Dabi had bolted like a fury the second he heard where his beloved Sho-sho was being held captive.
The medical facility was on the other side of town, and it would have taken him over an hour to get there in a vehicle.
The surviving members of the league had been confused by the sight of him bursting out into the dark night, flames propelling him like a jet, as visible as if he'd been fluorescent.
The warning look he'd given them had silenced them before they could say anything.
Dabi didn't care whether villains or heroes were after him: either way, the second Shoto had been brought to All for One's lair, the whole operation was as good as ruined.
Dabi's eyes were bulging, blood vessels bursting in his sclerosis. A quivering, twisted smile lifted and lowered the corners of his mouth as if he was having a seizure.
Excitement made him nervous, clouded his thoughts, made him burn his energy faster and harder to get there before Shoto disappeared.
Because apart from Dabi, nobody knew how dangerous Shoto was.
For a second, Dabi remembered the time he'd almost drowned him in his bath.
The memory turned into a fantasy and, for the umpteenth time, he imagined what his life would have been like if he'd boiled him in it.
Dabi landed like a fury in front of the presumably abandoned building.
His flames dispersed, sweeping the surrounding area in a hot blast as he bent his legs to cushion the impact.
Black Mist appeared between him and the dilapidated entrance.
- Dabi, what are you-
Dabi didn't answer and ran through Black Mist.
The villain's surface blurred as he turned, his big yellow eyes slightly narrowed.
- Master ? Shall I stop him?
His earpiece crackled.
He heard the sound of clashing metal and knew it was the instruments with which All for One was being operated.
- Leave it and come back
*
I stood still in the doorway, my eyes wide open.
In front of me, stretching as far as the eye could see, were a hundred test tubes filled with humanoid beings in fetal position.
Nomus.
A few bubbles left the mouth of one of the creatures on my left.
Smaller than the others, it looked more like a child having undergone a sudden growth spurt than a full-blown nomu.
It was as white as chalk, two tiny red wings having pierced its back in thin, gill-like lines. Black protuberances protruded from its elbows and arced slightly over its forearm.
Greyish horns swirled on his beats and mingled with his golden hair.
Suddenly, the thing opened its eyes.
Two yellow pupils, slit vertically, scrutinized me with interest.
The thing didn't react when I began to paint on its glass tube with my ink-stained fingertips.
It watched me repeat the same operation on several of the surrounding tubes, then closed its eyes and returned to its precious sleep.
I continued the process, one tube after another, until I had covered the entire room.
Whatever I'd thought at first, these things weren't nomus.
As to whether they were worse, I preferred not to risk it.
Knives in hand, I scanned the room one last time before taking the stairs to the upper floor.
The second I opened the door to level -3, a group of five armed men crossed the corridor.
The first, hand floating above the handle I'd already activated, barely had time to look up at me before his severed hand flew in front of his face.
The three men behind him stepped back and the last one took aim at me.
A bullet whistled through the air so fast it created a rush of wind.
I bent my legs, sharingan spinning lazily in my eyes, grabbed the man with the severed hand and swung him at the gunman.
The bullet flew over my shoulder and embedded itself in the metal door with the sound of thunder.
The gunman lowered his weapon and tried to catch up his teammate, stumbling back several steps to steady himself.
I used the wall on my right as a springboard, propelling myself into the air above the group before landing behind them in a crouched position.
Kunais in hand, I sliced the shooter's achilles heel in a single movement.
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Blood spurted to the ground as the man screamed, collapsing to the ground under his own weight and that of his teammate.
The others barely had time to turn their heads before I struck a third man's throat with my fist, crushing his windpipe.
He crumpled to his knees, hands on his throat, mouth hanging open in a silent scream.
The fourth reached for his pistol and fired three times.
I saw the bullets split the air in slow motion, my chakra pulsing against my skin.
In a second, I was on the ground, brushing aside the gunman's legs with a gesture.
Bullets burst like rain around me, raising a cloud of dust.
Even as the gunman was falling, I grabbed his head with one hand and smashed his skull against the ground.
A thunderous 'boom' echoed through the corridor.
My kunai left my hand like an arrow, going straight for the throat of the man whose hand I'd sliced.
Eyes glowing red, I looked up at the fifth and final man.
His pistol was pointed at my head at point-blank range.
His forefinger didn't even have time to touch the trigger before I'd snatched it out of his hand.
My legs catapulting me, I plunged my kunai into his throat before firing deep into his flesh, opening a wide bloody furrow.
I pivoted on my legs, plucking the kunai from the dying man's body and hurling it at full speed at the shooter with severed tendons.
The blade sank into his skull right down to the hilt.
I sat up, panting slightly, wheezing. The gauze strips wrapped around my torso were soaked with blood.
No one got up.
I moved over each man again, sinking my blade into their skulls before straightening up.
The corridor's naked light bulb flickered.
I looked up at the sounds of running on the floor above. The thin ceiling quaked under their assault.
I felt the rest of the floor, then clicked my tongue against my palate.
The shots had sold me, and I was taking too many risks staying here to clear the level while All for One was still around.
I crouched behind the door, soaking my hand in ink before drawing a small circle from the floor to the walls.
At the top, I heard the metal door slam against the wall.
I gritted my teeth, hastily finishing the fuin seal.
Leather boots slapped against the cement of the stairs. The sound of holsters clinking against thighs was a cacophony.
Lightning crackled on the surface of my right hand as I put the finishing touches to my work.
The door to my floor banged against the wall.
An arc of blue lightning shot from my palm and blew out the only light bulb in the corridor.
The tip of a foot barely had time to cross the threshold of my hallway before we were plunged into darkness.
In a flash, I had sprung from my crouched position, my chidori piercing the heart of the first man.
The second man took a step back, his eyes following the blazing light with a full second to spare.
My luminous fist struck his throat like a cannonball, severing his head in a single motion.
A spray of blood flew through the air.
My hand passed through a belly, two torsos, a new head.
There was howling.
The first spurt fell to the ground.
The last two men, standing almost one behind the other, started shooting in all directions.
I leapt over the wall, a shower of bullets in my wake, sped across the ceiling before jumping off, head upside down and legs bent, lightning crackling in my hand.
I could see the terror in their faces in slow motion, their eyes bulging until they almost popped out of their lids, their features pulling until they looked frozen, their mouths contorting as if-.
My chidori pierced the head of the first, then passed through that of the second.
I did a salto in the air, pivoting to land softly on the stairs.
The lightning faded and my hair fell back onto my sweaty skin.
The two pierced bodies fell like bags.
I opened my mouth, inhaling an air full of blood and piss.
Suddenly, the heat in the stairwell rose a hundred degrees.
I barely had time to turn my head towards the metal door, on which 2 was painted, before it exploded.
A geyser of blue flames shot out, throwing me backwards with the power of a typhoon.
I crossed my arms in front of my face to protect myself as the fire sent me tumbling down the stairs, my spine colliding violently with the metal barrier before it bent under my weight.
I smashed into a wall, splitting the cement under my weight, before my chakra took over and stuck me completely.
The burning geyser rushed past me, drying out my skin almost faster than I could rehydrate it.
I felt like I was in a volcano in which an earth-scale hairdryer was blowing at full blast.
My ice entered my nervous system, cooling my boiling blood and freezing my skin to lower my temperature.
Frostbite covered my knuckles, spreading until my fingers were icy cold.
I exhaled a cloud of steam, which turned into boiling vapor in the heat.
Then, suddenly, the geyser of flames stopped.
I didn't even think, using the wall as a springboard to propel myself like an arrow over the stairs, the dry air crackling like wood about to be set on fire.
Dabi burst out of the door on 2, fist ablaze with flames, a smile so big on his lips it devoured three-quarters of his face.
I held out my hand and a veritable blizzard erupted from it, bursting like a frozen storm all around us.
Our Quirks collided with the violence of two trucks at full speed.
A cloud of boiling steam erupted at the point of contact, exploding like a steam bomb and enveloping us in a cocoon of whitish smoke.
Dabi laughed, a tear of blood rolling down his lower eyelid.
- What an incredible welcome, Sho-sho! I expected nothing less from you!
I kicked him in the chest, which he parried with his forearm.
Using him as a springboard, I spun around and sent my left foot into his face.
Dabi was thrown backwards violently, piercing the smoke like a cannonball.
I didn't let him out of my sight, flying almost over the stairs that led us to the -2 door.
Arching my back, arms hanging loosely, I grabbed the two kunais from the charred bodies without stopping.
Dabi met my gaze over his crossed arms.
I raised my right arm, dagger in hand, ready to descend upon him.
A new gust of blue flame erupted from his body, pushing me back with the power of a cyclone.
I gritted my teeth, feeling my clothes melt against my skin, then brought my knife down on his right forearm.
He screamed like a madman as I slid the blade into his flesh, cutting a trench from his wrist to his elbow.
- You can't kill me ! You can't kill me !
In a sudden fit of hysteria, Touya started cackling like a mad goose.
- You can't ! You can't !
I tore my kunai from his forearm and struck his heart.
Touya's eyes widened and he put his severed forearm in my path, deflecting my blade enough for it to end up in his collarbone.
The impact sent Dabi staggering backwards, until his feet hit a burnt corpse.
He fell backwards, eyebrows raised, mouth half-open, while I was already on top of him, my right fist clutching his shirt to hold him in place, my sharpened kunai gleaming in my left hand, just above my head.
- You can't ! Don't do it ! Don't do it !
My blade descended like divine judgment.
Touya blazed like a human torch, his blue flames turning blinding white for a second.
I gritted my teeth, a drop of sweat rolling down the corner of my mouth.
Touya hit the ground, stumbling against the cement.
He could summon the fires of hell and nothing would stop gravity from finishing the job with my knife.
- If you kill me, the video will be sent to all the media!
My blade froze above his throat, a hair's breadth away from slicing through his skin.
Sharingan spinning lazily in my pupils, I scanned his features.
He's not lying.
- What video ?
*
Author's note :
The response to the question that I asked at the end of the last chapter will give us the name of the last part of this story. Someone told me nine circles, but the nine circles of what ?
250 power stones = sunday bonus chapter
Keep it up everyone, we can absolutely make it
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See you in the next update !