Dead End Salvation 2
Chris stared at Orochi. Her awakening changed many things. He felt a slight itch to discuss the changes in her quirk and understand how it had evolved, beyond its impact on her mental state. Orochi was not bothered by what happened a few months ago, not anymore, and was more open. Oh, boy, she was also very touchy after “powering up”.
‘Who would’ve thought that dyeing her hair would turn her into a bigger extrovert?’ Chris thought about voicing his joke out loud but refrained from doing so. While Orochi didn’t care about her near death, or, in her own words, her “death” experience, Chris still thought it would be a bad topic to talk about.
“Hey Chris, think quickly.” Orocho chirped as Chris was brought back to reality. A pen case few towards his face. He barely dodged it as it slid past his table.
Her right hydra stared at him attentively. Its black eyes stared at him; clear enmity shone on the danger noddle’s void stare. “Uh, thanks for the warning?” He tried to ignore the noodle’s stare.
It was even angrier after her awakening and twice as devious. Now he had confirmation that the thing hated him. “No problem. Anyway, what do you mean to ask? Everyone is giving me “that” stare lately. I would be happier if you guys were direct about your intentions.”
Chris bit his tongue. After Genma and the Reaper’s attack, Orochi has become an unspoken topic. Her quirk and appearance changes were radical too. It simply made sense to wonder what happened to her and what more changed.
Chris thought about ending the topic early for a moment and burying those thoughts deep in his mind. In a blink, Orochi got closer, like a predator. Her eyes and head were fixed on him, not moving despite any movement of her body.
Purple-slitted eyes stared deep into his eyes as if waiting for his reaction, ready to pounce on him at any suspicious movement. He swallowed dry. “I am curious about your quirk?”
He played it safe. While Orochi has not changed too much, some of her behaviors got wilder, to say the least. There was no doubt that she and the noodles shared the same brain cell.
“Fair. Wanna call your girlfriend too?” Chris's tongue became a knot in his mouth. Orochi sported a teasing grin as if anticipating that reaction.
“Better make it count since both of you are into quirks. It is not every day one as freaky as mine comes up.”
Chris stared at Orochi again. His gaze hardened and stern, chastising his friend at how she described herself. Orochi rolled her eyes and made a sign of peace with her left hand. “Don’t worry. It’s a joke. Want to call Faith or not? I had to talk about my quirk with him anyway.”
“I don’t want to.” Calling in Faith to study Orochi’s new traits would be awkward. Very awkward. Orochi shrugged.
Chris questioned, “Anyway, with whom are you going to talk?”
“The only person who can get some grasp about my quirk. Don’t worry, you know him.” Orochi smirked.
(Scene break)
Hiro was not too happy about seeing them in Shiketsu’s chemistry lab. While one was expected since they worked together, the other was a surprise.
“Sup Hiro.” Orochi welcomed him.
“Hello.” Chris was also there, a little clumsy about the situation he got himself in.
“Hiro, I need some help with my quirk.” What Hiro feared came to happen. It was not that he didn’t want to help his friend, but between his work and her newly awakened quirk, things were just a tad overwhelming.
“Alright. What you’ve got?” He hooped it was more than last time. If Orochi understood how her quirk currently worked, things would be easier for him.
Hiro looked at Chris momentarily. Before Hiro could think of a better phrase, words escaped his mouth. “And you? What do you need?” He could have phrased that a lot better. He should’ve phrased it better. Now it was too late to fix his wording.
“Oh. Orochi dragged me here... I was curious about her quirk, and she dragged me here.” Hiro nodded in understanding as Orochi sat on a chair, rolling up the sleeve of her uniform to reveal one of her scaled hands.
With the other hand, she grabbed a pencil. “The people at Red Steel Industries ran some tests on me. In summary,” Orochi spoke with a smile as the scales of her left hand grew thicker and sharper, and her right hand’s scales grew around the pen, covering it with scales.
“I can control the shape of those bad girls and how they grow. In theory, if I get a handle, I can even make a sword out of my scales. Would it be a scaled sword?” Orochi laughed outloud.
Hiding in the depths of her laugh was a hiss. A hiss from her right, Hydra stared fixedly at Chris. The murderous intent of the thing was so blatant that even Hir could see its glare.
“Well, in other news, I kind of figured out how to enter “burning mode” now.” At the mention of the “burning mode," everyone looked at Orochi with curiosity, even the hydras.
Orochi placed the pen on the table as the overgrown scales fell from her hands. “You see, my current internal temperature is around ninety-seven to ninety-eight degrees Celsius. In other words, if I want to enter that “burning” state, I just need to push my temperature way beyond that.”
Hiro and Chris’ eyes almost jumped out of their faces. They looked at the hydras, who nodded in understanding as if Orochi’s words made sense. “Orochi, you sound extremely reckless here.”
(Chris POV)
Chris chastised her. His heart raced. How hot does a human body need to be for it to enter self-combustion? If Orochi has entered such a dangerous and unstable form already... who could tell what kind of damage it could do to her?
Yet Hiro looked resolute, even a little understanding of the current situation. With a heavy sigh, he asked, “What do you need?” It was like he figured out something Chris failed to see. It made Chris feel unnerved.
“I need something to rock my metabolism to the limit, like the time when I and Kaylee faced Feral. You know, Hiro. I don’t think anyone else can make something as specific as that.”
Chris’ stomach turned into knots. Could his friend hear her own words? Did Orochi fail to recognize the danger she would place herself in by using such a drug? There was no way Hiro would agree with such insanity.
“Alright. I will collect some blood samples. It may help with what you want.”
“Hiro. This is a bad idea. We don’t know how it can damage Orochi.” While Chris trusted Orochi, he also knew that his friend had a martyrdom complex and an excessive lack of self-care towards herself.
Orochi would only hurt herself if she got hold of a drug that could force her body to its limits. Hiro momentarily looked at Chris and then at Orochi, asking a silent question if he should explain the situation to Chris.
Orochi shook her head. “I will take it from here. Get the syringes.”
Orochi sighed heavily. “Well, you shouldn’t hurry, Chris. Besides controlling my scale, my regeneration got a lot better. I cannot explain how and why, since it would violate the hundreds of clauses the army of medics taking care of me have, but know that any damage it does to me, I can regenerate.”
Chris’ mouth turned bitter. It was the line of thinking that got him in trouble, the line of thinking that hurt his friend. The thought that he could take on the world on a bigger foe than he could handle and win.
“You do not know that, Orochi.” He spoke with a heavy sigh. His heart pounded loudly and quickly in his ears, as if it tried to make him deaf.
“I do know it, Chris. I came back from the dead. From all accounts and perspectives, I should be a walking dead. Yet here I am. I know my stuff and what I can handle.” Orochi’s gaze softened as she looked him in the eye.
Chris couldn’t trust those words. Despite the reassuring and calm look on his friend’s face. He felt his temperature rise and his blood pressure drop. “I need to go.” He walked away.
He should talk about this with someone, but who he could talk to without causing trouble for Orochi or starting up a scene? ‘I should’ve brought Faith with me.”
“Are you not going after him?” Hiro questioned dryly. He was the only person Orochi disclosed her full quirk’s abilities to because she felt he deserved that. He knew she would probably be fine.
Not explaining what it did to Chris was a dick move. “No, Umi’s mother said he has ties to someone shady, someone they don't like, so I can’t disclose it.”
“This sucks.” Hiro sighed.
“Yeah. Also, he will probably run to his girlfriend. He is going to be fine. If he stuck around just a little more, he would see I would be completely fine.” Orochi’s voice got an edge at the mention of "girlfriend.”.
Much like him, she only got chocolate from her friends... Hiro’s mood was bummed. “Being single sucks.” He whispered under his breath.
Somehow, Orochi heard it. “Yeah. Everyone is busy going on dates. The only one that still hits the arcade with some consistency is Sally. Everyone else is enjoying their youth.”
Orochi whined so loudly that even her hydras mimicked her whine. Just now Hiro noticed he was in a chemistry laboratory, in the middle of the lunch break, thinking about how his friends were in a relationship, and he was knee-deep in work.
Then he too whined.