Chapter 6 - A Promise Kept

It was almost evening as Naomasa walked out of his car, looking towards the HPSC building where Ankoku and Kuragari were locked away. Well, they were. After the Public Safety Commission President informed them that those two had escaped, he quickly got in his car and rushed there.

From his position, the building seemed fine, but he knew if those two were able to escape, it meant multiple people had died in the process. Fixing his tan coat, he hurriedly rushed to the building, and sure enough, the front door was busted open with multiple dead bodies of police officers and HPSC officers on the ground.

Like before, their heads were ripped to pieces, while others seemed to be killed by a gun, which he deduced was Ankoku's doing. Stealing his nerves, Naomasa crossed the dead bodies, stepped on blood, and entered the building.

He was stunned by the sight that befell him.

There were dead bodies wherever he looked. The entire lobby was covered in the bodies of HPSC workers and police officers, their insides and blood painting the room.

Naomasa couldn't help but stumble back, swallowing back his vomit which almost poured out of his mouth. He was used to gory sights, but not this much. "...How could this happen?" He didn't understand how Kuragari, who was perfectly secured in a room with one pro hero and multiple officers keeping an eye on him, and Ankoku could escape. "Was there a third party involved?" That was the only conclusion that made sense. Another more unlikely explanation is that Ankoku has a quirk.

With meticulous care, he crossed over bodies, trying his best not to step on anything but with this many dead bodies, it was inevitable. He ended up stepping on a large intestine that had poured out of a female police officer's body.

Turning his eyes away, Naomasa entered the hallway, and as he expected, more bodies greeted him. "This is too much." He mumbled to himself, holding the bloody wall to stop himself from falling. "How could someone be this cruel?"

He knew that Ankoku and Kuragari were both crazy and knew they would do something like this, but seeing it, in reality, was worse than he had imagined.

"Why were we incompetent?" he muttered to himself, stepping forward. "We should have taken more precision, seeing that we don't know everything about Kuragari's quirk. We should have taken them to Tartarus, where they wouldn't be any threat." He knew there was no point in regretting now, only learning from this mistake for the future, but this was still too much.

The light in the hallway flickered as he walked, the bulb releasing sparks. Before he turned into the next hallway, Naomasa noticed something strange. It looked like a police officer had committed suicide with his gun. By the way the pistol in his hand was positioned, his body, the blood splatter. This was done in such a way that he was 100% sure the man killed himself.

"Did he commit suicide in fear of being killed like the others?" Naomasa wondered, looking at the man. That would make sense, but looking around once more, he noticed something he hadn't before.

More than half the people in the hallway died from suicide. Something was definitely going up, and he knew it. His detective instinct was screaming at him, telling him there was more to these suicides.

As he ventured deeper into the building, he stopped noticing how many people died, now seeing that about 50% of the people who died were by suicide. It confused and scared him. What could make this many people kill themselves?

Turning into the hallway that led to the security control room, he noticed that the bodies here didn't die of suicide, but it looked like someone threw a grenade. Once again, he suspected it was Ankoku's doing.

"...What is wrong with my life?..." A weakened voice came from behind him, causing Naomasa to jump and almost slip on blood. In a place filled with death, it was comforting to finally hear a voice, so he quickly turned around.

Walking towards him was the Hypnotic. He was called to guard Kuragari for the time being, with the police force giving him a huge sum of money so he came. His sharp red eyes were now lifeless, with his cloths stained with blood that didn't belong to him.

"...I became a hero for fame and money?" Hypnotic muttered, chuckling. "What kind of low life is that? When it comes to heroic deeds, I don't do them until I'm sure they will be noticed by others. Is that heroism?" He fell on his knee, bursting out laughing. "I was supposed to guard that villain kid, but I fell asleep!!! Look what happened!!! Hundreds of lives killed." He started crying while laughing maniacally. "I ought to just kill myse---"

"Hypnotic!" Naomasa shouted, cutting him off. "What happened here?"

"Ah, detective." Hypnotic turned to Naomasa, sitting on the ground. "I killed all these people because of my incompetence. I fell asleep, causing them to die. If I didn't, I would have been able to easily stop that child before it became too late. I am a low life that doesn't have the right to breathe the same air as All Might." He looked at his bloody palm. "Don't you think I deserve to die? Don't you!?"

"No. You will be judged after I finish my investigation---"

"I will only be sent to jail." Hypnotic cut him off, reaching for a pistol next to a dead police officer. "I am a scum that deserves to die."

Before he could grab the gun, Naomasa kicked it out of his reach, glaring down at him. "What is wrong with you!?" Hypnotic is not this kind of person.

He is a prideful man who flaunts his quirk, his appearance, and his money. He never looks down on himself and says he is above everyone, even All Might the No.1 pro hero, calming that he is letting All Might keep that spot because he don't need it. His arrogance was so high that many thought it was a mental illness, so it was beyond odd seeing him being this negative about himself to the point of wanting to commit suicide.

"What do you mean by 'what's wrong?'" He asked, looking at Naomasa. "I am like everyone said. A villain. I am a being that shouldn't be allowed to live anymore." He started speaking more negatively of himself, and no matter how much Naomasa called him, he wouldn't listen. While chanting that he deserve die, he grabbed his neck and choking himself.

Not wanting to handle him right now, Naomasa stood up and kicked Hypnotic across his face, knocking him out. This wasn't something he would normally do, especially to someone way older than him, but it seemed like it was necessary.

"So much negative and depressing self-talk, and he believed it all, to the point of attempting suicide." Naomasa mumbled, remembering seeing so many officers and workers that died of suicide, clenching his teeth. "This was the effect of a quirk. A mind related quirk." It was now certain. A quirk that causes someone to be extremely depressed and negative of themselves to the point of suicide.

"It can't be. Did Ankoku manifest his quirk?" The chances for someone to develop a quirk in their late twenties were low but not impossible. Determined to find out what happened, he forced the knocked-out 220 pounds Hypnotic onto his back, walking forward. Leaving him might cause him to commit suicide when he woke up, and he wasn't going to let that happen.

He soon reached the security control room, finding the door open, and all the men inside had died of suicide. One looked like he had crushed his head on the wall, another had electrocuted himself, and the others he didn't bother to investigate.

Putting Hypnotic on an empty chair, Naomasa quickly began to watch the security footage of what happened.

- - - - - - - - - -

Forty-five minutes ago.

- - - - - - - - - -

A man from the HPSC walked through the hallway. He wore a black suit with matching dress shoes and black shades even though he was inside a building.

Opening a door, he entered a small room. In this room, there were two men, one from HPSC and the other from the police force, sitting on an office chair in front of a one-way mirror built into the wall. Below the one-way mirror was a control panel that controlled the door that led to the room behind the one-way mirror.

"Came for your shift?" The police officer asked, standing up.

"Yes." The man nodded, gesturing behind him. "The officer from the police force that was supposed to watch the kid with me ran to the bathroom. He will be back in a moment."

"Sure." The police officer stretched, walking past the man and leaving the room. "Watching that kid is fucking boring. She sits there and stares at the mirror."

"It is a he." His HPSC partner corrected him as they both left the room. "I already gave you enough explanation---" Their voices were silenced as he closed the door.

Now alone in the room, the man went to the control panel, clicking a button that caused the door to the room behind the one-way mirror to open. Reaching into his pants, he pulled out a Beretta 92FS inox, cocking the gun.

He walked through the door, entering the room. This room was painted white on all surfaces, with Kuragari sitting on a metal chair bolted to the floor, his wrists cuffed to the armrest, and his legs cuffed together. The child was still dressed in its bloody dress and remained barefoot.

"Sorry, kid. Got to pull out the weed while it is still small." He pointed it at Kuragari's head but felt something was amiss just as he pulled the trigger. Looking down at his arm, he found it had been sliced into three large chunks, which fell to the ground. The man stumbled back out of shock, looking up to see a black phantom more than 2 meters tall standing in front of the child. "Fuc---"

Before he could finish his sentence, the phantom waved its hand at him, its claw slicing his head into pieces. One of his eyeballs landed on Kuragari's lap, and he was trembling in fear. Hypnotic hypnosis had ran out.

"...Where is daddy?" It trembled, staring at the gun on the ground. "I don't want to get hurt anymore..." Tears flowed down its eyes. "Where is daddy...?"

Just then, the door to the watch room opened. The police officer that was supposed to watch Kuragari with the now dead HPSC walked in, zipping up his fly.

"Holy shit!" The officer screamed, noticing the phantom standing next to Kuragari and then looking at the dead man. He gagged but quickly reached for his radio, "Calling for backup in the interrogation room 234---"

Before he could finish his sentence, the phantom rushed to him, prompting the officer to reach for his gun, but he was too late. His head got sliced to pieces, with his body falling lifelessly to the ground.

Kuragari, for the first time, noticed the clothes the officer wore. Its mind flickered back to the moment when they raided the apartment and tried to separate it from its father, injuring him at the very moment.

Fear whiled up in it.

Fear of them taking its father away, leaving it alone to get hurt. It knew its father wasn't the one that put it on the chair, so it didn't need to sit. It needed to meet its father, so he would stop it from getting hurt.

"AHHHH!" It screamed, pulling both of its hands from the cuffs holding it to the chair, breaking its thumbs in the process. The pain was nothing compared to what these people would do to it if they separated it from daddy. "...I need to meet daddy...." It uttered, falling from the chair and standing up.

The cuffs that held its legs together were stopping it from moving, so it sat on the ground, pulling its legs from the cuffs.

"Over here!" A voice came from the hallway as multiple officers arrived at the hallway that led to his prison, noticing a black blood-curdling monster standing by the doorway, the dead body of their colleague on the ground next to it. "Shoot!"

*SCREECH!* The phantom screeched before running down the hallway at the men, stunned by its scream. Its speed was breathtaking, arriving before them and instantly ripping them to shreds. The group of officers couldn't do anything before they were all brutally murdered.

The black phantom turned to the door behind it, noticing Kuragari crawling out of the room on its hands and knees. Following the forceful removal of the cuff holding its legs together, both feet were broken, with chunks of flesh and muscles missing.

The phantom slowly walked back, reaching the crawling Kuragari, who ignored it as it crawled past the phantom. Suddenly, twelve men came down the hallway, these men more equipped than the last, with nine equipped with a carbine and rifle. One rushed to the front of the group, kneeling and firing a rocket launcher.

The phantom quickly dragged Kuragari out of the way, causing the rocket to fly past them and into the room behind them, where it exploded. Without wasting any time, the other men started firing.

The phantom embraced Kuragari while jumping from walls to ceilings and landing on every surface available in an attempt to avoid as many bullets as possible while moving toward the men.

Just before it reached them, they finished reloading the rocket launcher, shooting it towards the phantom, who couldn't avoid it due to it being in mid-air.

*Boom* An explosion rang as the rocket collided with the phantom, throwing it back and causing it to begin disintegrating into black smoke. Kuragari fell to the ground, sliding on the floor.

Just as Kuragari opened its mouth to scream, the officers displayed no mercy and littered its body with bullets, only stopping after the child's body had turned into a bullet-ridden rag doll, with its head still intact.

"...That was easy..." The officer with the rocket launcher mumbled, gaining the approval of the others.

An officer lowered his gun, saying, "I don't understand how this child managed to kill---"

Before he could finish his sentence, the blood around Kuragari quickly gathered towards it as its wound slowly healed. "Shoot that shit!" One of the officers shouted as they all aimed their guns at the reviving Kuragari, firing.

As the officers shot it, the quirk continued regenerating its body, trying to heal and rejuvenate Kuragari, but the continuous bullets made it impossible.

"What fucking monster is that!" The man with the rocket launcher shouted, finishing reloading it. Just as he aimed the rocket launcher at the Kuragari's body, it suddenly released a high-pitched scream, causing their bodies to freeze. Four transparent, sheet-like beings with round black eyes and huge lips shot out of its body, flying toward them.

They could only watch as the four ghosts passed through them one after another. All the negatives of their life flushed into their minds. Those memories they had long forgotten, those they wished they never would remember, came flooding back to their minds.

Negativity surged through them as they started seeing themselves in a bad light with no positivity attached. Depression came next, followed by melancholic depression.

When the immobilization from the scream wore off, the officers immediately dropped their guns, pulled out their pistols from their utility belts, and committed mass suicide.

Kuragari revived to see these men killing themselves and noticed the four ghosts flying around it with their tongues hanging out their large lips. Disregarding them, Kuragari got on its feet and started running with its tattered dress, running towards where it 'felt' its father was.

More men appeared running through the hallway with the intent to kill the child, but the four ghosts simply passed through them. Those with weaker minds immediately took their own lives, while others lasted longer with their negative mind before committing suicide.

The running child left death in its wake. The ghosts did not discriminate and attacked everyone they set their eyes on, be it those running away, working innocent people, or those attacking Kuragari.

Kuragari soon reached the room where Ankoku was locked in, entering and entering the room. Looking through the one-way mirror, it saw its father chained to the chair.

"Let daddy go!" Kuragari's scream turned to a shrill as the black phantom formed, dashing at the men in the room and brutally slaughtering them.

The phantom ran through the one-way window, shattering it and landing inside the room behind the mirror. "Ahh~ My darling doll." Ankoku smiled, looking past the black phantom and at Kuragari climbing through the shattered window, the glass cutting his body. "I knew you would come for me."

Kuragari ran to the chained Ankoku, hugging him and crying. "Don't cry. We are one once more." Ankoku noticed the four ghosts floating around them, blowing raspberries, which made him chuckle. "I see you have unlocked more of your beautiful quirk. I can't let you go now, can I?"

Kuragari nodded but didn't speak and kept hugging him. Turning to the phantom, he said, "Free me."

The phantom obeyed him, using its claw to diligently slash the chain, making sure not to hurt either Kuragari or Ankoku. Standing up, he stretched, a massive smile on his face.

Picking up Kuragari, Ankoku gave it a deep kiss, separating a moment later, a string of spit connecting them. "You are a beautiful child, Kuragari." He smiled, "I will make sure to make you only mine."

He turned to the camera in the room, smirking, "Remember what I said, Naomasa? I hope you do---"

Naomasa immediately looked away from the security video, ignoring the number two pro hero, Hypnotic, and rushing out of the security room. His heart pumped through his chest as adrenaline rushed through his entire being. This caused him to not feel the pain of slipping on blood multiple times and slamming into the ground.

He left the building just as many police officers and investigators arrived, their voices nothing but a blur to him. Getting into his car, Naomasa fumbled with the key before managing to start it.

Zooming down the street, he ignored countless traffic laws, crossing multiple red lights and almost causing an accident, rushing to his parent's house.

After three minutes of reckless driving, he arrived at his parents' home, rushing out of the car and into the house, noticing the door had been broken open.

The living room was destroyed, and everything was smashed. Naomasa rushed through the living room, stepping on a nail, piercing through his shoe and into his feet, but he didn't feel it.

Walking to the kitchen, a sense of dread rushed through him, causing his legs to weaken as he fell to his knees. Tears flowed down his eyes as he stared at his parents and his eight-year-old sister crucified to the wall next to each other with sticks forced through their hands and legs to hold them up.

Their faces and eyes were filled with despair, with their stomachs ripped open and their insides laying on the ground, a sight that sent shivers through Naomasa's body.

On the ground in front in front of the crucifixion were their intestines arranged in a way that read;

[A promise kept]

Chapter End~~

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Word Count: 3337

For those wondering, black ghosts often mimic their hosts' 'core' personality, and Kuragari's core personality is listening to Ankoku. That's why Ankoku can command and control the black ghost better than Kuragari, the host.

Fun fact: I was listening to [Mike Oldfield - Nuclear] while writing the latter part of the chapter.

Now, I wonder what is going to happen to detective Naomasa Tsukauchi.