In one of the higher floors of the SASC headquarters building, Trickshot was scouting their surroundings with a pair of binoculars. After a while, he finally stopped, zooming in on some dark spots a few buildings away from them.
He pressed the comm in his ear, but didn't lose eye contact with the target.
"You were right, Panzer. There's some crows looking at us."
On the floor right behind him, the rest of the Guard Team and the higher ups of the SASC including Masuta received his message nice and clear.
"Good, keep watch, Trickshot, there may be more watching elsewhere."
"Got it."
"We are being watched? How is this possible? Karasu can't possibly have known that we are targeting him already!"
Jikken said with an exasperated sigh.
"What's that, president? Worried to be in someone else's sight?" Masuta said teasingly while drinking the higher up's expensive wine on a glass.
"Yes! Dōbutsu-san, it's Karasu! Never failed an assassination? The villain that evaded a whole group of heroes and the police of an entire city? We were supposed to give the surprise attack! Not him! He could know that we already sent vi–hunters after him!"
"Relax, mister president." Panzerrfaust said calmly. "We already discussed the possibility of Karasu being wary of the SASC after his crows were discovered."
"My crows." Masuta replied, giving Panzerfaust an unfriendly scowl.
"Yes, forgive me." The old hunter said, unflinching, used to take his employers side in order to avoid meaningless arguments. "It was only a possibility, but if there was indeed a nest of crows so close, it was a big possibility that Karasu would have put some scouts in just in case. That basically confirms that Karasu has a connection with the nest that Diana mentioned. Deathglare?"
"On it, Panzerfaust. I'm trying to contact the Hunting Team, but the comms aren't working."
"Th-they are the finest earpieces available!" One of the SASC higher ups defended, the one that had given the hunters of Orion the earpieces.
"I'm not accusing you. Is there a possibility that one of the offspring of a crow may have disturbed our communications?" Deathglare asked Masuta.
"Hmmm, that may be the case. Though it could also be a device at play."
"A device? So Karasu may already know there's an ambush coming? The Hunting Team may get attacked!" Another of the higher ups said with panic in his face.
"Please gentlemen, relax." Panzerfaust tried calming the men. "Don't underestimate us, hunters of the Order of Orion. If the Hunting Team faces some sort of adversity, I'm confident they'll figure it out. Diana has traversed the forest countless times for her hunts. The moment they find something out of place, they'll be able to get out of the area of disturbance from the communications and contact us."
"And if Karasu decides to come here instead~" Pitcher licked her lips, giving some of the other men shivers down their spine. "We are also here~ Have faith in us, us the Guard Team, and the Hunting Team~ This isn't a hard job for us~"
"Precisely. Besides, the disturbances may not even be caused from Karau or any unknown quirked crow. How do you usually contact Diana? There must have been once were she was already in the forest."
"If she was, I don't know." Jikken said with a sigh. "We only contacted her handler, and he never mentioned there being poor signal on Tia."
"Unless you go too deep into the mountains, outside the forest, there should be strong signal."
Jikken's secretary added.
"So there may actually be something blocking our comms. Do you want a few of us to go join the Hunting Team, Panzerfaust?" Overkill asked, crossing one pair of arms and cracking the knuckles of her other set of arms.
"Not yet. We can't make our presence here weaken as a result. What if we are being observed and Karasu is waiting for an opening where the defenses of the SASC are down?"
"You are being overly cautious, Panzerfaust."
"I don't think so, Shotgun. Karasu has shown they can overcome situations where they are up against multiple people, and their speciality is assassination. We don't have to ignore the possibility of him coming to us."
The route of the conversation was starting to worry some of the higher ups, Jikken included. Masuta was nonchalant and carefree. Either he didn't care about everybody else's worries and concerns, or he was confident that he wouldn't come to any harm.
Panzerfaust sighed, seeing the overly concerned looks of some of the people in the room.
"Agent, Shotgun, could you go up and help Trickshot with scoping any other crows or anyone suspicious getting closer?"
Agent gave a silent nod, his face as featureless and unreadable as always, and got up from his seat. Shotgun sighed and started munching on a piece of coal, but didn't protest. Both men left for the upper floor where they had a better view of the city.
"Don't worry, gentlemen. As Pitcher and I have said already, as long as we the Guard Team are here, Karasu won't have it easy and will be stopped in that sort of direct attack, no matter the help from any crows or animals under his control. And the Hunting Team will get out of the forest if they notice something wrong. Deathglare, keep trying to contact them in case the problem with communications is unrelated."
"Yes, sir."
The way Panzerfaust addressed them calmly and gave the orders to the other hunters reassured them that they had hired and absorbed the Order of Orion for a reason, and that everything was going to be alright.
Panzerfaust finally relaxed a little himself after seeing the tension in the room lessen, and got closer to Deathglare,whispering into his ear.
"If you haven't heard anything of the Hunting Team in 2 hours, we may have to do something. Hound and Backfire would know to come back after realizing the comms are down."
He nodded wordlessly and kept trying to get a connection with his comms. Panzerfaust sighed again, sensing that it was going to be a long afternoon and probably, night.
19 - And hunting hunters
Himiko's disguise had completely fallen off her body, and she did nothing to hide her nude body from the hunters. She crouched, and some crows let her Blood Cape fall into her back, and Himiko quickly wrapped the neckpiece around her, to keep it secured.
"What!? It's just some crazy girl!?" Pluto shouted, getting too close to the edge of the tree he was using as cover, and having a bullet nick his ear send his blood flying forward.
Pluto cursed and leaned back on the tree, holding his bleeding ear. Besides him, the rookies were starting to hyperventilate, and Shadowsneaker was shivering, his knees wobbling. Pluto thanked for the quirk of that fool hiding his scent, he couldn't deal with an ally pissing himself like he did.
Wild jumped at Himiko, swiping at her with the claws on her hands. Himiko dodged by doing a somersault backwards, making her cape flutter. Wild was about to follow after her, but Urusai flew straight at her face, annoyed from being forced to leave his favorite spot on top of Himiko's head.
The hunter growled and was ready to tear the crow apart, but she suddenly saw a large mass of black getting to her, and barely dodged the murder coming straight at her. Still, Wild miscalculated, being surprised by the mass of darkness and for a moment thinking it was some strange large creature, and not dozens of crows flying at her.
She managed to raise her arms to at least cover her face, but she was scratched, clawed and pecked relentlessly. Risking getting shot, Pluto filled his lungs with air, and then blew a powerful gust of freezing wind to the crows, who were pushed out of the way from Wild, who took her chance and ran back to get behind some tree to not get shot, and licked her wounds.
Shadowsneaker tried contacting the rest of the Order through the comms, but was surprised over some sort of white noise jamming the signal, unable to connect with anything.
"G-guys! Something is jamming our signal!"
""WHAT!?"" The older hunters screamed, checking their own comms and finding them useless as well. Himiko meanwhile was minding her own business, just looking at Wild.
"Oh~ so cute~ you lick your paws like a real puppy~ Say, can I lick your blood too~?"
Himiko giggled, not having moved from her spot since her somersault, not even from the freezing winds that had made the crows retreat for a moment. Pluto was unnerved that she didn't even show that she was cold even though except for the strange plastic cape she wore, she was buck ass naked.
His pride wouldn't let this shapeshifter get away with this, he would turn her into a popsicle even if it was the last thing he– Wait, shapeshifter?
"You… You aren't Diana! And you aren't Karasu! Who the hell are you!?"
"Ding, ding, ding! Full points, Pluto!"
Himiko made a V with her hands, hopping around as if she were just a bubbly girl and not a deranged psycho that had started cutting them down.
"As for who I am~ I'm Toga Himiko~! I love blood and I love becoming the people I love! I don't love you guys, but I'll still take your blood~ No hard feelings~"
"No hard feelings!? You fucking bitch, you killed my mutts! Backfire is–" Whiplash screeched, losing her voice at the end, and making the crows surrounding them to caw at the hunters.
The rookies shivered, and shrinking on themselves, feeling the cacophony of caws and even words and insults coming from what should be wild animals echo around them.
"Frauds!" "Caw!" "Kill!" "Liar!" "Caw!" "I'll tear your limbs!" "You psycho!"
They even were repeating the words that the hunters had said earlier, twisting them in between caws and making them feel surrounded by more crows than they really were.
"Oh you poor birdies~ Did you get scared over that chilly wind~?" Himiko said, hugging a few of the crows.
"Wait," Boar froze, seeing a white crow on Himiko's arms, "that's the white crow! The fire one!"
"Hmm~? You do know about Shiro~! Look, Shiro you have fans~" Himiko's face changed in an instant, the bubbly girl that had been hitting them with an extreme case of gap moe was gone, and the ruthless killer that had decapitated Hound was back. "I'm done sucking this doggy now guys~ You can have the rest~"
The hunters realized in that instant that Himiko was standing on top of the headless body of Hound, and that there was a red wire connected to his body, and attached to the plastic cape she was wearing, and dying it red.
"You bitch! What have you done with his body!" Boar growled at her.
"Hmm~? Didn't I say that already~? You are pretty slow, Boar~"
"You little–"
"I just sucked his pretty red blood~ See~? Suck suck suck~"
Himiko showed them her cape while puckering her lips, seeing that it was more like a bag than a cape. She stepped forward, leaving the drained body behind, while her bare foot touched the ground, unbothered in the slightest.
The crows didn't wait a single second more, flying straight at Hound's body, along with Backfire's and Whiplash's dogs bodies as well. They dug their claws and teared the flesh, eating it and not stopping even as their beaks hit bone, clacking against it repeatedly as they tore the flesh from the corpse.
Shadowsneaker doubled over himself and threw up. The rest weren't much better, be it rookies or veterans. Karasu and this Toga Himiko were far more unhinged than they thought.
"Ew~ You are the one that can hide your smell, right? I hope that includes your barf."
Himiko made a face, and waved her hand, as if to shoo him away. They would show some shock over Himiko switching from threatening to casual so fast that she seemed to actually shapeshift while keeping the same face, but Shadowsneaker gagged loudly, throwing up again.
Pluto grinded his teeth, his patience waving thin.
"Get up you idiot! You are exposed! You don't have time to feel disgusted right now!"
Shadowsneaker raised his face slightly to look at Pluto, vile drooling still on his chin, when a bullet zoomed in and went straight through his throat, then buried straight into the ground, leaving a deep hole with some smoke coming out of it from the seer speed of the bullet.
The rookie choked on his own blood, panicking and crying while gurgling something intelligible, only into his own vomit, tainting it with his blood as he slowly choked to death.
Enharden screamed, panicking and accidentally getting out of her cover. She managed to react in time, grabbing her bat with both hands and putting it in front of her head,facing the direction the bullets were coming from.
She lucked out, and a bullet went straight to her quirk reinforced bat, ricocheting from it and sending the bullet straight into a nearby tree, giving it a straight hole and making the crows panic and fly off. The force had been enough to make Enharden fall on her butt, but she managed to crawl herself back up, and started running away.
Seeing her do that, Nedusa felt compelled to follow her fellow remaining rookie and ran after her, intending to use whatever time to reload Karasu had to good use.
"Come back, you cowards!" Whiplash shouted, and Pluto jumped forward, taking the distraction to send a gust of freezing wind towards Himiko. Unfortunately, Himiko had seen him coming, and had thrown the white crow straight at them.
Shiro flipped his wing, catching heat and going straight into the freezing frost. He spun in the air, using the cold air to his advantage, as the hot air around him increased the speed of his spinning, trying to go further up. But instead of letting it rise, Shiro spread his wings, releasing all the heat around him at once, and pushing the cold air down.
It made the ground below him freeze, while pushing the wind to his sides, missing Himiko completely.
"Caw! Fire!"
Shiro screamed, and flew straight at Pluto, who had to duck to avoid getting his claws right on his eyes. His throat was starting to freeze, and couldn't do another big gust like that.
He glared at Shiro as it flew up. He hated fire quirks, and how everyone seemed to have such a better time handling their temperature than him and his Frost Breath. He didn't expect a crow to be able to stop a freezing gust of his so easily, powerful fire quirk or not.
Shiro cawed again, flying up and getting away, only to go down fast, catching fire and speed, and shooting right into Pluto and Whiplash's direction.
"Fiiiiire!" Shiro shouted, and barely missed the two hunters while leaving a trail of fire behind him.
Pluto managed to move out of the way at the last moment, feeling the heat cook his side and face. He cursed under his breath, hating the fact the heat soothed the pain of his cold throat. Whiplash used her hair to grab a nearby tree, and pulled on it to force her own body to move towards it, and evade Shiro.
Pluto put two hands over his mouth, closing his fists and doing a makeshift tunnel right in front of his mouth. He shot a quick gaze of cold air right at Shiro, one much faster and concentrated than his other gushes of air.
Feeling the shift of temperature, Shiro managed to spin in the air, using the heated air around him to propel himself outside of the main range of the freezing air bullet.
"Fuck! Forget capturing that little shit! I'm going to freeze it to death!"
"Relax! Pluto! We already lost too many of us!" Boar growled, pulling him from the shoulder.
"And those two brats have fucking ran off! Stupid coward pieces of shit! When I get my hands on them, I'll–"
"Whiplash!"
"Don't cut me off, Wild! Do I have to teach you some manners again!?"
"It's not that! Toga Himiko, she has disappeared!"
The hunters felt a chill run down their spines, one completely unrelated Pluto's Frost Breath. The crows around them stopped flying in circles and started going off into the direction Nedusa and Enharden had fled to.
"Those idiots! They are going to get themselves killed!" Boar made to ran after them, but was stopped by Whiplash.
"Leave them! They ran off on their own! They don't deserve our help! Wild! Track that nudist shapeshifter and rip her throat."
Wild grunted, and leaned her body down on all fours, sniffing the ground with her snout, trying to get Himiko's scent.
"We can't just let them be picked off by a bunch of crows! We've already lost four hunters!"
"Four? You better not be counting Diana!" Pluto growled at Boar.
"That Toga Himiko turned into her! She said she's with Karasu! She clearly killed her first and was luring us deep all along!"
"And what if Diana was also in with them!? How do we know she doesn't really care about going after Karasu! We know shit about that bitch!"
"Hihihi~ You are pretty funny, Pluto~"
Himiko's voice echoed around them, coming from all directions and none at the same time.
"Wild!" Whiplash growled, as she got back and back with Boar and Pluto.
"I don't know! Her scent is soaked in blood, and everything around us smells like that!"
"You are right, you know~? We planned all this to hunt you guys down~"
"I fucking knew it!" Pluto yelled, feeling vindicated, but the other two realized what was going on.
"If you are telling us this…" Whiplash said.
"That means…" Boar paled.
"Ding ding ding! Full points~! You guys are dead meat~"
Himiko came out of the shadows, with her Black Knife in hand and Blood Cap fluttering behind her. She would have split Wild's head in half if Whiplash hadn't pulled her back wrapping her hair around Wild's waist.
Boar jumped from his spot with the other hunters, fist reared back at his waist, in a stance similar to martial arts like karate. Himiko giggled and jumped to the side, using a tree as a point of reference to spin in the air. Boar's knuckleduster wrapped fist went straight into the tree, pulverizing it and breaking it into two.
Himiko jumped straight at him, and Boar tried covering himself with his arms, and closed his eyes instinctively. She did another somersault, stepping on Boar's head and passing through him. He turned around, furious from being used as a stepping stool, but froze when he saw the girl.
"Hmmm, not my favorite." Himiko said, her mouth red from blood and holding a severed hand wearing knuckledusters just at her tongue's length from her mouth. She tossed the hand to the ground and gave Boar a chilling smile that showed her teeth covered in blood.
He looked down, and saw that his right hand was missing, blood leaking out from his wrist. The adrenaline running through his body stopped suppressing the pain in that instant, and Boar gasped, about to scream in pain.
"Aa–!"
A bullet soared through the forest, hit Boar straight in his forehead and pushed his head backwards from the force of it.
"Eeghhuhhh…"
Boar's lungs deflated with a groan as he fell backwards, splattering the ground below his head and stump with blood.
"Nice assist~" Himiko giggled, licking the blood from her knife as Urusai flew back on top of her head.
"FUCK!"
Pluto screamed, blowing freezing wind at Himiko, but Shiro flew right in front of the trajectory of his gust of wind, dispersing the gust with his trail of flames and making a powerful gust of wind that pushed Pluto back.
"Wild! Get that bitch!"
"RAAAAH!"
Wild roared, lunging after Himiko, who stepped back and somehow disappeared into the shadows of the forest again. Wild cursed and tried following her, being so close she could make out her scent easier.
Pluto glared at the dead Boar, and then at the direction of the were the shots were coming from. He took out his jacket, and blew a powerful gust of freezing air into it. The jacket frost immediately and became solid, a thick layer of ice over it.
It hurt to hold it, but Pluto used it as a shield and marched forward in the direction of the shots.
"Pluto! What are you doing!? You are going to get shot!" Whiplash screamed at him, fear finally visible on her face after seeing so many of them die this easily.
"I'm going to get to that bastard and freeze him to the fucking ground even if it's the last thing I do! Then I'm going to do the same to Diana!"
"Mispronouning in the XXIII century~? Naughty boy~"
Himiko's voice came from several directions at the same time again, echoing through the trees and making Wild bark at nothing, looking around disoriented.
"Mispronoun– wait! Don't tell me that bitch is…!" Pluto gripped his makeshift ice shield harder as he connected the dots. "Diana was Karasu all along!"
A bullet went straight into Pluto's shield, but it held out. He was filled with righteous fury and marched forward, thinking he was safe under his shield and with a desire to kill Karasu, no, to kill…
"DIANAAA!"
"Ding, ding, ding! You guys are finally figuring all out~ A pity you won't be able to tell anyone~"
Whiplash checked her comms again. They were still jammed. She cursed under her breath. So Diana did betray them, and they couldn't contact the rest of the order to warn them about it or ask for help.
Panzerfaust was right, Karasu was much more formidable than they thought, but it seems that Karasu, or rather Diana had already been planning along for far longer than them.
"You guys are so much fun to look at~ Just desperately wanting to get away or fight~ You are hunters, right? You should know not to mess around with the apex~"
Himiko mocked them, feeling pretty confident in herself, Izumi and the crows. A crow cawed near Himiko, warning her just in time, as she jumped out of the way from an incoming attack from Wild, while Urusai flew off her head.
"Woah~ you changed again~" Himiko grinned, lowering her head and holding the Black Knife in front of her, getting on guard for any other attack.
Wild had transformed again, gabbing feathers from the crows in one hand, and used them to transform. Her hands and feet had transformed into sharp talons, and there was a small beak were her mouth used to be.
Her face had sprouted a few black feathers, and from the way she had moved earlier, Himiko assumed that she had become lighter. Was it because of the crows' hollow bones?
"You are so interesting~ our quirks are very similar~"
"I'm nothing like you, freak." Wild growled, even after having lost the dog-like traits from her previous transformation. "I do not hide from a fight, and fight for a greater purpose. I'm Whiplash's dog, and I'll maul you to pieces."
"Get her, Wild! Buy me some time!" Whiplash shouted, running in the opposite direction from Pluto, leaving him and Wild behind, as they heard another bullet hit against the ice shield, and Shiro cawing and screaming 'fire' as he dove into Pluto's path.
"You fight for her? She doesn't seem to think much of you."
"Hmph, as if you would understand. You are just a brat, unrestrained, unfocused and bloodlusted. The only way to focus all of this animalistic desire is to submit to a master and become theirs. Perhaps you too were looking for someone to control you, and that's why you follow Karasu."
Himiko's face darkened as she got an honest murderous glare pointed at Wild, who didn't let herself flinch, putting her talon hands in front of her to use in case of an attack.
"No one controls me. I'm Toga Himiko, and you are right, we are nothing alike. I don't deny who I am any longer, and I'm definitely not a coward hiding behind someone else." Himiko glared at her while gripping her knife harder, itching to cut and paint it in red.
Wild screeched in a way similar to the crows when they get angry, and tries jumping at Himiko again. Unfortunately the crows have another idea, and Urusai flies out of nowhere right into her face, repeating her same screech but amplified around her head, bursting her eardrums.
She gasped and wailed in pain, unable to hear her voice, and barely manages to jump out of the way as Himiko slashes down on her, drawing a shallow but big cut on her chest.
The crows don't leave Wild any time to rest, and rush at her, forcing her to defend herself and try to block them. She remembered what happened to Boar as she defended himself, so she quickly dropped the crow feathers she had grabbed, and picked a patch of fur she always kept on her loincloth.
Her crow features disappeared and were quickly replaced by tiger features. Her skin covered in orange fur, and her arms grew thick, muscles tightening and growing while her nails sharpened into claws. Her jaw grew to make space for her huge and sharp teeth.
A striped tail grew out of her back, and her ears were covered in fur, which quickly got stained by the blood leaking from inside her eardrums. The cloth working as her bra had fallen off when Himiko slashed her, but her fur now hid her exposed chest.
To think she was forced to use this patch of fur just for a brat was humiliating, and specially forced to use it defensively to defend against the attacks of crows, puny little animals that were being an annoyance in this fight.
Wild roared and pushed the crows out of the way, most flying off and getting back into the trees where she couldn't get them.
"You call me a coward when you hide behind these pests instead of fighting yourself!?"
She roared at Himiko, despite not being able to hear anything, but the girl had disappeared from sight in between the attack of the crows and now.
"I don't rely on them~ we are just friends and working together~"
Himiko said despite knowing that Wild couldn't hear her anymore. She was still playing with her food, so she made herself known, pulling from Wild's tail before shoving her other hand down.
"AAAAGHHHH!"
Wild roared as the Black Knife cut her tail like butter. She tried swinging back, but Himiko was easily able to dodge the attack without having to do any acrobatics.
Wild was getting desperate, bleeding profusely from her chest and back, and starting to feel sluggish and cold. No! There's no way she could die here, failing one of Whiplash's orders! She had to kill Toga Himiko and return to her master.
The strength in her swings lacked the strength that her tiger hybrid transformation should have been giving her, to the point where Himiko easily got in Wild's personal space, grabbing her arm and stopping it in place, showing how much strength she had lost.
Himiko smirked, showing her teeth to Wild as she casually swung her knife, severing the hand from the arm she was holding. Wild screamed in pain and tried swinging her other claw at Himiko with the last of her strength, but the girl repeated the same maneuver, passing the knife from one hand to another, and using it to cut Wild's only remaining hand.
Not being able to hear her own screams almost gave Wild enough clarity through her anger, and she mindlessly lunged at Himiko, bleeding out and with useless stumps unable to slash her.
Himiko ducked, letting Wild's body come on top of her naturally from inertia, and then pushed herself up, knife pointing upwards.
Wild felt the knife bury into her throat, and immediately lose all feelings below her neck. She helplessly saw her body limp down on top of Himiko, bloodied arms dangling around the girl. Himiko must have cut her vertebrae, but not her entire neck, as her head didn't fall off from her body.
She was strangely calm, maybe because she could no longer feel pain, and saw how her body returned to her original form, losing the extra weight of all the muscles she gained when transforming into a tiger hybrid.
With just the weight of a grown woman on top of her, Himiko lifted Wild a bit from her, allowing Wild to see Himiko's face. She was smiling, a deep red blush on her face that matched the splatter of blood slowly getting bigger from all the blood coming from Wild's neck into Himiko.
She looked ecstatic, and Wild couldn't stop her from deepening the cut on her neck, and see her blood cascade down into Himiko's gleeful mouth. Her eyes were rolled to the back of her head, as she showered in Wild's blood.
The hunter found it hard to keep thinking, and the light of her eyes disappeared as her blood stopped coming out.
Himiko let the body down, feeling some strain in her arms and panting from staying too long in that position, drinking her blood. There was a big grin on her face, covered in red from the metallic and sticky ichor.
She didn't love Wild, she was cute and their quirks were similar, but she had submitted to what others thought of her and welcomed it. Himiko couldn't love someone like that, but she still drank her blood.
It was nowhere as sweet as Izumi's, but she wouldn't stop being Toga Himiko, and that meant drinking the blood of her prey. She licked her hand and knife, taking more of Wild's blood as the crows came own to snack on a new body, when Himiko noticed something.
"Huh, this didn't turn back." She said, grabbing the severed tail from the ground, and noticing that the hands she had cut hadn't transformed back either. "Weird. Maybe Izumi-chan has some idea as to why they haven't changed~ She's so smart when quirks are involved~ No, she's pretty smart with most things she does~"
Himiko giggled, sticking a needle from her cape into Wild's body, and looking back to the multiple corpses lying around. She blushed and couldn't help but smirk widely, bringing her hands to her face, the Black Knife coming oh so close to her face, but never betraying Himiko.
"Ahh~ so much blood to suck, suck suck~"
Himiko giggled, as her cape got redder. She was going to fill it to the brim. One of the elder crows flew at Himiko, an eyeball in its beak that he quickly swallowed.
"We are done here~ you can tell Izumi-chan or enjoy the feast with the others~"
"Caw!"
Himiko tilted her head, unsure, but she surprised herself, actually understanding him.
"Oh, sure, uhm… Ah! Here, have this! Already cut it earlier."
Himiko tossed him one of the furry hands of Wild, which the crow (or was it a raven? Most of the elders were according to Izumi) took in his beak, flying off into Izumi's location, the Hunter Cabin.
The vampire breathed a satisfied sigh, and went back to suck all the blood of the corpses laying around.
High above the forest, so high that he was among the clouds, Gorogoro was flying in circles. He felt the change in the air currents as hot and cold air was pushed upwards. Shiro must have provoked that cold human as planned.
The atmosphere was starting to charge, with Gorogoro sending static to the clouds around him. Combined with the change in the air currents thanks to such drastic changes of temperature, the clouds started to grow, and with them, the static.
Electricity started arching between the clouds and Gorogoro, and he could feel the familiar and stimulating tingle of energy coursing through his feathers. The clouds were getting darker, just as he liked. Soon they'd be ready.
Nedusa didn't stop running. This was absolute hell. she didn't join the Order to get hunted down by a psycho and a sniper! This was supposed to be a recon mission! Not one where they were the ones being hunted!
The scariest part was seeing Diana's body move like that and casually become someone else. Did she die first? Or was Pluto right and she had set them up? She hated this, the situation, the mess they were in, having to run in a forest with clothes definitely not meant to be in a forest…
She hunted in cities! Stalking quirked animals the animal commission asked her, poisoning them with her saliva, and then enjoying tormenting them until they become fully paralyzed so she can finish the job.
But this crows… how was she supposed to spit on a crow? They move out of the way too fast, and if they fly too high… She can't spit that high!
Enharden beside her was starting to slow down, panting heavily. She was starting to drag her bat on the floor, probably being too heavy to run around with. still, Nedusa didn't slow down, she wasn't going to get caught because she stopped to wait for a slow bitch!
They heard the crow's caws getting louder and louder, until they saw the black mass of death and birds get on top of them. The murder correctly guessed Enharden as the weaker of the group, and dived at her.
"Wait! Nedusa! Don't leave me here!"
"It's everyone out for themselves!"
She shouted with her voice cracking midway through, leaving Enharden alone to deal with the crows flying towards her and going to attack her.
"Wait! You bitch! Leave me alone you flying pests!"
Nedusa heard her fellow hunter scream and struggle against the crows until their noses became just a faint whisper. She kept running until the only thing she could hear were her heavy pants and her heartbeat thundering on her.
A bright flash illuminated the dark clouds above Nedusa, distracting her for a moment and tripping on something. She fell face first into the ground, groaning at the pain in her nose, and feeling the grime and the dirt of the ground on her face, along with blood coming from her nose.
She looked up, realizing there were no crows following her, and taking a look at the sky. Dark clouds had formed surprisingly quickly. A thunderstorm? Now?
The way the clouds illuminated briefly was a clear enough sign, but something seemed strange. Nedusa looked back where she came from. Not a single crow had followed her. Why was it? They had been following the two of them for a while, even getting on their way once and forcing them to change into a different direction.
Did they lose her? That easily? After deciding to go just for Enharden? Nedusa wasn't going to complain about that, but something in the back of her mind told her that something was off, and the recurrent flashes in the sky didn't help.
Lightning that didn't fall? There was no thunder, so the lightning going through the clouds but never falling. She then remembered, didn't Diana mention that there was a crow with some sort of lightning or electricity quirk?
The Whisperer seemed to agree with the possibility of a crow with such a quirk having being born. What was it that Diana had said? That she found the feathers in a spot were lightning has struck?
Nedusa froze, realization hitting her. She finally knew what was bothering her. The sky. She could see it properly. There were no trees in the way. She was in a spot of the forest where the trees cleared out. And in this clearing, Medusa spotted several scorched marks in the ground. Black burned spots, as if something had exploded right there, in several spots of the clearing.
She looked up again, to the sky, flashing again. Nedusa didn't even have time to scream, nor her life to pass through her eyes, as Gorogoro came down from the dark clouds, riding a lightning bolt down, and smiting Nedusa where she stood.
Gorogoro arched his wings in the last moment, avoiding impact as the lightning he formed hit straight on its mark. The force of the impact sent the ground around it flying, charred and scarred, while Nedusa's body fell down from the explosion, black and dead.
The force of the lightning bolt and the noise of the thunder made Gorogoro's hollow bones throb, helping him generate more static and push him upwards into the air. He wanted to come down and enjoy the charred flesh, but the storm had just formed and he was still on the high from making a lightning bolt come down.
Charged with more static than before, Gorogoro flew back into the dark clouds, charging himself even more, and generating more static into the clouds and the sky.
BOOM!
Enharden almost tripped again after reeling from the thunder. Thankfully, the crows also seemed to be disoriented by it, so she found a moment to relax, and recover from all the scratches and cuts the crows had given her, along with the brand new ringing in her ears.
What exactly was that? A lightning bolt? Was the hypothetical lightning crow also here? The sound came from the path Nedusa had gone into. Enharden didn't exactly feel bad for her, considering she had abandoned her to her fate, but she just knew which way to avoid.
She ignored the strain in her legs, and tried getting up again, but the crows had also seemingly recovered from the thunder, and flew right back at her again. Enharden managed to pass her hand through all the nails stuck on her bat, activating her quirk on all of them and her tungsten bat, increasing their hardness by one Mohs unit.
Her arms were also getting tired, but she swung her bat nevertheless. The crows were smart enough to avoid the bat, since they saw her hit a tree accidentally and leave a large dent on it.
"Get away!"
She didn't hear her own voice, and her balance was all off because of the thunder still ringing on her ears. Enharden cursed under her breath, panting heavily. She had managed to somehow stop one bullet from Karasu, which was already impressive enough, but her bat had been dented and cracked from the bullet that hit it.
It was a tungsten bat! She had saved a lot of her money doing odd jobs for the commission to get it! It had a rating of 7.5 in the Mohs scale, 8.5 when using her quirk! How did it crack from a bullet?
After seeing the damage that it had done, she understood that the famous Black Bullet Killer was much more dangerous than she was prepared for, and that's why she had decided to flee. But now, she wasn't even able to get rid of the crows standing (or rather flying) in her way! Karasu could kill the rest of her partnersthe hunters and come after her at any moment!
"Caw!"
A crow, much larger than the rest, flew straight at Enharden, and she was too slow to try swinging her bat at it. The crow scratched her shoulder with its talons, making cuts far deeper than any other crow.
The hunter screamed, and backed off, swinging her bat wildly to try to scare the crow. Unlike the rest, the crow merely got out of the way to dodge the bat, and then kept pressing Enharden.
Her eyes widened when the crow went for the bat after it went down to the ground with her latest swing, and his talons actually dug themselves into it. She suddenly found herself having to tug her bat to not have it stolen by the crow.
What in the world was that? Little did Enharden know, Kuro saw that bat of hers stop the bullet earlier, and was quite annoyed over one of the bullets made from her feathers missing the mark.
Unfortunately, the bat was still made of tungsten, and as much as Kuro wanted to take it from her and tear it apart, it was too heavy for her to pick up, and even less to grab it from a human tugging it back.
She cawed, angry, and let go of the bat, leaving the deep marks of her talons on it, and flew back. The other crows knew what she was doing, and gave her space, cawing excited for the show she was about to give.
Kuro's feathers were light, a perfect metal, both durable, malleable and light. But it still took a lot of energy for her to fly for long periods of time. Before meeting Izumi, she used to do this more often, but ever since meeting her, she didn't need to fly straight into anything anymore.
"Caw!" She wailed as she turned around in the air, coming back for Enharden.
"Stay away! You demon crow!" Enharden panicked, backing her bat back like a professional baseball player.
Her knuckles turned white from how hard she was holding the bat, and her arms complained over the constant punishment swinging around the bat cost her. She was used to just a few swings. Nothing ever endured more than one, and she didn't get in situations were she could easily miss.
Kuro let herself fall, catching speed and riding the air instead of flapping against it, going straight at the hunter. Enharden's arms bulged up, as she gathered all her strength to swing the bat again, much faster now than before, intent on taking Kuro down no matter the cost.
Kuro saw her coming though, and spinned in the air at the last moment, aligning one of her wings straight for the bat, and slicing it in half as she flew towards Enharden. At that speed, her feathers were no different from Himiko's Black Knife (though Izumi might disagree), and her wing sliced through the bat like butter.
Enharden widened her eyes, seeing in slow motion Kuro approaching her. Her life flashed through her eyes, all her effort trying to become a hero? Wasted. All her effort sucking up to the local gang of punks? Wasted. All her effort to become a hunter the Order of Orion would accept? Wasted. All her effort to get an object that would make the most out of her quirk? Wasted.
Kuro passed through Enharden's body with no more difficulty than her bat, cleanly cutting her torso diagonally. Her right arm fell along her neck and head, and her left arm with the rest of her body.
Both made a wet thud against the ground. Enharden coughed blood once, before the light from her eyes disappeared, and she died with her insides spilling from both halves of her body. Kuro stopped herself and landed gracefully.
She flapped her wings to wipe the blood out of them, unable to get it completely off by herself. The rest of the crows cawed, excited and dived down into both halves of Enharden, enjoying the fresh meat, with Kuro having to go back quickly, if she wanted to have some of it for herself.
As the one to finish her off, the rest of the crows let Kuro get the first peck into the head. Kuro's talons dug into the flesh easily, but she went for her favorite part first, sticking her beak all the way in through one of the dead hunter's blank eyes, and ripping it out with a quick jank, along with some brain matter.
Should anyone look at the scene, they'd be horrified at the look of bloodied crows making a feast out of human flesh.
Whiplash kept on running, even after leaving Wild behind to guard her from that psycho brat, or after hearing a thunder hit so close it rattled her bones. She had to get away, contact the rest of the Order and just hide and hope they'd manage to get close enough to intimidate Diana.
She tripped with a root and fell into the ground, grunting in pain. Who would have thought that Karasu was actually Diana? Suddenly her first meeting a few months back when Diana presented them the decapitated head of Bullseye made so much sense.
But still, a brat as young as her, managing to get a more prolific and notorious villain career than her? It was humiliating. She had also killed Backfire right in front of her eyes. In the past she had admired him as one of the more capable hunters of the Order. Unfortunately the years hadn't been kind to him, and since All Might's rise and joining the SASC, he changed.
She had long forgotten about her admiration, having her own toy and pet in Wild to do her bidding and enjoy. For the first time in who knows how long, she actually feared for her own life, and didn't completely trust Wild to come unscathed.
It all depends on whether she used tiger fur or not. If she manages to get a chance and transform, she'd maul that psycho shapeshifter to pieces, and return back to her like she had trained her for.
Still, Whiplash felt her age catching up to her, having to stop running to catch her breath behind a tree. She could faintly still hear the shots from Diana hitting against the ice shield of Pluto. She wondered if he'd make it.
Whiplash didn't trust him to make it out alive. Backfire and Hound had died right in front of her eyes. Boar was killed by a shot to his skull. She knew from experience in a job for the SASC that wild boars had dense skulls, and she doubted that Boar would be that much different from them in that sense.
What in the world were those Black Bullets? Did they really come from one of the crows' quirks? It was hard to believe, but she had seen herself the fire quirk crow content and stop all of Pluto's freezing winds.
She only thought the most powerful fire quirks could handle him that easily, like Jupiter's or Endeavor's. Whiplash shook her head, getting her mind out of former hunters and heroes, and tried calling for the Guard Team again.
"Hello? Deathglare? Panzerfaust? Anyone there?"
There was only static coming out of her comm, and Whiplash hit the back of her head into the tree. What was disrupting their communications? Was there a crow with such a quirk? This had to be part of the "plan" that Toga Himiko had mentioned.
Diana had set them up, so she had to have something to do with this. She didn't know what to do. They went there with Diana because it was her territory and knew her well. Oh how that had been used against them.
They should have seen it coming with Bullseye. Yes, he was an idiot, but they never had gone after another member of the Order, even in their oldest history, there was only one instance of members of the Order turning on each other.
That's before her generation though. Backfire's generation. She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her eyes, frustrated.
"Just what replacement have you left us with, Jupiter? A traitor?"
She said, her anger bottling up, and froze, hearing a twig snap close to her. Whiplash stopped breathing, commanding her hair to be ready to move at any moment.
"Whiplash! It's me!" Wild's voice came out, as she entered Whiplash's field of view.
Whiplash sighed, her hair falling to the ground around her. Wild was a mess, covered in blood and hiding her hands under her armpits in a strange fashion. Whiplash wondered what that was all about, and then noticed that most of the blood in her body was on her sides, arms and all over her face and mouth. Whiplash immediately realized, her eyes widening.
"Oh, Wild, your hands…" There was more surprise than worry in her voice. She forcefully took Wild's arms and saw the damage, bloodied stumps on her wrists, no hands to be found. "How, how could you lose–?"
The words caught up in her throat, struggling to believe that someone like Wild had lost her hands to a brat. A brat that killed Hound, yes, but only with the element of surprise.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't fast enough…"
"No excuses!" Her anger and frustration took the better of her, hair rising up around her like dangerous tendrils. "Dammit, at least you took care of her, right?"
Wild nodded, lowering her head submissively.
"At least you did something right. We have to get out of here fast, before Diana finishes Pluto off and comes for us." Whiplash then remembered something. "You didn't let crows follow you, right?"
"N-no. They disappeared after getting rid of Toga Himiko."
"Some good news at least. Good girl."
Whiplash sighed, patting Wild's head to keep her in good behavior. Now that she took a closer look, there's some strange patch of fur on Wild's back.
"Wild, what transformation are you on right no–?"
Sharp pain interrupted her thoughts, and Whiplash slowly looked down, stunned. Wild had injected a needle right into her gut, using a hand covered in gray goo coming out of her bloodied stump.
Suddenly, something moved fast behind her, and Whiplash felt a heavy weight go missing from her, and she leaned forward more, burying the needle even deeper inside her gut, letting a gasp escape from her.
Finally realizing that Wild was attacking her, Whiplash ordered her hair to attack and restrain the misbehaving mutt, intending on punishing her heavily for this…but her hair never came in.
In fact, she didn't feel her hair at all, it felt like there was no weight at all on the back of her head. Wild hugged her tight, forcing the needle deeper more painfully. Whiplash tried fighting back, and saw Wild's other hand over her shoulder.
Like the other hand, it was covered in the same gray slime, and was holding…Toga Himiko's knife.
"Y-you!"
"Took you long enough to find out~" Himiko said with Wild's voice, as her face started to melt. "Was I really that convincing~?"
Seeing Wild's face loom over her in such a way felt really intimidating. She was the one over Wild all the time, having tamed her properly and managing to make her comply with any and all of her demands.
So actually experiencing a side of Wild that made Whiplash shiver was extra terrifying, as if a law of the universe was being broken. Seeing that same face she'd come to see for such a long time melt right before her eyes only to reveal Wild's killer underneath was even more unnerving, and made Whiplash reel.
Himiko didn't let go, holding her close and bringing the knife closer to Whiplash's face. She grunted, trying to move her hair again and starting to feel cold, specially around her belly where she had been stabbed.
"Wh-what have you done to me? I can't feel my hair! What kind of rug is this!?"
"Drug? There is no drug." Himiko said, as her voice finally transitioned all the way back to her higher and chirper voice.
Whiplash tried to pull herself away from Himiko, but her arms felt sluggish, as if they were trying to move while buried in mud.
"Answer me, you monster!"
Wild's eyes melted away and were replaced by Himiko's yellow slit pupils. Whiplash felt a shiver run through her back as those eyes buried themselves to her deepest core.
"Monster? Hmmm. If you must know, I didn't drug you, I was just sucking all your yucky blood out."
Himiko pulled herself a little of the tight embrace she had trapped Whiplash in, allowing her to see that the needle was connected to her cape, and how the thin cable connecting them was sucking her blood inside.
"Wh-what? Then why can't I move my hair?"
Whiplash paled, feeling much colder now, unable to even keep trying to push away now that Himiko had loosened her grip. The vampire broke the embrace herself, kicking Whiplash away in her stomach, and making her fall into a tree, the needle unplugging for her gut.
Whiplash groaned, the thud against the tree behind her rough. She had stolen her blood? Why? She mentioned wanting to drink their blood before, was she that much of a psycho? With Wild dead by her, and her quirk seemingly rendered useless, Whiplash was starting to realize her situation.
She tried getting up, to at least put up somewhat of a fight, and her hands touched something strange in the ground. Whiplash knew that texture, she had touched it all her life, it had been part of her every day she breathed.
She looked down, horrified at the revelation, and finally understood why she couldn't use her quirk or feel her hair. Himiko had cut it, and it was all over the ground, lifeless, dirty against the ground and blood, and all over both of them.
Whiplash started hyperventilating, grabbing her hair from the ground and touching her head, feeling the very short cut that Himiko had left her with. She gritted her teeth and closed her fists into the ground, catching her hair, dirt and mud in between her fingers.
She looked up, glaring at Himiko with tears flowing down her face. Himiko looked down at her, her transformation completely undone, naked except for her blood storing cape. Wild realized that the strange furr that she had seen on Wild's back was in reality part of the cape.
How did she not see it and recognize it before? Crows started appearing out of nowhere, hanging out from the trees around them, observing them, letting Whiplash know that there was no escape for her
"You are not cute at all after all." Himiko said, looking down on Whiplash, with a bored expression, almost disappointed and mad.
"You bitch! You cut my hair! Cute!? It's because of you, animal!"
"I had nothing to do with it." Himiko shrugged her shoulders, and got closer to Whiplash, who tried to crawl back, forgetting she still had a tree behind her.
Himiko didn't mind stepping on the dirty hair in the ground, and got all close and personal to Whiplash again, each foot at her sides. She bent down, hugging her legs and putting her chin on top of her knees.
"I can't make someone less cute, only help show their true colors." She then smiled, giving her a closeup shot of her manic face, lips stretched out so much the corners of her mouth pushed her eyelids forward, stretching them. "I can help you become cuter though~ Even though I don't like your yucky blood~"
Himiko's knife flashed as she moved it, reflecting the light of a lightning traveling through the clouds. Whiplash's eyes widened, and tried to push Himiko away, but the girl moved her hand faster, piercing both of Whiplash's hands with it and then shoving it to her neck.
Whiplash felt the cold metal pierce her hands and neck as easily as it had done her hair, and started choking on her own blood, the little that hadn't been sucked out. She even coughed up some onto Himiko's face.
Feeling her blood splutter on her face felt good, even though Himiko didn't love her in the slightest. Slowly, the excitement of killing Whiplash disappeared with the light of her eyes, and Himiko stopped smiling.
Himiko put a foot on Whiplash's hands, still impaled by the knife alongside her neck, and used it as leverage to pull her knife out of her. Whiplash fell to the side, dead, and Himiko found herself whistling the same way she had seen Izumi do.
The crows didn't take a second thought, and dove right into the fresh meat in front of them.
Himiko felt Whiplash's blood on her face, starting to come together and form droplets and fall down her face. She closed her mouth, rubbing a finger over her lips to catch the droplets of blood over them.
She took a look at the blood on her thumb. She didn't feel bad about killing Whiplash, in fact, she was elated for helping out Izumi and ending the life of someone that thought of her as a monster, not a human. Yet she disliked her so much she couldn't bring herself to drink her blood. She also disliked Wild, but still found her cute enough to drink her blood, somewhat seeing how she could have become someone like her had Izumi not barged into her life.
But Whiplash? No sir. She didn't want yucky blood.
"Huh, I thought I couldn't resist you."
Himiko mumbled, wiping the blood from her hand on the tree that Whiplash had died on.
"I guess they were wrong about me after all." Himiko said, smiling and looking up, ignoring the sound of the crows tearing human flesh apart as if it were nothing important. "I'm not a monster~ I'm a hunter just like Izumi-chan~"
"Not a monster!" Urusai repeated using his quirk, as his beak was closed with a piece of meat dangling from it, which he quickly pulled back into his beak and ate.
Himiko broke into a fit of giggles, and ducked down to Urusai's level.
"Are you trying to cheer me up~? You guys are so cute~ How can people back in Musutafu hate you so much~?"
There were several caws of agreement, and Himiko laughed, petting Urusai and a few other crows that had gotten closer to also get some pets and rubs after getting comfortable around her.
"Hehe~ come one guys~ finish up~ We still have some things left to do~!"
Himiko cheered, getting closer to the body of Whiplash, missing much more than her hair now, and brought the knife to her neck, severing the skull covered in torn pieces of flesh and blood from its body.
Pluto had been enduring lots of shots, his impromptu shield managing to somehow protect him from all of them. Every now and again, right as he was thinking he had some room to relax and keep marching forward, Shiro came down to him, bringing another wave of heat and flames with him.
He had managed to evade him for now, but he had to use his quirk constantly to keep his jacket cold and frozen, the ice around it threatening to melt and thaw away each time the white crow attacked him.
If he ever relaxed for a moment, he'd lose his shield and his only way to avoid ending up like Backfire and Hound. Pluto felt his rage fuel him, his hate towards the traitor pushing him forward. He knew he was getting closer because there were more and more crows around him in the trees the more he advanced.
He would finally take revenge on all of Diana's offenses and bring back her frozen head to the Order and the Commission. He would kill a bird with two shots after killing the infamous Karasu.
Still, to think someone like Jupiter would leave behind someone that would become Karasu… It really was a legacy of villainy. Pluto failed to realize how he had joined a group that consisted of former villains, and kept on his quest to kill Karasu.
"Fool!" "Idiot!" "Tricked!"
"Shut up already, you flying shits!"
Pluto snapped out, feeling his throat complain, the scorch that had formed inside him from quirk overuse starting to become an issue. It had been a while since he was last shot, maybe Diana had finally run out of those Black Bullets?
Pluto felt that those bullets had been overhyped, after all, his impromptu shield had been enough to stop them for a while.
"Throat, hurting, Pluto?"
The hunter stopped, looking around to find the source of the voice. On a tree with a bunch of other crows, Shiro looked down on him.
"Is, cold? Can, help, with, that. Fire!"
Pluto's eyelid started twitching. That cursed white crow was starting to mock him now! How in the world was it speaking? Each word had different tones and voices, almost as if spliced together, meaning that he was specifically putting them together to taunt him.
"I'm not going to let some filthy crow make fun of me!"
Ignoring the pain in his throat, Pluto blew at Shiro, feeling his lips start to crack and freeze from the cold. The force of the breeze had gotten weaker, giving the crows around Shiro enough time to get away, while Shirto nonchalantly started flying towards Pluto, spinning in the air as the gust of freezing air hit hi, not caring one bit.
Pluto panicked, and used the ice shield to protect himself, part of it melting and leaving a trail of steam as Shiro's talons scratched it.
"Heads up."
Pluto gasped, and put the shield back in place, barely able to deflect another bullet that came just at that point. He panted, his throat and mouth hurting from the intense cold. He groaned, forcing himself to reform the melted part of the shield from Shiro's attack.
"You, you fucking coward! Show yourself!"
"I guess you said, something like, calling me a coward."
Pluto heard Diana's voice again, and looked around, panicked, not knowing where the next bullet may come from. He only found crows, looking at him, watching his every step.
He wanted to blast them all away, no matter if any happened to be Masuta's cursed lot, but he felt even the outside of his neck start to get covered by scorch, and he could feel that his lips have split from being hardened by the cold.
The way that Diana was talking, only seeing crows around him. He widened his eyes in disbelief, and pointed the shield back to its original position.
"You fucking demon bitch! You can't even come here yourself to talk to me!?"
"I hope you, figured it out, already." A crow spoke in Diana's voice, confirming his suspicions.
"Otherwise I'd, be, disappointed." Another crow said.
"Shut the fuck up! Come to me yourself! Coward!"
"Of course, I can't hear you back."
"You'd have, to be very, dumb to not, realize, that."
Pluto was clenching his teeth so hard his jaw hurt and the muscles on the back of his neck started to hurt. He started walking towards the direction the bullets came from again, intending to kill that murderous traitor once and for all.
"Then again, you are Pluto."
"You think I'm dumb!?"
"Yes. I could predict, that you would, say that."
"And ask my friends, to repeat, my words."
"How does it feel being outsmarted by, crows?"
"I'm going to fucking kill you!"
"Fool." "Idiot." "You are walking into a trap" "He can't see." "Blind." "Kid, are you lost?" "Scum." "Fake hunter." "Three." "Die!" "Worthless." "Pig!" "Two." "Wannabe, killer." "Popsicle." "One."
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Pluto yelled, throwing another gust of freezing wind to the crows, who easily flew away, Shiro not even bothering to do anything to block it. Pluto felt his throat give out, frost forming around his face, nose, jaw and into his throat.
He fell to his knees, coughing out blood, and doing his best to block any more incoming bullets with his shield.
"My guess is, that you reached your, quirk, limit, now."
"Am I right?"
"Y-you, cough, you fucking–"
"Don't force your throat."
"You aren't a crow."
"Can't replicate, noises without, hurting yourself."
Pluto glared at every single crow, and fought against his legs to get up again, but the pain in his throat and neck was numbing his senses, the rest of his body starting to become worryingly cold as well.
"You are a fool, Pluto."
"I know your history with, Jupiter."
"Be-because you are that asshole's villain daughter, right!?"
"You two had, deep grudge."
"And you are, taking it"
"Against me. Foolish"
"Really."
Pluto looked around to all the crows, managing to somehow each speak parts of sentences with Diana's voice. No, with Karasu's voice. He finally understood the name Karasu. It wasn't because she had been apparently using the crows for her own benefit. It was because it was both Diana and the whole lot of crows the ones that were Karasu.
Figuring that out didn't help him in the slightest. Had he known sooner he'd probably have managed to get at least one and threaten Diana out to surrender and get killed. But now, Pluto doubted he could bring himself to use his quirk again.
"Now. Why do you, think you made, it this far?"
Pluto stared dumbly, as some of the crows started moving away.
"It's not because of"
"That pathetic, excuse of, shield."
A bullet came straight at him, hitting the frozen jacket acting as shield dead center, and shattering it into pieces, going straight at Pluto's side, and out of his body. Pluto fell forward, and groaned, clutching the spot were he was shot, feeling his blood leak from there.
"I'll tell you that much"
"Ho– what?"
"If you are wondering" The crow that spoke flew away.
"How, it's because, I was aiming, for the edges." And another flew off.
"Easy to make, it seem like you were safe, right?" More and more crows were flying off and leaving him alone.
Pluto was defenseless without his protection. No, he realized that had been defenseless ever since stepping foot into Tia forest. Those bullets could have killed him at any moment. He felt that even the trees that they were using as cover would be useless. Diana had been playing them, and especially him from the very beginning.
As if to confirm this, a second bullet comes in, and hits Pluto directly into his right knee. He screamed and clutched his knee. Pluto didn't need a doctor to tell him that his knee had been shattered, and he wouldn't be moving anymore.
Still, he wouldn't die so easily at the hands of a traitor! Pluto now saw it. It was wrong for him to hold a low opinion on Diana because of the man she was replacing, his unrecognized rival. She greatly exceeded all of his expectations and suspicions, being a treat and a hunter several steps above Jupiter, and even though it hurt to admit it, himself.
Pluto groaned, screaming and using every last bit of strength he could muster to use his quirk again. He managed to freeze the wound on his side and his busted knee solid, along with his throat and lips, which were covered in a layer of ice.
Breathing hurt like hell, but the blood loss was starting to numb his senses.
"You may have, noticed this, already" Another crow left, very few of them remaining around Pluto.
He managed to crawl behind a rock, and laid there, panting and drooling freezing blood, his lips splitting from the impact he made while letting himself fall to the ground. Pluto saw the white crow lock its eyes with him, before flying to the rock.
Shiro looked down on him, and hopped slightly to the side, as if aligning himself. Diana's voice then came straight from his beak.
"But we, aren't letting, you escape"
As soon as he said that, Shiro flew off, and a bullet went straight through the rock, mocking Pluto for thinking that would be useful cover, and then went straight through him.
Pluto coughed blood, feeling his throat and lips splinter along the ice they were covered in. The bullet had gone through his lung. He could feel himself choking on his blood as it started to flood his lungs.
Was that what the white crow was doing? Telling Diana exactly were his vitals where through the cover?
What was he thinking? He never stood a chance. Diana was in total control in her territory, and he– no, the Order had trespassed on it and threatened to kill her. He finally understood, and found some calmness on it all, his anger finally fading away as he felt his life slowly sipping away.
"You lost, Pluto, because"
"You thought, I was like, Jupiter"
There was only one crow left, big, imposing, and old looking.
"I'm far greater. Remember it."
And with that, the old crow took flight, finally leaving Pluto alone, coughing blood and drowning on it. He was laying down, looking at the sky. The clouds lighted up with lightning, and Plito could swear that the light was following something.
Seeing Oji-san fly off and finally having the target secure and alone, Izumi put down the scope, and grabbed her bow, Q-Tip, and a new arrow, laced with Gorogoro's feathers on it's tail, and covered in filaments from the very same feathers, along with a tip made from Kuro's metal.
The tension was perfect, and Izumi pointed Q-Tip up. Her arm was on fire from all the force she was exerting to pull the strings so far back, but Izumi didn't lose her concentration. The clouds were perfect, Gorogoro had managed to call for a lightning, and her breathing was completely still.
Thumbp…thumbp…
With her heart completely still and calm, Izumi finally released the arrow. Q-Tip untensed, shooting the arrow forward. The air around the arrow was pierced so fast it acted as wing pushing it in the opposite direction, yet the arrow didn't stray from its path.
The feather strings laced around it along the feathers on its tail sparked from the force, and the mere friction with the air, charging the arrow with static even before it entered the storm clouds.
The lightning coursing through the air and the static in the clouds suddenly were drawn to the arrow, the same way they were drawn to Gorogoro. Lightning started arching around the arrow, charging it and covering it in electricity.
The arrow finally slowed down its arch, and started dipping down, pushing the electricity along with it. As it started to go down, the Lightning Arrow gained a sudden boost of speed, lining down with the speed of lightning, carrying one on its tail, and falling directly into Pluto.
Izumi heard the thunder as she saw the lightning strike down, the trees around her being pushed back by the gust of air caused from the explosion of the lightning. She resumed her breathing, opening her mouth to unclog her ears.
The hunter grabbed the scope again, looking for Pluto. She found what was left of the arrow on his charred remains, in a black scar left in the ground. Satisfied, Izumi smiled at a job well done, and gave Q-Tip a quick thrust with her arm, activating the mechanism that made it fold in on itself.
She saw Oji-san and a few of the other crows coming over to her, to the hill right behind the Hunter Cabin she had been using as a vantage point. Beside her, a still bandaged up Wuji that hadn't been able to join in the rest of the murder let a low caw, annoyed and pulling at his bandages.
"Hey, stop that, your wing hasn't healed yet." Izumi pulled his beak away from the bandage, earning herself a few pecks and a bite on her finger.
I hate this thing.
"It'll only be a few days, don't be a baby, you handled losing your eye much better."
"Kha!"
Wuji scoffed, annoyed, and took advantage of Izumi having ducked to his level to climb into her shoulder. She sighed, and let him be, and started walking down the hill to claim her prize from Pluto's charred body.
The rest of the crows were already racing the Hunter Cabin, but Izumi didn't spot Shiro's white feathers, and sure enough, while looking through the scope, she saw him picking flesh from Pluto's body.
"Huh, I guess he doesn't mind overcooked meat."
Himiko reached the Hunter Cabin in no time, carrying her Blood Cape as a bag, completely unbothered by her nudeness as usual. A few dozen or so crows, among them Urusai and Kuro, flew around her.
"How did it go?" Izumi asked, though she didn't really needed to to know.
"Great! Got lots of blood!" She raised the Blood Cape, showing that it was full and fully colored red. "And all the prizes you told me about~!"
Himiko grinned, her face turning several shades of red as she opened the impromptu bag she made out of the cape, revealing the severed heads of the hunters they had killed. They were in several stages of damage, from scorched in Nedusa's case, to having most of it's flesh torn off after the crows were done with them.
"Excellent. Sorry if it was off putting for you."
"You kidding? Just being able to hunt with you and the murder was lots of fun~!"
Himiko unceremoniously dropped all the heads on the ground, and went to hug Izumi, who awkwardly returned the hug by patting Himiko lightly on the back. The vampire then pulled herself back, seeing the head of the last hunter, Pluto, scorched and with an eye missing, probably the work of some crow, on the side of the entrance to the cabin.
"Hehe~ so you got him as well~? I heard two lightnings~"
"Yes, one was Gorogoro with Nedusa, and the other was from my Lightning Arrow."
Himiko nudged Izumi on the side, a complicit grin on her face.
"Did you really need to 'test' it against Pluto~? If it worked with that wolf, then of course it would be against a person. It's not like he was any threat~"
Izumi smirked back, in a macabre way, and even giggled, looking at Pluto's head and putting a hand on it.
"It was just a bit of fun. I don't usually have hunts I can afford to goof around like that. And also, I really wanted to use the Lightning Arrow again, could you blame me?"
"Nope, nope~! Totally, if I was able to use a bow, I would also want to do that~!"
Himiko giggled, and then looked at her cape, seeing the blood she had sucked from Whiplash.
"Say, how do I get rid of some of this blood without drinking it?"
"Uhm, what? Is there a problem with it?"
"No, it's just that I don't really wanna turn on Whiplash. She wasn't cute at all."
Izumi stared at Himiko for a while, and couldn't help but smile, grabbing the wire with the needle attached to that chunk of the cape, holding Whiplash's blood. She was happy that Himiko had gotten accustomed to her quirk, she could even refuse blood now, no longer being so intrinsically linked to her own functional needs.
"Sure, not a problem, here, if you spin the needle in this direction it comes off, and the same mechanism that sucks it into the cape will make it go off of it. Let me grab a bucket so it doesn't spill into the ground and make a mess."
"Thank you, Izumi-chan~"
As Izumi went inside the cabin to grab a bucket, Himiko took this time to wipe the mud and blood from her feet into the side of the doorframe, remembering to not get the inside unnecessarily dirty.
When Izumi came back with the bucket, Himiko started to empty her cape from Whiplash's yucky blood right away.
"You didn't get hurt, right?"
"Stop worrying~ Nope~ They didn't have a chance~ Well, except Wild, I guess, but she also failed to do any damage~ Oh! That reminds me!" Himiko whistled, catching the attention of two crows that were fighting over some sort of cloth. "Look at this!"
She got that from them, ignoring their protests and sticking her tongue in return, and showed it to Izumi.
"This is…a tail? From a tiger?"
"Yep, yep! Wild must have had something from a tiger to transform into it, but after I cut it off and killed her, it didn't turn back!"
"Huh… Interesting…"
"I also cut her hands, and they didn't turn back! That's really strange, isn't it?"
"Hmmm, yeah… I figured that her quirk was similar to yours, and that there was some sort of material her body produced to transform, like your gray slime… But I guess it works differently for her…"
Izumi shook her head, coming back to herself, and whistling at Hattori, who flew at her with a tiny beeping device. It was one of the jammers she had made and scattered near the spots where she hunted the members of the Hunting Team of the Order.
A few other crows, mainly the younglings had retrieved all of the other jammers along with the comms of the hunters. The rest would still don't know anything about the ambush, at least for now.
"Alright, let's get all these heads inside. The rest won't take much longer to officially consider the Hunting Team to be compromised, and it'd be bad if they separate again."
Himiko got jokingly super serious, saluting to Izumi with a straight face.
"Yes, ma'am!" Then smirked, and broke into a fit of giggles. Izumi couldn't help but smile back.
"Ok, Himiko-senpai. Put on some clothes if you like and let's get going." Izumi tightened her Hunting Gloves. "Let's get into the new tunnel I reopened, and give the Guard Team, The Whisperer, and the rest of the fools in the SASC the reason why they shouldn't have messed up with me or the murder."
Himiko giggled, following Izumi inside the cabin, and putting all the severed heads on top of the main table of the cabin, where the crows would slowly skin them until they were just skulls, like Bullseye's decorating the furnace.
"They'll never know where they're going to be attacked from."
And that's the chapter! Had really fun with this one, was almost in its entirety combat scenes, and there's going to be ewven more coming up! Another thing of note is Gorogoro and his quirk. He's been around for a while, and I mentioned his quirk being electricity related, with Izumi using some feathers on her gloves to be able to make sparks by snapping her fingers if you recall. But his quirk is to be able to charge clouds and direct lightning! He is also inmune to it of course, a really strong quirk that is be very difficult to appear on nature~ And now, for additional details on the quirks of the fallen Order of Orion members: Shadowsneaker, quirk: Scentless. His quirk makes him completely oddorless, an emitter type that's always active. Shadowsneaker looked up to Agent, and mimicked his full back costume and appearence. Boar, quirk: Boar. He has the head of a wild boar, and fur grows on all his body, though he shaves all of it except his head. His sense of scent is really developed, and after the Order joined the SASC, Boar officially started working for the SASC even on his day job, and thus, got a bit rusty. Wild, quirk: Animalize. She can transform her body into animal hybrids of the animals she's in contact with. She can't mix transformations, and can touch parts of the animal separated from their body like fur or feathers to transform. Her relationship with Whiplash is "special", and is treated like her pet. Wild doesn't seem to mind. Nedusa, quirk: Paralysing Saliva. Her saliva has paralyzing effects. She was sadistic and enjoyed targetting small animals, paralyze them, and then torture them before giving them to the SASC. Enharden, quirk: Mohs Enhancer. She can increase the Mohs Hardness Scale of any object by one unit. It does increase it by one unit, despuite the difference of absolute hardness of the non-linear scale. Couldn't get into any hero school because nothing was hard enough to impress anyone, and show how strong her quirk could make already strong and hard objects. Whiplash, quirk: Hair Manipulation. She can control the hair in her head in everything but growth. She had a thing for Backfire back in the day, but got over it. She's sadistic and managed to turn Wild into an obedient pet Pluto, quirk: Frost Breath. He can blow freezing gusts of wind capable of rapidly freezing anything if they are close enough. Self proclaimed rival of former member of the Order Jupiter, really hated the quirk evolution that Jupiter experienced that suddenly put their rivalry even more one sided. Shifted his anger towards Jupiter to his replacement, Diana.