Drifting my eyes towards the voice, I saw a familiar vigilante standing behind a stall. He wore a tengai and hakama bottoms per usual but interestingly, he wasn't wearing his usual vigilante outfit; he wore a white tank top instead. Well, it wasn't really white anymore; it was covered in sweat and mud stains. His boots were nowhere to be seen and replacing them were flimsy flip flops. In his hands was a long fishing wire.
"Masterbaiter!" Strawberry Shades exclaimed with glee.
"Oh. It's just Strawshitty Shades, and the little squirt," he remarked. He loosened up his stance. The string that was wrapped around his comrade's wrist untangled on its own, zipping back to Masterbaiter's fingertips where it shortened to the length of a shoelace.
"Did you really have to set out a tripwire?" I asked, getting up from the ground.
"I gotta watch out for those damn Crimson villains," Masterbaiter defended.
"Crimson villains? What do you mean by that?" Fuyumi asked.
Masterbaiter let out a sigh. "That's what I thought. The public knows nothing about them. I don't get why the media doesn't say anything about it. I'm telling you, you can't trust the government. I bet they're hiding the true origins of where Quirks came from!"
Masterbaiter began to go on a tangent about government conspiracies. The rest of us stood there awkwardly. Seeing that he wasn't going to explain who Crimson Eclipse was anytime soon, I took the liberty to do so.
"Oh my gosh... That's horrible..." Fuyumi gasped. "So, those people want to get rid of people with weak Quirks?"
"Exactly!" a female voice exclaimed. Turning around, I saw a group of Crimson grunts. There were five of them. Standing in the middle was a tall woman. Her outfit was nearly the same as the others except that she had a band with a crescent moon on her arm. Sensing their presence, the two heroes immediately went on guard. Pushing the rest of us behind them, they stood in front.
The woman's eyes peered over, giving me a smile. Despite the friendliness of it, Akira's eyes said a different story. "What a coincidence. It's you," she remarked, her voice reeking of venom.
Seeing my lack of reaction, the smile faltered from her lips. Nervously, Midoriya asked me if I knew her. Masterbaiter scoffed in response, the wire in his hand increasing.
"It doesn't matter if she knows her or not. This lady is just some butthurt villain who can't get over that a middle-schooler told her a little white lie!"
Akira's face contorted into a rage. Holding her hand out, she order her lackeys to attack. All the villains rushed in at once. Immediately, Masterbaiter told us to run. He and Strawberry Shades charged toward them. Meanwhile, Midoriya, Fuyumi, and I sprinted away.
"What are you doing?! Get them too!" I heard Akira scream.
I heard footsteps follow quickly after. Hearing that, Fuyumi sped up. Since she sped up, Midoriya panicked and went faster too. I tried to to do the same, but my yukata was restricting my movement so I couldn't run as fast either. Not to mention, my feet were beginning to grow even sorer than before. Especially since we were back on the main road, there was a lot of junk people dropped. I stepped on corndog sticks, straws, toothpicks, and random condiment concoctions. I ended up trailing behind.
"I gotcha!" I heard a villain behind me sneer. Glancing behind, I saw a villain with the face of a lion lunge toward me. Thinking fast, I ducked to the side. The villain lunged toward the ground and tumbled down.
"Onishi!" Midoriya exclaimed. He scrambled to grab my arms and pulled me up. As he did, I felt the villain's bushy hands wrap around my ankles.
"Where do you think you're going, girlie?!" he roared. His sharp nails dug into my bare skin, making me wince.
"Wah! Onishi!" Midoriya shrieked. He tried to pull me away, but that only made the nails in my skin dig deeper.
Letting out a grunt, I kicked the villain in the face with my other foot. Doing so made him claw my ankle which felt like a papercut but 5x worse. Hitting him right in the eye, he let out a howl. His grip loosened, and I untangled from his grasp.
"Go away, you freak!" Fuyumi yelled from behind. With the large wooden spoon that she grabbed from the fried noodle stall nearby, she smashed it into his face. She continued doing so while the villain yelped in pain. He even surrendered but she ignored him. After her 10th hit, the spoon clattered onto the ground. The villain laid there with several bruises on his face with his nose was bleeding. There was foam at the corner of his lips. He was knocked out, cold.
I slowly turned to Fuyumi. She was sweating so much that her glasses were beginning to slip off her nose.
"Uh... Thanks."
She tiredly pushed her lenses up. "O-of course. L-let's get out of here. The entrance should be close by."
We continued running down the road. Surprisingly, we were the only ones in the area. It must've been because everyone evacuated already...or they got captured.
Gazing at the sky, I saw that the yellow force field was halfway complete. I hope that the heroes were trying to find the one creating the shield. They really should hurry, because the situation here is getting even worse. Also, where are the reinforcements? Backup needs to get here!
I wasn't watching where I was going and ended up crashing into Midoriya's back when I turned the corner. I was about to ask why he stopped when he placed his hand on my mouth. He held his finger to his lips. Fuyumi pointed in front of us.
Blocking the path were tumbled over stalls, piled upon each other like a wall. Some of them looked like they were burnt because the wood was colored black. I couldn't tell if this was the aftermath of a battle or villains intentionally blocked it. Walking amidst the flames was a Crimson grunt. Her sleeves were torn probably due to battle. She talking with someone with her earpiece but we couldn't hear what she was saying.
"We...We're going to have to sneak by going through the stalls," Fuyumi whispered. She pointed at the stalls that were still intact on the right.
Midoriya gulped nervously. Peering over at my bleeding ankle, he asked me if I was going to be okay. I lied and said I was fine that it was just a scratch. He wasn't convinced.
"I-If the villain notices us... I'll distract her."
Fuyumi immediately shot him down. "You can't!" she exclaimed. She placed a hand on her chest. "I'll do it!"
Midoriya shook his head. He reminded her that her arm was injured. Meanwhile, I had a bleeding gash on my calf. He was the only healthy one out of all of us, so he should be the one distracting the villain if she were to see us. Hearing that, Fuyumi gritted her teeth in frustration.
"I...I think it's unlikely that she'll spot us," I quietly said, trying to lift the heavy mood. "We'll be fine."
"We have to climb that blockade, though," Fuyumi reminded. "There's no way we're going to climb it in time. She'll notice us, for sure."
I bit my lip. I knew that we couldn't do anything. Midoriya was gonna have to be the distraction.
Midoriya went first. Tiptoeing to the nearest stall, he successfully made it. Next was Fuyumi. Walking cautiously, she kept darting her eyes at the villain who was busy talking into her earpiece. She was so nervous that she was shaking. Even so, she was able to slip behind the abandoned fried chicken stall. Then, Midoriya beckoned me to come over.
I took a deep breath. My bare toes gently touched the pavement, the bottom of my foot turning into an even deeper shade of black. I felt blood trickle down my ankle the more I tiptoed, and I had to bite my lip to stop my labored breathing. Luckily, I sneaked over without anything happening. Kneeling down behind the stall, Midoriya and Fuyumi let out a quiet sigh of relief.
One stall down. Six more to go.
We were able to make it with relative ease. On the way to the sixth stall, I had to stop Fuyumi from crossing. We all held our breaths as the Crimson villain walked by our stalls. I overheard her conversation.
"Do I really have to guard the place? There's no one here. The shield is almost done too."
Fuyumi's shaking hands were covering her mouth. Midoriya, who was hiding in the stall across from us, had wide eyes. His lips were upturned and sweat was rolling off his face.
"I mean, I don't see those three people anyway. I bet they got lost or something."
Her heels clicked down the road. Hearing that she was away, Midoriya motioned Fuyumi to cross. When Fuyumi crossed, I suddenly heard her heels come our way. Peeking over the stall, I spotted the villain walking back. By now, it was too late for Fuyumi to return. She had no choice but to dash ahead. In her panic, her foot kicked some stray wood on the ground. She skidded under the stall with Midoriya just as it scratched the ground.
"Hold on, I think something fell."
The villain's footsteps sauntered over to the stall Midoriya and Fuyumi were hiding. They were sweating so much that they could fill a bathtub. I watched as she inched closer and closer to them knowing that at this rate, they're gonna get caught. My heartbeat quickened as I scrambled for a solution.
It can't end like this. We, they didn't come all this way for nothing!
I searched underneath the stall for something I could throw. Fixating on a spatula, I picked it up and flung it in the opposite direction. It clattered loudly on the ground which caught her attention. Slowly and surely, she made her way over to the noise. I quickly scurried over to the others. We didn't say anything to each other and just stared; we all silently agreed that it was a close one.
Midoriya whispered to Fuyumi to go first. She was going to need more time to climb the blockade since her arm was injured. I was to go after her and Midoriya was last, as planned. Even though we all agreed on it before, I couldn't help but feel guilty. During this whole time, Midoriya's been the one running out and helping. I haven't done anything. He should be the one going after Fuyumi, not me.
I wish I could do something helpful for once.
I felt a hand fall on my shoulder. Turning behind, Midoriya gave me a reassuring nod. Just seeing how dead-set he was with being the decoy made me feel even worse, and I looked away from him in shame. He must've mistaken my guilt as fear because he said to me, "It's okay, Onishi. You'll get out of here."
How about you? Aren't you going to get out too?
Because of my little distraction earlier, the villain was a good distance away from us, about ten feet, and that gave us more time to climb the wreckage. Fuyumi went first. Her trembling fingers grabbed onto the broken wood as she lifted her legs up and pushed her body up. We watched as she climbed higher and higher. She was nearly at the top now.
Fuyumi gazed to me, signaling that it was my turn. When I stood up, I heard the villain speak from afar.
"Hold up, I think I see something," she said. "...There's a trail of blood."
Crap! It must've been from my ankle wound!
My heart began to pound as her footsteps began to approach us. Midoriya, who had crept up to my side, gave me a solemn look. His eyes screamed "fear" but I knew that he wasn't going to give into it; he was preparing to distract her. He knew that I could tell he was afraid, so he gave me a nervous smile. Or maybe, he knew that I was afraid.
We're going to be found out. And it's all my fault.
"Midoriya..." I softly said. "I'm sorry."
Jumping up from my hiding spot, the villain immediately noticed me. She went into a battle position. Her arms suddenly became long and stretchy.
"I knew it!" she exclaimed with fire in her eyes.
"Go!" I cried to Midoriya.
"I can't--"
Pulling Midoriya up from the ground, I shoved him toward the blockade. I know he was crushed seeing that I was taking his place, but I didn't care. Locking eyes, my entire body stiffened. The look on his face suddenly made me realize the severity of the situation. Whoever was gonna face that villain was probably never going to come back. I almost wanted to abandon my plan and run away but I couldn't; I needed to repay him for saving us, for saving me. And most of all, I needed to find Hiro.
The glow in his eyes when the parade started flashed in my head. Just seeing the inspiration in his eyes and how happy he looked... I knew that he needed to live. He had a goal, a dream, something that he wanted to do. He had to make it out, no matter what.
"Just...go. Please."
His eyes pricked with tears as a mixture of blood, sweat, and snot dripped from his nose. Giving me a harsh nod, he sprinted toward the blockade. Fuyumi, who was at the top, outstretched her arm out to him.
"That's not gonna do anything, idiot! I'm catching him right after I'm done with you!" the Crimson grunt bellowed.
Picking up a broken wood plank, I charged at her. I attempted to hit her with it, but her long fingers caught onto it. I kicked her in the knee as hard as I could. She screeched and threw me onto the ground. She began going after Midoriya as my heart sped up.
I can't let him get caught. He can't! I grimaced in pain and got up from the floor. My calf hurt like hell, but it couldn't end like this. I shakily ran over to the villain who was at the blockade. She was trying to grab onto Midoriya's legs while he scrambled up.
"Don't!" I exclaimed. I pathetically pulled on her latex jacket. Before she could shove me off, I grabbed the white flower hairpin that was in my hair. Pulling it out, I jabbed it into her shoulder.
She cursed. Using her other hand, her arm extended and her fingers wrapped around my arm. It pulled me down on the ground with her hand pushing my chin down. Grabbing Midoriya's ankle, he let out a shriek. Meanwhile, Fuyumi was trying her best to pull Midoriya up, but it was hard doing that with an injured arm and a villain trying to attack. I helplessly flailed my arms to try to get her off, watching as the two of them struggled to loosen the villain's grasp.
What was I thinking? I can't do anything. I'm not a hero. I'm worthless. I couldn't even distract her.
"I-I'm slipping!" Fuyumi exclaimed, red-faced. Her grip on his hands was beginning to grow weaker.
Midoriya's eyes darted at me. Given the circumstances and just by seeing that look on his face, I knew what he was going to do. No. He can't let go. I didn't do this for nothing.
I saw frost coming from Fuyumi's fingertips. Since Midoriya was directly holding hands with her, frost formed on his body. However, it began to form on the villain's hands too. Right as it did so, Fuyumi let out a cry and heaved Midoriya up. That made the villain lose her grip on them.
"Damn it!" she cursed in rage. "It's not over yet!"
She extended her arm out, and her palms zipped right toward Midoriya again. His eyes grew wide in fear, because he knew there was no way he was going to evade that.
I suddenly felt a prickly sensation in my bleeding ankle. It started shaking uncontrollably, and I swore I was having a panic attack. It felt like all my blood was beginning to pool and I started getting warm, really warm. The tingling began to travel up the right side of my body and continued coursing through my veins. When it reached my hand, it was like I had no control over them.
I acted on instinct. Pulling my arm that was trapped underneath my body, I stretched my fingers out to him.
It's okay, Midoriya. You'll get out of here.
My hand curled into a fist. When they did, the villain's hand that was heading straight toward Midoriya suddenly jerked to the left, completely missing him. Her hand jerked so hard that she lost her footing and stumbled down. That gave time for Midoriya to reach the top of the wreckage. Before disappearing, he gave me a tearful look.
"Onishi!" he screamed hoarsely. "I'll get help! I promise!"
A tear slipped down his cheek as he jumped over the wreckage with Fuyumi and disappeared.