We make our way to Eri’s room, but when we get there we find the door wide open and blood coating the floor. Tension rises when a quick look around reveals a lack of any bodies but a number of bullet holes scattered all over the room. But there’s no hints as to whose blood it could be.

“I doubt that it’s the girl’s.” Nighteye says while adjusting his glasses. “She’s the key to all of Overhaul’s plans. He wouldn’t be so foolish as to kill her.”

“It could be our spy’s blood though,” I tentatively say, worried about Himiko. “The splatters on the wall are a definite sign that she was here.” I point at the long lines of blood that have dripped down the wall, clear signs that she’d fought and cut someone here. “But if she won she wouldn’t have taken the body with her knowing that we’re here to save Eri…”

Turn into them? Definitely. Take the body with her? No. So what really happened here? The both of us have been trained on how to deal with opponents that have guns, as uncommon as they are in Japan. But…

Could… she have been beaten?

`~`

Shin Nemoto is running through the halls of the underground base alongside Overhaul, who’s carrying a cowering Eri in his arms. “Why are you carrying that bag?” Overhaul questions his right hand.

He pats the bag in question with the gun in his other hand, an industrial type meant for carrying heavy loads on a person’s back and keep the contents dry in case of rain. “They’re a spy I caught when I went to grab Eri. They should make decent leverage if the Bullets fail to stall the heroes long enough for us to get away.”

“Hmm.” He looks down at the girl in his arms with narrowed eyes. “It seems that someone has been misbehaving. We’ll have to punish you when we get somewhere safe.”

The girl shivers, tucking her head down to avoid looking at his cold eyes, full of the promise of pain. Nemoto looks away, his expression unreadable underneath his mask. But before they can get much farther, a man pops out of the wall in front of them with his arm extended. In his outstretched hand is Mimic, a panicked expression on his face as the man screams. “POWER!”

Mimic is slammed into the opposite wall, his eyes rolling up into his head as his body embeds into a brand new crater. The man turns to the two villains, a wide smile on his face. “Hi there, I’m Lemillion! And I’ll be taking Eri away from you now.”

He vanishes through the floor, putting the villains on guard, warily looking around for him to appear. Overhaul has one hand extended, ready to disassemble him the moment he pops out. Nemoto has his gun held by his side, though whether or not it has a quirk-erasing bullet is unknown.

Despite their caution, they’re taken by surprise when Lemillion shoots out of the wall with a closed fist leading the way to Overhaul’s face. But he’s not the leader of the yakuza for nothing.  His hand shoots up, ready to meet him and eliminate the threat. But the hero passes through it like it’s not even there, along with Eri and the man himself.

“Whoopsie! Missed me, missed you, misses all around!” Lemillion shouts as he vanishes into the opposite wall.

Overhaul clicks his tongue before giving Nemoto a look. Understanding, he presses the gun against one end of the bag. “Now, now, hero. You wouldn’t want one of your people to lose their life, just because you didn’t know when to go on your way.”

The hero’s head pops out of the floor at Overhaul’s feet, who tries to kick him only for his foot to pass right through. “That’s not a person, it’s a bag!” He vanishes again, a few seconds later shooting out of the floor a few feet in the direction they were heading and taking a stance.

“Your tricks won’t work on me! I already know all about your quirks, and how to avoid them.” As if to prove his words, he phases through the stone spikes Overhauls sends towards him in the hopes of finding a limit to his quirk.

Nemoto doesn’t respond with words, instead drawing a knife from inside his cloak and stabbing into the bag, causing blood to quickly leak from the newly made hole. Shocked, Mirio freezes. A costly mistake.

Another set of spikes get launched at him, and this time he doesn’t go unscathed. Rips appear along his legs, matching the wounds underneath them. Luckily for him he has some good instincts, as he turns incorporeal before they can pierce too deeply. It doesn’t matter though.

He’s hurt.

He puts some distance between him and the two villains with a glare, his guard high. They’re at a standoff now; Lemillion too worried about hurting Eri if he were to attack Overhaul, and Overhaul being unable to get past Lemillion’s quirk. The bleeding hostage Nemoto holds adds another layer of complexity to the situation.

Impatient, Overhaul steps forward, causing Lemillion to tense. “I’m going to go ahead. You deal with the hero, Nemoto.”

“As if I-” The hero’s objection is abruptly cut off when Nemoto raises the knife once again, the threat clear.

Let Overhaul pass, or the hostage pays.

“Of course, Overhaul. I’ll be along shortly.” Overhaul’s shoes make a clicking noise as he moves away from Nemoto, his confidence in being let go all but certain.

Lemillion has no choice but to let him go, though he knows that Overhaul won’t be getting away. His part in the plan never had him confronting the man on his own, he’d simply tried to take advantage of the opportunity presented to him after finally catching Mimic after a grueling chase through the complex.

As Overhauls passes, he idly tries to touch Lemillion on the arm, being unsurprised when it simply passes through. He ignores the look of anger the hero sends his way, taunting him as he leaves the two of them behind. “Not much of a hero when you’re abandoning the girl, now are you. But someone with such a vile curse doesn’t deserve to be saved anyways.”

“Don’t listen to him, Eri! We will save you! He won’t be able to hurt you anymore!” Lemillion shouts at the girl, but she fails to react, as if his words mean nothing to her.

Overhaul’s footsteps fade as he strides further and further from the confrontation, eventually fading into nothing while Lemillion stares at Nemoto with anger filled eyes.

“Now,” Nemoto says as he lets the bag fall to the floor with a wet sounding thud, drawing his gun in his now free hand before Lemillion can act on the slight opening. He lazily  lifts the knife palm-up while keeping the gun trained on the bag. “I think that it’s time for me to get some answers out of you, wannabe hero.”

`~`

“The hell is Blue?”

“Who is Blue?”

Mirko’s question overlaps with that of Rappa’s partner, Hekiji Tengai, though the tones are vastly different.

“Blue’s my junior. So’s Yellow.”

Tengai sighs. “That doesn’t tell me anythi-” He’s cut off as Mirko’s foot comes in contact with a yellow barrier not far from his head, one that surrounds both him and Rappa. She clicks her tongue in disappointment as she bounces back.

“No luck, huh. That’s going to be annoying.” She glares at Rappa, who’s glaring at Tengai, with her fists on her hips. “Oi! Old man! I thought we were going to finally have a good fight! Who’s the dork in the bathrobe?”

“I ain’t that old!”

“This is a kimono!”

She snorts at their objections, one ear twitching as Gentle Criminal edges around the room in an attempt to get behind the duo of yakuza. “Whatever,” she snorts at Tengei before eyeing Rappa. “But you can’t say you’re young, I remember you from way-back-when!”

Rappa’s brows furrow under his mask and he scratches at his chin as he stares at the rabbit woman. They’ve met before? When could that have been…?

Mirko barks out a short laugh at the clear confusion the two are experiencing. “Ha! And they said my identity was obvious.” She puffs out her chest proudly. “We met back at the original Masquerade! I was the masked fighter, Tiger Bunny!”

“Oh yeah! Now I remember! I was looking forward to testing you out back then, but now?” He chuckles while cracking his knuckles. “Now I’m excited to see if you’ve just been coasting on your old skills, or if you still deserve that name.”

They match bloodthirsty grins, adrenaline coursing through their veins as they prepare to launch themselves at each other. Only for Tengai to douse them in cold water. “Rappa, keep in mind that we’re working together. You are the sword and I am the shield. The ultimate combo meant to defeat Overhaul’s enemies.”

The two battle maniacs meet each others’ eyes, a silent understanding seeming to pass between them as they both nod. Then, in unison, they turn to Tengai.

““FUCK OFF YOU BATHROBE WEARING MONKEY!!!””

Stunned, he barely manages to get his barrier back up in time to block both of their attacks, only for his eyes to widen in his last moments of consciousness as Rappa’s fist and Mirko’s foot push the parts they strike inward. Behind Tengai is Gentle Criminal, a self-satisfied smile on his face at how well his sneaking skills worked.

They share savage grins with each other while Gentle Criminal grabs the unconscious Bullet and makes the smart decision to flee through the door in the back of the room. He knows better than to get in between these two!

“Now that the distractions are gone-”

“-we can let loose!”

The two charge each other with yells of excitement, neither sure of their victory in the upcoming fight. But they don’t fight for victory, no.

They fight for the thrill of it.