Ripper had just left the higher ups of the SASC in the secure and safe meeting room, while he went after the president to bring him back for his safety. They heard bits of what was going on outside, mainly faint noises of Ripper engaging against muffled caws of crows.
Fukurou, the secretary of Jikken, the president, got up from the group of the shivering and scared executives. No one ever thought much of her. She wasn't really part of them, as higher ups, but she was a pretty face, with her pure white hair and a submissive personality that had put her on the good side of the president.
She wasn't even faced by the rough way Jikken had shoved her away, taking it without any complaint.
"They are taking a bit long… I'll go help Ripper-san. Maybe Jikken-sama will hear me out instead of him." She said, almost talking to herself, as she didn't look at the other people in the room, nor did they try stopping her from putting herself at risk and leaving the room.
After all, she was merely a nobody, and they weren't in a position to feign caring about her or her pretty face.
Fukurou left the meeting room, without a single one of the higher ups lifting a finger to stop her, or try talking her down.
A loud crash echoed through the halls of the underground classified research lab of the SASC. The four hunters tasked with Masuta and his research's protection looked back at the direction of the sound.
"What was that?" Deathglare said, his third eye looking nervously at the dark and empty hallway.
Despite power not having been cut at the underground lab, it was still pretty dark, with not a lot of the SASC's budget going to a clear lighting system.
"That sounded like the elevator falling through the shaft." Trickshot groaned, furrowing his brows and spitting out his cigarette. His hand reached for his hand, and he stepped on the cigarette.
"Seriously?!" Masuta growled, sticking his face off the computer he was checking files from. "I thought Karasu was methodical! That's what all the info of his murders point to! Fucking barbarian will just smash the elevator just because!?"
"No, there must have been a reason." Panzerfaust said with a cold and calculating expression. "Whisperer, have you finished checking on the data?"
Masuta groaned a response along with a nod. "Yeah, all my research seems in place, the black out didn't affect it, so it was most likely only just so we couldn't deactivate the Villain Prevention Panic Mode."
"Then either Karasu or the other player helping them downed the elevator, most likely knowing we were here to trap us underground."
Pitcher clicked her tongue. "You think they saw the elevator going down and decided to pick whoever went down last?"
"No, Karasu knows that I'm down here, at the very least." Masuta said, as he kept on typing on the computer.
"What makes you think that?" Panzerfaust said, calmly.
"When the alarms started and the crows started to fly off, I could tell a lot of them were looking at me. If I'm the objective, then Karasu will definitely attack to get rid of me as the other animal control quirked person opposing them. It's what I'd do in his place. So he probably thinks he can save me for last. If that thief thinks I'll be an easy kill, then I'll show him the power I've gathered down here, isn't that right?"
He said, raising his voice. The animals trapped around them in cages stored tightly in the walls of the lab shook, taken by the power of his voice. Cats, dogs, monkeys, rats, bugs, spiders and bigger animals like bears, boars and wolves raised their voices, growling, howling or whining to respond to the Whisperer's call.
"I see… Still, Panzer, we should still check the elevator shaft." Pitcher added, with a face that said that she really hated it, but would check it regardless. "I'll go make sure we aren't ambushed."
"We should all go, meet Karasu head on." Trickshot said, a hand still on the holster of his gun.
"Don't forget you are here to make sure nothing happens to my research." Masuta reminded them, as he pulled a small transparent box out of the wall, holding a spider under a thick cocoon of webbing. He shook the cage to check the spider was still inside, and was satisfied after seeing it come out of hiding to hiss at him.
"I thought you said that your research was ok." Panzerfaust said, with a tired look, and tilting his head to Pitcher.
She got the message; Get going, we'll come when this guy stops holding us.
Pitcher nodded, and wordlessly left them, just as he opened the cage, and the spider recoiled back into the nest of webbing.
"Yes, but there's still a few… Friends I'd like to gather, along with a copy of the research. You know, as a guarantee."
Panzerfaust rolled his eyes.
"You know that we are required to inform the SASC of this after all is done, right?"
"I won't worry about that." He said with a smirk. "I'll give you and the rest of your Order a special piece of clothing able to hold anything as a token of my gratitude after you bring me Karasu's head, how does that sound?"
Deathglare and Trickshot turned to look at Panzerfaust, who sighed.
"We'll protect you, but never heard anything about making a copy."
Masuta's mouth twisted into a sharp smirk.
"I knew I could count on you."
21 - Orion's Fall
"You brat!" Overkill brought her katana down into Himiko, but she managed to put her knife over it just in time.
Despite grabbing the abnormally large hilt of her katana with all four of her hands, and using all of her strength, she didn't break the Black Knife, and the edge grinded along it until it slid harmlessly off Himiko.
She didn't give Overkill a moment to rest, immediately forcing her to get defensive. Himiko swiped the knife repeatedly, forcing Overkill back and even making her have to step up through the stairs to the next floor.
Himiko was genuinely surprised Overkill managed to walk backwards through the stairs without tripping while avoiding all of her attacks. The crows were extremely wary of her as well, as both women swung their sharp blades too much for their liking to get any closer.
The other hunters hadn't been as good as Overkill at the very least, and Himiko found herself needing to dodge, as Overkill found an opening, and swiped her katana horizontally. Himiko jumped backwards just in time, going over the blade just as it passed through.
She did a somersault, pulling her hands downward and against her body, to avoid the Blood Cape getting in the way and blocking her vision. Her feet landed against a wall which she used as support to spring her legs out, launching herself off directly at Overkill.
Her three remaining eyes widened as she stepped backward to avoid the human rocket launching against her, but Himiko was faster, immediately switching her attack into a landing with all fours into the floor, and used the speed of the jump to swipe her Black Knife again.
Overkill got nicked on the leg, not fast enough to step back again and dodge completely, but grabbed her katana with both right hands, and thrusted it downwards.
Himiko rolled out of the way in the nick of time, feeling a few hairs falling off from her as they were cut. She quickly recovered, switching from rolling away to getting on all fours and then a low stance with her head and arms low, ready to jump at Overkill at any moment.
The other villain took the katana off of the floor as effortlessly as shade had thrusted it into it. She ripped off her yukata, freeing herself from it for even better movement and revealing a black bodysuit coming from her neck all the way to her shoulders and mid thighs.
The crows circled around them, and Overkill took a moment to look at them, never dropping her guard to any of them for a moment. Himiko loved this, her blood boiling inside her, being forced to dodge and move and work for her prize. She really wanted to taste Overkill's blood and become her.
Just thinking about it made her giggle uncontrollably and spread her smirk sickly wider. They were broken out of their "zone" after hearing a loud bang coming somewhere below them, so loud it echoed throughout the building.
"What the hell was that!?"
For a moment, just one moment, Overkill's attention is divided into the sudden loud crush, but that moment is all Himiko needed. Her mind was still obsessed into wanting to cut up and suck Overkill's salty, metallic, wet and red blood, and nothing would distract her from that, much less something as insignificant as a loud noise.
In a moment, she closed the distance between the two of them and swung her knife. Realizing her blunder, Overkill tried blocking it like Himiko had blocked her initial swipe at the beginning. Instead of a clash of metal, Overkill was surprised once again after seeing her katana snap in half with no resistance whatsoever to Himiko's Black Knife.
Himiko stepped closer again, and aimed her knife at Overkill's wrists, to disarm her permanently (or rather unhand her). Overkill managed to stop her by kicking Himiko away, but not before she was able to slide the edge of the Black Knife into the hilt of her katana, cutting off two off her fingers.
The crows cawed, grabbing the severed fingers from the floor and the broken half of the katana, and carrying them away from Overkill. The hunter grinded her teeth, fighting off against the intense pain on her upper right hand.
Toga Himiko was a much trickier opponent than she anticipated. With one of her hands injured like this, she was at a clear disadvantage from someone that could move around as efficiently as her, and with the crows always around her and the Black Knife being capable of cutting her katana like it was nothing… She needed help.
The comms were still down, so Overkill hoped that the rest of her allies would come down to check on whatever made that noise, and help her when they saw her like this. For now, she needed to get to the higher floors and buy time.
"You… Toga Himiko was it? Why are you doing this? Since when does Karasu work with others?"
"Hmm? Why?"
Himiko changed her stance, moving her head up to look at Overkill face to face, but still ready to pounce any time. She brought her knife up, and licked Overkill's blood from it, restraining herself from moaning from sheer ecstasy.
"Well~ I'm just helping out my friends~ Karasu-chan and the murder-chan are dear friends to me~ Why shouldn't I help them hunt down their enemies~?"
The sincerity in Himiko's response took Overkill by surprise. From how Himiko behaved, she thought she was just a deranged psycho that Karasu had somehow won over, and while that still might be the case, she didn't expect loyalty to a friend to be the reason.
Seeing that even the manic girl had a sense of loyalty made Overkill remember the old times, back when she was yakuza. Loyalty was very important with her, something that was dying off in the criminal world more and more along with the old criminal culture.
When her family died off, not in dispute with a rival family, but at the hands of meddling heroes, she had joined the Order of Orion in search for another close knit family to devote herself into, but was disappointed when the Order was more of a mutually beneficial agreement between assassins than loyal to each other based of camaraderie.
"That's… a more honorable reason that I was expecting. Perhaps I misjudged you."
"Ow~ you aren't the first one~ Now could you give me more blood~?"
"I'm afraid not. Despite my allies not thinking the same, I'm bound by the same loyalty, and I won't take lightly what you did to our allies in the forest."
"Hehe~ you don't really have any proof of that, do you~?" Himiko said playfully, swinging her body from side to side, making the tips of the needles of the Blood Cape jiggle.
Overkill scoffed, getting into a stance, despite her katana being broken.
"I don't really need it. Let me ask you this then, Toga Himiko. Are you ready to put your life on the line for your friends?"
Himiko tilted her head, confused over why such a question needed to be asked. She then narrowed her eyes and curled her lips into a frown, realizing what Overkill implied.
"Of course I am. Are you an idiot?"
Himiko's focus was broken for a moment, but like Himiko had capitalized on Overkill before, she did the same. Despite the adrenaline pumping on her body and all the villains she had taken out in the last 24 hours, Himiko had always gone after people less capable than her, or just having a massive advantage compared to them.
Ambushes, quick deaths, deep wounds that weakened her target and made it easier to deliver the finishing blow. She was used to all that. A drawn out fight against someone of similar skill where she couldn't hide and ambush? Not even her fight against Wild was comparable.
Overkill knew that a nice hit from Himiko's knife would end her, and had decided to get on the defensive, but that didn't mean she wouldn't exploit a perfect chance like this, especially when Himiko also had to be wary of going down from a single hit.
She closed the distance between them with a big step forward and flashed her broken katana on her right hands, still capable of cutting and stabbing Himiko. Himiko's eyes focused on the blade, and she started moving her arms, her intent to block whatever slash Overkill threw at her, but found out too late it was a feint.
Overkill had been in multiple duels, most against yakuza, and a few even against heroes, and knew how to divert her enemy's attention. Instead of bringing her katana into Himiko, she clenched her gut, tightened her left fists, and punched Himiko square on her chest and stomach.
Himiko's eyes rolled to the back of her head, and spit out saliva, before being thrown back and slammed into a wall from the sheer force of the double punch. The air of her lungs was ripped out of her when her back hit the wall, cracking it, and she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head, along the rest of her back.
Overkill tried following up with her attack, but the crows cawed, furious, and lunged at her. She had to step back and cover herself, and screamed in pain when the crows pecked her cut fingers. They didn't waste a single second, ripping the other half of her katana from her, and forcing her to step back.
She swatted them away, but for every crow she managed to hit, more got closer, pecking, scratching and attacking her mercilessly. Eventually, one managed to get on her face, and dug his beak straight at one of her eyes.
"AHHHH!"
Overkill grabbed the crow, ripping him out of her face, along with her upper right eye. In her rage, she missed the opportunity to crush it, and just threw him, from which the crow was able to recover and fly off.
The hunter dropped to her knee, a hand to her bloodied eye. She had lost her second eye, and the upper row pair, only the lower row remaining. The pain was even greater than when she lost her first eye.
Himiko felt the familiar taste of blood on her mouth. A few crows, Shiro among them, went to check on her, nudging at her, sitting against the wall she was punched into. She reached a hand to pat one of them to reassure them.
Her chest hurt like a bitch and it hurt to breathe, and Himiko knew that something was broken, probably a rib or something. She felt the back of her head and felt blood, but didn't feel groggy or dizzy, so she didn't have a concussion (yet).
She licked the blood from her hand and grinned at Overkill, an unhinged expression that didn't fit someone that had been thrown into a wall and left a crater on her shape on it. Himiko giggled weakly, ignoring the sharp pain of her chest and got up, still holding the Black Knife tightly in her hand.
She was beyond ecstatic, despite the pain and the challenge, still not giving up, adrenaline pumping on her body and helping her keep going. She couldn't wait to drink more and more of Overkill's blood and become her.
Then, several crows started coming from different halls, and Himiko recognized them as the crows that had gone to the upper floors, coming back cawing wildly, and angry after seeing a few of their brothers and sisters hurt by Overkill, along with Himiko.
After then, Snaptrap, Agent and Shotgun came down from the upper floor, and widened their eyes after seeing the state Overkill was in. Himiko looked at Shiro, and whispered something into him, too low for anyone else to hear. He cawed in response, and flew off, cawing at the rest of the crows, who got away from every hunter, in an impromptu cease fire.
"Overkill!? What the fuck happened!?" Snaptrap shouted getting closer, but stopping himself after seeing something behind Overkill.
"Good, you guys are here." Overkill said, fighting the pain to get up, and faced them. "I don't like admitting this, but I got a bit too many injuries and need h–"
"Shut up!" Agent pointed one of his guns at her, and the other behind Overkill. "How do we know you are the real one!?"
Overkill widened her eyes in disbelief. The angry caws in the background, angry at the raise of his guns were mere background noise, and Overkill slowly turned her head back. Where a moment ago was a beaten Toga Himiko, there was now a carbon copy of her, ruined body suit from the crow scratches, four arms, missing fingers and fresh injury on her eye and all.
She suddenly realized that she hadn't seen Himiko use her quirk once during their battle.
"What!? How dare you turn into me!?"
'Overkill' said, clutching her eye while using one of her free hands to cover the severed fingers.
"Huh!? What is the meaning of this, Toga Himiko!? I thought of you more honorable! To pull such a stunt…!"
"Shut up the two of you!" Shotgun said, looking at the two of them, and then at the crows, who were hissing at all of them, keeping their distance.
Snaptrap clicked his tongue. "Dammit, Overkill! You had to get stuck into a situation like this!"
""It's not like a chose to be put in this situation, asshole!""
Both Overkill widened their eyes, as they said the same exact thing. The real one was just stunned by how good Himiko managed to get into character after her surprise transformation. Not even the crows were giving signs of which one was the real one. Did her quirk allow her to mimic even the slightest of mannerisms? She was surprised there were extra arms on her…
"The arms!" She suddenly said, realizing that the transformation mustn't be able to perfectly copy brand new limbs. "Look! I can move all my arms freely!"
She moved all four arms around, except the one pressing its hand into her eye to try stopping the bleeding.
"You bastard! Don't look at her! All my arms move perfectly well!" 'Overkill' shouted, moving her arms in the same way as the other.
The three hunters looked around, unconvinced and worried, seeing as the crows started getting closer to them.
"What should we do, Snaptrap?" Agent asked, not moving his head and still pointing his pistols at the two Overkills.
"Look, that crow is white. That must be one of them quirked ones. Since we can't tell which one is the faker, we'll force her to show up herself! Shotgun, let's eliminate the rest of the crows."
Overkill grinned, and turned to look at her copy, finding disturbing their matching smirk on her face. They just threatened her supposed allies, but she kept herself in character. Was she really doing this for her allies?
What Overkill didn't understand was that the Himiko had complete trust in the crows. Sure, a few had been hit and hurt by Overkill, but there weren't life threatening injuries. The crows that had flown down from their floors chased by the other three hunters didn't sound alarmed by their situation, just the one they found Himiko in.
That meant that none had been killed by the hunters. And she wasn't going to let them be hurt by them. So she kept playing the part, even mirroring a grunt and a frown to Overkill. She wasn't Toga Himiko right now, just Overkill, injured, angry and desperate. But she knew more than the original. That the crows wouldn't let them do as they please after hearing they were going to be targeted.
"I thought you would never say that." Shotgun said, pissed off from all the troubles the crows were giving them, and angry at some scratches they had given him to his hands when he was dealing with them in the upper floors.
He grabbed a black stone from his pocket, and brought it to his mouth. Coal. He bit and chewed on it, and his eyes started glowing a bright mix of yellow and orange. He spit out his cigarette, and black smoke started spewing out of his mouth, his rocky face looking like the opening of an active volcano.
Shotgun kept shoving a piece of coal in his mouth, and the smoke started to spread, while his throat lit up from the heat.
"Make sure to not hit the white one." Snaptrap said. "And you two, don't move. Shoot the first to move to try to stop us."
Agent nodded, cocking both of his pistols, showing he was ready to shoot at any of the two.
What they didn't expect, nor were ready for, was the crows to start cawing, flying around them, and Shiro to fly straight at Shotgun's open mouth. Shotgun had never seen anyone get closer to his mouth when he was charging up his Furnace quirk, so to suddenly have a crow go straight in, ignoring the black smoke took him completely off guard, and he couldn't help but cough up a gush of fire and smoke at it, while trying to pull it off of him.
"Shotgun! Not that crow! Ahh!" Snaptrap was forced to protect himself, as suddenly the crows jumped at his face, cawing into his ears and scratching his face.
Shotgun was in no position to stop himself, as Shiro didn't give him time to rest or recover. The fire and smoke tickled him and brushed off his body, feeling reinvigorated by its heat, and ignoring completely the smoke and ashes on his lungs.
He ignited himself into a blinding flash of white flames right into Shotgun's face and mouth. The reaction from being so close to him made the furnace in Shotgun's mouth and stomach explode. He didn't have time to scream in pain, as his insides, for the first time, were burned from a fire hotter than he could handle. He fell to the floor, stomach and face engulfed in orange and white flames, while Shiro flew around him as he desperately tried rolling on the floor to try to put out the fire with no luck. The smoke and fire coming out of him didn't spread, as Shiro pulled the smoke into his body as he flew, and kept it away from his less invulnerable friends.
What did Agent do after seeing all this go on? Did he start shooting the crows and divert his pistols from the two Overkills? No, he didn't have time to do that.
Despite his face being featureless, the sudden flashbang from Shiro getting close and personal with Shotgun blinded him for a moment, moment that Himiko took advantage of, and broke character, leaping forward, ignoring the pain on her chest.
She ran past Overkill, not stopping despite a new wave of fire suddenly spewing out of Shotgun. Himiko saw the equivalent of recognition on Agent's featureless face, as the spots where his eyebrows should be stretched upwards. The rush of adrenaline combined with still being on a high from drinking Overkill's blood made Himiko ecstatic.
Without giving him a moment to think and actually shoot her, Himiko seamlessly swiped her knife around Agent, cutting through his wrists seamlessly and sending his black hands and pistols flying.
"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Agent let an ear splitting screech, as the blackness of his face was literally torn apart, revealing a normal looking face, albeit experiencing incredible pain. The black parts that covered Agent's face wriggled, like angry black tendrils, and several more came out from his arms, ripping off his suit.
Overkill and Snaptrap were still too stunned by the sudden attack and getting away from a still on fire Shotgun, being followed by a flaming Shiro, but they watched in horror as Agent turned into an eldritch like monster.
The black tendrils shot forward, trying to get Himiko, wrapping around the extra arms that the transformation into Overkill had given her. Himiko couldn't contain herself, and her smile widened more than what Overkill's face was able to do, splitting the skin on the corner of her mouth, which started to dissolve into grey sludge.
She turned off the transformation, and the black tendrils squeezed the now meatless and boneless sludge of her extra arms. Himiko didn't let the opportunity go to waste, and pushed against the tendrils trying to get her away, using the fact they weren't pulling her way that hard since two arms disappeared to lower her head, and bury her fingers on Agent's throat.
"IIIIAAAAGHHHhhfhffpphhhiiiiiiii…"
The man under the tendrils looked at her for a moment, crying fearful tears and coughing up blood, before his eyes rolled to the back of his head. The tendrils screeched again, tightening around Himiko's body and her arms, burying underneath her transformation sludge, before they went limp, and slid off her body.
Behind her, Shotgun stopped moving, his body completely on fire, Shiro on top of it, keeping the flames from spreading, and not minding the fire in the slightest.
Overkill and Shotgun watched Himiko rise from the sludge, shedding away finally from her transformation. Under the low red light, with the fire from Shotgun's body behind her, Agent's below her, the glint of her knife on one hand, and two crows putting the Blood Cape back on her back, they couldn't help but shiver, as she turned her face, and despite everything, they could clearly make out her piercing yellow eyes, and her stained in red wide toothy grin.
Himiko giggled and licked Agent's blood from her knife, the rush she got from it making her forget the pain in her chest and back. She stepped on Agent, a needle from her blood cape in between her toes, piercing his body and sucking his blood into the cape.
"Hmmm~ A pity I couldn't taste rock guy's blood~ You two will give your blood, right~?"
Snaptrap and Overkill flinched, instinctively backing off after feeling the presence of a predator that has her sights on them.
Himiko kept on glaring at them, keeping them distracted as the crows circled them again, cutting their chances of escape. She couldn't wait to feel their blood splatter into her body.
Izumi carefully stepped down the elevator shaft. Maybe cutting off the cables of the elevator wasn't such a good idea, but she did eliminate two targets at once. Ripper was on top of the elevator according to the crows though, so there was a possibility that he somehow survived, that's why she had sent Urusai and a few other crows to check out the end of the shaft as she climbed down.
She was using the claws of her Hunting Gloves to make her way through the wall of the elevator shaft. Her arms were used to constant work at the forge in the cabin, and she had built quite a bit of muscle because of it and all the work with the bow.
B-Tip wasn't something you could use without using quite a bit of force, every good bow required good arm strength to be able to use efficiently. So holding most of her weight just by burying the claws and her fingers into the wall little by little as she went down wasn't especially tiring.
She heard the cawing of the crows as they flew up, until they got to her level.
"So, how is it?" Izumi asked when they got to her level and Urusai landed on top of her helmet.
"Dead. Two."
"Hmmm. And how much more until I reach the opening for the underground hideout?"
"A little bit more." Urusai repeated, using a sentence it had memorized from Izumi's voice.
"Hey, don't use that one while I'm in costume."
Urusai repeated a raspberry, and Izumi could tell he had copied it from Himiko.
The other crows were getting impatient, Izumi could feel it, as they went below her a few times, tired of flying in circles above her or waiting on another floor until Izumi gave them a signal.
"Be a bit more patient, I'm going as fast as I can. You know this time you guys can't go ahead for recon because of him."
They didn't like it, but understood it, and flew back up, resisting the urge to fly into the opening in the wall a few meters down. It took Izumi only a few more minutes to get on the level of the entrance of the underground lab.
It was closed, so she didn't need to worry about the crows heading off before her after all. She climbed to the side of the doorframe, and dug her claws on the metal plate over them. After pulling the plate and letting it fall to the bottom of the shaft, she saw the cables of the button on the other side of the door.
Izumi had looked up the brand of the elevator from the schematics of the building that Giran had somehow managed to get. It had been oddly fortunate that they happened to leak just before her attack on them, but she did ask Giran if he was able to get them.
Remembering the blueprints of the elevator's company, Izumi picked up two thin cables, and cut them with her claws. The doors of the elevator opened with a soft hum, and Izumi signaled the crows to stop and not get inside before her.
She shook her head to get Urusai off, and got in a proper hunting mood. Karasu breathed deeply, calming herself and steading her heart. She peaked a bit to see if there was someone waiting for her at the entrance.
There was no one on sight, so Karasu got herself out of the elevator shaft, and finally retracted her claws. She didn't lower her guard and kept on looking around, ready for any of the Order's hunters to show up any time.
The crows still flying on the elevator shaft were getting a bit restless, wondering why she was waiting for so long to make a signal to get inside.
Karasu wordlessly grabbed the rifle from her back, still missing the parts that gave it its long range. She had no need for long range down here, and the close range was going to make her Black Bullets hit even harder than ever.
And the hidden Pitcher under the corner was about to see that for herself. Karasu aimed her rifle at the corner, and shot.
It was only a last moment realization that her presence had been noticed that saved Pitcher from having her heart skewered like the wall she was hiding behind. There was another Black Bullet still loaded in the Hunting Rifle, and Karasu made use of it, jumping beyond the cover and shooting at Pitcher.
This time Pitcher was expecting her, and had covered the entire hall in a green smoke, obscuring the view.
It seemed that her quirk, Vomitbath, could do more things than just barf corrosive acid.
"Ahh!"
Still, when she had jumped, Karasu was taking Pitcher's last known location into account, and preparing to shoot in that direction, so despite not being able to see Pitcher, she managed to get her.
It was probably not a lethal shot (that's not the kind of scream in pain from a lethal blow), and with her visibility low, a probably dangerous gas around, her rifle without bullets, and the crows about to get inside after seeing the action started, she needed to act fast.
Karasu rolled on the ground to cushion the fall from her jump, and flicked her hand, getting two Flaming Darts. She snapped her hand, creating a spark as she threw them, igniting them immediately. The moment they entered the cloud of green corrosive gas, the very same gas ignited with a sudden burst of flames, burning off all of it.
"AAAAGHH!"
Karasu had looked into all the Order's quirks a long time ago after Bullseye to challenge her to avoid getting any more surprises, so she knew that the acid from Pitcher's quirk was flammable. Assuming the gas seemingly coming from the very same quirk was as well paid off, and after the wall of fire disappeared as quickly as it appeared, all of the gas burned off, she could see Pitcher, fallen on her butt and with the ends of her hair smoking.
She threw threw Flaming Darts at her, but Pitcher's reputation wasn't for nothing, and despite her age she managed to react in time, spitting out a glob of acid right in front of her that hit the darts head on, triggering an explosion from coming in contact with the fire in the darts that sent both huntresses back.
The bang of the rifle going off twice, followed by the sound of an explosion wasn't missed by Panzerfaust, Trickshot and Deathglare, who had followed Masuta as he went down to the computer room to get a copy of all his research.
The hunters looked at each other, and nodded.
"It seems Karasu finally came. We'll go help Pitcher bring his head, you'll be alright on your own I assume?" Panzerfaust said, though he and the other two had already turned to run into the entrance where Pitcher was.
"Sure I can. I can watch you from the cameras from here. And it's not like I'm defenseless."
Masuta smirked, as several eyes appeared in the dark corners of the room. The hunters left Masuta and his beasts on their own, and went over to the source of the explosion.
Karasu snapped her claws from her hunting gloves and dug them into the floor, stopping herself from being flung out, and quickly hid behind a corner as the smoke from the explosion cleared out. She took the chance to load back her Hunting Rifle with Black Bullets, as the crows caught up with her, flying over her.
Karasu signaled them to not come from their hiding spot, and they nodded, though their cawing was unavoidable. At least Pitcher would have possible quirked crows to worry about now as well as Karasu.
But Pitcher's mind was in another place completely. She was used to her acid not mixing well with fire, and was able to avoid the worst part of the explosion, and was similarly hiding behind some cover, catching her breath.
Those flaming darts… in all of her years as an assassin (and later as an asset for the SASC), she had only seen that once before. From Diana during the meeting of the Order a few months ago.
She was aware that they were compromised after the SASC headquarters was attacked with the Hunting Team out, the only member they could see walking to the building being Backfire. She had thought of the possibility of all of them being dead, and that the call with Hound was just a trap to set up the lockdown of the building with everyone inside.
But if the attacker was using Diana's darts… Did they scavenge it out of her body and were using them to mock her? Was what she would have thought if she hadn't assumed that was part of Diana's quirk. Pluto had a fire breathing quirk, and the very little they had seen of Diana included her setting things on fire to attack.
They all suspected they were related, and the use of fire practically confirmed it while implanting on their heads the additional information that she had a touch based fire quirk.
She'd think about Diana's betrayal later, first of all, she needed help. This was a poor match up for her to handle alone. Fire and ranged attacks were difficult for her to handle, but the rest must have heard that explosion, so it was a matter of time.
Deathglare already stopped her dart once, if she can last a few minutes, they crush this overconfident traitor upstar.
"Diana? So you really were working with Karasu all along." Pitcher threw the bait, to gain precious extra time.
There was nothing but the sound of the cawing of crows for a few seconds, enough that it unnerved Pitcher, thinking that Diana may have ignored her and was stalking closer to her through the smoke cloud of the explosion in between them.
"You still think so little of me?" Instead of reassuring Pitcher that she took the bait, hearing Diana's voice, distorted through the voice changer she used just sent shivers down her spine, as for some reason her voice sounded like it was coming from every direction. "I thought you were one of the smart ones. Then again, I found out that seniority doesn't mean competence."
Then, the most chilling thing happened. A new voice joined in, a voice she was deeply familiar with, along with another voice she had heard enough times to get sick of it.
"Get yourself together, you drunk bastard!" Hound's voice barked, like Diana's unable to be able to tell where it was coming from, but very clearly his. "Can't you fucking do something as simple as admit when you are wrong!"
The sound of Backfire's beard spiking up and a low growl from Hound were next. Pitcher was frozen in place. What was the meaning of this? Were they also here? Why couldn't she pinpoint the source of sounds anymore? Her breathing started getting uneven, as a deep sense of dread started forming in Pitcher's gut.
"Care to repeat that, mutt?"
Backfire's characteristic angry voice. What was going on? Was this… a conversation between the two of them? Diana's words echoed inside her mind again.
"I found out that seniority doesn't mean competence."
"What the fuck is this, Diana!?"
Pitcher raised her voice, suddenly feeling more unnerved by whatever she was hearing.
"Watch your mouth. Act professional for a goddamn time and get moving. I'm the leader of the team, and you will do as I say."
Hound's voice continued, uncaring of Pitcher's words. Pitcher heard a shove, and a grunt from Backfire, all coming from an unidentifiable position all around her. She could see tiny black spikes start coming out of the cloud of smoke.
They a dozen of sharp black beaks, slowly coming out of the smoke, pointing right at Pitcher. Then, Pitcher came to a realization.
"You still think so little of me?"
Diana had said.
"Both Karasu and I share the same handler, Giran, so he implied that I'd have something to say about a seeming 'partner' being targeted."
It seemed so clear now.
"Karasu is someone that has a great interest in only going after exciting and 'hard' targets."
Everyone just assumed that Karasu was a man, even Pitcher pictured him as a man when she thought of him.
"They are extremely capable and probably one of the best shots of Japan."
But Diana didn't refer to Karasu as a man once, nor commented on it when someone else assumed it.
"I know what goes on in my territory. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the measures I take?"
The memory of Diana revealing the head of a fellow member of the Order came back.
"I'm merely warning you. Thought it would be appropriate for you to know about Bullseye. Because I will be enforcing the Order's rules about invading another's territory if I have to."
And then there was the manner in which the crows in specific were being hunted.
"It's best to stay out of their way, learn pretty early on that they are scarily smart and would retaliate excessively at the slightest wrong."
It didn't seem real, but it suddenly clicked together perfectly. Pitcher's own anger at the realization of how deeply she and the Order had been played mixed with Backfire's own enraged voice echoing in the hall.
"If you think you can order me around then you are full of yourself, mutt! I'm–"
"You are Karasu, right, Diana!? You are killing us for threatening some stupid ani–"
SPLAT!/BANG!
A loud bang echoed through the hall, mixing with the splat coming from the omnidirectional source Urusai was emitting while replaying the sound of Hound and Backfire's deaths. Pitcher coughed up blood, the hole Karasu gave her throat making more splurt out, mixed with her stomach's acid.
She wanted to hold her throat, stop the bleeding, control her stomach acids from splurting out and burning her neck and shoulders, but the bullet had one straight through her spine, severing her head from the rest of the nerves of her body.
Pitcher could do nothing but helplessly stare at the tip of the Hunting Rifle peeking from the cloud of smoke, pointing directly at her body and betraying the culprit. The acid from her own quirk burned and ate away at her neck, and eventually, her head fell forward to the ground with a wet smack, as her body fell backward, spilling her blood and corrosive acid everywhere into the floor, making a lethal puddle.
"You…"
The light faded from her eyes, while blood and acid kept spilling from her severed neck, sizzling on the floor.
Izumi stepped forward, and stepped on Pitcher's head, pulling it backwards and making the head roll like a ball, away from the rest of the corpse and the acid puddle melting the body's shoulders and arms along with the floor. The crows immediately started enjoying the treat, tearing the flesh from Pitcher's head no different from any other prey Izumi hunted in the forest.
"Don't get close to the body. Good job Urusai."
The crow purred as Izumi pet him. Hunting with him was always different, thanks to how versatile his quirk was, but Izumi never expected to work so well against other people, to the point even experienced assassins froze up after he played back the exact moment of death of someone's allies.
Urusai joined the rest of the crows in helping remove the flesh out of Izumi's prize. It wasn't always where she could get a trophy out of her hero hunts, but villain, personal hunts? She had made it a habit out of Bullseye, and liked having a reminder of her accomplishments, that's why she asked Himiko to retrieve the heads of the Hunting Team in the forest before they came to hunt down the rest.
Still, they still had more prey to hunt down, they needed to get going.
"Leave Pitcher there for now, we still have–"
In that moment, the other three hunters in the underground lab finally caught up to Pitcher, and found her body lying headless on the floor, and Diana, surrounded by crows and holding a modified rifle.
"Scatter!"
Karasu shouted, making the crows fly off immediately, and pointed her rifle towards the three men. But as she was doing so, the weapon was ripped from her hands and she found herself frozen in place. Unable to move.
Deathglare was honoring his name, glaring at Izumi and using his Telekinesis quirk, the two eyes he usually kept closed wide open and glowing. The crows cawed, angry at being frozen in place and restrained. Izumi gritted her teeth, and tried to move through his hold, to no avail.
Deathglare closed his hand, and Izumi and the crows were squeezed in place, their limbs pressed into their own body. Her bow was also taken from her, and floated all the way to the three hunters. Izumi gritted her teeth, fighting the force around her body from ripping the air out of her lungs and disorienting her. She kept her breathing steady, and focused herself on her current situation.
"Good job, Deathglare, excellent reaction time as always." Panzerfaust said, putting a hand on Deathglare's shoulder.
"If only we had been faster, Pitcher wouldn't have died…" He lamented, his third eye looking at the headless corpse between them and Izumi.
"Well, but it was thanks to how loud she was in her final moments that we knew not to trust Diana." Trickshot said, taking out his pistol and shooting without warning.
"Ugh!" The bullet hit Izumi right on her chest. It was thanks to the Hunting Vest that it didn't pierce her heart, and thanks to her diligence over her control over her breathing that she didn't show her pain.
The crows screamed and cawed, angry, but unable to do anything frozen in place as they were. Deathglare threw them into the walls a few times to shut them up, but not enough to kill them, wary if there were any quirked ones among them. Izumi stopped struggling against Deathglare's hold, trying to divert his attention back to her, and silently apologized to the crows for worrying them by pulling this stunt.
Deathglare was about to release Izumi, but Panzerfaust stopped him.
"Wait Deathglare. We've underestimated Diana, no, Karasu, for enough time. Trickshot, make sure she's dead."
"With pleasure."
The three of them were completely locked in, Deathglare immediately going for the grab with his quirk, Trickshot not even blinking before shooting, and Panzerfaust guiding them to not underestimate her. She knew the old man was going to be the hardest to kill, since he seemed adamant to not underestimate her, but she had hoped that they would be surprised like Pitcher when realizing that Diana was Karasu. Panzerfaust had kept the other two focused, intending to end the threat that Karasu posed and then think about what it means for Diana to be Karasu all along and orchestrate it all.
Trickshot did as he was told, and unloaded his gun into Izumi, who kept her breathing steady through the whole thing, despite her chest burning with pain and her head being pushed back when one of the bullets hit her helmet. Thankfully she had been with her head down to avoid getting shot in the visor, so the bullet didn't actually reach her, but made sure to look like it.
With her head back from the "whiplash", she looked over at the crows, and saw that Urusai was the one furthest from any others. He did good, putting himself above them to not hurt them if he used his quirk. He probably hadn't used it because Izumi was still in front of him, and would get hurt. But that was of no concern for Izumi. She wouldn't let Deathglare touch the crows ever again.
Izumi took a deep breath, letting her heart go faster and pumping her with adrenaline, letting the pain from her chest and the anger from hearing the crows' whines as they were thrown around the walls fuel her.
"Urusai! NOW!"
All the reservations the crow had from using his quirk were levied after seeing Izumi was alright, and in his euphoric relief, he did as Izumi said, repeating a certain sound he had heard a long time ago.
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The three hunters were thrown back as they received one of Present Mic's full volume screams head on. The hold on Izumi and the crows was broken, and she immediately buried her claws in the floor, gritting her teeth as she kept herself from being flown away like the other three hunters.
It only lasted a moment, but everyone was disoriented. The crows struggled to walk straight, and flying was out of the question. Trickshot had been flown away, his gun ripped from his hand which was now holding over his bleeding ears. Panzerfaust had been slammed into a wall, and was holding his chest, panting heavily, feeling his old age catch up to him, and needing a moment to gather his thoughts and stand up again.
Deathglare had been thrown back the hall along with Karasu's Hunting Rifle and B-Tip, and was similarly reeling from the pain in his eardrums, still hearing a faint ringing. Then he saw Karasu on top of him.
Unlike them, Izumi was expecting the blast, after all, it was one of the trump cards and the reason Urusai had gone with her. All the crows that had gone down with them were the ones that could handle Urusai's louder volumes the best, but getting one of Present Mic's screams recorded was too much even for them.
After the scream ended, Izumi ignored the ringing of her eardrums and the cold feeling of blood staining her ears and leaped forward. No one but Urusai could hear it, but she let a guttural roar, letting her anger push her. She stepped on Pitcher's body, who had been pushed over the acid puddle and was burning and smoking, and then leaped at Deathglare.
"RAAAAAH!"
Izumi swiped her hand over Deathglare's face, slashing his eyes and face. He screamed in pain, and tried to push Izumi away, but she slammed her other hand on his face, and sank her fingers on his eyes.
Deathglare screamed again, but Izumi slashed his throat, and ripped her fingers from his skull, bloodied up till the knuckle, and thrusted her thumb into the eye on his forehead. She kept slashing his face even after Deathglare stopped moving.
Izumi felt her heart beating wildly into her ears. She took a deep breath calming down. She was on top of Deathglare, covered in his blood. His face was completely red and all three of his eyes were missing. She thought that Himiko would love the sight, and probably also how she must look covered in his blood. She hoped her new Hunting Gloves wouldn't be too hard to clean out after this.
Izumi felt the ringing on her ears start to disappear, along with no longer hearing her heartbeat loudly drumming. She was still angry and full of adrenaline, but she had successfully focused herself. She may have overestimated her own anger at Deathglare from hurting the crows, she'd need to keep herself from making any emotional actions when facing the Whisperer. They were all stunned because of Urusai, she couldn't always rely on that.
Speaking off, Urusai landed on Izumi's shoulder just as more crows started to recover and get closer too, avoiding getting too close to Pitcher's body, smoking on its own acid back there. Izumi pet Urusai, thanking him for his good work, and making sure he didn't feel guilty of getting Izumi on his blast as well.
Izumi raised her head, and saw the other two hunters start to recover as well. Her rifle and bow were just right ahead, not having been thrown that much far back from Deathglare and she still had plenty of Flaming Darts. Psychologically handicapping Pitcher had worked wonders, so she decided to kept at that, she had already made quite a deep gash on Deathglare's neck. She smiled under her helmet, opening up her palm and spreading out her claws.
Trickshot and Panzerfaust groggily got up, both feeling up their ears, and feeling the ringing on them start to fade out. Izumi closed her hand around Deathglare's head. Panzerfaust opened his mouth, feeling his ears unclog, and looked around, finding Trickshot in front of him. Izumi slid her fingers in the three holes of the new makeshift head-shaped bowling ball.
"Think fast!"
Despite their hearing still recovering, both heard Diana's characteristic distorted voice. As soon as he turned around to look at Karasu, Panzerfaust got hit in the head by something, and fell on his back from it.
"Deathglare!" Trickshot yelled, realizing that what was thrown was the head of their friend.
Izumi rolled forward, grabbed her rifle, loaded it and pointed it directly at Trickshot's head just as he turned around to glare at her. He didn't have time to draw his gun, or to even realize that he didn't have it on him still from Urusai's blast earlier, as Izumi immediately shot him straight in the head.
Trickshot's head rocked backwards from the whiplash, breaking his neck, and making him fall back. Izumi didn't give Panzerfaust time to react, and turned to shoot at him, but somehow, he had recovered enough to throw back Deathglare's head back at her, forcing her to duck to dodge it.
Panzerfaust bought himself some precious seconds with that stunt, and ran directly at Izumi. The crows cawed and flew at the old man to slow him down, while simultaneously telling Izumi about his location, but Panzerfaust kept running, ignoring the scratches of the crows.
Over here!
Izumi turned and widened her eyes when she found Panzerfaust right over her, fist backed up ready to throw a punch. His quirk, Armored Fist, was seriously scary, and the main reason why he had gained the villain name of Panzerfaust, because his fists hit with the force of a tank.
But from this distance, Izumi still had time to shoot and kill him before he had time to actually punch her, and avoiding the crows still attacking her was child's play. She had her finger right on the trigger, and was ready to blast his heart, when suddenly, her concentration on her breathing failed.
Bang!
That split second was enough for Panzerfaust to uppercut the rifle, and move the scope out of the way, the Black Bullet going right on top of his head, barely missing him. Her hands hurt from having her rifle ripped from her, but Izumi remembered Himiko's lessons in hand to hand combat.
"When someone strikes and fails, unless they use too much force, they will try to follow up to try to get you next time."
She sidestepped and barely dodged another punch, feeling the air from the blast of the punch. It almost felt like a miniature All Might punch.
"To stop them from endlessly attacking you, you have to counterattack fast, and knives and sharp things definitely will make most step back~"
Izumi stretched her fingers, getting her claws out, and swiped at Panzerfaust, who was forced back, and kept on a fighting stance. Izumi recognized that he was buying for time, and didn't want to give him the chance to do anything.
She flicked her other hand, and took two Flaming Darts, and immediately threw them at him while jumping back, to further the gap between them. She made sure to spark them to ignite them, but for some reason they didn't come into flames, and Panzerfaust caught them midair, crushing them in his hand.
Izumi stepped back, worried. She controlled her heart to calm down, keeping it steady and slow to think clearly. Did she miss the spark? No, that couldn't be, Panzerfaust was ready to catch the darts despite knowing about them. She felt a pressure on her chest, different from the pain from being shot at, and noticed that the crows had all stopped cawing.
She looked around, and found them all in the floor, beaks open, trying to breath.
No air?
Izumi dropped to one knee, realizing that she couldn't breathe. Did she miscalculate? Was there someone else here? The Whisperer had more people here? Or was this an animal's quirk that he had activated?
No, Panzerfaust was completely fine, in fact he sighed, relaxing himself.
"Look at what you did, Diana."
He said, pointing around at Trickshot, Deathglare and Pitcher's bodies.
"Was it really worth it? Betraying the Order all because of these?" He pushed a crow with his foot, and Izumi saw red. She grabbed her bow and went to grab a Black Arrow from her back, but Panzerfaust merely backhanded the bow from her hands.
"If you had been honest with us, maybe we'd think about siding with you instead of the Commission."
"Don't…be…ugh! Ridiculous!"
"Now, now, don't waste air." He mocked while circling around her. "Ironic, had you not killed every single one of my allies, I wouldn't have had to bust this out. Unfortunately it doesn't discriminate between friend and foe. It'll also make the capture of all these crows much easier. Now, which one is the screaming one…" Panzerfaust mused while looking at the asphyxiating crows.
"H-how…?" Izumi swallowed her anger for the time being and tried to get some information, while keeping her heart steady, making it go slower and slower, beat more softly, rationing the oxygen inside her body, and barely moving, looking weakly to Panzerfaust as she made sure to save as much energy as she could.
"How you say? Well, I guess you deserve at least that answer." He picked one of Trickshot's guns from the floor, and inspected it, checking if it had bullets. "Now, I could just punch your knees and elbows and eliminate any threat you posses, but I feel I owe it to Trickshot to use his gun, right? How did you survive getting shot at, by the way? I thought your quirk was fire related, but after learning you are Karasu I'm more confused as to what it is."
Izumi allowed herself to spend energy to smile at him, and inhaled oxygenless air to be able to speak.
"I'm…quirkless."
"... Alright, you can keep that secret for a while longer. I guess I didn't answer your previous question."
He squatted next to Izumi, pointing the gun at her, but buying into her weak and helpless look. After all, she had been breathless for a while now.
"You seem to know all about our quirks, don't you? I assume that you killed everyone in the Hunting Team, and you went for Deathglare's eyes, the source of his quirk. Well, granted that was pretty clear, with him opening them when using his quirk and all. And you also even dodged my punches! No one that wasn't expecting my Armored Fist could have done so well. If you hadn't been hunting and killing us, I'd say that you did a good job for someone this young. Pluto trained you well."
Izumi's eyes hardened even more, and her heart slowed so much that it stopped completely.
"Hit a nerve, have I? Please forgive me." Panzerfaust said with a fake smile, even pointing the gun away from her, in a mocking gesture. 10 seconds since her last heartbeat.
"You've been around the underground as Karasu, right? Hell, you work with Giran, of course you have. You've heard about rumours of the Boogeyman, haven't you?"
She had. The crows don't talk much about him, but Izumi at least knew that he was a real man, or at the very least, a very convincing rumour legend among criminals, as the crows had heard villains talk about him everywhere in Japan.
20 seconds since her last heartbeat.
"Well, I've met him, back in the day. Did a job for him. Well, more like assisted in hunting down a hero with a whip quirk. As a reward, he gave me this." He pointed at himself, and to everything around them.
30 seconds since her last heartbeat.
"Airflow. It's a quirk that lets me control the composition of the air around me. I made oxygen from 20 centimeters from my face to a radius of 10 meters disappear."
He had… another quirk? How was that possible? What exactly was the Boogeyman? Izumi felt the corners of her vision start to darken.
40 seconds since her last heartbeat.
"Wow, you are lasting quite a bit. Before you pass out, know that originally this wasn't personal, just another job. You are familiar with this, being Karasu and all." His eyes hardened and he pushed the gun to Izumi's head, directly into the helmet.
50 seconds since her last heartbeat.
"You've killed too many of us. After the Whisperer is done with extracting your control of these pests from you, I'll enjoying killing you."
1 minute since her last heartbeat.
Panzerfaust sighed, moving the gun away from Izumi's head, and for the first time, lowered his guard and closed his eyes. Izumi took that chance to silently move her arm forward, the claws of her Hunting Glove still extended from her last swing, and closed her fingers around Panzerfaust's throat.
"Ughhghaghh!?"
Panzerfaust coughed in his own blood, and Izumi pushed away his hand holding the gun, hearing a gunstop come off, but missing her completely. She was pleased when she heard the crows start cawing again, Panzerfaust's control over the oxygen banishing with his ability to breathe.
Speaking off, after getting up and stepping away from a blundering Panzerfaust, Izumi took a deep breath. Her lungs welcomed the fresh air, and her heartbeat greedily beat again, but Izumi made sure it sped up slowly, to not overwhelm her.
Panzerfaust held his throat, coating his hand in red, and drippin his jacket and the floor with his blood. He reared his other fist, preparing for a punch. Izumi sidestepped like Himiko had taught her, and Panzerfaust's fist collided with the wall with a loud bang, leaving a huge crater.
Izumi took that chance to cut off the tendons of his wrists, disabling his hand completely. Panzerfaust coughed blood and glared at her, forgoing all attempts to stop the bleeding of his throat and using his remaining fist to try to blow Izumi's head off.
She stepped back, dodging the attack and feeling the air pressure tickle her ass it passed through. Panzerfaust slipped on his own blood and fell down. Izumi stepped on his good hand, and whistled. The crows quickly came to her, having recovered from the lack of air, and wanting revenge. They pecked and tore off the flesh on his wrist, completely removing the muscles of his wrist.
"Aghgahuiughh!"
"Oh, sorry, were you saying something? I didn't quite get that."
His pristine white hair was stained in red as he laid in a pool of his own blood, and glared at Izumi.
"That was quite the ace up your sleeve, I'll admit. A second quirk? I didn't even know that was possible. But well, you were quite unlucky." She squatted next to his face like he had done with her. "I'm a sniper, I'm used to holding my breath when aiming my rifle."
He glared at her, but smiled, remembering the rest of the hunter of the Order still in the upper building, hunting down her mysterious ally. She wouldn't be able to deal with them and the Whisperer's animals coming from both sides.
"You seem happy about something. Is it because of the rest of the hunters up there?" Panzerfaust's bloody smile disappeared instantly. "They aren't going to be able to do anything, after all, they have to deal with my friends. You may have not underestimated me, but Ripper was already overwhelmed by crows 'alone'" she cringed under her helmet, feeling disgusted over saying it in a way he'd understand, as if the crows overwhelming him alone shouldn't have been something to specially note, "so how do you think the rest are faring against Himiko-senpai and the rest?"
Snaptrap entered one of the offices, making sure to touch the door as he did so- and snapping his fingers once he was inside, activating his Remote Control quirk and closing the door. He could hear the scratching and clawing of the murder of crows hitting against the door he had barely managed to close in time.
This was possibly the worst scenario for him. He didn't have his usual gadgets he could activate safely away from danger, and was forced into a close quarters battle against a bloodthirsty maniac. He could hear the sobs of terrified workers hiding under the tables of the room. Since he was in an office, he could at least use the PCs.
Snaptrap ripped the fans of a few of the towers, and kept them ready. There was some sort of commotion on the other side of the door, with loud bangs into it. He tried gulping down, but his throat was dry as a desert.
After a few agonizing seconds, the door finally opened, and Snaptrap threw the small fans at the person coming in, activating them through his quirk and turning them into lethal makeshift shuriken.
"Woah! Cut it out, Snaptrap! It's me!" Overkill yelled at him, dodging the fan-shuriken, and closing the door before any crow couldn't get in. "Thank you for leaving me behind, asshole!"
"Oh, shut up! You saw what that monster did to Agent and Shotgun!"
He yelled at her. She was still missing an eye and a few fingers, and looked completely drained, but if she managed to get up despite her blood loss, she had to have more energy than he thought. Together, they could hold up this room and wait for Panzerfaust and the others to come back up from the underground lab and help them.
Overkill took her position beside him, the broken katana on her hand. He didn't know how it had been broken, but he hoped that she wouldn't let whatever happened to it happen again.
"Where was she when you got here?"
"Just here~"
Her voice, her sickly chirpy voice was here, inside the room. Snaptrap turned, desperately looking for the source of the voice, but only found Overkill. Then he remembered Himiko's quirk.
Himiko put him into a choke hold before he could even react, squeezing the strong arms of Overkill around his neck, and buried the broken katana and the Black Knife that had appeared out of nowhere into his gut using Overkill's other two hands.
The light faded from Snaptrap's eyes as the sludge of her transformation washed away, along with her lower arms, leaving the two blades sticking into his gut. Himiko giggled, loving becoming Overkill again, but having run out of blood.
Well, that was of no issue. She whistled, and the crows opened the door on their own, prompting the workers of the Commission to scream terrified, as they realized they were next, as the murder entered the room.
On the other side of the hall, Overkill's body was visible, laying into a wall, light faded from her two remaining eyes and her throat slit open, coating her bodysuit in red.
"I have total faith in them. The Order of Orion is finished. Or rather, it had already been dead for a long time, the moment you ran with your tail between your legs to work for the Commission." Panzerfaust glared at her, coughing up blood again and feeling an uncomfortable cold take over his body.
She got up, not even bothering finishing him off. He had choked the crows, now he'll die by choking on his own blood.
"The age of the assassin looking for quick money is over, like the age of assassins going after quirked people is over. The Order adapted then, abandoning Orion's quirkless supremacy ways, but the Order didn't adapt to the new age of killers." Izumi looked around the crows, and then up, picturing Himiko in her head. "Today's killers do it because we enjoy it."
And with that, Izumi turned around, ignoring him, and took her time checking on every single one of the crows, hearing Panzerfaust gurgle his own blood until he silently stopped. She gently rubbed Urusai's abdomen with the back of her finger.
"How's your throat?"
Can't scream. Can help though!
She smiled under her helmet. His throat always became strained when mimicking very loud sounds, so he wouldn't be able to repeat that move without hurting himself.
"Well, well, well!" A new voice echoed through the hall, and Izumi got her rifle ready, locking in and getting serious immediately. "It seems that my security failed miserably. Sometimes you just have to get your own hands dirty, am I right, Karasu?"
The level of hate and disdain on the voice after saying her name was almost palpable. Izumi turned to the source of the voice, the Whisperer's voice, readying herself and not letting herself become an enraged beast, keeping her calm.
Several shadows closed in on Izumi and the crows, and different eyes glowed in the dark, with a humanoid figure among them, belonging to him. The Whisperer and his animal pawns had finally come.
I know I said I wanted to speed up updates... and then I go and release later than ever before... tehee~ No, but really, I'm trying to write faster, but somehow I ended up adding most of the content that was supposed to be on next chapter in this one, after realizing that I was going to end up doing two short chapters in a row, so decided to just do one of the longer chapters instead, so I hope it was worth the wait
Aaaaaanyway, the Order of Orion is done! They have been a very fun piece of worldbuilding I added along with the SASC, but it's finally time to say goodbye, I had fun thinking about all of those distinct OCs I could later remove and disrespect lol. In their defense, most of them went out after going after people that directly countered them, even Overkill, who was in a short of a stand of with Himiko in a 1v1 (with the crows with Himiko not being able to get close or help at that point), the moment she gets the "advantage" of getting allies, Himiko instalty turns those allies in her favour by using her quirk. I really like that scene actually, really shows how scary Himiko can be both in a 1v1 and when she's tricking a group as well. Panzerfaust suffered the same, the moment he doesn't have to worry about his allies and pulls off that special suprise, he has to be battling the one psycho that has an unreasonable level of training and control over her own breathing. Also, know you know the real reason for Urusai's name. He can really scream when he wants to.
There's still more things waiting to happen though! Next chapter, the much awaited confrontation with Karasu and The Whisperer!