Maybe life isn't about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it's about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it.
~ Unknown
Track 49; Experiment On Me by Halsey
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The street below you was full of side shops. Tourists and locals alike adore flocking the sidewalks to window shop or wander in and get their hands on something they think is worth buying. More often than not, it was famous for its Knick knacks that foreigners often took home to their families and small privately-owned hobby shops. Unfortunately that meant that it was also a street prone for purse snatchers. You had a bunch of free time to kill while you were on patrol, so you decided to waste some extra time by hanging out for a bit to keep an eye from above. Low key you also just wanted to people-watch because everybody was so busy.
It was the new year; during the times that you were on patrol and not working your bar alongside the staff you had hired, you were pretty bored. Getting married to Keigo meant that you had a lot more things at hand whenever you wanted them. You were able to make your own schedule at the bar, so you had yourself set up for Friday nights and weekends since those were the busiest days of the week, usually. Your husband wasn't home often which would have left you awfully lonesome if it wasn't for Yoshio & Momo. Aizawa was busy with his class and Shinso with classes, so you were essentially on your own for a bit. Thankfully you were able to make up the time by dropping in at your bar when you felt like it or extending patrol for another hour. Somewhere in the late afternoon you were supposed to meet up with some other heroes to make sure that the patrol was interchanged with no issues.
Your mind wandered off to the thought of Aizawa and Hizashi. You hadn't heard much from them besides a few days ago. The insomniac had sent you a text talking about how the Hero Association wanted them to go to Tartarus to visit a member of the League of Villains. You weren't able to figure out how it went due to no answer when you texted him or tried to call, but he sent you a message the next day saying that nothing important came of the visit. You weren't entirely sure how to feel about that but if it had something to do with the fate of humanity then he would've told you, you knew that for a fact.
Your eyes watched a man wander into a small shop before skirting to a woman with her young son wandering into another across the street from him. You'd been out for roughly two hours and had been at this spot for maybe twenty-five minutes or so. You only planned on staying no more than forty-five at most. There's a bright, white streak of light in your peripheral vision. You can feel something barreling in your direction but it's so fast that you can't exactly pinpoint where it is. You abruptly straighten up and take a few steps back, letting your shoulders relax to continue stockpiling while you search the sky. You scold yet thank yourself for blinking when that basic human instinct alone revealed that what was narrowing down on you was a star, 10%.
You jumped up just in time to have it seemingly smash into the rooftop below you. There was heat beneath your feet before an explosion occurred shortly after and sent you flying further into the air. You're thankful for the support item that helped you regain your balance for midair flights, 17%. You only had a second to straighten out and expand your wings to prevent your path of travel away from wherever it was, the wind rushing the bits of hair that escaped your hero outfits hood against the rim of your heart-shaped visors. The wind bit at your skin, but your body felt like it was on fire when there was a flash of black in front of you—21%. A huge palm swipes towards you to smack you out of the sky like a bug. You felt the breath leave your lungs when you collapsed your wings and felt your body begin to plummet.
You shot up again to flip over and plant your heels firmly in his chest, fast and flawless—25%. "First Quarter!" Your legs go numb for a split second due to the iron soles of your boots being overwhelmed for the lack of give upon impact, 0%. A large limb smacks you out of the sky and you go flying once again.
Already your body is beginning to ache due to the blows it's been taking. You've been stockpiling in the background but used up almost all of what you had already as a first attempt at incapacitation; already up to 5%. The wind is starting to feel good against your seemingly blazing skin, but you can't think about how good that feels when the thought of what happened at training camp crosses your mind. You let your eyes close to gather your thoughts for a second before you can take in your surroundings, 10%. That thing that was attacking you may or may not be a Nomu. It looked similar to the one that was captured at the USJ incident early last year when the freshman first began, but different enough that it made you guess twice since this seemed like a hurricane in comparison.
You have to remember that this isn't time to think, only time to protect the citizens that have yet to evacuate and overcome your opponent, no matter the cost. You reach to your side to grab the staff that you had quickly become fond of, you weren't sure what you would do without it; 15%. You throw your hands out in front of you while extending the staff, digging it into the surface of a rooftop. Once you've come to a full stop you throw your head up at the sudden presence in front of you. You jolt backwards in a second, the knuckles of Nomu's fists just barely brushing against the rim of your visor. Your hair whooshes behind your head due to the speed. You stumble up to your feet while simultaneously moving backwards to avoid being hit. Each dodge and parry is a close call, you're pinned down and can't find an opening, 20%.
You just have to look harder while also prioritizing your survival. You're moving left, right, and backwards at this point to parry and slide millimeters out of the way of a flying right hook, eyes flitting around Nomu to find any sort of weak spot that you can take advantage of, 22%. You had become too accustomed to the pattern of punches he was throwing that you were totally unprepared for the left hook. The impact to the side of your head makes your ears ring but it also somehow gives you a chance to notice that when Nomu pulls both of his arms back, his right arm hitches before following a second after the left. You can feel enough power stored up for you to do First Quarter if you need to, but since it didn't work the first time you figured you needed to up the ante a bit. You step to the side to dodge his left arm before using your staff to block his right. There's a small hum of confusion from Nomu before he tilts his head; you're at 30% now.
This temporary lapse in overpowering you doesn't seem to phase him, though. Instead he puts his other hand on the staff as well, forcing you to mirror his actions to counteract the weight; 34%. He's still able to outdo you even now strength wise though you weren't sure what to expect when it came to fighting one of these things. You can feel the tread of your boots scraping for traction while you try to anchor yourself into one spot, 38%. You aren't sure how much time has passed before your back hits the wall and all the oxygen is knocked from your lungs. You still don't give in. Your arms are shaking and your body feels hot, like every bone in your arms is going to snap if you keep this up. It's getting harder to breathe when Nomu's face is inches away from yours, 42%.
You're so close to 45% that you can feel the adrenaline starting to rush in. The sound of your staff creaking alerts you to the intangible stress it's under, followed shortly by a small crack splitting across the material of your support item. Any more weight and it'll break. You don't want to have to wait for another one to be made if this one gets destroyed, so you don't want to give it the chance to. It was like a lightbulb lit up in your head at the same time as Nomu screeches. There's the sound of wind being sucked into his throat before a hot gas builds up in his throat. He's quite literally building a star, meaning a huge, burning ball of gas in his throat to spit at you. You were mere inches away from death and it excited you.
He tilts his head back to launch it. You shut your eyes and find the button on your staff, collapsing it. You duck down just a fraction of a second before the star collides with the wall behind your head. Just as you had hoped, it blinded him like you wanted it to. Your eyes shoot open and color returns to your vision while you feel a surge of power run through you, 60%. You're staring right at Nomu's torso. While in the meantime he's rubbing at his eyes and making sounds of pain. You take a deep breath to reconstruct your thoughts. If using one of your glyphs didn't work on his body as a whole, maybe it would work if you focused them on a specific part. You could try it out by using First Quarter and not lose all that much that you couldn't quickly replace, right? 63%.
In one fluid motion you took his moment of temporary disablement into your own hands. You extended the staff while simultaneously rising up, activating First Quarter when the top of the staff pierced the soft tissue of the trapeze muscle in Nomu's shoulder; 38%. A short laugh of glee rips through your unmistakably dry throat when you notice he can't use that arm anymore. It makes a sound of irritation and swipes at you with its right arm. You block the action with your staff, feeling invincible for just a split second before jumping back to gain some space, you need a second to breathe. He tilts his head back and goes to procure another star in his throat, not wanting to give you that brief lapse in time. 42%.
You take a deep breath and try to identify your surroundings as quickly as you can to figure out your next move. You're on the roof of a building a distance away from civilians. You can't hear any in the building below your feet but you can hear the news helicopter roaming the sky around you. Your husband isn't here, 49%. You're more than likely not getting any backup anytime soon since the chopper is focused primarily on you rather than anything else. You could only assume that that was a good thing since there were lives at risk besides your own during this fight. You can taste the slight metal tang of blood on your tongue and you can feel the wind buffeting your hood behind your head. You can't feel your arms and legs right now, but that isn't important because you're still standing which means you can still move. And now, that's the only option you had in order to survive; 55%.
You collapse your staff and open your wings to propel yourself forward towards Nomu, planting the other end of your staff in his throat to make him choke before he can spit out another explosive ball of gas. The price of your move was life-threatening when an expanse of knuckles shattered some of your ribs in an uppercut that ripped the oxygen from your body. You fell to your knees and choked on the surge of blood that formed in your throat and slipped from the corners of your lips. Your life was hanging in the balance when your body's stockpile kicked into overdrive; 70%. The sound of Nomu stomping up to your body curled into a fetal position is muffled by the sound of blood rushing in your ears. "Disengage!"
You're back to 5% stockpile due to using that move, but it was worth it when it sent Nomu flying fifty feet away from you. You had tunnel vision when you scrambled to your feet, clutching at your stomach as it felt like knives were ripping through your insides. The faint ringing of the helicopter alerted you to your surroundings again, and the pain disappeared. Nomu was flying right at the damn thing. Why did they have to videotape every single fucking hero fight? Didn't they ever realize they were at the possibility of getting in the way? You didn't have to think twice before your arm lifted and you swiped it through the air. You were only able to grab Nomu for half of a breath with your telekinesis to redirect him away from the news crew hovering in the air. Your body screamed in protest after the maneuver. You have definitely overdone it now. The thick expanse of Nomu's shoulder missed the helicopter by inches. You gave a short sigh of relief when you watched it back further away from your fight scene, but that relief was quickly replaced by terror when you realized why it had moved away, to focus on the monster.
Nomu had recovered pretty quickly. He ended his unplanned flight by landing on another roof, his bare toes and bloody fingers digging into the coarse footing to halt his inertia. He crouched low for a minute before proceeding to run back in your direction on all fours. It was like watching a nightmare run at you while you were asleep, unable to scream or move. Your wings opened without your consent to get you out of his way so you at least wouldn't take a direct hit. To your horror, you couldn't do anything but watch and mouth the word 'no' to nobody but yourself when he used the news helicopter as a launch pad.
He sprang off of the opposite rooftop with no issue, stretching his arms out and grabbing ahold of one of the legs to swing it off balance. You could faintly hear the crew inside scream when he reached up and grabbed the moving propeller with no issue, halting it in its tracks and letting it plummet towards the ground while placing his feet on either side of the open side door and crouching down.
All you could see when he jumped at you was the few heros on the street below, looking up at the helicopter in horror before your vision failed.
"Estrella?"
There's a voice. You've never heard it before in your life but for some reason it snaps you into focus and you can feel endorphins alongside adrenaline running through your body. You tilt your head to the side and have a brief flashback of when Katsuki Bakugo yelled at you to get off your ass back at training camp. But this time it wasn't that hotheaded Pomeranian. Instead it was a businessman and a few of his coworkers alongside him, all leaning over you.
You swallowed, trying to get rid of the heavy, dry feeling in your throat. You were in an office. There's a sharp, stinging sensation scattered across your back. You were more than likely tossed or body slammed through a window thanks to Nomu. "You..." you were surprised that you were able to talk. Your hands form into fists as you sit up. "Need to evacuate the building."
There's a presence behind you and you can feel a hand closing in on your back; it's another businessman who's trying to assist you. You aren't surprised when he recoils in shock due to the temperature of your wings. "You're bleeding." He says. "Can we help at all?"
You give a groan of frustration and drop your head to take a deep breath before tilting it back again. "You can...help..." You grit your teeth and struggle to your feet, body swaying side to side while you force your body to continue stockpiling again. "By evacuating like I told you to." You're unsure why but you can feel your mana piling faster than it had before, 45%. Perhaps it had something to do with you being surrounded by citizens that had yet to reach safety, but you couldn't think about that right now.
Not when Nomu pops his head through the broken window that he had created by throwing you through it and scouring the crowd of business workers you were surrounded by and you, trying to decide who to attack. His eyes suddenly focused on you and he stuck out his tongue mockingly before darting to the side, inside the building. His mouth is open to spit another star and you notice the businessman that said your name freeze in fright. You shove him to the side and take the blow. You barely had the time to activate Waxing Crescent to protect yourself from the blow before it catapulted you back out the window. It hurt like a bitch, but it did exactly what you wanted it to by focusing it's attention back on you.
Since you were flying through the air again, you were able to use that support tail you were gifted. As you felt yourself turn right side up again, you sighed. Where was your backup? You weren't Endeavour, you couldn't take this thing on alone, 15%. You had multiple cameras on you already so the pressure was on at this point. You noticed another news chopper getting too close for your comfort while Nomu approached your temporary midair safe haven. In order to ease your anxiety and reduce the risk of civilian fatalities, you took off again. Thankfully Nomu gave chase like you wanted. You could hear it laughing as he ran along the side of a building on all fours with an animalistic look on his face, tongue hanging out and flapping in the air as he destroyed buildings with his grip, 30%.
It didn't matter at all when you missed the sound of wind sucking into his throat before he vomited another star at you. Just like you predicted, it followed your every move. This weird power of his seemed oddly familiar but you didn't have the time to really think about it when he was using this ability to try and kill you. There was no way for you to avoid the impact with it since it resembled a heat-seeking missile. You seemed to be getting a lot of last-minute lightbulbs in the back of your brain during this time of crisis, 40%. Back at the training camp last summer your wings had been hit with fire but they didn't burn. This star wasn't all that different from then, was it? What if you took the hit from the star with your wings? Would that add on to your stockpile? The worst case scenario was that it would hurt you more than you already were, but what did you have to lose? The pros outweigh the cons so it was a risk worth taking.
The air behind you fizzled as the star closed in. You took a deep breath and let your wings collapse so you could dive down towards the ground. Thankfully the street below you was empty, so you weren't putting any lives at risk besides your own at this point. Just like you predicted, the star redirected its route towards you by hooking a wide arc downwards to line up to your face, 50%. In the back of your mind, you apologized to Keigo in case this suicidal idea you had didn't work out. You curled yourself into a ball and did a front flip, letting your wings take the blow when the star closed in on you. The explosion projected you to the side a bit but it didn't damage you too badly. You were able to spin yourself around to face Nomu again once you read your mana levels; 75%.
He launched at you from the side of a building. You dipped to the side so he misses when another surge of adrenaline floods your veins. You open your wings to push yourself further into the air when he catches himself on a building slightly below you. He screams in anger and leaps up to grab at you. When he's mid jump you collapse your wings and smash your feet into his back, forcing his body to smash into the street below you. He's stunned underneath you even though you didn't use any mana during that attack. You're at 85% when you use him as a springboard to shoot upward again. This was the last chance you had to take him out for good.
There was no point in trying to capture him alive. You wouldn't be able to without dying yourself. The only option you had was to kill him, and he didn't seem like he was willing to answer any questions if you had asked. You weren't even sure if he could speak, actually. Stop it, there's no time to think, only do. You didn't have enough mana stored to perform a complete Full Moon but you could maybe get a minute and a half before your time ran out. If this didn't do it, then you were done for. You wouldn't be able to keep going after stockpiling and depleting your mana so rapidly over a short period of time, even though you weren't sure how much time had actually passed.
Your body was reaching its limit and your vision was going in and out of focus the more you strained to keep yourself awake. Your injuries were catching up to you and there was a cut somewhere on your forehead that was causing blood to pool over one of your eyes, though you can't tell which one at this point thanks to your tunnel vision. You can faintly see Nomu standing up at this point below you, obviously dazed. He shakes his head in an attempt to regain his bearings, so you take another deep breath to steady your heart rate and focus on your next attack. You relax your wings and let your body fall, raising your arms while your feathers warp with the rush of air above your head to increase your aerodynamics. You miss the mutated creature by inches just like you had planned, your back facing his as time slowed to a stop while the gray circle that started underneath your feet expanded outwards.
The second that the circle reached its completed size, you felt your body begin to tilt backwards. The only reason you didn't hit the ground was because your shoulders hit the lower back of Nomu. The impact caused your skin to crawl and you jolted upwards again, body swaying slightly while you turned around to face him. He's right there. All you had to do was destroy him. But with what? How were you going to do that? You didn't think you'd get this far in the first place, actually. You didn't have much time, and you'd wasted enough of it already by staring at Nomu instead of doing something about him. You had to think quickly, so you began to scan your surroundings. There had to be something here for you to help yourself.
Your tired eyes locked onto the unfamiliar figures of some local pro-heros on the outskirts of your circle of warped time. They were stunned by what was happening inside your small quirk-powered zone but they were snapped back into focus when you locked eyes with the one closest to you. "He's frozen...for an indeterminate amount of time. I could...use a hand." The words were hard to say, like you hadn't spoken for the last two decades of your life.
You would never remember what happened after you said that sentence. All you could picture was a flash of color returning to your vision, signaling that time was returning to its original passage before a large, muscular forearm slammed into the side of your already broken rib cage and into a brick wall for the final time.
In an unknown location, a heavy door was kicked open hard enough that splinters took flight as it bounced off the wall it was attached to, the hinges groaning in protest at the force used to open it. Without hesitating, it takes half a breath to be on the other side of the room, a deadly sharp vermillion feather pressed to the pale flesh lined with stitches.
"You were supposed to send that High-End after Endeavour. Not my fucking wife."
The other man leaned back in his seat with a cocky grin on his face. He's obviously unphased by the weapon pressed against his Adam's apple. He swallows, enjoying the slight cut the feather gave to his throat.
"Do it. Blow away your cover and throw away your wife's life and the mission you've gambled everything on. You should've known better than to get married when you're playing both sides of the coin, Takami." He leans into the blade with a sadistic smile and a soft hum.
"Besides, don't you think she enjoyed reuniting with her father after all those years?"
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words; 4360
thanks for reading!
sorry for the lack of updates throughout the holidays, I hope this chapter makes up for it!