Apparently me and NightEye have synced brains, because the both of us start to run again, out the exposed space and out into a different hallway.
When we come to the end of the hall, we hear a little kid gasp, scrambling onto their feet, and then we hear a thud accompanied by another round of tears.
I turn a sharp corner down the hall, slowing to a walk so I don't scare her. "Hey, Eri. I'm not here to hurt you—I'm here to get you out of here."
"No."
What? I stumble over air, taken aback by the sudden rejection given her situation. Did she just say...no?
I take steps forward again, cautiously getting closer to her. "Why don't you want to leave here?"
Eri looks away, her hand gripping her bandaged arm tightly. "Because...he's going to hurt you."
That son of a bitch. "Look, I won't let anyone get hurt, okay? I'll get you out of here and then you can have all the fun you want. Don't you want to see the green haired hero again?"
Eri's eyes light up, then go back to being gloomy. "He already beat up a hero...she got hurt because of m—me."
I pull her into a tight embrace with a calm expression plastered on my face, but my mind was anything but calm. "Hey, Eri, sweetie? Do you think you can tell me where you came from?"
"That way," Eri points down the hall, at the path to the left. "That was where I was running from."
I get up, walking over to NightEye. "Thank you, Eri. Can you go with him for a little bit? I need to go help the hero—"
"No—no, no, no..! He'll get you!" My heart aches when I see tears spilling out the little girls eyes. What girls her age should have to give up their lives for the sake of others?
I pry her grip from my suit, my smile not going away. "Look at me Eri. Nothing's going to happen to me, okay? I'll come back—I promise."
Eri looks at me skeptically, not wanting me to go, but also letting me place her in NightEye's arms. "O—okay...if you promise me you'll come back..!"
My smile gets bigger. "Of course, anything for you Eri." I reluctantly let go of the little girl, part of me wanting to just comfort her.
But I shake my head of the selfish thought and start to make my way towards the designated area, mentally preparing myself for what I'm about to see.
When I dance around the large chunks of rubble, I see Incognito sluggishly dodging never ending blows from a deformed looking Chisaki.
"Incognito!" I jump towards her and haul her arm over my shoulder, moving out the way before Chisaki could get her.
Incognito looks at me, her brain not registering my presence. "Y/n? How did you get here?"
"Eri told me where you were," I pause for a short second, dodging another attack. "NightEye has her."
Incognito huffs in relief, quickly back to her own two feet. "Thank god she's safe."
"Let's take him down together?" I ask, already knowing the answer to my question.
"This isn't the time to be catching up..!" Chisaki lunges in between us, separating the both of us.
"Shit..." I going to Incognito but with no luck, seeing that she's on the other side of the massive room.
Chisaki let's out a skin crawling laughter, sending actual chills down my spine. "You're going to pay for causing these hives."
Clean freak. Just when I say that, a huge boulder like piece of ground comes flying at me, almost as if he can read my mind.
Chisaki uses his hand to disrupt the ground, all the debris and newly made debris varying in size come flying all over the place, maiming it hard to see.
"Where did you hide that little brat." Chisaki demands, his anger rising tenfold each second we delay.
I get into stance again, my eyes narrowed at the man. "It's none of your concern where Eri is and isn't."
"Your concern here is us!" Both me and Incognito jump up in the air, synchronized, our fist pulled back.
Chisaki dodges both our punches, jumping just a split second out of our grasps and onto the other side, leaving the both of us to barely catch ourselves before we crashed onto the ground.
"Okay, how are we gonna do this?" Incognito asks, looking back and forth from Chisaki to me.
I study him, irritation rising when I see that he's one of the calmest villains currently in battle that I've ever seen.
I take a deep, but quick breath, knowing that me being angry won't solve anything, or help us win this battle any faster.
I face Incognito, who looks me in the eyes. "Okay—this might be a stretch—but it's all I can think to do."
"Fire away." Incognito says, still eyeing Chisaki.
I nod my head, pushing down all the nerves that decided now was the best time to react. "I need you to act as a decoy for me."
Incognito retracts in her steps, looking back at me. "What do you mean?"
I lean closer towards her, also staring at the still ever so calm Chisaki. "We'll both crawl to either sides of him, then I need you to lunge at him—but—you're not actually going to—just making him think that, so that I can make my move."
"Okay." we nod at each other one last time, the both of us dropping down and staying still for a moment, making sure he's not onto something before we play out my plan.
With a bit of unnerving silence, I finally signal Incognito to start the plan by throwing a pebble at the rock next to me, creating a noise, to my surprise she heard it and managed to react as fast as lighting.
"Where's your little friend? Too scared to commit to your job?" Chisaki snickers at his own remark, prickling my skin.
I finally jump out of my hiding spot and retract my fist behind my head once again, my arm going as far back as my joints would allow it to. "I'm not going anywhere!"
And when both of us are in the air, both of us sure we've got him right where he's standing, both of us positive that we'll land a blow since he's not moving, he proves us very wrong.
"Pathetic," Chisaki slips past the space in between the both of us, his body facing our backs. The both of us completely defenseless. My eyes widen when I look back, seeing the smug look plastered on his face.
Chisaki lifts his leg and hurls Incognito across the room, her body hitting the tips of what's left of the unearthed ground, crashing into the wall. "Honestly, do heroes try anymore?"
"Chisaki!" I harshly land on the ground, taking a second before I jumped back up and tried to swing my leg at him, aiming for his face, but when I do, he blocks it and stares at me.
Chisaki's face is emotionless, then, without hesitation, he grabs me by the ankle and tosses me, kicking me in the side and into a pile of debris, my ribs smacking against a fat edge of one of them, winding me in the process as I spit up blood.
"Are you really surprised that your plan didn't work?" Chisaki takes in the both of our conditions, shrugging his shoulders at us. "I mean, come on—all you did was slightly switch up your original attack."
I stretch my neck as far as it could go, seeing Incognito struggle to even lift up her head. "You're not getting away—ack...!" When I try getting up, a sharp pain erupts from my ribs, leaving me unable to get up with immense pain. Damnit. My ribs are cracked.
Chisaki laughs at me, making me angrier. "And what are you going to do about it? Stop me? Your friend can't even move her head one inch above the wall she's relying on for support, and you can't even stand up."
Chisaki hops off one of the debris and onto the ground, waving at the both of us. "Since you two don't seem to be going anywhere, I'll be excusing myself now."
"No—"
"Not on my watch!"
I whip my head towards the source of the voice, wincing when a sharp pain erupts from my neck and pounding head. When my eyes adjust from the sudden whiplash I gave myself, I see a familiar lean figure in the doorway—or—what was a doorway.
"NightEye!" I shout out, outstretching my arm in his direction. "Where's Eri!"
"She's with Aizawa and a few others," NightEye answers, not his gaze off of Chisaki. "Can you two move?"
Despite the pain, I suck it up and force myself to stand, nearly falling down when I feel like my body will become a punctured mess if I make one wrong move, my ribs feeling as if they're the ones threatening to do just that.
"Yeah—coughs—I can manage," I trudge over towards Incognito, who's slowly getting herself up out of the wall-comforter Chisaki had made for her earlier. "You good, Incognito?"
Incognito stifles a cough, a red tint escaping the inner part of her lips. "Y—yeah. I should be."
"Okay, let's do this then!" NightEye shouted, the sternness in his voice and Eri giving the both of us new and profound strength.
"Yes, sir!"