Sticky Situation

Orochi was never a cafe person; she failed to see the attraction people had to the beverage. 'Well, Maid Cafes are kind of cool, but I don’t really like the other places.' This is the reason Orochi let out a sigh. Yui had "invited" her to Thanks-A-Latte cafe.

It was similar to how she used to "invite" Yui to the arcades. 'Well, at least she isn’t grabbing me by the hand to go there. Thanks, Ako.' Orochi found herself walking towards Thanks-A-Latte. The longer walk compared to the arcade wasn't that bad.

'Actually, didn’t Umi talk about that place once? It was two years ago, but I think she mentioned it.'

Picking her cell phone out of the hood’s pocket, Orochi opened the contact list and selected a contact she hadn’t touched for almost two years. Her fingers hesitated over the "call" button. Would Umi, and by extension Rui, Sasha, and Suzuka ever forgive her for abandoning them and disbanding their gang? Did they still hold grudges or regrets over what happened?

“I’m hesitant.” Orochi pondered her options, swallowing dryly. She couldn’t run forever from the past; one day, they would meet again, and she wished for a happy reunion, not one born out of casual encounters with unresolved issues.

“I can’t run from it forever. Aaah, I should give it a try.” Orochi touched the call button, but no one answered. “I can leave a voice message. Huh… hi, Umi. It is me, Orochi. I, huh… Do you want to hang out one of these days? There is a cool place, Thanks-A-Latte. If you wish to meet, call me back, and I will meet you there.”

Orochi’s cheeks flushed a deep shade of red. She checked her messages, noticing one from her mother.

‘Understood. When you are done with your friend on your date, call me, and I will pick you up. I’m the one with the car today.’

Orochi pouted but responded with a thumbs-up emoji. ‘Mom will pick me up after Yui and I are done on our "date," so it won’t be that bad.’ Between her father, mother, or the recently returned Akane (much to her joy), her mother was the one at home, so she was the one driving the car today.

Maybe Umi could appear at Thanks-A-Latte too. It was unlikely, despite her bad mood over the last week, there wasn’t only bad news and events. At least one good thing happened.

“Well, Akane nee-san is back, so things are turning brighter.” Orochi couldn’t suppress a smile and the elation in her chest at the thought of seeing her sister again. It had been almost a year without seeing her. ‘The Legion turned Tokyo upside down in their attack, so she is coming back for me, huh.’

Her face displayed a complex mix of a grimace and a smile. She was undeniably happy about the chance of seeing her sister again but torn over her decision. As a hero trainee, Orochi knew that her sister got an extended leave, stepping away from her job as a hero to come back to her family.

‘I think it wasn’t an easy choice for you, Akane nee-san.’ No choice between family and duty must be easy. Orochi mumbled as she walked, kicking a small pebble continuously as she made her way towards Thanks-A-Latte.

‘I'm not a usual customer compared to Inigo and Yui, but well, it isn’t that bad of a place if those two are regulars.’ Despite Inigo’s previous unsavory tendencies, his heart was in the right place. ‘His brain needs some adjustments, even after Hoge’s hits on his head.’

Orochi chuckled under her breath. When the light starts to dim, she can always trust Inigo to lighten the mood. “Even if you are not physically present. Twin dragons, ha.” As long as the boys stood united and smiling, there would be hope for the class.

‘Even Sandatsu, who is a little gloomy, can smile with them. If one of them stops smiling, that is when you need to worry.’ Bobby said she was one of the hearts within the class, herself and Inigo.

If someone asked Orochi, she would say that Inigo and the boys were the hearts instead. ‘I mean, they can bring all sorts of people together, I’m just confident.’ And even that last tidbit was doubtful nowadays.

“I think I have a long road towards Thanks-A-Latte… too late for regrets now.” The hydra girl yawned, feeling the warm sunlight over her. People were walking on the streets, not a single cloud in the sky, a nice and cozy weather.

“Don’t get close! Go away! Someone, help!” Someone screamed. Orochi’s eyes widened, her pupils becoming slits.

“Help! These blue things are coming closer!”

Orochi’s ears grew deaf to the sounds around her. Her head grew light, weighed down by the screams and pleas for help from the people around her. Memories flared as the image of a villain ran past her eyes.

The flickering image of a villain coated in red closed the distance like a predator. A destroyer. The sound of chainsaws revving echoed inside her ears, drowning the outside world in a buzz of metal clashing against flesh.

Ripping one off her skin. The image of that creature flickered like a Poltergeist before her eyes, a phantom of blood and carnage.

Her cell phone fell to the ground, her hand losing strength, her muscles stiffening. Her breath was ragged and hot, pupils shaking with fear, fear of that visage coming closer to her.

The hydra girl’s voice died in her throat as the apparition got closer and closer. Without her input, her hydra heads leashed forward. They slapped the apparition’s head and body, tearing it apart as a cold liquid splashed over her.

“Wait, what did you guys do—” Before Orochi could finish her thoughts, a voice cut her speech in the middle of it.

“T-thank you! T-take care! Those things are like jello, and they are acidic!” A woman's voice broke Orochi from her spell, the apparition of feral vanishing to reveal a slimy mutant. Half of its gelatinous body was torn off, with a solid core inside it.

A woman on the ground quickly got up and ran away. “Thank you, take care!” She ran away.

Orochi slapped her face, a loud smack echoing. She felt her cheek sting and contract because of the pain, which quickly vanished as her regeneration kicked in. Orochi’s slitted pupils focused on the slime mutant as her head attacked on reflex.

Its body slowly started to reform. She felt an aching over her tail heads and continued to attack the reforming slime as the goo nibbled at her heads’ scales. Soon its gelatinous body was reduced to droplets on the ground, with only a single “core” left on the ground.

Orochi stared at her hydra heads. A small fog of acidic smoke rose from their faces as the corrosive goo tried to eat through their scales but without results. “I guess you goofers don’t want to eat that goo? Good, you are finally starting to realize what is food and what is not.”

While Orochi should have been worried about blowing something to smother with her tails, she failed to feel any sort of solid flesh or organ while attacking, as if the entire mutant’s body was one giant jello.

The only solid part of its composition, its core, was left intact by her hydra heads. “Time to see what it is about.” Orochi grabbed the core from the ground. It was solid and coarse in texture. Goo fell from it, trying to generate a new body around the sphere, the slime coming directly from inside.

The jello-like substance tried to grow around Orochi’s hand and the core. “Nu-uh.” The hydra girl shook her hand, throwing the goo out of the core. “You won’t reform while I’m here.” More screams caught her attention, coming from the same direction the slime came from.

The revving of a chainsaw buzzed in the inner parts of her ears, but Orochi clenched her teeth and ran toward danger. She kicked the ground, charging forward. The throbbing of her heart echoed in her throat and her pulse.

Adrenaline was felt in whatever gaps remained in her resolve, her saliva thickening with venom and attention devoted to the danger she was running to. A great part of her consciousness was aware that facing the threat head-on was the wrong thing to do.

Like with… That, Orochi should run away and wait for me. She is no hero; she needs to grab a true hero, one who can help people deal with whatever is happening, yet Orochi couldn’t help but wonder: ‘What if it was Chris there? If it was Yui? Kaylee? Sally? Chihiro? Hoge? Inigo? Bobby?’ Her mental list went on and on.

Could she run away if it was her friends there? In danger? Those people who may have a family too, friends… a life. The young hydra may not know how to be the hero she envisioned anymore. She may not be a true dragon like the rest of her family, but she wouldn’t duck over and run away again.

Run away from her problems, herself, and her darkness. Let her friends deal with the aftermath of her negativity and self-doubt. With her heart pounding in her head as the phantom projections of chainsaws ripping apart flesh gnawed at the edges of her mind, Orochi rushed straight into danger. ‘I have to help in any way I can.’

(Scene break)

Many gooey mutants littered the streets, far too many than what should be acceptable. “Tsc, what are the heroes doing at a time like this?” Orochi bit back the desire to swear and curse her luck.

‘Am I cursed? Why am I always involved in these incidents where there are no heroes nearby?!’ There was no way to know if it was either a stroke of luck or lack thereof, or simply being at the wrong time in the wrong place. She didn’t know.

Orochi’s heart ached with conflict and doubt, yet she was the one who ran into the fray; she had no one to blame but herself for it. ‘There are too many of them.’ A quick count revealed at least a dozen of the slime mutants.

They attacked cars, people, and anything in their way, without a pattern or behavior, attacking the closest thing to themselves besides other gooey villains. “Do or Die,” Orochi muttered under her breath.

With no option left since she decided to run into this mess, Orochi rushed against the gooey mutants. ‘The core of them is the weak point; rip it out, and they will fall apart. I have no strategy in case they decide to reform, still…’

There was no time to think as those mutants continued to attack anything in their path. With a quick and clean swipe, her hydra heads attempted to headbutt the villain, but her attacks hit against a gelatinous body. Her palm was unnaturally stopped by the mutant’s body, only her claws sinking inside its body as if her palm had hit a solid surface. “What—”

Before Orochi could draw any conclusion, the mutant body convulsed and changed shapes, becoming fist-like while it pistoned itself like a punch to her chest. In a split second, she contracted her belly muscles to soften the blow as the “punch” connected, pushing her away for a foot or two.

“Tsc. Non-Newtonian fluid. This is going to be a mess.” Orochi grimaced; if they were all going to be oobleck, then striking them with overwhelming and quick force was the only way to force their core open and rip it out.”

The other gooey mutants noticed her, and her answer was to square up to them. “Come at me, you ugly. Oh, if there are people here… I’m kind of sorry, but I’m going to beat you up.” The mutants lunged at her.

Orochi’s hydra heads rose, two on her left side, and one on her right. “Let’s go.” Orochi rushed to meet the first goo villain, who widened its body like a wicked mouth, trying to “swallow” her whole with its form.

The hydra girl gave a small forward jump, raising her leg to meet the mutant’s half-translucent body. With a loud impact, the mutant lost its stability as Orochi's feet connected to its core, breaking apart the “fluid” composing it and keeping it safe, effectively ejecting the orb out of its jello-like body.

The other eleven didn’t even try to face her one on one and rushed Orochi all at once.

In a second, her hydra heads moved on their own to intercept their targets, punching them at full speed, breaking through the fluids in their modes with no concern or worry about their own safety, healing any self-inflicted wound made by the impact before their bodies could register the damage.

With as much disregard for herself as her hydra heads, Orochi thrust her arms into two of the gooey villains, breaking through them and extracting their cores forcefully, before tossing them away from the gelatinous structure.

“Five out of eleven.” The other six didn’t seem fazed by the neutralization of their comrades and advanced all the same. Placing her left foot firmly on the ground, Orochi welcomed the first to reach her with a roundhouse kick.

Slime flew into the air, solidifying like a rock by the pressure and strength exercised by her kick, ejecting the core from its body like a pinball flying, the slime villain undoing itself in a second.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw a mutant coming closer, rushing faster than its other five brethren. One of her hydra heads planted its face on the ground, acting as an extra leg as Orochi spun on her axis.

Her foot hit the villain's chest with a spinning kick, the mutant falling to the ground, the goo undoing its stable form. “Four of six still left to go.” Instead of her usual battle junkie attitude or adrenaline, Orochi spoke with unmatched coldness.

Like a glacier all alone in the ocean, freezing cold. Her heart pounds in her throat, slitted eyes dead set on her targets, void-black eyes with a keen glint like a predator waiting to ambush its prey.

Instead of advancing, the four remaining step back, giving Orochi time to breathe a little, and yet the sounds of screaming and chaos don’t stop. Her heart clenches with pain, her legs cramping, the back of her eyes hurting with a headache.

From the edge of her earshot, the sounds of chainsaws revving echo, mixing with the sounds of mayhem and chaos. The illusions of fire and carnage are like filters overlaid on her eyes.

Even with the confirmation of what should’ve been real, her mind cannot help but add those remnants, the wraiths and phantoms of what has happened. Even as adrenaline floods her bloodstream, Orochi can feel cold sweat running down her back.

Her mind is focused on the combat ahead, on holding herself back to not destroy these cores and possibly kill someone, yet the memories of that day are the first things in her mind, always.

Orochi closes her eyes, unable to trust her own senses anymore. She lets her mind flow into the ones from her hydra heads, seeing a monochromatic, and thermal world through the eyes of her tails. Her mind works on translating the image into colors she can understand easily.

The revving continues, but her tails don’t see the visages and flames. Only the four villains are left.

Instead of advancing, the slime mutants pick up the cores of their fallen comrades and add them to their bodies. Their forms become bulkier as they try to reach for more cores. “As if I will allow it!” Orochi advances against them, using their larger form to attack with greater strength.

Their bodies shatter completely, letting the cores fall to the ground. The ones her hand doesn’t reach, her tails attack. The four slime mutants fall defeated. “Now, I should—” Before Orochi can continue her line of thought, she is hit again, thrown to the side by a sneak attack.

The hydra girl snaps her eyes open to stare at her attacker. One of the slimes she brought down regenerated and gulped two cores in the process, the others she defeated quickly rising to fight again.

“This is going to be a pain…”