"Stop running and die." Shigure ran after her.
Tsuki was the only female in the gang and the leader.
At least, that was what Shigure knew.
Her quirk was unknown to him.
While running, she dropped a bomb, intending to stop Shigure.
Even with Slow Down, running into a blast cloud was suicide.
His quirk allowed him to slow down things, not stop everything completely.
"Hmph." Shigure snorted, increasing the size of his domain such that the bomb got engulfed just as it hit the ground.
And the domain surged—straight for Tsuki.
Just as it was going to engulf her, too, something changed.
A white flash flared. He shut his eyes—but too late.
However, it was futile. The damage was already done.
He got blinded by a flashbang.
Light didn't care about quirks.
At least the change won't be perceived by humans even if it is slowed by a thousand times.
He wore a low-quality visor compared to what he usually wears, courtesy of Hawks, leading to Ki's absence.
'She already knew that I would use my quirk and timed the opening of the bomb like that. I grew complacent as the bomb was in my domain, which she took into calculations.' A grin appeared on Shigure's face.
His heart drummed inside his chest.
He was still running, but without vision. This would be the perfect time to attack him.
Shigure could already see a rifle or some strong gun attack him now. So, he prepared himself to dive any second now.
'She has an intellect-related quirk or something similar. I could achieve the same results if I used Speed Up. Hmm, my instincts are warning me to dive right. Yet, my mind is telling me not to dive as there's a high chance that my action would be read.'
Shigure was now at a crossroads.
To dive or not to dive.
Instinct screamed. Logic argued.
Which one to choose?
Shigure had mostly relied on his mind rather than his instincts. So, he was inclined not to dive.
Thoughts clashed at light speed even without Speed Up activated.
Decision made.
He needs to compromise.
A compromise between Instinct and Intelligence.
There could be multiple interpretations in this situation.
He could crouch, maybe do a partial dive or do a feint.
'What should I do?'
Before he could choose, a thought came into his mind.
'Fuck it. Chaos it is.'
---
Tsuki was having a pretty good day today.
Her previous plan of being ready for a hero or police raid has been successful, as according to her predictions, the info leak did bring trouble.
Initially, she wasn't worried, as luckily for her, Bob was present.
Still, she prepped for Murphy's Law—and Murphy delivered. The freaking number 19 hero decided to grace them with his hawkish presence.
So, she decided to attack first.
Her quirk: Thought Acceleration. With that, her thinking speed was made 10 times her normal speed.
Planning and executing went hand in hand, and she set up a pretty good ambush.
The angle, speed and other factors of the rocket allowed it such that they won't know it until they got hit.
She hoped to kill at least one or two pros, especially Eraserhead.
His presence was as troublesome as Birdhead's presence.
However, there was one variable in her plans that she hadn't accounted for in this scenario.
'Heretic Smasher. His quirk seems to slow down things around him. Most of the information about him is on his temperament rather than his quirk.' She thought as she looked at the slowed-down explosion of the rocket.
She had decided to deal with him herself.
So, after all the other pros got occupied by her teammates, she tested him by sending a smoke bomb.
Just as she expected, he jumped off the building.
'It's a bit too easy.' She thought as she pulled the trigger of the sniper rifle.
She bought it from Bob, who had brought the weapons from his home country, where it was easy to get compared to Japan.
The speed of the bullet was close to 3 Mach, or 3 times the speed of sound.
Even if you slow it down by 50 times, the speed would still be 25-30 m/s. A speed that a normal person couldn't dodge at such a short range.
She was expecting two possibilities: either he shows a new aspect of his quirk, or increases the output of his quirk and slows down the bullet.
If the latter happened, approaching him at close range would be a complete checkmate for her.
However, contrary to her expectations, he did neither and got back on the roof before dodging the bullet.
'Impressive, ' she thought before using the thermal scope.
When she shot the pen, she realised that he was testing her.
She decided that with that attitude, attacking would be a good time, so she threw an actual grenade.
They were around empty corporate buildings. No civilians.
Tsuki didn't want needless deaths.
She readied her thermal scope, and just as she was pulling the trigger, she noticed her opponent taking a strike position.
'Why?' Her eyes widened, and she immediately jumped off the building, using the rope present as support to go down.
'Troublesome' After reaching the ground, she noticed Smasher rushing towards her.
She retrieved normal pistols from her pocket, trying to slow him down.
BANG BANG BANG.
However, it was futile, so she decided to run.
She dropped a flashbomb, planning to end everything with the next blow.
She reached the end of the building and quickly took out the weapon present, aiming towards Shigure.
Tsuki had beforehand put multiple weapons at all 4 corners of this building.
She hadn't anticipated this situation, but rather, she took extra caution.
The weapon in her hand was a machine gun.
It doesn't matter if he could slow it down. It would be too late with the number and his current blind state.
In the worst-case scenario, it would buy Tsuki a lot of time, which would be enough to end this fight.
"This is the end." Just as she was going to shoot, Shigure twisted his body and... threw his metal stick at her.
'The fuck?' She was confused by the move, and her confusion grew when she calculated the trajectory of the stick.
She pulled the trigger, but realised that Shigure wasn't present at his initial position.
BANG BANG BANG
The bullets were fired at a blank spot.
'How did he?' Her eyes widened as she looked to her right to find Shigure at that spot...with his metal staff.
Tsuki's mind was operating at 10 times speed, so accounting for losing sight of Shigure was a big deal for her.
'I was slowed down.'
"Good night. Sweet nightmares." That was the last thing Tsuki heard before Shigure thrust the metal rod in her mouth.
Her eyes rolling back, the world turning black.
There was silence, only broken by Shigure's rough breathing.
He took out the rod and dropped it to the ground. Then he took out a chocolate bar and quickly devoured it.
"Good grief." 'It was a good decision to use Speed Up first. Otherwise, things would have gotten messy.'
Shigure had thrown the staff—a decoy. Sped up, closed the gap, then slowed her down. Waited. Caught it.
'I made this whole thing on the fly.' Shigure was impressed that he was able to come up with an elaborate plan. The original intention was only to throw the rod, hoping to get Tsuki hit by it.
However, after throwing it, he realised how unrealistic it was and made this plan in pieces.
'I am out of juice.' Shigure thought, pulling out multiple chocolate bars and devouring them.
He normally could get the energy quickly if he cast Speed Up, as things would be digested.
However, glancing at his wounded arm, which has only worsened, he frowned.
'Well, I could give at least moral support to others. Plus, just one instance of Slow Down might be enough to end the battle for others.'
After eating his fill, he decided to move.
He held his stick again and first cleaned it off on Tsuki's clothes, as it was laced in her saliva.
'What if she runs away? Isn't she the leader?' He looked at the unconscious girl.
"Let's first get rid of the weapons." He searched her body, and what he found dumbfounded him.
2 more pistols and freaking 9 knives.
"Wow, guess you learn new things every day." Today, Shigure learned about various places to hide knives while doing physical activity.
After doing this, Shigure pondered how to restrain her exactly. He didn't have a proper capture weapon and wasn't confident in his rope-tying skills.
'Would breaking her legs prevent her from escaping?'
***
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