ATOMIC STRUGGLE

7「villains」8

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"Hello everyone, sorry for the intrusion," One of the attackers smiled pleasantly as she twirled a knife in her hand while her associate held a non-lethal gun. "The name's Saku Mori, and I'm the leader of this here operation." 

"What do you want with us?!" Ashido demanded as Tiger, the only other conscious hero, got ready for a fight. 

"Our objective," Saku continued on like she hadn't been interrupted. "Is to hurt as many of you as possible so that UA's credibility in the hero world diminishes. Oh don't worry, UA isn't exactly special," She smirked. "But for now, since UA is one of the pinnacles of hero society, we'll do what we can. So," Saku's eyes searched the crowd, then had to dodge as Tiger decided right then was the perfect time to attack. "Oh my, how about no?" She laughed as she continued to evade. 

"What did you do to Mandalay and Pixiebob?!"

"They'll be fine after a nice long rest," The other villain explained. "My quirk isn't exactly deadly, just puts people to sleep and gives them the worst dreams of their lives. Feel free to call me Nightmare, or Mare for short."

"You're not supposed to explain your quirk, dumbass!" Saku rolled her eyes, then seemingly activated her own quirk as her eyes glowed bright blue. Mare lifted her gun and pointed it at Tiger, who looked discombobulated, but as she pulled the trigger, a stream of acid took out what she was trying to shoot at the hero. 

"I DON'T THINK SO!" Ashido yelled, sending more and more acid at the villain, who simply smiled and dodged each wave. Then, right as the hero was almost on top of her, Mare pulled something out of her pocket and blew a dart right in Ashido's face. Instantly, the pinkette was down, and Mare sidestepped their falling form. 

"So, who's next?"

~*~

Mihoko and Kota had retreated to THEIR secret hideout for the evening, expressly to stay away from the 'test of courage' or whatever the idiots were calling it. Kota really couldn't stand it, them, any of the stupid show offs. As they were lounging around the secret hideout, Kota suddenly felt the need to ask his new friend a question. 

"Hey," He voiced, causing the girl to glance at him. She was taller than him, older too. Sometimes she acted like it, but most of the time, she was the one causing the mischief like a child of Kota's age. Not to mention she had defended him against that guy that had brought up his parents, so he felt obligated to like her, even more so than before. 

"What's up?" She asked with a tilt of her head. 

"What do you.." Kota trailed off, trying to find the right words. He knew that her so called 'guardian' was here as a hero in training, so he didn't want to alienate her or anything by being his usual brash self, thus he took another moment to choose his words carefully. "Think about heroes?"

"Not much, to be honest," Mihoko replied, putting her hands out behind her to base as she leaned back and looked up at the sky. "Heroes are just law enforcement but flashier, I guess. Don't get me wrong, they can be cool, it's just," She sighed and looked at Kota. "I've seen some sides of heroes that I don't like. Maybe it's just the government's influence over heroes since they're an actual paying job, but still, I guess there's a dark and light aspect to everything in life."

"....That was really philosophical of you."

"Think so?" Mihoko giggled before giving Kota a smile. "And you hate heroes, right?"

"..Yeah," He nodded solemnly. "My parents were heroes, like that jerk the other day said. They just wanted to show off. If they hadn't been showing off, they'd still be here," Kota gritted his teeth. "Anyone going around calling themselves heroes and fighting against people they label as villains are just trigger happy idiots."

"Guns aren't legal in Japan though."

"I know that," Kota scoffed. "I meant that they're..."

"That anyone that calls themself a hero is just trying to show off?" Mihoko suggested, and the boy nodded gruffly. "I can understand that. And I totally get why you think the labels are dumb," She shook her head with an exuberant amount of exasperation. "Heroes and villains should have stayed in comic books."

"Exactly!" Kota exclaimed, then paused as he caught a whiff of something. Turning to face the forest off the cliff, the boy's eyes widened as he gasped. This reaction caused the girl to also take a look, and performed the same reaction at seeing the forest on fire. Both of them whipped around when steps were heard. 

Those steps weren't coming from the path up here. Someone was coming towards them from the other side of the cave. When that someone appeared, the two gulped in fear. The person was tall, wore a black robe with a hood, and a white mask. 

"I came up here scouting for a nice vantage point, and here I find some kids who aren't not on our list," The person's voice was deep and threatening, practically dripping with malicious intent as they continued stalking forward predatorily. "Nice hat, kid, I like it. Why don't you trade me for this lame mask, huh?" He gestured to the white mask over his face. "They made me wear it cause I'm new, said they couldn't get a shipment of the good ones in time." He reached up and took the mask off. 

"Maybe they made you wear it cause you're ugly," Mihoko retorted, causing both the obvious villain and Kota to pause. Kota was looking at her like she was crazy, but she could feel the adrenaline pulsing through her. She could remember what her guardian had told her all that time ago. 

"I'm regulating the molecules in your body so I'll be able to recognize them no matter where you are, and if you get hurt, I can automatically heal you since what is hurt will send me a message almost instantaneously. I can also keep you alive if you somehow die, and kidnapping you won't end well since I'll be able to find you . . . Nothing will keep me from protecting you."

You'd better live up to those words, Izzy, Mihoko thought as she wrapped one hand in her other, brushing against the ring that Shinso had gotten her at the arcade a while back. That ring was going to be what saved them. As the villain started laughing at her audacity, she used their distraction to open the ring's secret appendage and use the built-in small but sharp knife to slice her palm. 

Instantly, the air changed. 

"Mihoko," Izak muttered as he stopped mid-stride, causing Koda to look at him. Before they could say or do anything, the maroonette had disappeared. 

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