Strings (BNHA x OC) [Rewrite]

45 || Small Fry

Mirko had a grin plastered on her face as she took purposeful strides towards Puppet.

"Heya, Puppet Master," she greeted rather casually despite the situation. "Ya'know, you've got real spunk, but you can't just do whatever. So now I'm here and you're gonna get beat to a pulp!"

Puppet's eyes narrowed as she put the pieces together in her mind. "So you're the one who's been destroying my souls," she said.

Mirko shrugged. "Oh, yeah — they're easy; one kick and they're done."

She's stronger and faster than me, Puppet thought. This fight'll be very fast-paced. Hope I can keep up.

The rabbit hero interlaced her fingers in front of her and pressed them back, cracking her knuckles. "Well, might as well end this now," she declared.

With that, she leapt at Puppet. In less than a second, the black-and-white villain was knocked to the ground with great force, her back to the dirt ground. The hero quickly jumped up, swinging her heel down towards the villain.

Puppet gasped, raising her arms up reflexively in defense. Too fast—!

She summoned a soul on top of herself that took the blunt force of Mirko's kick in her place, and it was instantly destroyed as a result. Rarely did she ever use souls in defense like that — it was an utter waste — but she had no other option.

The soul did nothing to help Puppet avoid Mirko's next move. The hero grabbed the villain's shoulders and pinned her down with a painfully harsh grip. One of Mirko's legs held down both of Puppet's. The latter hooked her arms around the former's, trying in vain to loosen her grip.

"I heard the League was made up of powerful people," Mirko said. "Can't say I'm impressed; you're such a small fry compared to other villains I've faced."

"'Small fry'?" Puppet spat. "That's what you think of me? Sounds to me like someone didn't do their research."

She ejected a throwing knife into her hand and stabbed it into one of Mirko's arms. To the villain's astonishment, the hero barely even reacted.

Puppet ground her teeth in frustration. She's the number four for a reason... Fine then. She bashed her fist against the back of the knife, forcing it deeper into Mirko's arm.

Now the hero's hold faltered. Her injured arm gave out and allowed the villain to move one of her arms better.

Puppet reached up and grabbed a whole fistful of Mirko's long white hair, yanking it as hard as she could to the side. The rabbit hero's head followed the harsh pull on her hair and her whole body shifted to the side. Now the black-and-white villain managed to roll them so that Mirko was on the ground instead of her.

The tables had turned.

Mirko let out a yell of pain as Puppet grabbed onto the throwing knife still in her arm and pressed it against the ground, pinning her arm down.

Mirko barred her teeth and grinned against the pain. Before Puppet could register the rabbit hero's movements, she had kneed her harshly in the stomach. The hit caused the villain to let go of her and drop her knife, it also flung her body up a little.

"'Cya!" The pro hero immediately followed up her first hit by recoiling her legs and kicking both her feet directly into the villain's stomach with the force of a cannonball.

The hit rocketed Puppet straight up into the air. The breath was knocked out of her lungs and the foul taste of bile rose in the back of her throat.

Mirko jumped up at Puppet from the ground, one of her legs winding back mid-jump for a kick. The villain moved her body mid-air to avoid the kick. She flung the hero away from her using strings.

They both landed hard on their feet, and Mirko immediately ran at Puppet again. She wouldn't give her any breathing room.

Puppet quickly came up with an idea of how to deal with the hero's speed. With a skilled and precise flick of one of her fingers, a single string slashed through the air and around Mirko. The string snapped like a whip and sliced the back of the hero's left heel.

Mirko faltered, bracing herself on the ground before she would fall. She lowered herself into a kneeling position, clutching right above the heel of her injured foot.

Puppet smiled. Now she'll have a hell of a time jumping after me.

She walked over to the rabbit hero — but not too close, she wasn't a fool. She took in the sight of a bloody hero from the top ten in Japan. Blood trickled down her arm from where she had been stabbed, and, despite her trying to use her gloves to stop the bleeding, a small pool of crimson was forming on the ground by the back of her foot.

"Am I still a small fry?" Puppet asked, and she did want an answer. Mirko was the highest-ranked female hero in all of Japan, and so the villain wanted to hear her answer, no one else's.

"I'll admit, I underestimated you. But I'm not dying to a stupid mistake like that, no way." She was still smiling... smiling like it was the best day of her life.

Puppet quickly grew impatient, and she lashed out at Mirko with strings. She was impressed when the rabbit hero used her uninjured leg to jump back a great distance. She kept jumping backwards at a quick speed, too quick for the villain to have any hope of catching up. So, she let her run—or rather hop—away.

Puppet didn't allow herself to get distracted, quickly turning and running off. I need to get back to Hawks. I'm sure he's having trouble fighting Endeavor alone.