Midnight Blossom
Entering the building was an easy job. Almost too easy of a job. With a sharp “zip”, a familiar voice rang in his ear. “Hey shithead. I’m in their cameras. I’ll guide you to the server room. Do exactly as I say.” The tone of displeasement was plastered all over her voice, despite doing her best to tone it down. As she guided him through the rooms, the terrorists were occupied most of the time or just nowhere to be seen. A sense of uneasiness and paranoia started to spread in his chest. As if it was too easy of a job.
He had no problem reaching the “server room”, filled to the brim with many machines on tables. “Shit-” around three people are in the room with him, two rose from their chairs, to stare at the black-clad figure before them. Holding his breath, the time slowed down. The last person tried to press an alarm button, but the alarm didn’t start. He rushed towards them, with his arms piercing the chest of both, instantly killing them.
The third got startled, rising from his chair to try and run away. Retreating his arms, he rushed towards the last person, snapping his neck. Despite killing them, a taste of wrongness was left in his mouth.
They died, yet none of their quirks were transferred, he could feel it. Casting a glance at their bodies, they are very similar, with almost the same facial structure, with only hair and eye colors differentiating them. Maybe quirkless people are alike? He hadn’t time to entertain such thoughts.
“Area clear. What is the next step?” With a sigh, the nearby camera moved to focus on a particular PC. “Plug it on the biggest PC, in the USB entrance. You know what one is, right?”
“No, what is it?” His “partner” almost growled, although being entertaining to mess with her, he knew the seriousness of the situation. “Yes, I know it.” She growled again, just a little higher. He plugged the pendrive in, and stood still, waiting for the next server.
With an unusual, almost cheerful tone, she gave the next step. “I’m cracking their servers. Get out of here before someone sees you. This felt too easy to be real. how a cave man like you managed to get this far is astonishing.”* She whispered the last bit, as if that would just fool his hearing
Her voice almost seemed distressed. As if she expected something to go off. This felt too easy, but apparently the terrorists are as widely and thinly spread as the Enforcers… so this would make sense.
Making the way out of the building felt as easy as it was to enter it. As if the terrorists were avoiding him. Half-way through his way out, a feeling of animosity and enmity sparked his attention.
“What the fuck is this?” Big Cat’s voice raises, ringing in his head. “Get out of here! Someone got the cameras’ back! This is a trap!” Before he could move, or even raise his voice, a mist of blood red and black smoke filled the room.
“So, they bit the bait after all. You were right.” A deep voice echoes through the room, despite being deep, he could still hear the clear feminine tone of it. “Divine Rapture.” In an instant, a bright red orb inflamed through the mist of smoke, like a manifestation of pure rage. Like thunder, something closed the distance towards him. Normally, he would fight it, face the threat head on, there wasn’t much it could normally do to hurt him.
Yet all of his instincts cried otherwise, to avoid it. To not face this threat head on. Deep down his gut told him to step back. Out of instinct but no skill, he jumped back. Just a few inches back as a sharp and very focused pain spreaded on his chest. The cut was nothing. He would heal it in no time.
But before his mind could focus, the mist had been cleared, yet a strange feeling spreaded inside his chest as the cut healed. Something clogging his chest and veins, as if filling it with pus. Blood started to run up his throat as his lungs expanded inside of his chest, pushing his ribs forwards, his heart becoming bigger and bigger.
The blood inside his chest thickening and heating up to impossible degrees, like trying to cook him up from inside out, as his flesh becomes spongy and swells in a cancerous form. More blood started to rush through his throat, exiting his mouth like a red and yellow-coloured sludge, burning his throat raw with it pushing through the fabric of his mask, exiting through it and below his neck. In an explosive growth, his guts grew, pushing and shuffling his organs inside his chest as his veins and arteries rupture due to the thickening of his blood and cancerous growth of his flesh.
Everything inside of him hurts, his organs, his blood, his bones, everything as his torso bloated like the throat of a toad, almost driving him unconscious as the cancerous growth continued to be rampant.
In a single moment, his rib cage and belly reaches their own breaking point, swelling in an horrendous form as flesh tears itself due to the pressure building inside his body. His organs and blood exploded forward like the petals of a horrendous flower, his organs rupturing themselves and igniting in a shower of blood by bright red and unnatural flames.
His body being thrown back a few meters by the explosion of his inner organs and blood, leaving him wide-eyed. He thought he was going to die, as if it was the end, so unceremoniously, so fast… his flesh started to mend and regrow as the shower of blood burned in the air.
He felt his ribcage start to right itself, as the organs regrown back to their original places, the feeling of his flesh becoming normal again. Like the attack, in a single moment he was back to normal. This was not good as the pain came back, hitting him like a truck and triggering a blood-gurgling scream. Like an animal, he grew more arms and flung himself back in the corridor, trying to escape what damaged him so badly.
He ripped the lower part of his mask, to breath and to push out the thick and sludgy blood with pus inside his throat and mouth. “You… survived? This is unusual. Most enforcers died with this attack.” The womanly voice once again echoes in the corridor, prompting his instincts, and mental faculties, into a fighting stance.
Punching his own gut, a wave of liquid rises through his esophagus, making him throw up. Rising to his feet, he feels dizzy. An aftershock of the immense and inhuman pain he felt just moments ago. Looking ahead, a figure with two swords is standing meters before him.
Two swords on her hands and a flowing white hair, almost like a specter or ghost. He didn’t like it, he would rather turn his tail and run from her. Yet he knew if he did it, he would be cut down without mercy. His throat clenched, making him bite his tongue.
Without a word she advances again with inhuman agility. This time he wasn’t with his guard down! Creating four more arms on his back, he rushes forward to meet her. She moves her sword with inhuman grace, almost piercing through the mist of adrenaline and pain inside his mind, almost reminding him of someone else. Yet he could feel a brutality, a butcher’s movement through it.
Like a pair of scissors, her swords move flawlessly towards his upper torso, below his armpit and the second near his waist. They were weapons, objects he could break . Neutralize her main form of attack. With fast and precise movement, he grabs both swords at the middle of their blades with his hands. In any other situation, his hands shouldn’t have been cut off, but using all of his force to focus on them to use {Separate}, to break them, their force was halted for an instant, stopping them dead on their tracks.
However a resistance pushed back his efforts, the same feeling when he used it on a living being. Looking down, he sees how close the woman is. A glaring red orb burning fiercely on her face, almost clouding his vision of her.
Moving quickly, she takes her feet off the ground and rotates her body, forcing his arms to contort with a surprising strength her frame shouldn’t have. Aiming a circular kick at his ribs as flames grow on her legs and swords, burning his hand, reminding him of the brutal attack he experienced moments ago.
In a panic attack he softened his grip on the swords, throwing the woman against a wall. More flames grow from her blood, as if to soften the blow. Firstly with a loud “crack” she hits the wall, cracking it. Just a few seconds later, a dull sound of the bricks being forced and cracking due to the impact spread through the corridor, with the woman being thrown into a room.
For a moment, he breathed again. Flesh and thin blood exiting his mouth, he had his breath held for all this time… He blinked. He blinked. The woman was no longer in the rubble, with the same impossible speed of before, she was once again at striking range. With her legs enveloped by bright red flames, she kicks his stomach. Taking the air out of his lungs.
The suit on his torso had been torn apart by the rampant growth of his flesh, making her flame encased feet hit him straight in his belly. The blood once again boils as his flesh burns, the same sensation of before. In a pinch, he holds her feet with both of his arms and throws her up against the ceiling, smashing a lightbulb.
Blood flows out of the woman’s mouth, falling on his exposed jaw. Not willing to give her the chance to recover, he grows six more arms and launches them in her direction. Her limbs, her torso, her head. He would tear her apart.
Yet the woman smiled. She dropped the biggest of her swords with the blade pointing down, as if to hit him, he created an arm to hold it. This cheap trick wouldn’t work on him.
The woman held the sword’s blade. The woman’s voice crackled with a cruel tone“Ode to the Sun.” The sword’s blade extended in a spear of flames, piercing through his jugular and traveling diagonally all across his torso, exiting through his waist. He felt the flames spread through his torso, burning it from inside out.
With a bestial scream, he threw the blade and the woman, bisecting his torso. Once again, flesh mended as he rewinded time. His breath was more jagged and tired than before.
“You are tough.” This time, she speaks in a content tone, as a smile threatens to split her face in two, even with blood flowing down her face. “Let’s see how you hold up. Lowest Earth Highest Sky”
She jumps forward, once again in a position to use her swords as scissors. Sucking up, he sprouts arms through his body, forming a shield of flesh before her. He would tank it, and rip her apart. The heat in the room starts to ramp up, as flames burn bright. Like a hot knife, the sword punches through the arms, taking him by surprise. Searing heat burns and scarring the flesh as his defenses are cut through, once again he is taken by surprise and jumps back, the woman wouldn’t let him get away this time.
“Die.” With such simple words, she advances, her longsword becoming a spear of flames once again, piercing through his chest and heart, while the shortest sword is ignited in blood red too.
Without giving him time to assess his situation, she slashes with her shortest sword. And she slashes, and slashes, and slashes. Searing hits melt and boil his flesh as her sword cuts deep, while the other impales him.
With a war cry the woman runs with him impaled. With surprising force, she pushes him forwards in a charge as her flames burn his body with nasty and grievous scars. Putting his feet on the ground as breaks in an attempt to stop her. Although sound in logic, it didn’t stop her even for a few moments. In her forward charge, they hit a wall, with him taking the brunt of the impact.
“You fall here, Enforcer”. With a last push, she breaks the wall with overwhelming force, once again, he is out of the facility. Not in the way he wanted. She falls atop of him, her long sword piercing deep in the ground. She raises her shortest sword for the killing blow. Decapitation.
He would die here… in such a pathetic manner…? No… no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO! “I… DON’T WANT TO DIE!” He screams at the top of his lungs, without thinking he could sprout more arms, he raises his two hands towards the woman’s neck, holding down. There are no higher thoughts. He doesn't want to die. He wouldn’t die here! Using Separate unconsciously, he could feel the breath of the woman halt as she chokes.
As she chokes, she plunges her shortest sword on his neck, the searing flames makes him stagger from the pain, the flames burning the blood and flesh inside of his throat, softening his hold on her neck. This is all she needed. Taking both of her swords out, tearing his chest and neck, she jumps back. Standing just a few meters ahead of him.
He once again heals himself… how many times did he heal himself in this battle alone…? Yet the woman still fought him tit for that. She stood across him, with moonlight shining on her back. For the first time since the start of the fight he could hear the breathing of the woman become ragged like his. For the first time since the start of this bloody fight, he took respite, not knowing how much longer he would hang on, he fought his best. He wasn’t planning to die here but deep in himself he couldn’t deny her strength.
The moonlight shone on her back, white hair tinted and fluming red flowing like an ethereal river due to the winds (Imagine Saber and Shirou, but Saber somewhat roughed up and with little clothing, and Shirou laying down on the ground). Beautiful and soft white skin blemished purple with red taints across it. A burning red orb in her left eye. He didn’t realize it, but somehow the woman was wounded. He doesn’t know if she always was hurt like that, but now knowing that she wasn’t in her 100%, he had a chance. Despite her danger, this time her form was clear like an Angel. Yet her aura was nothing but bloodshed. Like a pure angel yet her aura made him feel dread. The expression on her face being stonelike, pure, cold, furious, disgusted and disappointed.
She was like an Angel of Death, a true reaper. Like a cornered animal, he rises up once again. He had problems remembering faces… but hers, it imprinted itself in his mind as a sweet, and terrifying smile, like the allure of a demon bloomed on her face. “This is your last moment. It all ends here and now.” Once again the red and black mist started to be born, exiting through her pores. He advanced. He advanced. He Attacked her. This is all he wants to do now!
But his body refuses to move. Paralyzed by fear of what she did, recognizing the Red Mist as the prelude to that horrifying blow. Biting his tongue, he steeled himself, he would face her head on this time. He wouldn’t be a prey waiting to be killed.
“HOLD OOOOON!”
A third party voice shakes both of their attention as the roar of an engine pierces through the night. The woman widened her eyes, putting her swords on a defensive position as flames ignited before her, suddenly the woman was thrown away. Far away by a van. Someone opened the door. He recognized this person. Mio. “Come in! Before that crazy nudist comes back!”
Without a second thought, he jumped inside of the Van as Mio ran back to the driver seat, getting away.
He collapsed on the van’s floor, curling up as he did. All the phantom pains of the fight coming back at once due to the adrenaline in his blood lessening. He never felt so much hurt in a single combat, he never felt his organs just explode out of his body before.
He never had met a monster worse than him before… he wanted it all to end. He wanted it all to end… all this pain to end. He wanted to cry, and so he did.
(...)
“Are you okay? Suddenly you were not answering any of my calls! Who was that crazy chick?! Goddammit, it was a fucking trap! How could I not see it?!” She was mad. She 's mad. This was a lure for Enforcers and they got fished by it! They fell for this trap like a bunch of amateurs!
“Hey, Caveman, are you okay?” Using the rearview to see Sandatsu. “Aaah. aaahh…” Surprisingly, his voice is low, like a whisper. He was not so battered up, besides all the blood splattered on his body, and his ruined suit. She hoped no one saw him besides the crazy chick.
“aaah…” Instead of answering, he curled himself in a fetal position, and started sobbing. She didn’t expect it. What the hell happened to him? Who was the Crazy Chick? He didn’t look like he was in position to do anything. Shit. If someone made someone like Sandatsu, a Hitman To Be, curl up and cry, then that person was a hell of a monster.
They were fooled. While the servers had some crucial info, they were mostly outdated by now, by at least a three month margin. Someone somehow wrestled down the control of the camera’s out of her. Her cell phone started to vibrate. “Oh for God’s sake.”
She looked at the rearview again, checking if someone was there or if they were being followed. No one near them. With a resigned sigh, she stopped the van, and took her cellphone. It was a HeroHero video trending. Unlocking her cellphone, she clicked on the video.
A man in black killed three people brutally. The angle is very good to frame someone. Also the equipment and him putting the pendrive. They played them like fiddles. They were played like fucking tools. They knew Enforcers were coming and prepared the best framing they got. The destruction would be blamed on them too. The title of the Video was: “Government’s file burning vital evidence of their brutality and crimes”.
The police sirens start to grow louder and louder. “I have to get out.” She turned on the engine and put her mind on the fastest route to get away from there and get rid of the van.
(A week later - Shihai’s office)
Reading through the report of that one disastrous mission, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Not only were they fooled by terrorists, but the presence of two of Legion’s leaders, The Nebulous Storm, and the one who named it, The Legion, are in Kyoto.
The only good thing out of it was that they sent Sandatsu, and his goblin of a partner, on this mission. Anyone else, even her own men, would become little more than blood stains on the ground if pitted against Nebulous Storm. Even Sandatsu was left scarred in the aftermath. They had the gall to unleash the documents on the internet, as well as the camera footage of Sandatsu killing three men, constructs of Legion.
Conspirationists and the paranoid are using it as fuel to their insecurities and spite, as Legion got new recruitment material to use. Things were not looking good. With a sigh, she took up her phone. Some calls would need to be made.