Sticky Situation 2
The goo mutants fuse themselves together into a bulkier and more menacing form, a more combat-ready shape compared to their leaner one. ‘Did you guys adapt or could you always do that?’
Both options are atrocious. On one hand, they can adapt on the fly, and on the other, they may have more tricks hidden under their sleeves. Orochi can’t decide which option is the worse of the two.
The other slime mutants left pick the cores of their defeated comrades and add to their bodies, bulking up like the one that attacked her and knocked her away. Orochi grinds his teeth in annoyance. Her hydra heads move to maintain an omnidirectional view, almost without a gap.
From the outer edges of her view, more mutants are appearing, gathering around her. She doesn’t know if they are doing it because she is being a nuisance to them or because they are coming from somewhere nearby.
‘Doesn’t matter. I will buy as much time as I can before pros can arrive.’ They chose the wrong enemy to face. She won’t lose in a war of attrition, not against them. The revving ringing in her ears drowns the outside sounds, forcing an unwilling Orochi to focus on the fight at hand.
Her arms are shaking, her slitted pupils trembling, and the smell of metal infiltrating her nostrils. She is scared once again—once again without an option to run away. She has to fight; monsters are coming from left and right, front and back. She is surrounded.
Cold sweat goes down like bullets, drenching her shirt despite the cold autumn day. Orochi’s breath started to catch, her throat clenching at the daunting task at hand. ‘Will I fail again, or can I make them proud, be strong?’
Make her family proud after her failure and lack of strength to protect others. She knows well this type of thinking is toxic and counter-intuitive, but she cannot do anything but think that way, the illusions deluding her senses, making the parallels of now and before too clear for her to forget and cast them away.
Baring her teeth, Orochi accepts the challenge, the bulky mutants “sprinting” at her, in a strange mix between sliding and becoming rock solid for a few seconds before softening and sliding.
The light of day reflects on black and purple eyes, gleaming them in red as the sun shines brightly. Kicking the ground, Orochi advances, her claws razor sharp and ready to demolish the slimes.
It is less than a temporary solution; they can heal themselves before she can deal with all of their cores, and she isn’t willing to risk destroying said cores; it may kill them. In the end, all she is doing is buying a little time for others to run or get help.
She puts her shoulder forward and rushes towards the first bulk mutant, acting as a human battering ram against it. In a second, they collide at full strength, a loud crack echoes, but not from Orochi.
Despite its bulk, it still is a slime and a non-Newtonian fluid at the end of the day. Orochi would never allow herself to be surpassed by it. The body of the slime nears collapse, the cores inside of it working on overdrive to reform its mass, but it fails to account for the enemy close to it.
Hydra heads raise themselves and pummel forward, hitting the slime at full blast, forcing more of its mass to solidify and chip away with each attack. Orochi doesn’t stop either, punching the body of the bulk slime relentlessly, effectively destroying it in a few seconds; her hands and heads reduce the slime to dust, the cores left unprotected.
“Scatter!” Instead of a punch, she opens her palm and hits the overall area of the cores. Her open paw covered more area, using the solidifying nature of the fluid to hit all of them at once, the slime behind them acting as a spider web to keep the cores together.
Like cannonballs flying, the cores are expelled flying to the wind because of her blow, and the goo collapses to the ground, but this doesn’t stop the other mutants from closing in.
Having learned of their friend’s mistake, or always capable of that, they chose not to close the distance against Orochi. One launches its arms forward, comically extending them like a certain rubber person, yet large claws form on the mutant’s hands.
It doesn’t plan to commit the same mistake of facing her head-on, so it will try to slash at her body from afar. The other slime doesn’t wait for its chance either, but instead of extending its arms, spikes form from the front of its body like bolts propelled by a crossbow.
Orochi forces her pulse, feeling the danger behind her back coming closer, and the ones before her attacking at once. ‘The siege is closing in.’ She jumps to the side and starts running towards the one mutant launching solidified slime spikes against her.
It is the most dangerous one when taking into account collateral damage and danger to civilians. It needs to be dealt with immediately. However, the clawed arms of the other bulk slime change directions suddenly, instead of its end moving away, it sucks the liquid inward and sprouts the arm from another direction better suited to chase Orochi.
With surprising speed, the arms grab her, claws holding tight to her clothes and body, solidified and hard, trying to make a cut through her skin and flesh, or simply crush her. Orochi grinds her teeth, grabbing the claws by their “wrists”, and simply applying strength to the liquid, forcing it to solidify and be crushed under her grasp.
The claw undoes itself for the lack of connection to the rest of the slime for a few seconds, giving Orochi room to start running towards the spike slime, but the second the clawed slime brought was more than enough for the long-ranged attacker to capitalize on.
Slime spikes hit her body, but all they do is slash across the outer layers of her skin, leaving blood gashes that heal themselves in a second, flesh mending and sewing itself together faster than eyes can see.
It is by no means a chainsaw, or that destructive for a mutant like her, but it could still impale and kill a person if it connected to them. The smell of iron grows stronger in her nostrils, a pulsation in her head and eyes, her head hurting for a moment. ‘They can kill people too.’
A hero can be hurt like the one she found outside the arcade. A person can die because of the wound or blood loss, and the slimes are acidic; it can do more than just stab a person. Her mind flashes red, thoughts focusing on ending it here and now.
It is dangerous, too dangerous to be left alive, yet it can also be a person. She can’t kill it even if it represents a danger to another’s life; her muscles, her mind scream for Orochi’s body to react, for her soul to unleash its strength and crush the threat to innocent lives really and now.
But her sense of duty binds her hands; her morals hold back the strength and violence needed to crush the core. “I can’t do it.” Razor-sharp teeth grind against each other; her soul binds the violent urge inside her brain. Instead, Orochi runs towards the goo mutant, doing what she would do at first: defeat it and delay its reformation as far as she can.
It notices that its target hasn’t slowed down, so it turns away to flee the scene before she can reach it, but it is far too late. Orochi leaps in the air, locating herself above the spike slime. Before it can run away, Orochi slams to the ground, crushing its body and launching the bodies out of its body like gel bullets go out of a toy gun.
She looks to her back, the bulk clawed slime there, as more goo mutants join the cloud and fuse, making more of the bulky and special mutants. Her middle hydra head looks back; a blue horde is there behind her.
Left and right are no better; even if she took out two mutants, she is surrounded by them. “Bring it on, you bastards.” Her heart was pounding loudly, a queasy feeling in every fiber of her body, anticipation settling in.
She is scared, but she won’t turn on her hydra heads and run.
Unbeknownst to Orochi, her phone rings one or two streets back with the call from someone.
“Hey, boss! Something is happening in your area! Rui and Sasha are kinda busy, so I’m coming!”
No one is there to hear the message.
(Scene break)
Orochi was becoming annoyed and mentally exhausted from the ongoing fight. Her clothes were in tatters, another one of her hoodies destroyed by a villain attack, and there was nothing she could do about it.
‘After this, I will need to go shopping for new clothes.’ This was not the only problem; the once-blue sky had turned grey, and dark clouds were starting to loom over her too. Besides the slimes' stubborn persistence.
The enemies seemed infinite; she defeated one, and it would reform some minutes later, and their quantity was a problem.
She couldn’t keep downing them fast enough to dissipate the crowd. “Why can’t you guys cooperate and act like decent members of society?” Orochi bit back a chuckle at that remark, someone with her past saying something like that.
Even if she wasn’t a delinquent in the past, her early years were spent inside the Atsushi estate, not having enough socialization as a little brat. ‘I guess the idea of sending me to interact with people outside the estate was mom’s. Teach me how to socialize or something.’
The hydra girl stared at the crowd of goo mutants; they were all standing still, waiting for a chance to go at her without being ripped apart. After getting beaten for the last hour, they had learned not to attack her recklessly.
One slime shot spikes at her. The crowd took this chance to rush at her all at once. Orochi gritted her teeth, waiting to break through the dogpile—
“I’m Lightning the rain transformed.”
From the top of a store, long and bright red hair blowing in the wind. A familiar face wearing a cap with a big and fluffy white ball on the top of it. A jacket with a net shirt beneath it, hearing pants with one leg cut off, and a skirt.
A rebel’s look, and the favorite attire of her old friend. “Umi!”
“And it will come! Like a flood of pain!”
From the building she jumped, unsheathing her sword. A bluish blade turned bright red as lightning of the same color was infused into it. A large smile slashed across the redhead’s lips.
She fell into the horde of slimes, a red blade cutting across them wildly, instantly solidifying the goo composing their bodies before exploding it with red energy. One hit was all it took for the slimes to fall.
Their cores and bodies were cut by the sword’s edgy and energy. Like a crimson electric current running down a circuit, the redhead flashed through the horde going in a straight line towards Orochi.
She cleaved a path with red and destroyed slimes as she did so. In a couple of seconds, she had reached Orochi already, a glistening red blade thrusting forward to meet the core of a slime. “Halt, Umi!”
Orochi grabbed the hand of Umi, stopping the blade in its track, while one of her hydra heads headbutted the core out of the slime. “They may be people! Mutants! You can’t just go around killing them willy-nilly!”
The hydra girl chastised her friend, showing her teeth as anger started to bubble up. This was one of the problems. The Atsushi’s heart beat with adrenaline and cold sweat. Not only did she attempt killing, but may have succeeded in a few of those.
But she was using her quirk, vigilantism, and a bloody sword! Orochi's blood pressure rose, and a few veins jumped on her arm. “And? Orochi! Those guys are everywhere around here! They are attacking everyone! If you haven’t noticed, if you aren’t here, they would be causing destruction and hurting people.”
The redhead freed her hand from Orochi’s grasp, as the taller girl gave a dead cold stare to her friend, who merely spun the blade. “Besides, well, I’m going to be a little racist but I doubt those things are human in the first place. They don’t speak or do anything; I saw quite a few on my way here. They just attack and cause mindless destruction.”
All kinds of sensations assaulted Orochi, worry for her friend’s antics, the fact she still is a vigilante, and the fact she killed them so easily and without hesitation. Fear for what may happen to her if the authorities get hold of what happened here.
Orochi’s stomach turned in so many knots that it may as well become a black hole, an endless pit of worry sickness, and fear. “You should’ve left this path two years ago. After what my mother did… I hoped all of you would turn a new page and leave better, normal lives.”
She wouldn’t question her friend, not now. ‘She is right about this. I can only take their attention for so long before they lose interest if they go loose…’ Things will become bad. ‘It doesn’t mean I have to agree with her, but…’
Orochi half closes her eyes, the fact she is not condoning her further means she doesn’t disagree with her actions deep down. This fact leaves a bitter taste in her mouth and a million thoughts of confusion in her head.
“This, what happened to ya? Back then you would be pummeling those folks into the ground and cleaning your hands. Mate, what that bloody school is teaching you? How to be a wussy?” The redhead scowls, positioning herself back to back with her former leader.
“Watch your mouth.” The hydra girl hisses, while Umi softly laughs, taking amusement in her friend’s words.
“See? You are barking but not biting. Watch my mouth? Girl, you are letting a bunch of amebas hold you back. How do you plan to keep my mouth shut, huh?” Umi channels more energy into her blade, making it crackle with red energy. “I will talk to ya after we clean this sludge.”
“Besides, the news is saying heroes are taking out this trash. We can go nuts on them.” Orochi doesn’t believe a word of what she said, not after that show.
“You still have no answer to me why you didn’t turn a new page.” Her three hydra heads seem ecstatic upon seeing the redhead, trying to ignore Orochi’s command to lick the newcomer, but the hydra girl’s control stops them from doing so.
“Serious? A new page after everything SHE had done to us? We had to pick so many things to pick up; we had a good chunk of Kyoto’s gangs’ balls in our grasp. We could’ve grown big enough to challenge the top dogs given a few years.”
Umi doesn’t show restraint in showing her displeasure towards her former boss’ mother and what her actions caused to their gang. Even without seeing her face, and willingly not using her hydra head senses to get a sneak peek, Orochi can feel the seething from her friend.
The boiling anger. “We took two years to go back to where we were before she ruined us. So no, boss. I won’t turn a new leaf until we do what we started off to do when we made our gang. Rid Kyoto from pesky criminals and petty villains in a way those pansy heroes never would do.”
Orochi bites her lip in annoyance, feeling her own anger bubble up at Umi’s words, her hands shaking. “We WILL talk after we are done with this.” Her mouth tastes like the most bitter of cloves, but she has to defeat those villains.
Meanwhile, her long-time friend smiles wide, her arms and legs trembling with excitement, lightning sparking from her eyes and sword, mixing with the vibrant red of her hair. Bitterness over the past repeating itself spreads over Orochi.
Umi tremors with excitement over the future yet unwritten, bringing an essential piece that was missing in her life— the one that brought the gang together, the one who went away while they gathered the pieces of their personal puzzle.
The monsters start their attack, and so do they. Like a beast unleashed, Orochi stops trying to resist the red in her mind. Her heart went as fast as a bullet train, the ringing in her ears disappearing, replaced by the frantic beating of her pulse.
Letting anger unleash against those creatures who take it, Orochi lets herself go out, enhanced by the anger, worry, and sorrow of seeing a friend back on a path that should’ve been forgotten. A path that only will lead to their ruin.
Hadn’t her mother taught them valuable lessons on why this is bad? She crushed them to the ground. Her whole body heated up to unhealthy degrees, her mind blanking and feeling lightweight as if high.
The pulsing of her every vein is clear to her at this very moment as she goes out in an angry fit. Her hydra heads follow after her, their void eyes seeing the enemies ahead not as prey but as oversized squishy toys they can rip apart.
Her tongue moved with relentless movements, her body feeling light but heavy as stone. Orochi can still move with posture and fluidity, but her anger feels like a blanket above her, pulling her down. Wrath making every cell of hers restless.
She doesn’t crush them to pieces with her hand; she rips them apart with her claws, digging through slime when not outright shredding the goo creatures in her way. She no longer cares if their core is destroyed or broken, having a new thing in her mind: “Talk” with Umi.
Pry answers herself for what she is doing as a vigilante and still a gang member. Those answers are hers to take as her former boss. The one who disbanded the Storm Lords.
Her tails headbutt and bite off the cores of the goo mutants before crushing them under their jaws. ‘I am always so weak. Couldn’t protect my friends from my mother, couldn’t see the troubles of my friends nor protect them, and the fate of those left at the gang didn’t change anyway!’
‘SO USELESS! SO USELESS! SO USELESS! USELESS!’ Like in a fever, Orochi's body starts to release steam, heating up like a furnace in anger, veins jumping across her face, baring her teeth to the world, ready to take on it.
Sadly, the world doesn’t care, so all that can and will take the brunt of her anger and tantrums are the slimes.
(Scene break)
“What should I listen to? Those punks are not good enough to have anything memorable attached to them, but this is the first time I have seen Orochi in two years.” With a wide smile, Umi licked her lips, thrust her sword through a bulk slime, and unleashed electricity through it.
In a red explosion of energy, the slime and cores are reduced to tiny bits, held by the solidified goo, which becomes liquid a few seconds after the impact. Changing her field of view for one second, the back of Orochi advancing like a beast is what she sees.
A force to be reckoned with, tearing the slime villains apart like how a demolition ball wrecks through a building.
Umi puts her headphones on. “Born for this.” The music starts, setting her mood for a fight. With a single slash, another slime falls, its core bisected. “I’m checking my vitals. Drawing my battle lines.”
With another slash, another slime falls. Her smile widened. “Going to war again. Feelin’ the rhythm inside of my chest.” Mimicking a lightning strike, Umi rushes the horde, her blade striking a red line across the horde, downing everything in its path with ease.
“All I need is just a pen. I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this.” From the other end of the horde, Orochi roars at the top of her lungs, the ground and goo shaking from the intensity of her roar.
So loud it pierces through the sound isolation of her headphones. ”Atta girl! That’s my boss!” Losing the next part of the lyrics, Umi just chooses to strike wildly until the next one appears. A slime tries to swing a punch at her, but she pierces through its arm using her blade and repeats using electricity to implode the thing.
Her clothes and skin are covered in goo. “Yuck!” With a disgusted face, Umi feels her anger flare, the mucous substance ruining her clothes and making small burns on her skin. “Damn slugs!” From her hands, a lightning spark forms. “Take that!”
The energy is released from her hand like a beam, piercing through the horde that becomes solid the moment the voltage hits them, destroying their bodies in an instant, dropping their cores to the ground.
With a strained smile, Umi tries to resume her singing: “We can be an army. We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain. We come from different places but have the same name.”
Her sword cuts through the horde, a daunting crimson blade annihilating everything in its way, as its wield laughs and sings in the middle of the battle. Crimson eyes as red as her blade, red hair blowing like a river of red, a tempestuous blade hungering for battle.
‘It feels like the good ‘ol times with you.’ Although she didn’t use a sword back then, nor was Orochi that violent, it wasn’t anything new to face a horde of delinquents on their lonesome. Sometimes Sasha and Rui were by their side too.
Umi's blood rushes to her head, the music in her ears a battle hymn. The body is eager to see this battle through, the nostalgic feelings of when she stood side by side with Orochi, in the thickest battles they had. ‘Even when that bitch tried to crush us, I was still by your side.’
‘Sasha was the first to back down, Sasha, and that treacherous whore. I never left your side.’ And when she did, two years later, her boss was hospitalized. ‘I have to talk with the others later on. We have trouble on your hands.’
To say she is not angry at herself for not being there for her boss is a lie, and to say she doesn’t want to slaughter the person who did it to Orochi is another lie, but first things should go first.
Deal with the slimes, and talk with Orochi. ‘That school made you weaker; you are in a comfy cycle, Orochi. You forget how cutthroat our world is.’ It is a happy cycle, but doesn’t mean it isn’t a negative one.
‘Two years, two years, and a comfy life in the confines of a school were all it took to dull your edge.’ With a cut, a slime was destroyed. ‘You were ambitious, ready to take on the world with us, go to the worst neighborhoods and beat down some thugs, establish dominance, and grow our influence. We could’ve been the light to where the heroes don’t reach.’
Umi grits her teeth, a death grip over her blade. Slimes went from enemies to just numbers in her mind. ‘You were strong and daring; never would a 13-year-old girl do what you did. Dreaming so big and the will to shoulder the pain and guide us.’
A strange itch underneath her skin, the more she thinks about it, the less it all makes sense in her head. ‘I can understand why someone like Feral managed to mess the boss up, but why does she hold back against those stupid creatures? Why are they being a nuisance for you?’
Enemies so weak she just needs her sword and a little application of her quirk to bring them down. ‘I will need to investigate that school.’ There must be something inherently wrong there to weaken her boss. ‘You are caring for trash whereas you would’ve crushed them before I could intervene.’
Orochi of old would crush bullies and guarantee they would never do something again or recruit them if they had potential, like her. A ragtag bunch of misfits united by her ideal. A childish but feverish ideal she held in her heart.
Fighting fire with fire, if the heroes can intervene in the worst places of the city if the police are willing to turn a blind eye, they should be the justice. The hand that pries the sword to cut off corruption. Be the biggest, meanest gang in town, so no pesky criminal ever thinks of acting.
Heroes can deal with big-name villains, but they would deal in the shadows, against the petty rats that rot and gnaw at the lowest levels of society, making those places worth living on. ‘Be like her mother. Blagh, how different could you two be?’
An angry and petty monster who sought to control the life of her child and crushed her dreams and hopes. A wide-eyed, strong, and willful girl who wanted to make society better her way, not content with being a simple hero. Seeking to do what her mother did.
Umi’s anger is as red as the blade in her hands, and she proceeds to the disposal of her targets. A thicker venom in her heart and eyes, far deadlier than any drop of poison inside Orochi.
‘One day I will settle that score straight; until that day, I will do my best to lift up the gang and my friends. I won’t allow you to be that weak, Orochi.’ Holding herself back, rejecting the inherent violence of what she does, trying to hold back who she is.
Doubtful and not fully there. She had known Orochi for three years before they were forcefully separated from each other. The Orochi of the past, the gang leader who never backed down from a fight she thought was right, willingly used violence and words alike.
She pummeled Sasha into the ground and pummeled herself and Rui there too. ‘We were violent children, but you taught us discipline and how to use our violence. Why are you turning back on what you taught us?’
‘Blagh! Too many answers! Too MANY OF THEM! I will get to the root of this issue, even if it is the last thing I do!’ Pressing the double trigger in the handle of her sword, Umi swings horizontally, an arc of red lightning unleashed from the bird, traveling towards the goo horde, wiping out most of her side of the enemies in one go.
‘Wait, we will talk soon.’
We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain
We come from different places but have the same name.
(Scene break)
Another thirty minutes had passed. The horde of slimes, once present, was eliminated—crushed until nothing remained but thick goo on the ground, cut-down cores, and two silhouettes. One panted with a giddy smile.
The other stood deadly still, showing no signs of combat besides her ragged clothing. Her eyes were cold, lost in thoughtful reverie. The taller of the two, with a stone face devoid of emotions, turned on her heel, silently walking to the other figure left standing after the fight.
“Hey boss, we did clean them up like the good old times. It takes me back to those days.” The redhead panted, turning to stare at the white-haired girl getting closer to her. There were no welcoming words reminiscing about the past from Orochi; quite the contrary.
“Why did you come back to this life? I thought you would abandon this, you, Rui, Sasha, Suzuka. Why? After what my mother did… you shouldn’t return. I wish you guys could live in peace and quiet, not plunge yourselves deeper into this life.”
And with those words, Umi’s mood died a gruesome death. Her semblance grew colder by the second to match her former boss. “What right do you have to demand that? Our work was destroyed, and our pride was beaten. You abandoned us. Many of our gang didn’t have a better place to go.”
The smaller redhead raised her head to stare Orochi in the eyes, red meeting purple. “Why do you ask? Because we have faith in our ideal. You may have lost it. I don’t know what happened between you and your mother, but back then, you wouldn’t accept this.”
Umi was the first to break the eye lock, pointing at the goo dissolving on the ground and the chaos generated by their corrosive bodies and attacks. It wasn’t as bad as it could be, but the destruction was undeniable.
“You would have defeated them for good before they had the chance to hurt any innocent! You would feel bad, but wouldn’t let yourself be pushed back by them or allow them to destroy freely.”
Like a violin string pushed to its limits, Umi’s voice took on a dangerous edge, on the verge of snapping, yet not losing her cool. Dancing on the tip of her toes to go past the breaking point. “You would defeat them and go defeat the others to not hurt other people. You wouldn’t stall, be so passive.”
Her tiny frame shook, her lips curling into a frown. “Listen here.” Uncharacteristically for someone so small in comparison to Orochi, grabbing her by the damaged shirt, Umi pulled Orochi down, forcing the taller girl to bow to meet the redhead’s angry eyes and face.
“I don’t know what happened, but that school, those people made you weak. You would think better, do better, call friends over here to fight with you, hold on, and fight back until reinforcements arrive. You wouldn’t give up and just 'stall'. Do you hear me?”
Lightning crackled around her eyes, her hands shaking. “Damn, Orochi! You wouldn’t care what they were if they hurt as much as a hair from a bystander!” The smaller redhead trembled with repressed anger, her heart beating loudly.
“You were reckless, but your heart was in the right place. You knew how to use violence and words! No one makes bonds with other people using violence alone. You…” Umi bit her lips, releasing Orochi’s shirt.
“You were our boss. We beat people worse than us. We never doubted our cause, and what we did was right. There are places heroes refuse to go because it doesn’t bring as much fame and attention; we established ourselves in a place like that, remember?”
The heat died down in the redhead’s voice as Orochi stayed silent, waiting for the speech to end. “We fought for those who couldn’t, doing things with our own hands. You would call us for help, fight with everything you got, no holding back if it was to protect people.”
“You drilled discipline in us, how to best use our strength. These goo monsters are not people. YOU of all people should know it. They didn’t feel like people and didn’t act like one.” Umi sighed, looking away.
“Is hard to tell how you changed, but you are more laid-back, you don’t fight as hard as you used to, don’t go as far as we went. You are taking things safely, thinking you have time for other things, to be saved by others. Stall for time. You are not fixing the problem, just waiting for someone else to come and clean things up.”
Orochi straightened her posture, cold quickly turning into anger. “And since when did that give you the right to end their lives? If they were people? What would you do? Claim responsibility for their deaths? I have my family to back me up and was fighting them already.”
The Atsushi’s middle child ground her teeth, her voice sparking up with anger and worry for her friend. The dread of her going to prison and facing charges for vigilantism makes her feel sick. “Then what? I have the self-defense claim; you have nothing, Umi!”
“I expected better from you! Of course, I’m taking things easy! I’m a goddamn teenager, and so are you! I learned we shouldn’t do the grown-up's work; we have much to learn and understand yet! We are not ready to face villains!”
“You should be heading to a normal life; you have a brighter future ahead of you! Rui, Suzuka too! And where you go, so will Sasha! Don’t you see how dangerous you are making things for yourself and our friends?!”
Orochi screamed out, letting her anger flow out, her eyes staring at the impassive face of her friend. “Vigilantism is a crime! One we shouldn’t be engaging with! This is why I’m training at Shiketsu! So I can be better, and fight them the right way!”
Umi scoffed at her words. “Fight them the right way? All alone, without comrades? Stalling for time as they go somewhere else? Say to me, who was here before me? Who was here to help you? Be there for you?”
“Say me, what can do more? You alone there, as a hero? Or are you commanding the gang to beat them up? Combat their numbers with strategy and people you can trust? Do you believe you can solve everything alone?”
Umi stepped up, standing inches away from Orochi. Her face was serene and devoid of feelings, contrary to the anger bubbling in her friend. “When your mother threw her tantrum, I was the one that stood by you. If your mother wasn’t so scary, so would Rui and Sasha.”
They weren’t prepared or as mature to face someone like Nabiki. Someone whose mere presence is terrifying and able to supercharge the ambient. “If I wasn’t there for you, would you be able to hold them back? From hurting people?”
“Orochi. It is not just in the past you were more active and assertive in what was needed. You believed everyone could do good with their quirk, heroes or not. People should try to do good no matter what.”
Umi closed her eyes and turned back, walking away. “You would never try to be a martyr, do things alone. You had your regeneration, but you yearned for attention and love that your strangled mother couldn’t give you. You earned our companionship and camaraderie through your actions and words.”
With solemn words, Umi bid goodbye to Orochi. “One person can only do so much, but a hundred of them? They can cause a ruckus.” Her words were cold, but deep down, there was a tinge of hope. A small spark that wished for good days to return, comes back to them.
“A thousand can start a movement; ten thousand can be heard. A hundred thousand spark an idea. One million can start a revolution.” For an empire to last, millions must believe in its righteousness and future.
One person can’t make an empire without convincing others of their ideals through actions and words. “You are alone now, Orochi. You cannot save a thing unless you realize that. Where are your Shiketsu friends?” Umi stopped, looking at the gray sky as drizzle started to fall.
“You need people; you need others. You are not an army. They are not here, as I was not here when Feral attacked you. You cannot save the world on your own. To save a life, you need to be aware that one day, you will have to kill someone to save another.”
The cutthroat world they live in shows no mercy, for a villain is far easier to kill than it is for a hero, but when push comes to shove and the choice presents itself, it should be easy who needs to die. Yet her friend failed to make the call on her own.
“It was good to see you again, Orochi.”
Umi bid goodbye to her friend, walking away as the rain started to shower, washing over them.
Orochi stood there under the rain, looking at the sky. Her bones, her muscles, and her mind were extremely tired and hurting in a way her regeneration could not heal. Mental exhaustion settling in. “I’m so fucking tired tired,” Orochi swore to the four winds.
Nothing can go right in her life, it seems.