Yuta stayed crouched, chest heaving, Eri squeezed tightly in his arms. His heart hammered so violently he could feel it in his teeth.
It was all coming back to him now.
Flashes of certain scenes, storylines, most of what he remembered of My Hero Academia.
Enough to realize how bad of an idea his previous decision had been. For My Hero, Yuta had never been much of a hardcore fan. He'd stopped somewhere in season 4 and moved on to other shows.
Adding to the Overhaul Arc not being very memorable for him, his understanding of Kai Chisaki was ... Skewed, to say the least.
Most of the details were all mixed together.
Now though, he remembered quite a bit of the fights, big scenes—and just how cooked he was.
'I ... did not think this through.'
Overhaul's quirk ran beyond just turning people into blood bits. It worked both on the living and non living.
Just like earlier, he could reshape the entire terrain for dozens of meters in an instant. All with nothing but a touch.
Without the Sharingan, Yuta would have been impaled in seconds.
His gaze fell on Overhaul, who was staring back, expression unreadable behind the mask. "You're more troublesome than you look," he said quietly. "Stand up."
Yuta did not. He flicked his gaze to the alley entrance and his heart sank.
The alley entrance behind him was sealed—collapsed rubble and twisted rebar forming an impenetrable wall. The spikes boxed him in on three sides.
There was nowhere to go except back. That way ... Was being blocked by Overhaul and Rappa.
'Trapped.'
The word echoed in his skull like a death sentence. Overhaul took another step forward, boots crunching over broken stone.
"Interesting quirk you have. Speed alongside an ocular mutation. Enhanced perception, perhaps? But it won't help you."
Yuta's eyes narrowed.
"To think you would use such an attack while I was holding her. You're not afraid of her getting injured ... Or killed. Just lets me know she truly isn't your daughter."
Overhaul's eyes narrowed.
"While I am surprised you could dodge that much, it's just that. Your quirk doesn't seem interesting enough to be worth keeping around. .." He stretched, pulling off one of his gloves.
"So I'll be taking Eri back now. There's no point in stalling. You can't win," Overhaul said quietly. Yuta's jaw clenched. "Last chance. Give her back?" Overhaul continued, "I'll let you leave if you walk away."
"Bullshit," Yuta rasped. Overhaul's eyes narrowed.
"You're right." He pulled off his other glove. "But I thought I'd offer." Both hands, bare now.
Yuta's heart hammered.
'Move. I have to move—'
His eyes darted rapidly.
The world looked different through the Sharingan. Too sharp. Too clear. Every detail screamed at him, and his reaction time had gone up drastically.
'The exit is sealed ... I can either attempt to get past Overhaul, or ...'
His eyes turned upwards.
'I can go ...'
Immediately, he moved. 'Up.' Jumping out of the spiky cage around him, he flickered to the wall, when,
The walls shifted, spikes jotting out before he could even place his feet on them. 'Dammit.'
He dodged backwards, body twisting as he avoided the rapid attacks coming from all directions with predictive insight.
'It's fine. I just have to ..'
SQUELCH!
Yuta's eyes widened as the sound of piercing flesh resounded filled his ears.
His body flicker came to a halt.
His gaze turned, fixing on the spike that came out of nowhere, now piercing through his shoulder.
'I .. didn't ..'
There was only so much space in a narrow alleyway. Plus his proficiency with the Body Flicker Jutsu was minimal. That fact that he could use it as well as he could was testament to his Quirk's ability.
Blood ran down the piece of earth piercing through him. Then pain came in a flood he had never experienced before.
"Ugh! Damn that hurts ..."
He winced, facial features crumpling as he used his quirk to suppress the pain and stop the bleeding.
SQUELCH. Without hesitation, he yanked his shoulder out, leaving scraps of flesh behind. The pain momentarily came back again, before being dampened.
He turned his gaze, just in time to receive another barrage of earth spikes.
Meanwhile,
'I can't drag this out much longer.' The villain watched with mounting irritation as the brat evaded yet again another attack.
'The heroes will show up soon at this rate. The troubles that'll follow will be a pain to deal with.'
The revelation only served to irritate him further.
"Tch. A mess,"
His hands on the floor clenched. BOOM!
Everything on the other end turned into a maze of cross crossing spikes, jutting in all directions.
It was one thing to kill an idiot who put himself in the way. That took no effort.
But he had seen the uniform the brat had worn. A U.A student no doubt.
'First Eri, now this.' To think this accursed day could get worse.
A child from there disappearing—especially so soon after the USJ incident— would ignite scrutiny he did not need.
Hero society's eyes would tilt in his direction,
and attention, to Kai Chisaki, was a disease far more troublesome than the one he intended to cure.
If the boy had simply walked away, if he had simply minded his own business, Chisaki would have allowed it. A stain not worth scrubbing.
A variable with a predictable, controllable outcome.
But he hadn't. He'd interfered. Protected the girl. Clung to some misguided notion of salvation.
Now,
'I will teach him ... The idiocracy of his actions.' Rows of spiked earth shot out once more. Impaling the position the boy had been but a second ago.
'Tch ..'
No doubt, the repeated dodging was getting annoying.
The boy's speed was fast. Incredibly so. However, signs clearly showed that this speed wasn't consistent.
His ability to make high speed maneuvers was clearly limited in that speed, and it looked taxing to keep up.
He was fast, but without a shred of experience in properly using his powers, much less combat. He had no desire to fight, focusing all his efforts on fleeing and evading. The earlier strike showed that his movements were predictable, but ...
'His eyes ... That's how he keeps dodging ..'
Overhaul's eyes narrowed. In that case, 'Try dodging what you can't see.' The battlefield changed instantly.
Every spike shattered into dust, clouding Yuta's view. Fragments of earth flew over, Yuta shielded his eyes instinctively.
'What Is He ..'
CRACK–CRUNCH–CRACK! The ground convulsed.
'..'.
His gaze lowered. Under his Sharingan, Spikes erupted from the floor, shooting towards him at rapid speeds. He immediately kicked off the earth, the spikes extended after him, stopping just below his current height of elevation.
'That was close ..'
He hadn't finished his thoughts when the walls on both sides morphed before shooting forward. Yuta's eyes widened as he leaned with all his strength.
Blood spilled into the air.
The two spikes sliced the edge of his neck and leg, drawing blood from fresh wounds.
Narrowly, avoiding certain impalement, Yuta whose sense of pain had been suppressed, placed one leg on the extended spike before pushing off just in time to avoid the spikes exploding. His scalp tingled at the sight. He had just leaped off with no intention of dodging anything originally.
If he hadn't, his legs would currently be mincemeat.
'DAMMIT! I WASN'T EVEN TRYING TO DODGE THAT.'
He landed on his feet, face incomparably grim.
The Sharingan darted rapidly, trying to predict where the next one would come from.
'This is bad, ..'
Beads of sweat had begun accumulating over him. His breathing was uneven and his body ached. For the current him, the Body Flicker Jutsu was physically demanding.
That wasn't even accounting for Chakra expenditure.
Now, he couldn't even think about escaping. He could only keep his attention solely devoted to not dying. 'I can't even ...' They emerged once again.
Spikes erupted from the walls, floor, everywhere. Yuta barely had time to react. Luckily, his eyes weren't normal.
With the Sharingan, he twisted, sidestepped, leapt, and chakra walked all over the dangerous landscape.
Until he stood in a position where regular movements wouldn't cut it anymore Chakra spread throughout his body, once again ready to dodge when his body movements faltered. Not from an external attack, but an internal one.
'What the ..'
His body flicker ceased midway, throwing his movements out of order. If he hadn't suppressed his sense of pain, his entire body would throb with it by now.
'My body can't ...'
The thoughts just formed when,
SQUELCH!
A spike grazed his thigh. Another tore across his shoulder, further restricting his movements. Blood ran freely.
Yuta's eyes narrowed. He ignored it, forcing his focus back on his surroundings with darting eyes.
CRACK!
Another attack, one he couldn't dodge this time.
From behind, a spike shot straight toward his back, aimed to pierce through him, and most likely Eri on the other side.
Instinct took over. He threw her forward.
SQUELCH.
The spike dug into his back, emerging just centimeters from his chest.
Blood spilled from his lips.
But his organs didn't rupture. His heart didn't stop.
Inside, everything shifted. Bones moved. Muscles compressed. Organs slid out of the way in ways no human body should've been able to manage.
His quirk working on pure survival instinct.
Eri, thrown forward earlier and now curled on the ground, looked up.
Her eyes widened.
"Stop—!" Her voice cracked as she pleaded to him. Her guardian. The man question didn't respond. Instead his eyes narrowed upon the impaled Yuta as his hand fell.
Yuta's eyes widened.
"DON"T KILL HIM!" Eri cried. Her voice drowned in her own sobbing. "Stop! Please—stop!"
Overhaul's hand paused before it hit the ground. Before it could finish him off.
Still conscious, Yuta's brows furrowed at his actions.
'Is he ..'
The thought died before it could bloom.
No way would he entertain the possibility that Overhaul had stopped simply because Eri told him to.
"Eri."
Overhaul's voice cut through the silence.
"This is your fault." Sure enough, he was right.
Eri flinched, head lowering.
"This," he gestured lazily at the carnage, "is the result of your choices. Had you stayed put—none of this would've occurred."
Overhaul hadn't stopped out of compassion, but out of irritation.
He looked at her, at the boy pinned to the wall of earth like some dissected experiment, and exhaled through his mask.
"And now he has to die because of your selfishness."
"No—" Eri choked out. "Please—"
"Begging won't change anything."
Overhaul lowered his hand. The ground beneath Eri shifted, pulling her toward him like the earth itself obeyed his will. She slid across the dirt, helpless.
SQUELCH!
At the same time, Yuta tore himself free. Flesh ripped and blood dyed the earth red. A momentary grimace crowned his features before suppressing it.
"You're still moving?" Overhaul's hand shifted.
The land Yuta stood was instantly riddled with spikes.
'Tch. Again ..' Midway though his thoughts, he appeared.
One instant he was away, the next he was right in front of Overhaul, shoulder bleeding, breathing ragged, eyes burning red.
He swung.
A desperate, brutal punch that forced Overhaul to shift his stance just slightly—just enough to jerk Eri's drifting body out of his direct reach.
"I can't…" Yuta's vision doubled, then re-stabilized through the Sharingan's auto-correction.
"…let you take her back."
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run.
Running was logical. Running was survival.
But if Overhaul got her back—
then all of this, every stupid choice he'd made, every wound carved into him, every risk—
would become meaningless.
He swallowed the tremor in his chest.
'Focus.'
His feet adjusted. Weight low. Hands up.
His mind cleared into that narrow space where fear and intention blurred into one sharp purpose.
If he couldn't escape under Chisaki's watch…
'—then I'll just knock you out.'
He didn't need to knock him out. Honestly, he wasn't even sure he could. He just needed to land the hit.
His chakra surged. Muscles tensed. His leg twisted into the form he'd performed a thousand times in the community gym near the Hinohara Hero Agency.
Finally—
finally—
those martial arts classes he took to "boost stamina" had a purpose.
His heel carved through the air in a tight arc.
A roundhouse kick—clean, fast, enhanced with chakra amplification—
slammed into Overhaul's guard.
THUD.
The impact shuddered through both of them.
Overhaul blocked with his left arm.
CRACK.
The bone gave way. His stance buckled half a step. A shock rippled up his shoulder.
Yuta's eyes lit up.
Gotcha.
He didn't need to win.
He didn't need to overpower him.
He just needed a few seconds—
a single opening—
Just one chance to grab Eri and—
"—!"
Something flickered in the corner of his Sharingan vision.
A tiny movement. Barely anything.
A twitch of Overhaul's right hand.
Not even a grab.
Just a graze.
A flick of a bare fingertip brushing across Yuta's forearm as he spun from the kick.
A touch he didn't have the space, stamina, or angle left to evade.
His breath hitched.
His body—
froze.
No pain.
No sound.
Just the horrifying sensation of everything inside him going rigid at once.
Like his blood turned to stone.
Like the world had been paused.
Overhaul exhaled once.
"Got you."
___
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