Sink or Swim: Drawn To The Venom

Chapter 08

Recap: The therian kid has escaped from the kidnappers and has murdered 2 street thugs who tried to assault him. Naomi, Dan and Akihito are busy trying to help Matsumi spawn a water sphere.

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Dan and Naomi watch as their disciple continuously fails at manipulating water into a sphere.
Dan: "Can you atleast try to remember how you got the water sphere the last 2 times?"
Matsumi: "I don't know, I barely had memories during that short time."
Akihito: "Still! Think about it, what happened during that time?"
Naomi makes hand signs.
Dan: "Naomi is saying that both times Matsumi was mocked by someone. But if that's just a reflex move, will we have to depend on someone mocking him while he tries?"
Akihito: "Hey shark-boy! What did your enemies talk about that made you spawn water spheres?"
Matsumi: "I-I think the first bitch was talking about torturing me and mentioned my mom for no reason. Why? WHY DOES EVERYONE ASSUME THAT I LOVE MY MOM OR WANT HER?"
Everyone is startled at his sudden expression.
Akihito: "Why? Did your mommy not love you?"
Matsumi's eyes are glowing red. He glares at the seaweed guy.
Matsumi: "SHE DIDN'T EVEN CARE IF I LIVED! NOBODY CAME TO SAVE ME OR GET ME OUT OF THAT MESS"
He shockingly manages to spawn a ball of water from the bathtub water at the hundredth attempt.
Akihito: *taunts* "Yeah that's right! Nobody saved you, right?"
Matsumi goes to his flashback wherein his mother would beat him up, bruise him, scream at him and whenever he was visible bruised - she would submerge him in ice water to take out her horror and frustration with him, as well as try to get him to never rebel.
Matsumi: *shaking, stern voice* "I-I even tried to make her happy by saving her life once, but that was......that was a grave mistake. Nothing stopped, I was back to everything!"
Another flashback takes place where his mother has been beaten on the streets, and is about to die from her wounds. An infant Matsumi called in for some help through bribe, and succeeded in getting his mother to wake up again but he couldn't regret anything more as her abuse stayed the same.
Coming out of his terrifying flashback, he conjures the transparent pressurised water sphere and fires it at Akihito.
Akihito: "Hey! Hey stop it you...."
Dan: "AKIHITO! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?"
Matsumi crashes the water sphere through walls, once again and manages to target Akihito.
Akihito: "Oh no! I-It was a big mistake. I shouldn't have..."
Matsumi: "I won't forgive! Forgiveness is too big of a blunder...."
He throws the sphere right at Akihito, however caressing his shoulder right next to him is Naomi. She manages to somehow break his state of trance, and the water sphere stops an inch before Akihito. The seaweed man is shaking and whimpering in fear.
Dan: *thinks* "What was the trigger? His fear of water? His traumatic childhood? Or his nasty horrifying mother? For some reason he feels relatable, wait why am I thinking of this?"
Matsumi: "Naomi! What the hell happened?"
Dan is clearly upset and approaches Akihito.
Dan: "Listen up! If this is the trigger you need to spawn a water sphere from Matsumi, then we're calling off the alliance here."
Akihito: "Er....okay.....well....I was just testing, trust me I didn't mean to...."
Dan approaches Matsumi while Naomi stays by his side.
Matsumi: "So, what now?"
Dan: "We're calling off our alliance with Akihito, thing is.....I never knew about your past. Just exploiting it for some objective we can achieve in other ways, is not exactly something I want."
Akihito: "Are you sure about this though? Because you might never have a way to defeat the boss if you can't use the water sphere."
Naomi makes handsigns.
Dan: "Do you really think that this guy exists only for you to exploit his trauma? We're not doing this!"
Akihito: "You've already killed 2 of the boss' underlings, I don't think he's gonna take it lightly that you're roaming casually here. Also there's the matter of the kid, how are you going to achieve that when the kidnapping organization might have power users too?"
Dan: "We'll see! We don't need to...."
Matsumi: "I'll do it, Dan!"
Dan: "Wait what? Matsumi no! You can't go through that again."
Matsumi: "If I get to see this prick of a boss squirming on the ground, I'll do it as many times as I have to."
Akihito: "Wow! This is getting big. So are you truly ready?"
Matsumi: "But first.....what is Lixir?"
Akihito writes it down on a piece of paper again, struggling with cursed electrical disturbances inside him.
Matsumi: "Eh! What?"
Dan and Naomi are just as embarrassed as Matsumi is in that moment.
Meanwhile ever since the kid's disappearance at the kidnapping organization, the ruckus is simply not settling down. Rio and Gai return empty handed to the kidnapping queen for the umpteenth time.
Queen: "What's the update?"
Rio: "We couldn't find the kid."
Gai: "But we did get leads that a couple of street criminals were found dead with poisonous afflictions on them."
Queen: "So the kid is still around, huh? And what about Izumi?"
Gai: "Izumi too, has gone missing. No leads of him though!"
Rio: "We can try to trace him further and..."
Right in front of the queen, another ordinary underling is shot dead by a sniper. In the spur of a moment, the Queen gets a call from the boss again.
Boss: "Tomorrow is the finalized date. If you are unable to retrieve the child, consider it the permanent dissolution of our ties and the end of your lineages."
The phone hangs up, the Queen is locked in a state of extreme nailbiting tension. She isn't able to handle the pressure anymore. Queen reveals herself as an angry middle aged woman with short red hair wearing a gold pendant and a purple office attire.
Queen: *angry, shivering* "Fine then! If that's how they want it, then we'll confront the guardian angel by ourselves."
Rio: "But Queen...."
Queen: "Rio! Gai! We've lost 3 of our men in 2 days, NEX clearly has declared war on us. Go and give them a taste of their own medicine."
Gai: "That's brash! They'll probably have bigger fish in their tank and we need to be cautious.".
Queen: "I didn't hire you just to chitchat or play treasure hunt, did I? Show some ruggedness and give the organization a run for their money."
At NEX, the boss himself is losing his temper yet trying to keep calm.
Boss: "What a pain....it's just beyond excruciating that we lost such a valuable asset in this deal."
Male Sub-Boss: "Boss! Um.....what's the small pink mark on your hand?"
Boss: "Ahh! It's just some allergies....."
Female Sub-Boss: "Allergies? Boss you never told us about your allergies!"
Boss: "I myself don't know what I'm allergic to, but I'll be fine!" *thinks* "I just hope nobody here found out."
The phone rings, which the boss picks up.
Boss: "Hmm!"
On the other line, is the smug voice of the kidnapping queen herself.
Queen: "So your dear sniper was found and taken down by me. What do you think?"
Boss: "So I guess it means you're declaring war on us, huh?"
Queen: "Don't worry! We've sent 2 of our men in your lair, you know."
The boss hears screaming sounds as well as sounds of glass windows breaking on the ground floor of his mansion. Seeing down below are none other than Rio and Gai, both of whom have beaten 4 of the boss' security guards.
Boss: *sighs* "What a pain! And I was about to watch Spongeborg."
Male Sub-Boss: "You can count on us, boss."
Female Sub-Boss: "Let's go!"
Boss: "Ooh great Spongeborg is on then!"
Male Sub-Boss: "Just remember to record it for us, eh!"
Outside the same mansion, the ones watering the plants in the lawn and cutting grass are two familiar faces - Juro and Nagito.
Juro: "That water bender guy, he was dangerous and scary wasn't he?"
Nagito: "Puffer and Norihito haven't returned either, what could this mean?"
Juro: "If only I could get back at him for what he did to us, humiliating those without powers or abilities when he had nothing to do with us in the first place."
Suddenly the two of them sense incoming danger and dodge it within the nick of time. However, it was in vain as they suddenly find themselves tied up. The culprit for this confrontation is Izumi.
Izumi: "So boys! Do you wanna join me for some power up?"
Nagito: "What?"
Izumi: "You're both devoid of abilities and powers, aren't you?"
Juro: "Yeah but....how would you know that?"
Izumi: "A certain someone I know was quite useful for intel, so I'm offering you something."
Nagito: "Firstly who are you? Secondly how'd you raid the mansion from the backgate?"
Izumi: "Doesn't matter! Do you want powers or nah? I'm working with someone who can do the unthinkable."
The two of them decide to risk it and join Izumi in his mysterious ordeal. On the other hand, the boss' two subordinates reveal themselves in front of Rio and Gai.
Gai: "We don't have business with you two imbecile punks. Send your boss!"
The female sub-boss - a slender woman with pink hair tied in a ponytail, and the male sub-boss - a man with purple hair tied in a bun as well as having a purple stubble on his face, both smirk at the two intruders.
Gai: "Oi! Didn't you hear us? We need your goddamn boss."
Female Sub-Boss: "Say, Rei! Are you feasting on the tall one on the right or the dirty mouthed short one?"
Male Sub-Boss: "I think the short one seems worth teaching a lesson, I just can't wait to crush his ego. Go with it, Keri!"
Rei and Keri take a weird stance in front of the two mossform adversaries. Rio leaps and advances towards the two.
Keri: "Alright! Have it your way then."
He lifts his fist, which suddenly turns green with a smooth solid texture.
Rio: "Falling Coconut!"
Keri tries to dodge it, but unfortunately Rio is fast. Suddenly his fist stops moments before hurting her.
Keri: "What? Why'd you stop?"
Suddenly her forehead spouts a fountain of blood, and she backs off. However, she's not done.
Keri: "That's something, damaging someone without the touching? You must have some experience with martial arts."
Gai is clashing toe to toe with Rei, and while their moves are unknowns it's evident that they want to win badly.
Gai: "Why you...how are you able to keep up?"
Rei: "What's wrong? Are you so egotistical that you underestimated me to this extent?"
Gai: "SUNFLOWER RADIANCE!"
He makes a flower symbol using his hand to deliver a deadly blow to Rei's stomach, causing him to painfully spit blood out of his mouth.
Rei: "Nice!"
Gai: "What do you mean nice? You're going to die, do you realize that?"
Rei: *smirks* "I can't wait to see the look on his face once we do our thing."
Keri and Rei keep defending themselves while the other two attack, this goes on for quite sometime.
Gai: "Why don't you guys show us some of your moves eh?"
Rio: "Gai! I think something's up!"
Gai: "Don't sweat it! All we're gonna do is beat the shit out of them until they....."
Suddenly Gai feels a series of painful, sharp sensations on his arms and legs.
Rio: "OH SHIT! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?"
Gai: "OWWWWW what?"
Rio feels the same horrible sensation. To their horror, they see deadly piranhas biting their limbs while flopping their tails around.
Rio: "Piranhas? Here? How?"
Gai: "It's like they magically appeared out of nowhere, latching onto us."
Keri: "Hahaha! I see we didn't introduce ourselves properly! I am the Pink Piranha - Keri."
Rei: "And I'm the Blue Piranha - Rei."
The Piranhas are extremely hard to pull out, and they're losing pieces of flesh with blood spewing out.
Rei: "Those piranhas you see, they latch onto you the moment you deliver damage to us."
Keri: "The more damage you deal us, the more those piranhas will be feeding off ya."
Both Rio and Gai are on their knees, trying to recover from the damage despite their gory bleeding arms.
Rei: "Say, you young sunflower moron. How does it feel to be on your knees?"
Keri: "Rei don't get too personal at the moment, we need to finish them off and then find the kid."
Rei: "Okay okay! I'll do it."
However Rio and Gai are not people who would give up so easily, they use their last resort.
Rio: "BRACE YOURSELF! HERE IT COMES!"
Gai: "YOU HEARD HIM!"
They both start gathering their aura and collectively exclaim.
Rio & Gai: "FLORAL TERRITORIAL!"
A huge blast takes place, breaking window panes. Within moments, Keri finds herself on a random island in the middle of nowhere while Rei is surprised to find himself in a sunflower field.
Rio stands above a palm tree, staring down at Keri as she feels weaker inside.
Keri: "Well I'm not surprised but, yours must be real strong. Because even though I'm on a random island, I can barely breathe or move."
Rio: "Care for some tropical fruit?"
Keri: "Huh?"
The tree on which Rio stands starts to grow coconuts on itself. Those coconuts are then shot at Keri, who swims into the water avoiding them.
Keri: *thinks* "What? Seriously that's lame, he knows that I have a piranha therian so obviously I will breathe underwater, but....it's so difficult to breathe here. What? Why?"
To her shocker the coconuts are homing at her, chasing her deep into the ocean. There are no fish or creatures in this water body, and she finds difficulty in breathing while swimming.
Keri: "NO WAY THIS ISN'T GOOD!"
One of Rio's coconuts suddenly upon contact with the sea floor explodes, indicating deadlier abilities. To make things worse for her, a coconut strikes her leg and explodes inflicting painful bloody damage on her leg. Rio does get bitten by a piranha as a consequence but as soon as he gets rid of it and throws it into the sea, the piranha fades into dust.
Keri is losing her ability to breathe, and surfaces up in time while avoiding the homing coconuts as they explode on the barren sea floor.
Keri: *panting* "Close call!"
Rio: "Hahaha! You finally came out of the water, you stupid fish. Your piranhas won't survive my floral territorial."
Meanwhile in Gai's sunflower field, Rei is running around trying to avoid being hit by what looks like yellow laser beams which are coming out of sunflowers themselves.
Gai: "Till when are you gonna keep running? This field is endless, you won't get out of it alive anyways punk ass."
Rei: *thinks* "What a pain!"
A beam strikes Rei on his back and makes him fall down, while he lays on the ground writhing in pain.

TO BE CONTINUED.....