A deafening roar tore through the still air and shattered the silence.
Kirishima, slammed into a mountain ridge at terrifying speed, coughed up blood.
Of course, taking a hit in the air, outside his own domain, was not enough to make him drop to his knees.
Even as he crashed in, he wedged an arm between himself and the enemy and drove his horn through the man’s body, then ground his teeth and said, "Who the hell are you? You’re definitely someone I’ve never seen before, so why are you looking at me like that?"
"Kihik! Heh-heh-heh! Memory! Don’t you remember?"
The attacker, who looked a little off in the head, seemed like an ordinary middle-aged man.
At least, his face did.
From the strange barnacle-like growths embedded in his bare back, he was blasting out air, using that to fly.
Judging by the setup, fine control in the air would be difficult, but in terms of speed alone, he was as fast as Kirishima at full power just now.
The problem was that this was not all there was to him.
"Gyahik! Gek! The good stuff! The sweet, tasty stuff! You still don’t get it?"
Kirishima shoved him off and got back to his feet.
The man, still babbling nonsense Kirishima couldn’t make sense of, was smiling brightly as if he were having the time of his life.
He rubbed his right hand, which had turned into a sharp blade, against his left hand, which looked like some kind of mace, and bounced in place.
The hole Kirishima had punched through him was already slowly closing.
Kirishima briefly wondered whether he had ever seen a guy like this before, then let out a dry laugh.
Since when did he start worrying about trivial things like whether he had seen an enemy before a fight?
He could ask about that after beating them half to death.
If they died in the process, that was just how it went.
"I don’t really know who you are. Honestly, in this life I’ve only ever built up grudges against a handful of people, and you don’t seem to be one of them. To be frank, I’m not all that interested. That’s not what matters, is it? You want to kill me, and I want to kill you. Right?"
With a nasty little smirk, Kirishima kicked off the ground.
The man reacted to that insane speed and shot forward.
It was not the movement of a normal living thing.
He burst out with explosive air from the acceleration organs on his back, without any preparatory motion at all, in a way that reminded Kirishima of Iida.
In an instant, the two closed into striking range, and killing intent bloomed between them like a cold flower.
"Uha! This fist! I could never forget it! Even if I forgot everything else, I could never forget this! Eugh! Ugh! So happy! I, I... what am I? You know me? Why do you know me? Tell me!"
"Cut the crap. I don’t know who you are. I’m not the kind of person who keeps guys like you in my head. You’re the one who should know who I am."
The man’s elbow stretched out like a blade-lined whip and came slashing down diagonally.
Kirishima knocked aside the upper arm that served as the starting point for that serpentine motion and pivoted to the side.
A one-two, unrestrained and merciless, flashed like lightning into the side of the man’s exposed head.
It was the kind of attack that could whip up a storm just by splitting the air with a fist, and for a moment it seemed as if the man’s head would be blown apart without resistance.
He looked like he had failed to respond properly, but then his body flew backward as if someone had yanked it away.
Kirishima, already resetting his stance in an instant after the attack failed, wore a dumbfounded expression.
"What the hell is that shape?"
What had once been a normal pair of legs had become something like writhing octopus tentacles.
And scattered among them were those same barnacle-like acceleration organs.
"Hyahat! Cool, right? I love these squirmy legs! Ah, I wish my arms were like that too! Eukyakak. Your attacks don’t work anymore!"
"Oh, do they not. I’m the type who doesn’t really care what something looks like if I can win, but... is that thing really okay?"
Kirishima said it with genuine pity for the man’s deranged sense of aesthetics.
In the end, the man had barnacles attached to his back and legs, the legs were octopus tentacles, and his elbows were shaped like extending blade-whips.
He seemed to like his own body, so it probably did not matter to him.
"Unlike you, I’ve got eyes in the back of my head! I have no blind spots! And my legs move on their own! My arms... well, mine are a little weird too. Anyway! I’m way cooler than you!"
"Are you a little kid...?"
The man was comparing himself to Kirishima with an aesthetic standard that made no sense at all.
The gap between that and the strength he had shown in their brief clash was so absurd that Kirishima could only sigh.
For some reason, fighting a sane opponent felt harder.
If he had to fight, wouldn’t it be better if the other side had some dignity, like Johannes?
That did not mean he had any intention of refusing a fight just because his opponent was a deranged brat.
"Fine. If you’re that much cooler than me, then prove it."
There was noise all around them, faint and otherwise, and it was clear this man was not the only one here.
This entire area was an undeniable battlefield.
He did not have time to play around with this bizarre bastard.
However much combat experience the other kids had, none of them had even five real fights under their belts.
The Class B kids had practically none.
The teachers and the Pussycats were dependable fighters, but there were only six of them in total.
Protecting forty people—no, thirty-nine if he excluded himself—would be a difficult task even for them.
He grinned viciously in the darkness.
Within the curtain of night, his red eyes gleamed ominously.
"If you don’t want to die," he said.
A tremendous force exploded inside Kirishima’s body.
Until now, the way he drew energy from his Quirk factor had been through combustion.
The most basic method for handling immense power in a stable way.
But that was not what he needed right now.
He needed greater power, greater speed.
He needed a way to crush this grotesquely moving bastard in the shortest possible time.
So he made it explode.
Like propellant exploding in a sealed chamber and driving a shell forward, the power of his Quirk factor, detonating within the limited space of his body, manifested as overwhelming physical performance.
"Kak-kak! Try to kill me, gk!?"
"Sure. I’ll kill you."
His body, having broken through the limits he had once known and torn through the sound barrier, charged straight at the man.
The man’s white, pupil-less eyes widened to the point of tearing as he failed to react properly to the speed, as if Kirishima had vanished and reappeared.
Kirishima’s thoughts, slightly blurred like a man in a fever dream, moved with a single purpose: destruction.
His left foot punched into the ground, his hips snapped forward, and his body rotated.
His left fist drove into the man’s face at a speed that went beyond supersonic and reached the extreme.
His right fist followed through, crossing with the returning left.
Once again, the man’s face was crushed.
The entire sequence repeated endlessly as Kirishima circled the man so fast that afterimages seemed to linger around him.
The thunderous booms and stormlike blasts born from violence in human form shook the trees all around them.
Needless to say, the man himself was the direct target.
With every blow, his head snapped back as if it were about to be ripped clean off his neck.
Blood sprayed and bones shattered.
The man screamed in frantic resistance.
"Kiek! Kyak! This is it! This is it!"
Shouting with a voice thick with some kind of ecstasy, the man suddenly began moving strangely.
His upper body and lower body fell completely out of sync, and Kirishima’s attacks started grazing by only narrowly.
In an age where everyone had a Quirk, there was nothing surprising about movements that defied common sense, but this was a little too bizarre.
Slipping motions through the tentacles and explosive, linear bursts from the barnacles’ wind pressure crossed and tangled wildly.
At the same time, the blade-whips attached to his elbows swept randomly through the air.
Whips are weapons that can break the sound barrier with human strength alone.
They are not used as weapons because they lack mass, their shape is unstable, and their actual striking power does not match their speed, while controlling them is extremely difficult.
But once blades were attached to those whips and they occupied a wide line at supersonic speed, they became extremely threatening.
Still, that was not enough to reach Kirishima, who had become less a being of violence than violence itself.
"Not bad. You’re not just all talk, so I’ll give you a reward. Take it gratefully."
Kirishima was starting to think about ending the fight.
The way he was drawing energy through explosion rather than combustion was something only Kirishima could do.
If it had been anyone else, their whole body would probably have been torn to pieces, or blown apart entirely.
Because Kirishima had essentially rebuilt his entire body with Aeternus and graphene, he could at least endure and use power that far surpassed what he had before.
Even so, the strain was severe. Aside from the first blow he had allowed, he had been pounding the man one-sidedly, and yet his whole body hurt as if he had been beaten all over.
Every movement made it feel as if his insides were rumbling, as if his blood vessels were tearing apart.
The heat building in his body from the friction of his speed was also a burden.
His body did not burn, but that did not mean it was free from heat.
In the end, it was still living tissue. If the temperature rose too high, life functions would be affected.
Having decided to finish the battle, Kirishima moved behind the man and prepared an attack meant to separate his head from his neck outright.
In a moment that felt as if all things had stopped, the man’s neck twisted 180 degrees to face Kirishima.
Even at that grotesque sight, Kirishima did not hesitate. He launched his attack.
With every instant, his fist advanced a little farther, carrying heat born of friction as it headed for the man’s face.
The man grinned at that exact moment.
"Take it gratefully yourself. Kihihihi! And I’ll ask you all I want!"
A barnacle the size of nearly half his upper body sprouted from the man’s back.
Its shell opened wide, and within it, a grotesque mass of flesh swelled outward.
Just before Kirishima’s arm reached full extension, the flesh spat out what it had been holding inside.
In the instant when it seemed impossible to dodge and they would have to trade blows, Kirishima coldly mocked him.
"I figured as much. You’re strong in your own way, even if you’re insane. But what are you going to do about it? I’ve dealt with this kind of thing more than once."
Like a lie, the figure of Kirishima thrusting his fist toward the man vanished.
At the same time, a tremendous blast erupted where he had been standing.
The shockwave spewed from the man’s back toppled countless trees in a straight line.
Looking at the path carved through the dense forest, Kirishima, now somehow in front of the man, spoke with lowered eyes.
"Usually, the guys who fight me prepare a finishing blow specifically meant to break through my defense."
Wind pressure burst from the man’s legs and lifted his body into the air.
Seeing him rise without any preparatory motion, Kirishima realized he was trying to flee.
He had no intention of letting the bastard who had bared his teeth at him go so easily.
"Kkek! See you next time! Then I’ll definitely get to ask you, gk!"
As if he had known all along, Kirishima leaped after him and drove a knee up into the man’s jaw.
A sharp horn pierced through the jaw, reached the brain, and was then yanked back out.
At the same time, Kirishima’s elbow smashed down onto the man’s head.
It was a slightly unorthodox but lethal Hanuman Sook.
Kirishima, thinking once again that he had been right to learn from Samat, dropped onto the man as he fell.
A massive impact raised a cloud of dust.
When the wind cleared the dust from the view, Kirishima was standing and looking down at him.
Even with the spine ripped out along with the head and rolling across the ground, he did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
"A tough one. I can guess where you came from, though. More of those League of Villains maggots?"
"Kyak, kyak-kyak. No. My master isn’t some greenhorn like that. And my tastes aren’t for grown men like that either.
I like kids!"
"You’re pretty lively for someone who’s about to die. Well, being cheerful is better than not. You seem to know me personally. I’ve never seen a bastard like you before, though. What are you?"
With one foot pinning down the writhing body as it twitched and struggled, Kirishima asked, and the man’s severed head smiled brightly.
"Uhi! That’s for you to know! I barely remember anything! But I remember you! You were a lot smaller than me, which is weird, but you were hitting me! I stabbed you too!"
"Smaller? You son of a..."
At the man’s words, a memory suddenly flashed through Kirishima’s mind.
The first battle that marked his previous childhood in this life: a Villain who ate people.
He also realized that the nonsense about taste had been what this bastard had said to him ten years ago.
Something about how there was no food sweeter or more delicious than human flesh.
As Kirishima briefly sifted through the past, he quickly calmed himself and continued the questioning.
He had experienced too much to be shocked by something that had already passed, and the situation was urgent.
"Then that means the body you showed up in at the start was stolen from someone you ate?"
"Oh! Yohoho! Right! Though it didn’t taste very good."
As the writhing body slowly stilled and the flesh that had been swelling and shifting disappeared, Kirishima removed his foot from the man and asked calmly, "I know who you are now. I don’t feel much of anything about it, but I didn’t expect to see you again. Still, that’s not the important part. You didn’t come alone, did you? Tell me how many of you there are and what your plan is."
"Can’t do that. You idiot. Of course I can’t! More importantly, tell me who I am!"
Kirishima gave a small snort and kicked the man’s head.
The head, its spine trailing behind it like a tail, rolled a short distance before stopping.
The man shouted as if in rage.
"Kek-kak! Hurry up and say it! Say it!"
"If you’re that curious, I’ll tell you. I don’t know the details either, but you were a Villain who ate people. And despite that, you were pretty weak, so when you came after me, I turned the tables on you. You were into kids, too, for some reason."
"Oh, really? Thanks! Uhyahah! Then I’ll answer your question too. There are eleven of us, including me! And the pla...n is..."
It was a short explanation, but the man seemed to understand easily.
Even if he did not remember the details, perhaps he had known it vaguely all along.
Even after being torn away from his body, the lively light in his eyes flickered as if it were about to go out.
Seeing his pupils cloud over, Kirishima let out a sigh.
The man continued slowly, "The pla...n is... kid...nap... That is who... I’m sorry. I... I’m so sleepy..."
In the end, the man closed his eyes.
After crossing a long span of years and ending the old grudge with his own hands, Kirishima quietly set his foot on the man’s head.
When he pressed down with force, the contents inside the skull burst out with a disgusting sound.
It did not feel very good.
The man had been a villain who deserved to die, but did he really need to be torn apart even after death and used as a monster?
"I guess I’ve been living too peacefully. Thinking about useless things like this."
He gave a faint laugh and turned his numb body.
He did not need it, but the one who had made the man probably had.
Where was there room for good and evil to matter there?
People only act because they need to.
His eyes, rippling like flames, rose up and lit the darkness.
There were people who needed him everywhere.
The devil, having buried his brief feelings, took flight into the night sky.
To bring the battlefield to an end.
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