returned a mangled body with no fur whatsoever. I'll have fun making my crows tear it off your body once I'm done with you."

Izumi kept her distance, following the crows through the halls and avoiding him. She used her anger to fuel her and ignore the pain. She heard a chitter-chatter from behind her, and turned around to find one of the bats that were with the Whisperer.

She remembered seeing two, so the other could have found her already and gone back to guide its master. The crows immediately turned and tried to go for the bat, but it managed to evade them.

The other bat returned to Masuta, panting and tired, but knowing where Izumi was. Masuta looked at the falcon.

"Go on ahead and attack Karasu."

The bat started flying again and the falcon followed suit. They quickly went over halls and crossed corners, with the bat using an enhanced echolocation to find the other bat, sending a signal back to it, while the falcon followed it, with Masuta and the rest not too far behind them.

Izumi was with a few crows now, and they managed to get the bat thanks to their numbers, and quickly tore it apart using their beaks, eating it.

The other bat and the falcon reached them, and the falcon immediately dove towards the crows on the floor eating the bat. Izumi reacted fast, getting a dart from her busted sleeve and throwing it at the falcon, forcing it to phase through it, and become the intangible, glitchlike state in which it was invulnerable.

The crows quickly recovered, and followed after the falcon, which was quickly overwhelmed, forced to constantly be in that glitchy intangible state in order to not be torn apart. Izumi saw the other bat clinging to the wall, out of danger, and decided to get rid of that problem quickly.

She saw the falcon try to fly off, and go back from where it came from, avoiding the murder of crows following it. She wouldn't make the same mistake of wasting ammo by missing a shot.

Izumi flicked her hands, getting her claws out from the gloves, and jumped at the wall where the bat was on, clinging to it by her fingers alone like she had done when she was going down the elevator shaft.

The bat wasn't fast enough, and she was able to swipe a hand at it from the wall just as it started to fly away. Izumi tossed the remains of its body into the floor and leaned back, clinging from the wall.

The falcon was coming her way, and wasn't able to avoid her when she swiped at it, thinking it would be safe by flying higher. It glitched mid air, but Izumi could feel that she somehow managed to hit some part of it. Maybe it couldn't phase through big things like her hand, and only small ones like darts and bullets.

The falcon fell to the floor, one winged bloodied and torn, glitching and uselessly flailing when the crows reached it. It tried to glitch and phase out, but couldn't do much to avoid them for long, being helpless on the floor.

The crows ripped its feathers and flesh, and started tearing into it. Izumi got off the wall by retracting the claws back into the gloves, and whistled to the crows to keep going, before the Whisperer caught up to them, leaving the corpse behind.

Masuta was furious when he found out the torn bodies of the three flying animals he had sent ahead. The wolves kept on running, following Izumi's scent, and Masuta followed them along.

"You think you are hot shit for killing my experiments, Karasu!" He kept on shouting as he ran, making it harder on himself, as he wasn't so young that he could run like that without losing his breath. "This is nothing! That armor you got may have protected you from the bear, but I have something much worse in store from you!"

The white tiger growled, feeling acknowledged, as it ran beside the Whisperer.

"Why are you running!? Scared that you can't get through my defense no matter what you try? My suit and kinetic barrier are two of the best achievements of my research! And you think you can compare it with mere throwing toys on fire! You disappoint me, Karasu! Other than the metal crow, your use of the rest is mediocre at best!"

Izumi frowned, signaling Urusai to fly closer to her once she saw them join her and the rest of the crows. Urusai landed on Izumi's extended arm, and nodded.

"Use? Of course a failure like you would see it like that."

Urusai projected Izumi's voice, which traveled through the different halls, reaching the Whisperer from different sources. Confused by that, Masuta stopped, looking around trying to figure out where her voice was coming from. He finally had struck a nerve too deep for Karasu to ignore, but wasn't able to capitalize on it to find her.

He regretted not being able to influence the construction of the underground facilities to not have so many corridors and halls. The wolves had also been confused by the echoing voice, and were back to trying to pick up her trail by her scent.

"Failure? Creating and controlling so many quirks is much more of an accomplishment than killing them, and some stupid , third rate heroes!"

The Whisperer shouted back, unwilling to take any attacks to his pride.

"Besides, I think I figured something out." Masuta smiled, as the wolves picked back her trail and started moving again. "Your quirk is bird exclusive, isn't it? That's why all the prey you handed over wasn't taken over by you, am I right? You have the gall to call me a failure when your quirk is that much more limited!? Admit it! You are just here to remove your competition!"

"Competition? You think too highly of yourself, enemy of the crows."

"Enemy of the– what kinda title is that, brat!?" He shouted back, immediately regretting it as he lost his breath again. He was too old to shout while running. "I– ugh, I've done so much more only to be recognized by something like that!"

"It's the only thing you're worth being known for."

A vein popped in Masuta's head from the sheer anger he was feeling. He really hated how calm Karasu sounded despite being the one running away from him. Wasn't she fatigued whatsoever? She had to run from and kill the splitting boar, and before that kill so many more animals and villains, was she on drugs or something?

"So what you are saying is that you aren't an enemy of the crows, yourself? What is this, a symbiotic relationship for you!?"

"No. You messed with my family. And crows always get back when wronged."

Masuta was stunned for a few seconds, registering all the information he had just received. Then he burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! You can't be serious! Family? Haha!"

He was forced to stop, unable to keep running from laughing so much.

"You, haha! You declared war against the Super Animal Commission and the Order of Orion because of the crows wanting to get back at me! Out of respect? Camaraderie? Ha! They may be smart, but they are just animals! Evolution chose us to reign above them! They are our pets, food, clothes! Family? Haha! I didn't expect that the infamous Karasu was just a pathetic runt at the beck and call of beasts as rotten as crows."

Izumi stopped, and drew out B-tip, nocking a Black Arrow on it. Judging from the sound of the Whisperer's laughter, and remembering the layout of the halls she came from, the distance in between them and the obstacles in the way, she pointed the arrow directly into the corner of a wall, and released the strings of the bow.

The Black Arrow pierced right through the wall's corner and then the next corner behind it, and would have gone directly into Masuta's head if the barrier around it didn't curve the arrow at the very last moment, making it bury into the wall by his side.

"Ah! You fucking pyscho!" Masuta shouted, his laughter being immediately cut off, as he fell on his butt. The animals around him looked straight at him, Masuta could feel them judging him.

"What are you looking at?" They all stopped, and looked forward. "Do something and help me up." The tiger helped its master get up, not bothering to resist the order and doing it willingly.

"You'd fucking do all of this for good for nothing birds!? Go against me and killing off your friends and colleagues just because of 'family'?"

"When have I killed any of my friends? The Order was a bunch of has-been and wannabe villains that lost any right to be called hunters. I'm doing this because the murder is my friends, family. But I get how a loser like you wouldn't understand, since you see them as nothing more than property. Pay attention, scum, they are the furthest thing from your property. They are of equal standing with me. Karasu is the villain for hire who is going to fucking end your career."

Meanwhile, the crows on the last floor guided Himiko to the final room. She was panting, blood all over her mouth, arms, legs, knives, and the Blood Cape a crimson red, full of the hunter's blood.

Her bangs were covered in a mix of sweat and blood that made them stuck to her forehead. The crows surrounded her and the door to the room, ready to eliminate the last people in the building.

They had hunted down every single member of the Order, worker of the commission and person inside the walled off SASC headquarters. They were all tired, Himiko's feet were starting to complain from having to exert herself so much while barefoot, and the adrenaline that was allowing her to push through the pain in her chest was fading.

But their job wasn't done. She sighed, her signature face splitting smile appearing again. She dragged her hand through her bangs, forcing them to stick to her head. Izumi was counting on them.

"Let's make Karasu-chan praise us~"

She giggled, burying her knife on the doorknob, and kicking the door open. The higher ups of the Commission, all hidden there, in the last room of the building, screamed in terror, after seeing a bloodied Himiko open the door and a swarm of crows fly inside, cawing and attacking them.

"Ahhh!"

"Where's Ripper!?"

"He was supposed to protect us!"

"Ripper?" Himiko tilted her head, her knife poking at her chin. Despite those being gestures to express being in deep thought, Himiko's eyes never left her prey, and her smile didn't falter.

Kuro hopped closer to Himiko, cawing at her.

"Oh, I see~ I don't think Ripper will be joining us~" She couldn't resist licking the blood still dripping from her knife. "Now~ should we start, guys~?"

"You'll end my career!? You wouldn't be anything without my crows and all the other quirks I developed that you hunted down!"

"Don't flatter yourself. If you wanted those animals gone, it's because you couldn't handle them yourself. You didn't make anything. We made each other. I've grown along with the crows more than anything you ever 'built' using them." Izumi felt disgusted saying that.

"More than– I built a fucking empire out of those birds! And you aren't even using them properly!"

"You call that an empire? People just remember the crows, not you. You left it all behind, including your legacy. Power, wealth, status? All useless. We don't need any of that. I'll live with my friends as I wish, fighting for what I care about, killing for the thrill of it, building any gadgets that I come up with… After this, I– no, we'll do so much more. But you? You'll do nothing, as you've accomplished nothing."

"Nothing!?" Masuta shouted, his eyes bloodshot and red from anger. "I turned those lowly quirks in the crows into what they are today! I became the kingpin of Musutafu! Even working for the Commission, I developed masterclass quirks that will bring billions of yen! Quirks that you can't pass through! If you really think I didn't do anything, come back here and try to kill me! I'll fucking rip apart your precious family in front of you while reminding you how you couldn't kill me!"

"So you do value your accomplishments more than anything, good."

"Good!? What the fuck are you on about now!?"

"Well, it's just, it wouldn't be enough to just kill you, you know. Your research has sensitive information about my family, and that can't stand."

Masuta eyes widened in realization, realizing where the hall he was currently in was leading to.

"You– you weren't running away at all!"

"Assuming so was your own fault."

Izumi said, inside of the main lab room. Rows after rows of cages were piled up, acting as walls, with lots of different animals inside. More dogs, cats, birds, farm cattle, boars, deer, you name it.

Izumi spread her claws, and started slashing and opening all the cages, the animals running away in the opposite direction of where Masuta's voice was in.

"Stop her!" He shouted, getting closer and closer, but his voice didn't reach the room, with Urusai replicating the same whistle modified by Izumi's voice changer that drowned out every other sound. Only the animals around him heard it, obeying the urgency in his tone and running ahead of him towards the lab.

The animals freed from their cages instead, unable to hear the Whisperer, fled in the opposite direction, taking their chance. None tried attacking Izumi, and just ran off, only thinking of getting the hell away from there. Izumi grabbed the last Flaming Dart from her sleeve, as well as another device that she had hidden on the strap in her belt, and held them in front of her.

She smiled at the crows, staying here with her, waiting for the Whisperer to return. They wouldn't hide anymore, with the trap perfectly set for him. Izumi put the device back on her belt and snapped her fingers right over the dart, sending a spark and setting it ablaze.

The white flames held on the fletching of the dart, not spreading yet through all the dart until it was thrown.

"Ready?"

The crows cawed in response, though very little could be heard with Urusai still creating white noise to drown out the Whisperer's quirk.

Izumi threw the dart towards the main computer, which immediately gave in to the dart, who went straight inside the PC, and made it explode, sending parts and fire everywhere in the room, spreading to the other machines and the cages.

Izumi dug her claws on the wall and got herself higher, to avoid the fire spreading quickly through the room, and to get to the high ground. She held her rifle one handed, her other hand complaining over holding most of their weight using just her grabbing strength.

Wolves started coming through the entrance, forcing Urusai to stop shouting (or rather whistling, if you could call it that) his white noise. Izumi immediately blew the head of the first wolf with her rifle, sending the others into panic, barking at her and trying to reach her.

As she suspected, whatever order that the Whisperer gave them, didn't allow them to avoid the fire to reach her, and they burned before coming close to bite her off her high point. She continued shooting at the animals that came through the entrance, with the crows in the room grabbing the Black Bullets and reloading them in the rifle for her, as she wasn't exactly free handed.

Eventually, the white tiger that had been with the Whisperer the entire time came in, and started glowing, glaring at Izumi and roaring. She shot it in between its eyes, killing off the glow of its fur instantly. The tiger fell on its side, its fur starting to catch on fire.

Izumi shot the tiger again, aiming for its heart. That beast hadn't left the Whisperer's side until now, so she didn't trust it to go down that easily, and just used an additional bullet, just in case.

One of the crows on the other side of the room cawed. The Whisperer was finally here. Izumi signalled two crows with her rifle, and pointed to the other exit. The crows got it instantly, and flew away.

"Wait! You belong to me! Listen to me!"

Masuta said, running into the room and screaming to the seemingly fleeing crows. He covered his face with his arm, to protect himself from the smoke and fire. The snake around his neck clearly didn't like being in a room on fire, but Masuta didn't let it go.

The rest of the crows laid on top of Izumi, on her arms, shoulders and head, away from the smoke, and from the Whisperer's sight.

"What the fuck have you done, you fucking psycho!?"

He backed away from a sudden burst of flames, coming from another computer exploding after being engulfed by flames. Masuta glared at the body of the tiger, about to be engulfed in flames itself, and kicked it on the side.

"Get up! You'll die when I order you to!"

The tiger's eyes rolled back into looking straight, and then its fur started to glow again. Masuta looked around, seeing years of his research gone just like that, the only surviving piece of it being on an external memory in his pocket.

Years of holding so many subjects and mixing them to produce quirks gone in an instant, escaped from their cages. He touched his suit, and grabbed the snake in his neck. That snake, the spider in his suit, and the tiger currently resurrecting itself were the last animals under his direct control that he had.

He had to get out of this room, find the escaped beasts and have them shield them against Karasu as he takes that opportunity to flee. There was no gain to remaining here for longer.

That made him stall for a moment. Wasn't Karasu in this room? Where was she now?

Izumi retracted her claws, letting herself fall from the wall. Before the Whisperer could react, she jumped at his back, and locked her arms behind his armpits, and her legs around his waist, trapping him.

"What the– Karasu!?"

He tried to shake her off of him, struggling to not fall off and step into the fire. There were suddenly a lot of crows flying around in the room, but Izumi was holding him too tightly to be able to reach for them and touch them, putting them under his control.

"You'll regret this, you bitch! Once the tiger wakes up, I'll make him rip your throat!"

"Thank you for telling me the snake's quirk earlier- Your info about the animals I have to handle is always the best."

The snake's quirk? He hadn't revealed it, he only remembered mentioning the kinetic shield that prote–

Masuta widened his eyes, as he realized that Karasu was holding something in front of his face, and was slowly moving it closer to his face. She had figured out that something moving slowly could get past the kinetic barrier? Just based on that brief explanation.

"No! Wait! Stop! AAAAAAHHHH!"

He desperately tried to break free of her hold, but couldn't get break free. Izumi didn't let him have the chance, and dug her claws on his shoulder. They didn't pierce his suit, by he screamed in pain, feeling at least something from it.

"Nonono! I ca–!"

Izumi finally managed to get pass the barrier, and slowly put the device just over the Whisperer's mouth. Just as it touched his lips, the device opened up and wrapped around his head, clinging tightly and painfully around his jaw.

Izumi let him go, and kicked him outside of the burning room. The Whisperer desperately tried to get the device off of his face, and realized just what it was. A gag. A mechanical gag that dug into his skin, gripping into it painfully and forced itself inside of his mouth while hugging his face and jaw with a deathgrip.

He couldn't speak.

He was defenseless.

Masuta looked up, the terror finally sinking in, feeling himself get cold despite the heat of the fire so close to him. He couldn't help but cry at the sight of Karasu, body jet black, her faceless helmet facing back at him, as she and her crows left the room with the fire behind him.

"Thank you again for the information." Izumi took off her helmet, openly smiling at the Whisperer, completely at her mercy, a sadistic and triumphant look on her eyes. "We couldn't have done it without you."

And that's the chapter! The Whisperer has been silenced! I wonder what Izumi will do to him now~ We are nearing the end of the arc, hope you guys have been enjoying it so far. I really like writing Izumi getting in the zone and working out several new quirks in quick succession, but also love when she lets herself act wild and animalistic, like when she clawed the bats and the falcon. I like how calculating she is, but I've been waiting to introduced the claws of her claws since forever, since they allow her to be much more animalistic. Clingling to walls won't be the last thing she'll do the next time she acts like this~ Though it'll be very difficult to outdo Himiko when she's biting the throats of her victims off lol