The Other Side - C (Part 1)

“Mika found them!” Exclaimed a small child, bandaged all over, wearing a dark cloak. Somehow, she floated up in the air to “greet them.” With a gesture of her hands, great pressure was applied against them. The wind brought and threw Edith and Tanaka down on the ground like a devastating palm.

Tanaka chose in the split of a second, using his domain to make them heavier but not enough to fall on the ground. Only enough to halt the force of the little girl’s attack before they landed like flies on the floor.

They barely had time to realize a small child used their quirk to such a degree. In the split second, it took for Tanaka to readjust his domain and keep an eye on the child, someone on the ground already started their attack.

“Good job, Mika! Retreat now!” A person completely covered in black goo shouted from the ground as the Shiketsu students continued to fall toward the ground, the small child somehow flying away.

From what appeared to be their arms, a wave of black goo came out like a fire hose. It grabbed them and held them tight. The fluid was sticky and thick like molasses but smelled like oil.

“Tsc!” Edith clicked her tongue. She had Orochi to think about, but for now, they had bigger problems to deal with.

Cleansing her mind of stray thoughts, she concentrated on the goo and activated her quirk. The liquid around herself and Tanaka vanished easily, stored inside her pocket dimension. Tanaka did not waste time; his eyes placed on the goo-covered person.

He placed another domain around them and made the gravity heavier there. The black goo guy fell on his knee, his shoulders trembling as his movement halted. “W-what?” Tanaka resisted the urge to smirk or explain his quirk to the confused target.

For someone covered in so much liquid, the additional weight would feel crushing and paralyzing. An easy prey for his quirk, but the Shiketsu students were not done yet. “Edith! Do you think you can go and store that guy in your pocket dimension? I will deal with the flying brat!”

They fought together on the test at the start of the school year. They knew each other’s quirks. In a way, they could not have asked for a better partner for this mess— “I can! Put me on the ground, and I will deal with him! Then we have to grab Orochi and run away!”

Edith did not know why the Atsushi fought or what was at stake, but she saw her classmate lose an arm and have her neck pierced. She would never let it slide under the carpet and run away without her.

“Alright! Good luck! Scream if someone else appears! I will try to immobilize them!” Tanaka warned, letting Edith softly land on the ground. She sprinted the moment she got her feet on solid ground.

The goo-covered person tried to move, struggling with the barest movements. He was pinned in place and unable to move. It could work. She could seal him inside her pocket dimension for the time being!

She quickly reached them and raised her hand, her concentration narrowing on that single immobilized person for the maximum efficacy of her quirk. “Leave Piche alone, you meanie!” Before she seals them, a gust of wind hits her back.

Her concentration broke. With a slight turn to see what was happening, she watched Tanaka and the child playing a game of cat and mouse as the bandaged bat ran in circles to avoid him, somehow flying inside his domain, like Tanaka himself.

Momentarily, that brat reminded her of Hailey— “Get out.” A rigid voice warned before a loud impact hit the ground a few meters ahead of her. Edith blinked and jumped out of the way by instinct as spikes raised from the ground like spears aiming to stop her limbs from moving.

It almost landed on her, yet the spears stood around the goo person like a wall of thorns. With another heavy bang from the other side, the ground jumped on Edith, opening like a beast’s maw to swallow her whole.

It advanced faster than before. Edith clapped her hands and unleashed the goo she had stored moments ago to throw her back and away from the “maw,” avoiding the attack.

She slides, her feet barely holding her up as her shoes start to have their soles burnt by the friction. A giant object lands on her side. The impact and shockwave send Edith rolling on the ground, her sense of balance taken from her as she rolled on the dirty streets.

Her clothes get ragged and torn at some spots, and scratches and bruises on her skin, and the spinning of her vision causes nausea. “Shit!” Edith’s stomach almost turns inside out, trying to evacuate its contents, her vision spinning.

It takes several seconds for her eyes to stop seeing double, and her body to stop rolling. Before her, a dark shadow was cast. She takes her vision up to see what made such an impact. Edith sees an impossibly tall woman towering above even Kaylee.

Instead of a human lower body, she had an arachnid abdomen, and eight powerful legs like spears that pierce the ground, the form of a spider-human hybrid. It was a sight fit for a monster than a person.

Her legs click against the floor and break the ground under them. Edith’s vision started to spin again as her stomach took capital offense over the spider-mutant. Edith felt nauseous and weak for a moment.

Holding a powerful rope string she throws it at attack, the strings attaching themselves to his wrist. From the edge of her vision, more and more people start to appear, a crowd forming around them—

“Tsc.” Someone had to bite the bullet now. With a wake-up slap on her face, Edith got up to meet the challenge. Tanaka manages to cut out the rope by making it heavier, escaping the grasp of the giant spider girl.

They looked at each other. They needed to attack now. They nodded to each other— sadly it was time for some collateral damage on the buildings… like how it ended in the test.

“Get out of my way, you band of psychos!”

It would devolve into a dog fight, but it was unavoidable. They waited for the chance to knock out as many of them before going in and taking Orochi.

“Who gave any of you permission to exit the arena and start a brawl?”

Yet, a timely intervention appeared.

She was tired. Very tired. Her body was burning inside, heat transpiring through her flesh and then her skin, but the air outside was cold, so cold it clashed against the burning of her body.

It was painful. It was agonizing, yet Orochi had no reason or the will to fight against it. Just embrace this slumber, accept her jadedness, and sleep. She had no will to fight anymore. Her tails were heavier than ever.

Her arm wasn’t there, but it felt as if it was. Everything was painful. A half-sleep, half-conscious state of stupor, a fever dream but very real. The memories and parallels of the past played again and again in her head.

When she got hurt by stumbling and rolling downhill. When she lost a hand by playing with an axe, thinking it couldn’t hurt her. That thing...

The happy memories she had with her friends when they played pretend and thought of becoming adults with the will and power to achieve great things.

It was like a twisted dream of interwoven memories of good times and the worst times of her life together. She felt half-dead, even though her body would never allow it to happen. It would fight to the last and bring her up, against her will to lie down and wait.

Someone was in her arms. She was someone Orochi ought to know. Yet a part of her heart had trouble recognizing that person. She changed, everyone changed, but her tails clung to the redhead, to keep her safe.

Despite the hurt they inflicted on each other, and the trouble recognizing the redhead on her arm, Orochi tried her best to keep her safe in the state they found themselves in.

Was it what she wanted? Was it what Orochi wanted? Was it what her past self desired for the future? No… none of this was her desire, nor was Umi’s, Sasha’s, or Rui’s.

But this was the hand they had.

It is the hand I have.

Orochi wanted better, wanted a better future for everyone, including herself but

Monsters never have good endings.

To forget the circumstances of her birth, the cursed quirk she was given. Robbed of the right to exist as a normal person, always fearful of hurting others

I am born a monster.

Tears were the most sincere plea of one’s soul, the proof they were human. Yet, what could be said of a thing whose very tears were toxic and hurtful?

Made to hurt.

Hurt.

Never heal.

A bringer of hurt and pain. Was this what she was for everyone’s life?

But at the threshold between consciousness and fever, she chose to protect this life instead of ending it. To cling to the bounds of the past, even if in doubt if the person she had in her arms was somehow the one she met years ago.

I am full of doubt.

If she only closed her eyes and slept. Give in to the dreams. Maybe the fierceness in her blood may calm down. Take away the fever.

Alright! Good luck! Scream if someone else appears! I will try to immobilize them!

A loud impact of groundbreaking and giving away resounded with the voice. A voice of a classmate. A voice of someone she knew, but did she?

Get out of my way, you psychos!

Another voice resounded. A voice of someone Orochi was starting to consider a friend. Heavy pupils opened to see the world. The lights of the abandoned building flickered. Near her side was a girl. The girl she fought—

“Kaka,” Orochi said as if calling the attention of the monochromatic-haired girl, who looked at her instantly. An odd silence outside where there should be a commotion— 'The voice of my friends.'

Edith, Sora… “Take care of Umi. I… will see what is happening out there by myself.” Her tails retreated.

Even they changed, a part of her body she thought as eternal and unchanging since her childhood. They changed so much, but Orochi lacked the time to dwell on that, besides the fact they were thicker than before, with cherry blossom red scales on their faces.

Peace, a status quo was inexistent. It was all an illusion of choice. Orochi gently laid Umi on the ground. KaKa approached to hold the redhead like Orochi did, to keep her safe.

Her legs shook, her knees barely enough to hold her and her tails’ weight combined. Her body was in pain and felt like hellfire itself, but Orochi needed to advance and walk forward.

With a step at a time, Orochi walked towards the exit. Almost stumbling on her feet but her tails kept her straight. Each step sends a quake rocking through her body, from the outer layers of skin to her core.

She walked forth to the entrance.

At the entrance, Orochi saw people fighting. Her two classmates, and her former gang. A patched Rui was at the helm of the gang, while Edith and Tanaka stood still, waiting for an opening.

In a way, both sides were waiting for a chance to attack with impunity. Orochi gasped for air; her body felt light, and the inside of her muscles hurt. 'I made a mistake. There were people paying attention to me back in the graveyard.' A new one to the big pile.

She smacked her lips. They were dry. Her heart pulsated faintly. Orochi was light-headed. She had to cut the chase short. Words died in her throat, the will to speak them vanishing as dizziness darkened her eyes.