The buzz of the comms echoed into Deathglare's ears as he kept working on trying to contact the Hunting Team. A thunderstorm had suddenly started in Tia forest, so the interference could be going from there, though the way that storm had appeared was also out of the ordinary.
Masuta had gone to the rooftop to look at it along with the hunters making guard and taking a good look at the nearby crows. Apparently he was really hoping the supposed crow with an electricity adjacent quirk had something to do with it.
That had left the higher ups uneasy and it took a while for them to settle down, even with Panzerfaust constantly telling them that they'd be alright.
Then, the device on Deathglare's ear finally clicked, and the buzzing stopped.
"Hello? Anyone there?"
"Ah! Hound! We finally reached you! We lost communications for 2 hours with your team. Is everything alright in your end?"
"Yeah, we are alright. This sudden storm has made it difficult to traverse the forest, and combined with the surprise encounter of a flock of crows after getting too close to their nest… it hasn't been a breeze, let's just say that. No one got injured, and it didn't seem any of the crows had a quirk, but after a few close calls with some lightning strikes, Diana made us go back, saying that it could get more dangerous, and didn't want to be responsible for what could happen in a storm."
"I see, do you think that the lightning strikes were the work of a crow?"
"Hard to say, but it could be the case. Masuta may be right about the quirk changing after being passed down if that's the case."
"I'll make sure to tell him then. Where are you now?"
"On our way back. Morale isn't exactly high at the moment. We couldn't contact you sooner because of the storm, it was giving some interferences."
Panzerfaust got closer to Deathglare and leaned down, getting close to the comms.
"Is that you, Hound? Happy to hear you are alright."
"Hey now Panzer, don't tell me you thought we were in danger."
The old man smirked and shook his head, making Deathglare similarly smile, as the mood lightened.
"No, no, of course not. But we have reason to believe that Karasu may have had crows watching over the building, and thought that there was a possibility for them to appear in the forest."
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but none of the team saw Karasu."
"That's alright, we didn't expect to find him so soon." He paused for a moment, his expression getting serious. "Any problems with the team?"
"Well, you know, Backfire and Pluto didn't make it easy with Diana around, and when she brought up coming back after the storm started and the crows started attacking us they weren't happy."
"I see. You handled it, I assume."
"Yeah, but they are still a bit agitated about it. They haven't said a word for more than an hour."
"Pluto and Backfire haven't said a word? I'll have to see that to believe it." Deathglare mentioned, shaking his head.
"I see, well, head back to the headquarters for now. We have to discuss the possibility of Karasu being able to observe us from afar with the crows. That storm is also most unfortunate to do recon in the forest at the moment."
"Agreed. We are on our way."
The comms clicked as the other line cut the line. Panzerfaust explained to the rest of the Guard Team the situation, alongside with the SASC.
As expected, Masuta was especially excited about the news of the possible weather controlling crow. Lots of the other higher ups changed from being concerned to interested. It seemed that they've been looking for an animal with some sort of weather control for a while, but never got lucky with that.
Masuta was still the most excited out of any of them, and stayed up at the rooftop with Trickshot, Agent and Trickshot, looking out for any crows.
"Hey, does the storm seem like it's getting closer to you?" The balding old man said to Agent, right beside him.
"Hmmm… maybe."
"Could it be the crow getting closer and moving the storm towards us!? Is my little pet getting closer!?"
"Don't get too excited, Whisperer." Trickshot said, opening a window and getting his arm outside. "The wind is moving this way. The clouds are probably just being moved by the wind. Keep in mind that we still don't know if a crow created that storm."
"Oh, but the possibility is so enticing~" Masuta smirked, showing too many teeth. "Just imagine it~ directing storms at our very whim thanks to the command of an animal that doesn't know any better!"
"Yeah, that's great and all, but if that's the case, that animal would be moving the storm towards us, so don't be that excited about that hypothesis."
Masita scoffed, rolling his eyes and looking at the storm again, a manic glint in his eyes.
"You just don't see the progress having a tool like that quirk would give us."
Agent shifted his head, turning his featureless face towards Masuta.
"Don't talk about progress. I know your type, Whisperer. You've never stopped working for yourself." Trickshot said, deadpan. "You only care about experimenting with your animals and see just how far you can push quirks in them. I heard that you were originally inspired by the experiments the SASC used to do during the Dark Ages."
Masuta smiled again, showing the three hunters just how much he could honor the term "mad scientist".
"Well, they were much more throughout then, what can I say? They had funding from that man after all."
Agent shivered after that mention and looked away. Shotgun gave them a look, uneasy, but kept on keeping watch, not saying anything.
"You don't hear much about him now that All Might's around, huh? What my younger self would have done to get in contact with him back in the day." Trickshot said, puffing smoke at a cigarette.
"You would sell your soul to the devil?" Masuta teased him.
"Who wouldn't? Even then it was difficult to believe he was nothing more than an urban legend…"
"He's more of a legend than ever nowadays." Masuta said, going back to observing the storm.
"It's hard to think of that man as a legend with a proof of his reign so close." Shotgun murmured, without moving from his spot to look at the others.
They returned grunts of acknowledgement, and continued their guard.
But Masuta wasn't so focused on the storm and the possibility of a crow leading it here as the others thought, and also kept a close watch to the crows looking at them from several buildings away.
They hadn't moved from that building for an hour, behaviour very strange on them without being told to do so. He should know, he had ordered them around in the past.
Karasu was definitely doing something, but why now? He didn't buy that they became this wary from just becoming well known and whatever information they got from Giran. Could it be that their quirk also allowed them to understand the flying beasts and learn of his existence through them, and decided to make a move?
That didn't make sense, why wait for so long if they knew about him from the beginning? He was also disappointed with the way the crows behaved. They were playful and teasing each other while clearly on the lookout.
Did Karasu not whip them to be the perfect spies? It revolted him to know that someone as half assed as Karasu was the current master of his precious pets. Just thinking about how he did all the work to create the perfect breed of crows only for some wannabe hero killer to swipe them when he was away boiled his blood.
Just you wait, Karasu. I'll reap my property out of your disgusting hands.
20 - Cornering a den
Hound's body melted off Himiko in no time, leaving behind the grayish slime of her victim. Izumi handed her the Blood Cape, which Himiko gladly accepted and put back on.
"I love this cape so much~ I'm gonna fill it to the brim~!" Himiko grinned with a blush going across her face and a wide grin.
"That's the idea." Izumi smiled back. "You should put on some shoes as well. It's going to be a while until we reach Konukoru and walking barefoot in an underground tunnel isn't so good."
Izumi nonchalantly grabbed some spare shoes from the pile of tools that she kept hidden behind the hidden door of the Hunter's Cabin, right at the start of the underground tunnel.
"You sure had those ready~" Himiko grinned, putting them on.
"I don't mind you being barefoot in the cabin as long as you don't bring mud in, but it's a long way to the city."
"I know, so on top of making more bullets and the thunder arrows–"
"Lightning Arrows."
"Yeah, those, on top of all that, practicing hand to hand combat, making the changes to the gloves and opening up the tunnels, you also made sure to have spare shoes~? Wow, Izumi-chan~ some would say that you care about me~" Himiko nudged at Izumi.
"Yeah, well, I just couldn't have you hold me back when we were traveling through the tunnels."
Izumi teased her back, with a smirk of her own.
"Pffff! Haha~! Oh come on~ I could have always walked while transformed~ Could have become someone with nice walking feet~"
"I think all feet are… walking feet." Izumi said, making a weird face at the joke. "Besides, it'd be a waste of blood."
"Hey missy! I'll decide what's a waste!"
Izumi rolled her eyes and grabbed her helmet. It still had the crack from the last job in Musutafu, but the cracks had been welded shut. It was a temporary fix until she changed the glass, but for now it'd do.
She carried with her Q-Tip and the Hunting Rifle, with more than enough Black Arrows and Black Bullets. She had her Hunting Gloves on and one of her jammers. Himiko wasn't wearing anything besides the Blood Cape and her boots, and had her Black Knife on her hand.
"Let's go then."
Himiko giggled, following Izumi through the tunnels. Instead of the flashlights they normally used, Izumi had installed a few lights on her helmet for situations like this, and just switched them on while carrying the helmet under her arm. No need to put it on yet.
It didn't take long for them to reach the previously blocked tunnel that directly led to Konukoru. The shovel that Izumi had used to open up the blocked path was still there, dirty and laid on one of the walls.
Thankfully the police of Konukoru didn't fill up the entire tunnel when they caught the original villains responsible for its creation, and merely sealed a bunch of their paths. It took Izumi a while to dig up through the dirt they put on its way, but enough for both her and Himiko to sneak past it and reach one of the tunnels leading to the city.
Before they knew it, they had made the entire way through the forest back to the city walking through the tunnel. The walls of the tunnel changed, moving past the hardened dirt and using more stone and concrete.
"I thought you said the villain who did this tunnel had a dirt manipulation quirk." Himiko said, not in an accusatory way, just curious for the change.
"I thought so as well, and that's what I'd been told, but it seems it was something more complex than that."
They kept walking under the outskirts of the city, and shortly after reached the end of the tunnel. Of course, it had been sealed here as well, but unlike the previous seal, which had just poured a layer of dirt there, this one was instead sealed by thick steel bars, probably because at the other end were Konukoru's sewers, and the water there could damage any wall they tried to build.
"Didn't you go to the sewers to check if there was another blockage?" Himiko said while looking at the steel bars. "Well, no matter, I feel like your gift can cut through this~" She grinned while moving her hand with the knife forward, but Izumi stopped her.
"I did check. This is nothing unexpected. And don't use the Black Knife on them."
"Why not? It'll just cut through it, right?"
"Yeah, but I have another thing just for this."
Izumi put the helmet down to free her hands, and flexed them open, wide. The new mechanism she had added to the back of her fingers activated, shifting pointy shards of metal in front of her finger tips.
"Ohh~! You just wanted to use your new claws for this~!" Himiko said, watching the faint glow in Izumi's claws from the little light that they had.
"Yes."
Izumi wrapped her thumb and index finger around one of the bars, the tips of her claws touching at the other end, and then pulled her hand back, slicing off the steel bar without giving much resistance.
"Himiko-senpai, please grab the bar for a moment."
"Okey~"
Himiko grabbed it as she was told, and Izumi repeated the same action, slicing off a lower part of the same bar without any issue with a clean cut.
Izumi then grabbed the bar and put it to the side.
"There, we can squeeze by now."
"Wow, so easy. They didn't hold back when making this blockade." Himiko giggled, as she squeezed across the hole.
"To be fair, they didn't expect anyone to come from the supposed dead end, or to be able to so easily slice off the bars." Izumi said, as she squeezed through the gap. "But yeah, quite the stingy 'fix'."
She fixed her jacket and checked the rifle and bow on her back, checking if they weren't damaged after squeezing through the gap. Satisfied that they were alright, Izumi extended her hand towards the sewer, and smirked at Himiko.
"There's your entrance to the sewers, Himiko-senpai."
Izumi said, puffing her chest once she was on the other side, proud of finding out about this path and a way to sort out the blockage on it. The new Hunting Globes worked excellently. Unlike the Black Bullets and Black Arrows that were meant to pierce, Izumi had made the claws to act like the ones from Kuro, or any other crow for that matter. Tear flesh and anything else on her path. Though they weren't as sharp as the Black Knife, that was still the best thing she had made out of Kuro's metal.
"You say it in such a cool way despite being quite a gloomy place for a date."
"Haha, very funny."
Izumi rolled her eyes, but there was a smile on her face. She slid the fingers of both hands over the tiny hole she had made, and swiped them to the sides, widening the hole and slicing through more concrete.
It took her a moment (it was still a stone wall and she was using nothing other than claws), but eventually the hole was big enough for them to go through.
The difference between the tunnel and the sewer was mostly the smell, and the river of dirty water going through it.
"Ew, gross!" Himiko said, after stepping on a puddle of dirty water and garbage.
Izumi ignored her protests and went to the nearest ladder, leading to a manhole. She tapped it a few times, and waited. The same pattern of taps came from the other side, and Izumi pushed the manhole, opening it up to the outside.
A few crows immediately flew down, cawing excited and flying around, with a few more staying outside, not wanting to go underground.
"Alright, is everyone ready?"
"Caw!" Yes!
"Good. Any movements from the SASC or the hunters?"
No one left or came inside enemy nest.
"Great, thanks, Hattori." Izumi pet her, being careful to not cut her with the claws. "Himiko-senpai?"
"Got it~" She smirked, and grabbed one of the wires of her Blood Cape. She took off the needle and started sucking the blood directly from the wire, slurping it like a straw.
Himiko surrounded herself in the sludge of her quirk as she took on the blood. She timed it so she got off her shoes and took off the Blood Cape just in time for them to not be eaten up by her quirk.
"So? How is it?" Backfire said.
"You look and sound annoying, so perfect."
"Great~ Then I'll be going with the murder-chan~ See you later Izumi-chan~"
"Hearing that coming from Backfire's mouth is so cursed."
Izumi shivered after saying that, while Himiko laughed in his voice, and got out of the sewer, winking and waving at Izumi as he put the manhole cover in place.
"Well then guys, let's go~"
Backfire said, going out of the alleway the manhole led to. The original villain group that created the tunnels really knew what they were doing, putting the connection of the tunnels and the sewers right next to a manhole hidden in an alleyway, where it was harder to get spotted.
Most crows flew off the alleyway, following Himiko without getting close to not arouse suspicion. Hattori, Shirokuchi and Menokizu stayed along with Izumi in the sewers.
"You guys sure you wanna be down here?"
Can't let Green go alone! Hattori cawed.
The other two crows cawed in agreement, flying over to Izumi's shoulders and on top of her Hunting Rifle she had strapped on her back.
"I guess I can't convince you otherwise."
"Damn right!" Menokizu cawed, in an arrogant voice she recognized from a few years back.
Izumi smiled, and put on the helmet, letting its new lights illuminate her path.
"Well then. Let's go hunt down the Commission."
Izumi walked through the sewers, in a memorized pattern she had gotten from exploring them before this mission. She didn't only look for the blockage of the tunnel leading to the forest, but also looked around the map of the entire sewage system of the city in order to properly traverse it.
Giran had as always provided her with great intel, one that she couldn't rely on the crows to get. Along with how to get right below the main SASC building through the sewage, he had gotten her an incredibly detailed and thorough copy of the schematics of the building.
After a while of doing nothing but turns around corners and avoiding stepping on the garbage that ended up there, Izumi finally reached her destination.
Right in front of her, there was a much sturdier looking wall than any of the others she had been crossing through in the sewer. On the other side of the wall was the secret passage to the underground facilities of the SASC.
Izumi had suspected they held a secret there for a long time, there's a reason she got many more jobs than anyone else in the Order, even a fool like Bullseye figured that out.
"Now, according to the map there should be an opening through the right…"
She mumbled, with the crows resting on her shoulders and head as she circled around the wall. She reached a corner where the sturdier wall had an opening and a heavy looking door.
Unlike the cement wall she had clawed her way across from, this wall was much thicker according to Giran, so she had to find the entrance. Her claws made easy work of the door, as after she dug the lock out of the doorknob, she was able to open the door just fine.
The door was heavy, but nothing Izumi couldn't handle, and she made her way inside. There were lights inside automatically turning on as Izumi passed. She looked around for cameras, but didn't find any.
The hunter crossed another door, and finally found the ladder leading up. She went up, looking around to see if there was any unfortunate worker around, but luckily, there wasn't. She needed to be fast now, as there were bound to be cameras somewhere around, as she entered the area of the lower official floors of the building.
According to the schematics, she was now on the employee parking floor, specifically on the internal access hall, near the maintenance area. She grabbed a few darts in between her fingers, and kept her claws extended, ready to attack if necessary.
In the end, she reached the final door, reading "Restricted Area, Authorized Personnel only". She caught a camera, and quickly threw a dart, destroying it immediately. She quickly got up to the door, and thrusted all five fingers of her hand over the handle, then closed her hand.
The claws cut through the metallic door with a screech, and Izumi tossed back the torn handle of the door, kicking it open next. She had successfully gotten to the maintenance area.
Izumi, or rather Diana, grabbed the official comms that the Hunting Team had.
"Almost there."
Everyone would receive the message, but only one person would truly understand the true meaning behind it.
Backfire grinned after hearing the message. He was also about to reach the SASC headquarters, so to anyone else looking, it only made sense to believe that message at straight value.
He looked up, finding the crows on the rooftops of the buildings. He raised a finger and then tapped at his forehead with it, grinning the entire time.
Caws could be heard from high up all around the buildings surrounding the SASC headquarters.
"Almost there."
"Hm? Already? Have you guys seen them?" Shotgun asked the rest of the hunters taking the guard.
"No… how odd, let me see…" Trickshot said, looking around his binoculars to look for the guard team." Ah! There's Backfire! But where are the rest?"
"Trickshot? Shotgun?" Agent said, his featureless face rising up and pointing straight ahead.
They paled, alongside Masuta who also looked up to where Agent was pointing. A massive swarm of black was approaching them. Dozen and dozens of crows, all cawing at the same time, to the point the people on the streets looked up, some screaming a bit as the black mass of birds converged and started flying in circles around the building.
"Contact the others! We are under attack!" Masuta shouted, going over to the window to open it and try his luck at shouting an order.
But he never was able to even try, as the alarm blared off and the anti-villain seal was immediately activated. Sheets of metal came down and covered the windows, cutting them off from all the light from outside.
Almost immediately, the lights from inside switched off, and the alarm blasting on their ears disappeared.
"What the hell was that!?" Trickshot shouted, as the emergency lights switched on.
"Comms are dead!" Shotgun said, a hand to his ear, trying to contact the others.
"Karasu was really spying on us! Something happened to the Villain Prevention Panic Mode! It shouldn't have been activated yet!" Masuta said, banging against the metal covering the windows.
"Karasu is inside." He said, turning back, livid but completely focused.
"Are you certain? If they were spying on us because of the crows, why didn't he attack immediately when the Hunting Team left? Backfire was just about to enter through the door! Karasu must now that there are more hunters inside than the ones that left!" Trickshot said.
"Only Backfire returned… Why?" Agent said, slowly moving next to the others. "Only Hound spoke when contacting back after losing them in the interference, and there's interference again."
Trickshot paled, realizing that there was an imposter playing them, and rushed to the stairs.
"Fuck! We are being played! The entire Hunting Team has been compromised! We have to go back with the rest and prepare for an ambush!"
"Forget that! They are already alerted! The power is off!" Masuta said, grabbing Trickshot by the collar of his jacket.
Trickshot shoved him off. "How did he manage to even do that?"
Moments earlier, as soon as she sent the message through the public comms, Izumi set up the jammer, closing off all communications again. After that, she opened the box with all the cables sending energy to the building.
"Get back."
She warned the crows, and reached for the panel, using her claws to cut a specific cable.
Snap!
Giran's intel was correct, once again, and the alarms blared above her, activating the security system and sealing off the building. It was an anti-terrorist measure turned anti-villain meant to keep invading forces away, but Izumi was using them to trap all her targets inside their nest.
That's the double-edge of every pack's den. It can help you against outsiders, but smart hunters will use it to pin their prey inside.
Now the next step was to not allow them to fix their security. Izumi brought her hand over the thick stack of cables, grabbing them without thinking twice. She pulled them off, snapping and breaking them using her claws. Sparks came down from the box, and the lights exploded, the light bulbs bursting and bringing darkness to the room.
The claws weren't the only modification she had done to the Hunting Gloves. Far long before she even considered adding the claws, she had already used Gorogoro's feathers, laced them into the gloves, and given them the same property to absorb electricity as Gorogoro's feathers had.
So Izumi didn't react to the sparks that jumped into her hands as she cut the cables.
Backfire got inside the building just before the alarms blared and the defense system sealed all exits off.
"Ba-Backfire, sir! Thank goodness the seal didn't catch you!" One of the receptionists shouted over the alarm.
"Hmm, yeah, that'd be bad." He said nonchalantly, and then, the lights died.
The employees there on the ground floor screamed, panicked over the sudden darkness now that they weren't receiving any light from the sealed windows. When the emergency lights came in, dimming the floor in an eerie low red glow, they calmed down slowly.
"Wh-what's going on?"
"Are we under attack?"
"The crows outside were acting weird!"
"Wait, has anyone seen mister Backfire?"
They looked around, only to see that the hunter had in fact banished without a trace.
"Qu-quickly! Call security!"
"Th-the phones aren't working!"
"What!?"
One of the employees ran towards the door, slamming his fists into the door.
"Let me go! I have nothing to do with any of this! I'm just an accountant!"
"Oh, you asshole!" Soon enough most of the employees were rushing for the door, fighting each other and slamming into the metal seal, trying to get out.
"Let us out!"
"I had nothing to do with it!"
"I don't get paid enough to get killed by a villain!"
"Relax you buffoons!"
One of the few employees not panicking and trying to force the door open said. "It's probably just a malfunction. Why would we get attacked right when the Villain Control group is on the building?"
"Oh, yeah, you are right…"
"I feel stupid now."
"Yeah, we'll be safe with them around…"
"But where did Backfire go?" A chirpy voice said, behind the employee that had calmed everyone else.
"Oh, yeah, where did he go?"
"He didn't get scared and run, didn't he?"
"Do you know where he went, Sakko-sa–"
They all froze, as they saw their coworker that had kept their cool pale as blood spurted from her neck.
She fell to the ground with a thud, revealing the villain behind her, a naked girl wearing nothing but a red cape, shiny yellow eyes visible even through the low red light, and a knife dripping with blood on her hand.
The low level employees screamed, backing off and squeezing their backs into the sealed doors.
"Aaaahhh!"
"Y-you killed Sakko-san…"
"P-please spare me!"
Himiko tilted her head, walking over to the last man. It was easy to get over to him, even walking slowly. His legs were shaking and he even fell to his butt when she got close. He was frozen in fear, and so were the rest of the employees.
Himiko grabbed the scared man by his jaw, showing him the sharp blade of her knife.
"Spare you? Now why should I do that~? You are part of the men working over to hurt my friends."
"I, I swear! I don't know anything! Please! I'm just doing my job!"
"Th-those villains aren't part of us!" A woman tried to argue, bringing Himiko's attention to her. "W-we have nothing to do with them!"
"But they work for you~" Himiko said, tilting her head again.
Her voice was chirpy, full of the curiosity of a child, but the look in her eyes and her deranged way too wide smile betrayed her true feelings.
"The higher ups! They were the ones that hired them! W-we have nothing to do with what they did to your friends! I swear!"
"Y-yeah!"
"W-we ohnly go afhder wild avivals!" The man still on Himiko's grasp said, and paled after feeling her tighten her grasp.
"Oh really~? You were treating Backfire-san pretty well earlier~"
"It was just courtesy!"
"Yes!"
"Please don't kill me…"
They were begging and crying, and Himiko saw the man she was holding pee himself. The rush of acting like a predator to these pathetic prey was turned into disgust by them willing to sell their allies, be it the villains on their employ (which included Diana, so they were betraying Izumi-chan! Unforgivable!) or their bosses kept her on edge.
"So uncute. Killing you is no fun at all."
They breathed a sigh of relief, crying and thanking their gods.
"But you still went after my friends~" She said, smirking again and raising her knife.
"Heeeeeee!" Her prey squealed under her grasp, trying to get free.
"And we still hate you all~"
She slammed the knife forward, the man closing his eyes and hearing a loud slam. He blinked away tears, and saw the knife buried its handle into the sealed door.
"I-impossible. The seal is made of titanium…" Whimpered one of the prey.
Himiko pushed the knife down, cutting the door like butter, and twisting the knife, curving it and them bringing it up again.
A circle shaped slice of metal door fell off, too tiny for a person to use it to escape. Himiko stepped off, letting the man fall down, and stepped away from him before his filth could touch her feet.
Himiko didn't mind walking on dirt in the forest, but she wasn't about to step on pish, ew.
"Well~ meet my friends, the ones you admitted were after~"
The caws from outside the building intensified, and crow after crow started flying inside the building, flying on the first door, surrounding every single one of them.
With the dim red light of the emergency lights, the young teen looked like a vampire surrounded by birds of death.
"Y-your friends were c-crows?" The woman that said that they went after wild animals paled.
"Uh huh~! Did I mention that we hate you~? They are dying for a taste of fresh meat~"
Outside the building, thanks to the now new hole, passersby could hear the screams and begs of the employees, as the crows enacted their revenge and answered the threat of a fellow crow being hunted down.
"H-hero! Someone call a hero!"
The meeting room where the higher ups of the Commission alongside the rest of the hunters were was pure chaos. When the alarm started blaring, there was a sense of unease among them, but Panzerfaust was able to somewhat calm them down, but after the power died, it was impossible to control them anymore.
Panicked cries, shouts and demands of protection echoed into the room. They were hunters, not babysitters, dealing with panicked adults was the job of heroes, so it took them a while before they could even do something useful.
"Deathglare! Contact Trickshot and the others! They were standing watch! They must have seen something!" Panzerfaust tried at least contacting them, any intel was good at this point.
"I've been trying for a while, Panzerfaust! But there's interferences again!"
"Interferences!?"
"Don't you mean, Karasu is here!?" Overkill said, glaring at Deathglare, straining her three good eyes over the dim light of the emergency lights.
Panzerfaust groaned and rolled his eyes, seeing as the Commission guys panicked more after that sentence.
"Karasu!? Here!? How could that be!?"
"Do something, you overpaid villains!"
"How did he find out so fast!?"
"You promised we didn't have a reason to fear!"
"Ahh! Karasu is going to kill us all!"
Jikken was desperately trying to use every single phone on his person to contact the outside world. He didn't care who, heroes, police, even the HPSC, he tried them all, but nothing worked.
"How is this possible!? The Villain Prevention Panic Mode activated on its own! Panzerfaust! You get me out of here this instant! This is all your fault! I knew we should have been more wary after finding the crows looking at us! And because of you we are trapped in our own–"
Slap!
Jikken blinked, coming to terms with what just happened, feeling his cheek sting from the slap.
"Will you all calm down already, or do I have to go one by one and bring some senses into you all?" Pitcher glared at them.
A few grown men blushed a bit, probably still remembering Pitcher's beautiful looks on her prime. They would probably want to be slapped by her if she was 10 or 20 years younger.
"Thank you, Pitcher." Panzerfaust bowed his head slightly at her, and she did the same in respect. "Listen everyone, calm down. I know things seem bad now, but it's still our job to protect you, so please remain calm as we figure out what is going on exactly."
"How could you expect us to calm down, you moron!?" Jikken yelled again, after recovering from the slap. "Masuta is out there alone! How are you intending to protect him, huh!?"
"The Whisperer is with three of our hunters, calm down." Overkill said, glaring at him with disgust.
"What's with that stare!? Remember that you aren't hunted down by heroes because of us! Show some respect, mutant!"
"Do you want me to kill you instead of Karasu!?" Overkill said, cracking the knuckles from her four hands.
"Calm down, woman!" Panzerfaust said, while Deathglare pushed Overkill back using his quirk.
The old man looked around the still panicking higher ups, and saw that one woman among them was visibly calmer than the rest. She was the president's secretary if he remembered correctly.
"You, Fukurou-san, right? Tell me, what could have triggered the Villain Prevention… mode, whatever has shut down all the windows."
The woman blinked, surprised to be questioned, her out of every other high ranking member of the Commission.
"W-well, the system is only supposed to be triggered through the president's special key, but that's in our underground, uhm, facilities…"
"Fukurou! That's classified information! You trai–" Pitcher smacked him again, this time harder, knocking him out.
"Please continue." She said, looking at the secretary.
"Y-yes ma'am. It's a special defensive method installed long ago when villains were much more dangerous. The seal is quite formidable, made from titanium, not anything can get through it."
"So the intruder is in the underground levels?" Panzerfaust asked.
"That's impossible." A new voice said, entering the room. It was Masuta, coming alongside the other three hunters standing watch.
"How come?"
"The security on the lower levels is impossible to get through without me being alerted. Karasu couldn't have gotten around it without us realizing. Besides, power cut out shortly after the Villain Prevention Panic Mode was activated. If I had to guess, they probably managed to get to the control room or maybe the maintenance room, and cut our energy through there."
"How did he know what to do?" One of the executives asked. "If Karasu activated the Villain Prevention Panic Mode to trap us in to h-hunt us down, that'd mean they knew about it beforehand! That information is very heavily guarded!"
"Giran was probably involved." Masuta scoffed. "He's her handler, and he has his way to get information nowadays…" He then glared down at the executives. "You didn't leak any information for a quick buck, right?"
The definitely not corrupt government officials got immediately defensive, shouting at him and responding with a mix of genuine and practiced outrage.
"Wh-what do you take us for!?"
"You have a lot of nerve to say that, former villain!"
"Don't forget your place, Masuta! You aren't above the Order of Orion! If it weren't for us taking you in with the Criminal Assimilation Act!"
Masuta glared at all of them, stepping forward. They all flinched, noticing the edge in his eyes and the contempt he was showing them.
"Don't you forget your place. If it wasn't for me, this agency would have shut down long ago. Who do you think is giving you all the benefits in exports on the animal quirk produced goods?"
"Everyone, calm down." Panzerfaust reiterated again, putting a hand over Masuta's shoulder, who glared at him in response. "You too, Whisperer."
"If you boys are done arguing like little kids," Pitcher pointed out, "we still have the issue of Karasu being inside."
"And that's not all," Trickshot joined in, "before the seal was off, the crows suddenly went crazy, and we caught Backfire about to get back inside."
"Just Backfire?" Panzerfaust furrowed his brows.
"Yes."
Panzerfaust was deep in thought for a moment, taking in all the information.
"Alright. The entire Hunting Team is compromised. That may not be Backfire, and the crows reacted strangely right before the alarm blared, correct?"
"Yes."
"There's someone else with Karasu, we aren't handling a single enemy anymore. We may have more than an animal controller to handle. Whisperer, you have lots of the captured animals we hunt for the SASC held down here, right?"
"Yes."
"D-do not say that so easily! That's restricted information!" The president's secretary said.
"Go down there and secure them, the least we want is Karasu's quirk to work on any animals and have to handle a horde of them."
"You didn't need to tell me that. As if I'd let my precious research material fall into the hands of that despicable wannabe hero killer!"
"Good. Pitcher, Trickshot, Deathglare. You three and I will go down with him to secure the area."
"I don't need your help, old geezer."
"Tough. This isn't up for debate. I will not underestimate Karasu again."
Masuta glared daggers at him, but eventually relented.
"Alright, but touch anything and you die. I could use some more shields anyway."
"Why you–"
"Calm down, Overkill!" Panzerfaust shouted before she could lounge at Masuta. It was only the respect she had in his role as the leader of the Order that she didn't kill Masuta on the spot for talking about using them as shields.
"What about us!? Are you going to abandon us when there might as well be another villain inside!?" Said one of the executives, backed up by cries of protest and fear from the rest. Jikken was still knocked out from Pitcher's slap.
"You'll be safe here. Ripper, stay close with them and terminate anyone that tries getting close. If you stay here it won't matter that Karasu is a sniper, you'll have him or anyone else in close range."
"Understood." He said, raising his arm with the scythe attached to it, his face completely concealed under his mask.
"Snaptrap, Agent, Overkill and Shotgun, you hunt down Backfire or whoever is the other player helping out Karasu. I don't want any sloppy jobs. Our mission is to terminate Karasu and any allies they might have while keeping our employers safe! Understood!?"
"Yes, sir!" They all said, and each got moving to fulfill their missions.
"Lead the way, Whisperer." Trickshot said, lighting out a cigarette. "You know how to get to your 'classified' area."
He scoffed, and did as he was told. Thankfully, the elevator that lead them to the restricted underground area worked on with the emergency power always just in case something like this happened, so they wouldn't have any trouble getting there.
Back down on the first floor, Himiko was done pretty much closing up the hole she had made to let the crows in. The floor was splattered by blood and the bodies of the SASC employees Himiko and the crows had gotten.
"Ugh, I don't understand how Izu–Karasu-chan stays so long so close to the furnace! It's so hot! No offense, Shiro-chan."
"Caw!"
Himiko was pretty sure he meant "none taken", but her crow still could use some work.
She was wearing Izumi's special mittens for working in the furnace, and was holding Shiro, who was engulfed in bright white feathers. Himiko may not have welded anything else before, but she had seen Izumi work more than enough times to know how to use the makeshift living blowtorch to weld the piece of the reinforced metal she had cut down for the murder to enter back to be sealed. Still, lots of fun~ really made her put herself in Izumi's place in order to do it.
When she was done, she put Shiro down as he put down the fire around his body. Himiko sighed, taking off the mittens and wiping the sweat from her forehead. She looked down at the still glowing welded metal.
"Hmm, not bad~ We make a good team, right Shiro-chan~?"
"Caw!"
Himiko giggled, filling the floor with the only human voice still around. Now the building was properly sealed off again, with a big, huge number of intruders inside. Her Blood Cape was properly strapped to her back, and the Black Knife reflected the eerie red glow of the emergency lights.
"Well then~ everyone ready~?" Himiko cheered, hopping to one foot and raising her hand with the knife high.
Dozens and dozens of crows cawed in response, letting a cacophony of noise echo through the building, to signal everyone else that they were coming.
According to Izumi, it's unlikely they would meet the Whisperer anywhere other than the lower levels, but she had asked Himiko and the older crows that had interacted with him to be wary of him.
A bunch of crows, all of them ones that didn't meet the Whisperer directly, flew down the stairs, among them Urusai, going to scout out the lower levels with the help of his quirk, while Shiro, Oji-san and a lot of other crows, young and old, stayed with Himiko.
Then, from the stairs leading upstairs, a loud bang was heard, and then a door came down flying, making a few crows fly out of the way.
"Ohhh~? Who's there~?"
Himiko said, walking to get in front of the stairs, smirking while holding her knife close.
"I'm supposed to be the one asking that."
A large woman with four arms and four eyes, one of them closed with a scar over it, came down the stairs. She was wearing a modified yukata that gave her more space to move her arms freely, as well as an opening below her waist, allowing her to move her legs freely.
There was a katana strapped behind her obijime, and one of her hands was gripping the guard of her katana tightly.
"A brat?"
Himiko could feel the sheer fury emanating from this woman, her veins popping and her hands balling up into fists, the one gripping her katana doing it so hard her knuckles whitened.
"Woah~ scary~ you must be Overkill~ Hmmm~ you like to play with sharp things~? Me too~!"
Himiko waved her Black Knife, while the crows cawed and circled around them, getting behind Himiko, while some of them looked at her in the eyes, and then looked to the stairs from where Overkill had come from. Both Himiko and the murder understood it. Overkill was absolutely pissed, but she didn't drop her guard whatsoever.
Himiko felt a strange sense of excitement, similar to the one she felt when hunting down Wild, before she turned uncute and Himiko lost interest in her.
"I don't have time for whatever bullshit you are spewing." Overkill glared at Himiko, then looked around, eyeing the crows and the corpses of the employees that laid under the overabundance of crows in the room.
Himiko ignored her for the movement, and saw Kuro and the rest of the crows that were supposed to go up to scout and cause terror look at her, conflicted. Himiko lightly nodded at them, showing them a confident yet deranged smirk, as if saying that if Overkill tried to do anything to them, she'd make her regret it.
Almost sensing Himiko's intent, Overkill steadied herself, and didn't stop the crows from flying past her, but she did eye Kuro among them, seeing that it was the crow with the black metal quirk they were warned about.
"Your pets aren't going to get far with my allies upstairs, brat, no matter what quirks they have. Now answer me, are you Karasu?"
"Beeeh~! Wrong~!" Himiko said, crossing her arms in the shape of an X. "I'm Toga Himiko! Karasu-chan is occupied at the moment~ And don't worry about the murder-chan~ Kuro-chan~ is with them~" Himiko licked the leftover blood still on her knife, "I told Karasu-chan that I would bring her the heads of any hunter I find~ You don't mind me cutting you up and seeing your blood spew out, right~?"
Instead of being disturbed, Overkill smiled, showing Himiko an equally bloodlusted smirk of her own, and took out her katana from her obijime, tossing the sheath to the side and revealing the blade to the air.
"That's a wonderful idea, actually. Don't think I'll go easy on you because you are a brat, you psycho. I used to be yakuza!"
Himiko giggled, and leaned down, getting ready to pounce, getting excited.
"Ohhh~ scary~ hehehe~ Try lasting a little longer than Wild, will you~?"
Overkill's smirk disappeared, replaced by pure fury, and gritted her teeth, veins popping in her forehead and neck, raising her katana high.
"You brat!" Overkill brought the blade down onto Himiko
Back in the lower floor, a group of assistants and workers tried to desperately open the door leading to the parking area for the employees.
"Can't you go faster!?"
"I'm trying, dammit! The security system triggered and locked all the doors!"
"The screams from above have stopped…"
One of the employees was trying to lockpick the door, while another used his phone as a flashlight, unable to use it to call for help, as the signal was dead in all phones.
"Come on! Whatever that is on the first floor, it can get here at any moment!"
"I know! This is hard, you know!?"
The screams of terror that they heard from above still echoed in their minds, some of the employees, still crying and curled into balls from the fear of it. When the screams finally stopped, another sound started echoing from above.
Dozens and dozens of caws, voices, and different sounds completely unrelated to another. Screeches from metal, blares from horns, beeps from electronic devices, barks, and pieces of sentences that didn't make any sense.
It was as if there was a monster above them, trying to imitate anything, repeating it's sounds, but unable to properly replicate it, mixing it with other sounds, including human voices and caws, so many caws from birds.
"Hey! The elevator is working!"
A woman that was trying to open the doors of the elevator said, as the lights indicating the floor the elevator was on suddenly switched on, and showed how it was going down from the tenth floor.
"Really!? Try calling it! Maybe we can use it to go to another floor without locked doors!"
The man trying to lockpick the door said, hesitating whether to continue trying to open the door.
"What? It passed this floor!"
"Did you press the button?"
"Do you think I'm stupid!? Of course I did!" The woman kicked the door of the elevator in frustration. "Let us get out of here!"
"You idiot!" Another worker quickly covered her mouth, looking around, especially from the hall leading to the stairs leading to the first floor.
They all stood silent for a moment, holding their breath while looking over at the hall. After a few seconds, they let out a sigh of relief.
"Caw!"
Only to be immediately robbed from them, as five crows suddenly burst out from the corner, flying straight at them. They screamed, seeing the loud animals go after them and scratch, peck, and try getting at their faces, dangerously close to their eyes.
They immediately forgot about the elevator, and ran back towards their only hope to escape, the door to the parking area.
"Open the goddamn door!"
"I'm on it! Ahh!"
Suddenly, five spikes burstead around the door's handle, making the worker trying to lockpick the door fall on his butt. The five spikes spun around the handle, cutting through the metal door with a screech, and then clawed around it, tearing it apart from the other side.
The fear from the crows momentarily gone, wondering about what could be coming from the other side of the door, the employees watched with terror in their eyes the door open, as the crows backed off, wary of that as well.
From the other side of the door, stood a fairly short figure, a rifle resting on their shoulder, and their face obscured behind a cracked helmet.
"Y-you! You are one of the security that was hired recently, right? Please help us!"
"Kill these beasts! They were attacking us just a moment ago!"
"You are from the Villain Control group, right? From the Villain Assimilation Program? Do something or we'll report you!"
"Alright, alright." A slightly feminine voice said, passing through a filter.
The hunter surely took their time, getting the rifle off from her shoulder, but instead of starting to shoot at the crows, she started to disassemble her rifle.
"What are you doing!?"
"Are you crazy!?"
The crows were on top of all of them now, with the employees desperately trying and failing to swat them away, barely able to protect their faces, as they were cornered into the other side of the hall. The hunter wasn't targeted by a single crow.
"Wh-what's going on?" One of the employees managed to say, after seeing one of the crows land on the hunter's shoulder.
After managing to make all of the workers curl down and run into a corner, the crows slowly stopped attacking them, and circled around them. Before they could realize, they were surrounded and cornered, and the hunter slowly but surely walked near the circle of crows, neither them nor her showing any animosity with each other.
She was still taking pieces of her rifle, and putting them over in different places.
"Wh-what's the meaning of this!?"
"Sorry for the wait." She said, putting a silencer to the end of her now much shorter (but still deadly looking) rifle. "I had to reduce the range for more close range accuracy."
"W-what is the silencer for?" One of the employees was brave enough to ask.
The hunter merely tilted their head, the expressionless cracked sight of the helmet becoming increasingly disturbing on the dim red emergency lights.
"What do you think?" She said, pointing the rifle back at them.
Jikken slowly woke up, blinking away. He grabbed his head while sitting up, looking around to see he was still in the meeting room. His cheek still stung from Pitcher's slap.
"Ugh…"
"Oh, Jikken-sama, you are finally awake. Please take it easy, your neck may still hurt. That slap was pretty strong."
He heard the voice of his secretary close to him, as she helped him sit.
"The slap… Ah! That bitch! How dare she! Where is Pitcher, right now!?" Jikken said, pushing the woman off.
"She's gone down to the underground lab with the Whisperer and other hunters."
Ripper said, without looking back at him.
"What!? They left us defenseless!?"
"Jikken-san, please calm down." One of the higher executives tried to calm him down. "Ri-Ripper-san, was it? Ripper-san is here, and there are other hunters looking for the other intruder."
"Other intruder!? Was the hell happened while I was out!?"
Jikken started hyperventilating, and pulled his tie, feeling as if he was choking on it.
"Sir, please calm down." The secretary tried again, only to get shoved off again.
"Shut up, Fukurou! I haven't forgotten how you disclosed information about our security without permission!"
"For the love of God, Jikken! This is a life or death situation!" Another of the executives said, becoming nervous because of Jikken's erratic behaviour.
"Shuddup! I'm not going to stay here to get myself killed! If Masuta has gone underground that's the safest place, and that's where I'm going!"
He slurred his words and shoved Ripper out of his way running off the door.
"Ugh! That idiot!" Ripper grunted, gripping his fists, the tip of some blades coming out from his elbows as he did so, and looked back to the rest of the executives. "Stay here! I'm going to get that idiot back."
Under the dim light, his silly full face mask looked more intimidating. He didn't wait for a response, deciding to get this done quickly before needing to leave those rich assholes alone for too long.
"Ahhh!"
"Caw! Caw!"
The sight of crows flying everywhere greeted him when he turned the corner, with Jikken on his butt, crying and screaming.
"You fucking idiot!"
Scythes ripped out from Ripper's wrists all the way to his elbow, and spun forward, pointing right straight from him as he activated with Spinning Scythes quirk.
The crows cawed, worried after seeing Ripper sprint towards them with his scythes extended, cutting the walls on his sides as he did so.
Taking advantage of Jikken having fallen on his butt, Ripper swung his scythe in a wide horizontal slash right above him, forcing the crows to fly away to avoid getting cut.
Ripper got in front of Jikken, getting right in front of the crows and him.
"President, you better get back into the room right now!"
"N-no way! I'm not going to be in such an exposed place!"
"Caw!"
The crows flew into Jikken's direction when he started running again into another hall, and Ripper had to jump to get on their way again, swinging his scythes and leaving deep gushes in the wall and ceiling.
"Tsk, little space." He clicked his tongue, and put his arms in front of his body.
The scythes extending from his wrists started spinning, faster and faster until they were lethal sharp disks cutting and slashing anything on their way, like lethal sawblades.
"You aren't getting any closer, you pests!"
Ripper swung his arms around, now the surface of his scythes reaching a wider range. The crows scattered and got out of the way, flying off and cawing in distress, barely avoiding the blades that cut through the walls like butter.
The former assassin cursed under his breath. He usually only took jobs in which he had plenty of space to move around. The walls (other than the ones sealed by the metal to outside the building), gave in easily, but he couldn't just blindly go through them.
The crows were backing off and getting away from his employers, including that idiot president that ran on his own. He knew that was why Panzerfaust had put him to guard them. If he got such low range, it was better for him to guard the access of a single room instead of going for a hunt.
If he were taking on a hero like in the old days (though he didn't have much time to do that, All Might was on the rise when he started, and the Order quickly annexed the SASC), he'd be worried, but against crows? Animals wouldn't be able to tell he wasn't on his element.
Still, they somehow managed to avoid all of his swings, despite him increasing his range by making his scythes spin around his wrists. He knew that if Karasu was involved, and with quirked crows around, it wasn't like they were regular crows, but there was no Karasu or quirked crow on sight.
He wouldn't let some puny pests make a fool out of him. A few torn corpses would deter more crows to get closer to his employers. Ripper got more aggressive, going on the offensive instead of passively guarding the hall.
The crows noticed the change, as they were forced back. Ripper increased his pace, feeling the trail of cuts he was leaving on the walls, floor and ceiling, as the crows flew back and cawed loudly in panic.
He managed to pull them back enough that they started to get cramped as well, and crashed into each other. That was his perfect opportunity to strike!
Ripper swung his right arm, leaving a deep gush in the wall as he brought down his scythe on them. Instead of feeling their flesh cut open and the sensation of blood in his blade, he instead felt the sharp pain of his scythe bending as it tried to cut something too durable.
"Aaagh!"
He reeked back his arm back in pain, and stopped spinning both scythes. He grabbed his arm in pain, looking at the bent and deformed scythe in shock.
"Fool!"
A surprisingly human voice brought his attention down to the crows. In front of the ones he had tried to cut down was a new crow, much bigger than the rest, with its entire body covered in a black metallic armor, the only sign that his blades had done anything being a slight bump in the shape of a line across its body.
"Y-you!"
Kuro quickly jumped at Ripper, despite the pain of the harsh blunt force it received. She was furious about some of her friends almost dying, and quickly went over to punish the foolish human that tried to hurt them.
Ripper instinctively used his other scythe to try to cut her, but Kuro avoided hitting her body this time. Instead, she flew straight into it, making her wings clash with it. The metal of both of their quirks clashed.
Kuro didn't have enough speed to overcome the force of the swing, and was battered down into the floor, but Ripper screamed again. Unlike the last time, Kuro was using her body as a blade instead of a shield. Had she had more speed, she would have gone straight through the blade and cut it effortlessly.
If Ripper had the scythe spin at the same speed as before instead of just trying a slash, that would also have made it be cut. Instead, Kuro's sharp feathers nicked his scythe as he swung down, cracking it and threatening to break if he did that again.
"Caw!" "Get him!" "Eat eyes!" "Caw!" "Caw!" Caw!"
Suddenly seeing all the crows get rowdy and even Kuro started getting up again, the other hit that tried to be a cut not damaging her too badly, Ripper understood. He had to retreat.
Kuro was too much for him. How come there was a crow with such an insane durability quirk? Was that the origin of Karasu's bullets like the Whisperer had speculated?
That didn't matter right now. He had one scythe broken, and the other pretty damaged. He spun around his still working scythe, and started walking back slowly. He didn't lose his sight from Kuro, always eyeing her, knowing that if she got in the way again, not only would his left scythe bend like the right, it would actually snap because of the cracks.
The arrival of Kuro completely changed the tides of the battle. Now the crows were the ones pressuring Ripper, and he was barely able to keep them away with his scythe, acting more as a shield than a lethal spinning blade.
He had to stop and back down whenever Kuro tried getting in the way of his swings. She was clearly hurt from the multiple hits, but still fighting off remarkably despite them. Just how hard was that crow's body?
Ripper tried contacting the other hunters, but the comms were still being jammed. He clicked his tongue, and decided to lead the crows away from his employers. That way at least he would buy some time until Overkill or Shotgun or anyone reached back to him.
But, right when he was about to turn into a corner, he stepped on something wet. He looked down, and saw a trail of blood leading to the opposite way he was back from on. It had to be Jikken's, did the crows manage to injure him?
Out of all the stupid people he had the displeasure of working with along the years, the president sure is the one that was costing him the most. No matter, despite how angry he was, Ripper would lead the crows away from him, and–
He was cut from his thoughts when the crows flipped on him, and followed the trail of blood. A shiver ran through his spine at the sight. They could follow a trail!? In this dim red light? Just what kind of instructions did Karasu tell these crows?
Kuro jumped at him, and Ripper was barely able to rise his good scythe in time. It snapped the moment her body came in contact with it, and Ripper screamed in pain, but was able to avoid getting stabbed by her beak, and pushed her away.
He pushed through the pain, and ran after the crows chasing the president. He swung around his bent up scythe, forcing the crows to move out of the way. Each time the tip touched a wall and caused even the little bit of drag, Ripper felt sharp pricks of pain stab in his wrist.
Ripper turned another corner and found Jikken in the end of the hall, inside the elevator. He looked back at the hunter, and the murder of crows flying of behind him. He inserted a key into a special keyhole behind the buttons of the elevator, and turned it.
"No! Get back!"
"No way!" Jikken shouted back, as the door of the elevator shut down, bringing him to the lowest level.
Ripper took out a tiny knife, and spun his arm again around the crows, who got away in the nick of time. He had his chance to start running towards the elevator, but he had to use a knife to be able to shake the crows from reaching him.
WHen was the last time he was forced to use it? When had his scythes not been enough? Still, the stupid president! There are no comms! And Panzerfaust's group doesn't know he is coming, they could shoot down anyone coming from the elevator!
Without that stupid president who knows how the Order's deal with the SASC would change? He couldn't allow him to get himself killed like that!
He turned around and threw the knife at the crows, which was intercepted by Kuro. It smacked her down from the air, and the other crows stopped to check on her. That was his chance.
Ripper reached the elevator, and used the snapped scythe as a lever to spread the doors open.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
With indescribable amounts of pain on the scythe and his wrist, he moved the doors enough to slide his fingers in, and then pulled the blade of, sliding the fingers of the other hand in. He used all of his strength to pull the doors open, enough for him to slide in.
He jumped in, falling on top of the elevator and barely avoiding slamming his mask on the cables of the elevator. He looked up, an dto his disappointment, the doors of the elevator remained open. The hunter raised his fists, fingers bloodied, wrists in a lot of pain, scythes busted.
He really, really hated the president.
Back at the tenth floor, Kuro managed to get up, shaking off. The knife was nothing like the blades of that foolish human, but the impact did smack her down. All the crows were severely pissed off, and cawed angrily.
They flew right to the doors of the elevator, intent of finishing off that despicable human. It was way darker inside the hole of the elevator, but darkness wasn't a problem for them, and a dozen or so of them flew down, while Kuro and a dozen other stayed on the tenth floor, to finish their job.
They went down several floors, and would keep going, almost catching up to the elevator, but a familiar whistle stopped them.
The crows spread their wings, slowing their fall, and going up. The previous floor had the doors of the elevator open, and they went through them, following the sound of the whistle.
"What were you doing going down there? I just saw the elevator go down with Ripper on top."
Izumi said, Urusai on her shoulder, with a few other crows taking a snack from the pile of bloody bodies behind her.
"Hunter! Hurt! Kuro!"
"Oh, did he now? Is she alright?"
Izumi asked, balling her right hand into a fist so hard her knuckles popped. She tightened her Hunting Gloves.
"Kuro, fine." "Revenge!"
"Of course." She got closer to the open doors of the elevator, forced open with the claws of her Hunting Gloves, and grabbed to the side, digging her claws on it to be secured. She reached forward with her free hand, closer to the cables of the elevator.
"Who was inside?"
"President!" Said one of the crows, using Ripper's voice.
"Is he now? That's pretty risky of him." She wrapped her claws around the cables. "Getting into a cage while a hunter's on the loose maybe wasn't the brightest idea."
She snapped the cables of the elevator, their high tension cutting loose easily with a loud snap. Izumi pulled herself away to avoid the cable flying around after the release of so much weight.
After a moment, the crash of the elevator echoed throughout the whole building.
"Well, that's two prey with one claw, no bullets wasted." She looked down into the dark hole leading down. "Let's exterminate the rest, shall we?"
Urusai and the rest of the crows' caws echoed through the elevator shaft.
Sorry for the long wait for not a very long chapter, but some sections of it were quicking my ass on the writing process, and I didn't want to force myself to write when I didn't have the energy for it. That, along with making sure to future proof some scenes to make sense later, delayed what shouldn't have taken so long. But with that out of the way, the murder is inside! And the hunters are panicking! And if it wasn't clear enough already, yes, Ripper is basically based on Killer from One Piece, he was kinda fun to write. In his defense, he didn't have much space to comfortably fight Kuro and dozen crows (then again, had Kuro any built up speed she would have cut him like butter lol). As for more detail about him: Ripper, quirk: Spinning Scythes. A pair of scythes come from his forearms, from his wrists to his elbows. He can spin them freely at high speeds, cutting almost anything on its path. He joined the Order of Orion back when they were still a group of assassins for hire, but after only a few years, the Order joined the SASC. He decided to stay with them despite it