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Yoichi's eyes were slow to open at first.
His eyelids fluttered gently, adjusting to the light of the glaring sun above him with a slowness he hadn't felt in years. Ever so slowly, he tried to push himself up, only to groan, as his entire body protested with sharp, needle like waves of pain. He grit his teeth, in an effort to stop himself from crying out, and leaned on his right arm with all the remaining strength he had.
'What the hell happened to me?' He wondered, pulling on one of the many pain nullifying Quirks he had in his possession.
Its activation was slow, and he could feel, as it spread through his entire body. In an ideal world, he would have preferred to use a healing Quirk. But, with his current exhaustion, such a thing simply wasn't possible. If he tried to now, he would only end up knocking himself out again.
Sighing to himself, he tried to move his left arm to properly stand up, only to blink, as he felt no response.
Almost mechanically, his head turned to look at his arm.
Where a healthy and muscular limb was meant to be, only a bandaged stump remained.
As if the sight was the key to some lock, his memories finally began to return.
"That son of a bitch..." He growled, remembering the final moments of his confrontation against Tomura. "...he took my arm!"
Of course, he had stolen Decay in those last remaining seconds too, and his arm would regrow in time. But, it still left him fuming, knowing that the bastard spawn of his father had gotten the last laugh in their battle.
"Pft..." Yoichi blinked, at the unfamiliar sound of someone snorting. His head turned fast enough that it would have given anyone else in his position whiplash. Within a second, his eyes locked onto the form of a man, resting on a log with an easy smirk playing on his face.
At first glance, he was muscular, and tall, if the way he sat hunched over was anything to go by. His hair was orange, and slicked back, with a black cloak wrapped securely around his body. In his hands, was a bottle that he could tell was alcoholic, and his light blue eyes gazed at Yoichi with clear amusement.
"...Your a funny one kid!" the man declared with a boisterous laugh.
Yoichi wasn't sure how to feel about such a comment being made at his expense. When he appeared, people usually stared and spoke to him with either respect and awe, or fear and hate. There was no in-between. So, to have someone declare him as not only funny, but to also laugh at him, made his head spin.
"Do I know you?" He asked, as the man finally stopped laughing to take a swig of his drink.
"Me? Well, unless you've been living under a rock, you should do." The man declared, grinning at him.
Yoichi felt his eyes narrow at the arrogant words. Many of the assassins Tomura had sent to slow him down had spoken in a similar way, and yet, each time, they all ended up dying by his hand. Their legacies becoming nothing more than the Quirks he took from their bodies.
"I've been living under a rock." He finally declared, feeling the energy produced by the sun beginning to settle into his body and accelerate the recovery of his stamina. If this really was another assassin of Tomura's, then the best thing he could do right now was stall for time until he regained enough to attempt an escape.
"Ha! Your hilarious I swear." The man guffawed again, only to pause, as Yoichi remained staring at him with the same serious expression. "Wait, seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Huh..." The man was lost for words for all of a second. Before he grinned brightly, and extended his left arm forward. "Well then, its nice to meet you. The name is Gildarts Clive, the Ace of Fairy Tail!"
Yoichi gave the extended arm a blank stare, before visibly shifting his eyes to his missing arm and looking back.
"Oh, right." The man—Gildarts, at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean anything by it."
"It's fine." Yoichi dismissed the apology with a sigh. This assassin was, to put it simply, nothing like a assassin should be. He didn't want to admit it, but the man unnerved him for the simple fact that he wasn't actively trying to kill him straight away. "What's Fairy Tail?"
At the very least, he could try and get some more information on this group the man was a part of. When the time came, they would undoubtedly try their luck at catching him. Anything he could gleam now, would be monumental later.
"What's Fairy Tail-? Kid, are you messing with me? How do you not know about Fairy Tail?! We're the number one Guild in the whole of Fiore!" Gildarts exclaimed, nearly spitting his drink out.
Yoichi blinked at the reaction, and felt as his own confusion rose. "Where the hell is Fiore?"
Whilst he had been born and raised in Japan. That didn't mean he had remained there for the past sixteen years of his life. After they had lost what was meant to be the Final War, Japan had become Hell on Earth. The Resistance, as it would come to be known, had, as such spread to every corner of the world, and as one of the leading forces standing against his fathers tyranny, Yoichi had inadvertently, travelled the whole world.
And not once, had he come across a place known as Fiore.
"Did you hit your head or something? Your hair is all red" Gildarts asked seriously, leaning forward with furrowed brows. "How do you not know where Fiore is? We are in Fiore right now."
"I...I..." Yoichi also furrowed his brows, thinking back to what he last remembered happening.
The smell of ozone was prominent. The very air was filled with static, as the clouds above them thundered with the rage of the gods, and streaked through the sky with bolts of impatient lightning. He could feel their want for his attention. But his focus was on someone else. Yoichi limped through a barren wasteland with bare feet. Where a once proud city had stood, now, nothing but ash and smoke remained.
Tomura sat within a crater, his knees pushing into the ground, as he took deep ragged breaths and stared at his two missing arms with a unique mixture of shock and anger.
His healing Quirks had already been stolen. His mobility Quirks, taken. His elemental Quirks, robbed. Every single Quirk he had within his soul was gone, and now resided within Yoichi. Only one remained, and it was purely because Tomura's desperation to keep Decay had been stronger than Yoichi's will to take it, that he was still in possession of it.
Not that it would do anything. With both of his arms now missing, the Quirk was useless.
Tomura's entire body shook. A warped, and broken laugh escaping his cracked lips, as he gazed upon Yoichi's approaching form. "You think you've won?! You haven't won shit!"
If it were anyone else, Yoichi might have felt a semblance of pity for the man. But, as it was, he didn't. This was the man who had taken everything from Yoichi. From his friends, to his lover, to his family. He had nearly destroyed everything in his madness, and now, he was reaping what he had sowed.
"Decay, give it to me." He told Tomura, sharply twisting his left arm. Gravity bent under his command, and a terrible explosion erupted from the crater that held his brother. The man fell to the ground, his entire body straining under the artificial weight.
Yoichi felt no sympathy, as he increased the gravity one step at a time. The manic only laughed, as blood freely seeped from the corners of his mouth. Even with his enhanced body, the gravity Yoichi was currently releasing was loudly causing his bones to break, and his muscles to tear.
"No, no, no, no...No!" He rambled the word continuously, the pain likely driving him into a desperate madness he had never before felt. "You—You will not get a perfect victory over me!" Tomura lunged forward, with a desperation that only someone who knew they were about to die, could ever feel. His flesh warped, his muscles broke, his bones twisted and were pulverised in his last desperate attack.
"IF I DIE THEN SO DO YOU!" Tomura screamed, his voice gurgling as his vocal cords snapped under the pressure and more blood came flying out.
Yoichi couldn't help but smile. With the blood covering his body, it made him look absolutely psychotic. He intensified the gravity around Tomura again, watching as the man came crashing into the ground. After a moment had passed, he spoke.
"You look like All Might, when you spit blood like that."
At that moment, the clear sound of a gunshot, echoed through the destroyed city. A bullet, came drilling directly into Tomura's shoulder, pushing him even further into the ground. Yoichi twisted his head, his senses sharpening, as he traced the direct details of where the bullet had come from within a single second.
At first, he had believed that maybe someone was here to help him finish this fight. But then, his eyes locked onto who took the shot.
It was Dead-Eye. One of the many commanders of Tomura. He had dealt with her plenty of times over the years. He had even stolen her Quirk. But he had never gotten the chance to kill her. Even now, the temptation was there, but her presence, and the fact that she was the one who took the shot, was what alarmed him to the fact that something was wrong.
Tomura began to giggle like a child behind him, and Yoichi turned to see exactly why. There, sitting perfectly in his shoulder, sat a small, red cannister.
'A rewind bullet!' The realisation had him moving before he could even process the thought. His right arm twisted, his bones and fleshing curving, until his arm became the head of a sickle. Tomura laughed gleefully, as golden energy began to cascade from the bullet and wrap around his body, not only healing it, but also bringing his arms back.
The gravity around the man intensified. But against Rewind, it did little.
Both brothers met each other at the exact same moment, their arms outstretched toward the other in a desperate last lunge.
Yoichi swung his right arm. Tomura lost his left arm.
Yoichi grabbed his brothers neck with his left arm. Tomura pressed all five fingers across his brothers left arm.
Pain exploded through his left arm, a deep, burning wave as cells died by the second, and regenerated desperately to remain intact. Within an instant, Yoichi was staring directly into the eyes of someone he had once held hope of redeeming.
"I'll die! But I won't give you the satisfaction of knowing what happens next in this world!" Tomura declared gleefully. Yoichi grit his teeth, and with all of his might, clawed into the mans soul.
He had no time to think. So, he acted.
He grabbed onto the first Quirk he found. Onto the only Quirk that should have remained. It flowed freely into him, no longer being held by Tomura's will. He should have felt relief in that moment, knowing that his brother would be Quirkless, and in-turn, powerless to do any more damage.
But, he had underestimated the mad man. Because in that final moment, he saw it.
There was another Quirk, hidden directly behind Decay.
And it had already activated.
"You said I look like All Might?! Good! GOOD! Then watch me stand with a smile in my final minutes! Knowing that I BEAT YOU!" Tomura's cackling and grinning face was the last thing he saw, before an invisible and crushing force swept his entire body away.
Yoichi could only gasp, as every nerve in his body was set alight. He felt as if something had suddenly exploded within him, and then, he was met with darkness.
"...I woke up." Yoichi muttered, as realisation finally dawned on him. He looked at Gildarts with wide eyes, and spoke, in a quiet whisper, words he never thought he'd ever say.
"I'm no longer on Earth."