『Hakari Kotaro』
The winds howled and rain thundered down as Shigaraki and I stared each other down. The air was tense, like a wire stressed to its limits, about to snap. We both sized up the other patiently.
Seeing as he jumped down without even wincing, I'm willing to bet that if he has another ability, it is definitely something related to Physical Enhancement. So four abilities, Decay, Black Tendrils, Barrier and some kind of Boost. But seeing as he couldn't blitz me, it's not a strong one.
I took a deep breath, channeling Hamon to recover my vitality and energy as much as I could before we started slugging.
"Don't feel so talkative this time? That's a shame!"
Shigaraki leapt forward with his tendrils emerging from his back, he was still just as fast as last time, if not faster, but not to a level where I couldn't keep up with him.
Swapping out Candy Paramecia for Iron Flesh, I hardened my fist and swung at Shigaraki, but predictably, before my fist got to hit him, it struck that barrier of his, making my bones creak from the backlash.
At the same time, he stabbed towards me with his tendrils, but I flipped out of the way and used a Slicing Exorcism to rip them apart.
"Woow, you really did get stronger, huh? Unfortunately for you, I watched your clips too, I studied your movement patterns, your behavior, I figured you out."
Tsk, I need some way to break through that barrier of his, the crack I put in it with Piercing Blood was still there, but that took too long to charge up, and Shigaraki was too mobile to land it reliably.
He charged at me again, and unleashed his tendrils from his palm, but just as I tried to dodge, the translucent barrier appeared again, this time, around both of us, trapping me and denying any way to dodge. In a panic, I hardened my body but the tendrils still pierced me, and agony shot through my body as my flesh and skin started falling apart.
Twisting my body I broke out of the tendrils and rolled away. There were several palm wide gouges in my body that I healed using Super Regeneration.
Deciding that going defensive was not a great idea, I replaced Enhanced Senses with Bikaku, a large tail emerged from my coccyx and whipped Shigaraki's barrier, but I couldn't even tell if it cracked the barrier.
Dodging another burst of tendrils, I swung again, this time imbuing Hamon into the strike, enhancing the flexibility and power of the tendril, breaking the sound barrier with the tip of the Kagune and landing a crack on the barrier.
"Heeh, I see it now, every time you regenerate or use a big move, you take a deep breath don't you? And then you glow a little, is that related?"
Fucker.
"Maybe stop theorizing and start fighting!"
"Haha! Am I getting under your skin!?"
I spun around and landed another blow to his barrier with my tail, putting another crack in it. But that was a diversion, I was more focused on scanning for blood signatures around, more specifically, ones that were moving around fast. I wasn't so prideful as to not drag this fight to somewhere where I could get help.
So, I turned tail and ran instantly, Shigaraki laughed maniacally as he watched me do so.
"Wow! That scared!?"
I used the Bikaku while Shigaraki chased after me like a spider, using his tendrils as legs to crawl through the street towards me, but I was much faster at turning corners, and so I was able to keep him at bay.
Just when I turned another corner, I saw a couple heroes, a man dressed like a firefighter, a hot woman with flaming green hair, a man with bull horns, and another man dressed as a cowboy, all fighting a muscular green nomu.
"Was this your plan? Drawing aggro? Isn't that cowardly?"
Shigaraki jumped in after me, landing onto a car with a heavy crash while I stopped and turned towards the heroes.
"Any help?"
The green fire haired woman pulled two bunches of hair out and formed them into spears that she shot towards the nomu and glanced at Shigaraki.
"Shit, another villain? We already have our hands full!"
Damn that nomu, if it wasn't here I could get some help.
I made a split second decision.
"Keep him occupied, I'll take care of the Nomu! My name is Wildcard!"
They didn't understand what I was going for, but I leaped towards the Nomu, ducking under its wild but powerful swing before creating a tendril of blood that I stabbed down its mouth. Seeing my plan, the heroes hurriedly turned to Shigaraki. Shigaraki tried to track me down, but just as he was about to, the green haired fire woman jumped in with two flame swords and clashed with him, stalling him for a moment.
"Oh no you don't!"
Taking the opportunity they made, I made needles of blood erupt in the Nomu's lungs before yanking them, tearing through his lungs and spine entirely, making him collapse.
Feat Achieved! Kill a Nomu while fighting Shigaraki
+1x Silver Item Gacha Ticket
No time, roll it now!
"Kuahk!"
The green woman puked blood as several tendrils pierced her body in several spots then threw her away like a broken puppet before Shigaraki moved onto the other heroes.
"Don't get in my way! This is between me and him! No room for trash mobs here!"
Rolling Silver Item Gacha...
An Uncommon Item!
[Regalia]
|Uncommon Item|
Final Fantasy - Do you want a badass supercar? Do you want it to fly? Well, you got the right vehicle then, this fully upgraded Regalia is a very powerful, durable and most importantly, incredibly stylish car that can also drive itself. And even turn into a flying vehicle. The fuel tank gets refilled automatically every 8 hours.
What the fuck am I going to do with a car right now, shove it up my ass!?!?!
Turning back to the fight, I jumped and snatched the woman out of the air, she looked pretty damn bad, there were holes in her lung, shoulder, leg, and abdomen. But since I couldn't afford to swap to Healing Light, which wouldn't do much to heal wounds that severe anyway, I pulled the Hanged Man card out of my bag and used it on her, suddenly feeling a draft go through new holes in my body that quickly started closing.
The girl looked surprised as the holes in her body vanished before her eyes. But she quickly recovered her composure, giving me a sardonic grin.
"Well damn, you saved my life, if we get out of here, I'll rock your damn world."
"Focus on getting the others out of here first. And bring someone actually strong here!"
These guys weren't going to be of any help it seemed. Another dead end.
"Aye!"
I tossed her up, and she flew away with her fire hair wings as I turned back to Shigaraki and smacked his barrier with my tail again. Putting another dent in the annoyingly strong barrier.
Seriously, what the fuck do I do here?
No calm down, I always figure something out.
I just need... time. To find a way out of this.
Turning on my heel, I started running away again, making Shigaraki purse his lips.
"You know, all your running is getting seriously boring Hakari."
He leapt after me, I was running without a specific direction in mind, just going as far as I possibly could and trying to maintain Hamon breathing at the same time to recover whatever dregs of energy I could. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point energy wise.
Crash!
Shigaraki boosted himself further with his tendrils before wrapping some around my leg and throwing me into a building, making me crash and puke blood, my bones were definitely not in the right places.
"Eeeek! M-mommy!"
Digging myself out of the rubble, my heart stopped for a moment when I saw a little girl across the street, scared out of her mind, and crying for her mother who was lying on her side. Shigaraki followed my line of sight with a smirk.
"Hmm, maybe this will get you to stop running."
Shigaraki swung his hand and several tendrils shot towards the child and mother.
'Flowing Red Scale - Stack!'
I didn't pay them any mind, I instead rushed towards Shigaraki, if he was pre-occupied trying to kill civilians rather than me, that gave me an opportunity to attack him freely, didn't it?
So then why...
Why!?
Squelch!
"Grrk!"
"Hiekk!!! M-Mister...!"
Why the fuck did I stand in front of them!?
What the fuck are you doing!?
Why the fuck did my body do that!? That wasn't what I was trying to do! I could only grit teeth as several tendrils ripped into my back, only failing to pierce my organs by Iron Flesh. Decaying my muscles and skin until I batted them away with my Bikaku.
How!? Why!? You fucking idiot! I'm already low on energy! I can't keep taking wounds for everyone!
"I knew it! I knew you couldn't resist it! That's what so-called heroes do after all!"
You fucking idiot, you aren't a hero, what are you doing, risking your life for them!?
Tilting my head, I shouted at the little girl.
"Take your mom, get out of here, now. RUN!"
My vision was spinning. That was such a stupid thing to do.
Dammit!
Opening my hand to create a convergence, I stood my ground as Shigaraki lunged at me, but just before he could unleash an attack, a green blur leapt out from behind him.
"100% DETROIT SMASH!!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
Deku, who came out of nowhere, appeared above Shigaraki and punched down at him with his full strength, creating a massive shockwave that made the street shake and shattered Shigaraki's barrier in one blow, sending him crashing into the floor in a tangled mess of limbs.
"Deku...?"
Izuku also fell down onto the ground next to me, launched away by his own strike, his legs looked broken too as he grimaced but still forced a smile despite looking like a broken doll with his limbs pointing at odd angles.
"I... sent Ida-kun away and tracked you down, Hakari-kun...! I couldn't leave you alone...!"
A bitter, bloody chuckle slipped past my lips.
"You ballsy idiot, you just saved my life. Can you even move?"
"N-nope, I... used too much force to jump in."
That self-sacrificing idiot, who breaks their body without hesitation like that?
"That fucking hurt, you bastard."
My jaw hung open, the words I was about to say failed to leave my mouth as Shigaraki crawled out of the crater he was punched into, resetting his limbs with his arms and cracking his neck.
"Thankfully, that barrier saved me. And I remember you, you're that Glass Canon kid aren't you? The All Might fanboy."
Shigaraki Tomura:
Quirks:
-Decay
-Rivet Stab
-Barrier
-Resilience: Increases the resilience of the user, granting them increased ability to recover from lethal blows and recover faster from injuries and wounds
Dammit.
"Good thing I didn't take the super regen Nomu's had, right? Or else I wouldn't have survived that, what do you think, Hakari?"
Without saying a word, I grabbed Deku.
"Hakari-kun, what are you-!"
And threw him as far down the street as I could, while also making a blood slingshot and propelling myself onto a roof.
"Running again? Can't you be a little original?"
But my speed was lacking, I was too tired, my speed wasn't quite as fast, and on the other hand, Shigaraki didn't seem even out of breath. He used his tendrils to catch up with me and stomped down on my back, making a muffled crack and sending intense agony throughout my body.
But... Now he was close enough to me for me to get a clear shot.
I never did stop condensing that convergence.
Ignoring the pain in my back, I spun around and shot a Piercing Blood towards Shigaraki, but he leaned out of the way and stabbed tendrils into my arms.
"Finally out of tricks?"
"Fuck yo- AAARrghh!!!"
I bit my tongue as my arms started decaying, muscles being pulled apart, bones breaking apart like chalk, nerves fraying like rope, cells breaking down. I tried desperately to lash out with my Bikaku but that was pinned down too.
"It's Game Over for you-"
Gritting my teeth through the torture, I raised my leg and kicked Shigaraki in the face with all my strength, pushing him away and making me plummet down from the roof.
Thud!
My body hit the asphalt road with a thud. The pain from the fall was so small compared to the pain in my arms that it didn't even register.
I tried to push myself off the ground, but for some reason, I couldn't.
Oh.
I don't have arms.
Only stubs that ended at the elbows and leaked blood profusely.
My Bikaku receded into my body as I tried to put energy into my Super Regeneration, the blood flow slowed down but only momentarily. I didn't have enough power in me to get my arms back.
I can't die here...!
I breathed in-
"Cough!"
Breathe in. I felt a bit of Hamon flow through my body, granting me a moment of lucidity as my body started rapidly shutting down. I couldn't heal my arms. There wasn't enough in my body to regenerate, I could overclock the engine, but there was no gasoline.
There has to be some way, some way, I can't die here.
I promised her.
Even if I healed myself, what good would it do? Shigaraki would just kill me.
Something, anything, any ability, come on, give me something!
But no ability was going to help me here.
In desperation, only one possible, but not plausible idea came to my mind.
I replaced Iron Flesh with Ukaku, feeling the Kakuhou form in my shoulder blades. I focused on the feeling, I knew from my Biology Skill, Kagunes, they were formed by special Red Child Cells. And they were technically a component of blood, weren't they?
Come on...!
Focusing my everything into Hemokinesis, I focused on those sacs in my body. It was like feeling around in the dark, I searched desperately. But it kept slipping away. I was trying to reach the end of a room on a treadmill.
Harder...!
My brain hurt, I was forcing the ability to its very limit. Harder than I ever did.
A connection.
I suddenly found what I was looking for in the dark. A weak, tangential connection, but a connection enough for me to use.
Using Hemokinesis, I started cannibalizing the Kakuhou, tearing the organ apart and forcing Red Child Cells into my bloodstream. It was a stupid idea. Suicidal even. But I started feeling energized and more awake. Using Super Regeneration and Hemokinesis, I commanded these cells to rebuild my body.
Crack.
I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth cracked as a wave of nausea washed over me. I was incorporating the Red Child Cells into my body, a foreign type of cell my body was not designed for. My body, my Regenerator Trait and Pugilist worked beyond their usual scope as my body tried its best to accommodate these changes. My body was changing, cells were replacing themselves and the RC Cells were burning themselves to fuel these changes.
Feeling strength start to return to my limbs, I commanded these cells to rebuild my arms, muscles resembling those of my Kagune grew out of the stubs and wrapped around themselves like branches before turning into a pair of arms that resembled a Kagune.
With shaky feet, I forced myself to stand up. Feeling absolutely ravenous.
You have forcefully changed your race to: Hybrid Ghoul(Epic)
[Greater Hemokinesis], [Super Regeneration], [Bikaku], [Ukaku] have been fused into...
[Red Child]
|Legendary Ability|
Allows you to freely control and regenerate your own Blood and Red Child Cells. Red Child Cells are mysterious special cells that can go from liquid like water to hard like teeth at will. Allowing you telekinetically control your blood to form attacks, freely manipulate the form of your Kagune, and externally controlling your Red Child Cells. And also amplify your natural regenerative capabilities by expending energy.
A/N: This has been Hakari's worst night, ever, he has never struggled this hard before, Shigaraki was already a menace, with proper quirks and a better mindset? He is beyond a monster. And one that Hakari stood little to no chance against. At least he saved Burning and showed some of his character development before getting mangled. Also, while the ticket gave him jack shit, he'll have a badass car if he makes it out.
But the only thing that fight a monster is a monster, Hakari bites the bullet and forcefully turns himself into a Ghoul, I'll be honest, Tokyo Ghoul is one of my favorite power systems, so I have been looking forward to this for a while. This will be a big power up for Hakari, and no, he can still eat human food. What did you guys think about this chapter? I'd love to know.