"Little Eri...it's better for you to just give up and return to Master Overhaul's side." A tall, slim man with short, spiky hair of a pale color commented.
He had straight, dark eyebrows and closed eyes. He wore a traditional dark-colored yukata with a pair of geta on his feet, a long white piece of cloth acting as a belt around his waist. Similar to his companion, he also wore a plague mask, his being a plain brown one worn strapped to his face with three belts, one down his forehead and one on each side of his face that also cover his ears, like mufflers.
"Barrier..." Eri muttered, ignoring the man's words. She did not want to go back to the hell hole ever again.
"Back off, Tengaii...if we still need two members of the Eight Bullets to deal with a little girl, then there would not be any point in joining this gang already." Kendo said to his companion.
"And take this crap down and cut it out. It's not like I needed a barrier in the first place." Kendo continued as he knocked on the barrier.
Still, with his eyes closed, he replied calmly, "Do not submit to selfish desires. And do not forget Master Overhaul's orders. Eri has finally appeared before us after five years of being undetected. We make the perfect team. I will not risk anything to let her go again. Our combined strength is more than capable of bringing her down."
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Apparently, Kendo didn't like what Hekiji had said and tried to attack him, only to be blocked by another barrier covering Hekiji's own body.
"Enough of that, you battle-crazed lunatic..."
"Overjerk's the one who decided we should be a team. As long as I get to fight in deathmatches, I couldn't care less."
Both of them stared at each other before Hekiji eventually sighed and took down the barriers.
"As you wish. However, you better finish the job. And it's not Overjerk. It's Master Overhaul."
"Great!" Kendo exclaimed before turning back to Eri, "We got an understanding, then? You're all right, for a shut-in."
Unable to wait any longer, Kendo continued pouncing on Eri and tried landing a barrage of punches on her.
This time, however, Eri didn't dodge.
The moment the first punch was thrown, Eri braced herself as she took the punch head-on using her own stomach.
"Urgh..."
Eri definitely felt the impact and felt like vomiting, but she held on and refused to let go of his fist.
Even the duo was surprised at her actions. Before they could react, Eri had already used her quirk on Kendo.
"Shit!"
Kendo couldn't help but swear as he felt his quirk draining away from him.
"You really are a work of art, you know?!"
Despite his words, Kendo wasn't discouraged by losing his quirk and continued fighting as he was. After all, what he enjoyed in a deathmatch was the adrenaline rush and not quirk usage.
Eri was surprised at the continuous blows she felt even after rewinding his body. She was so used to fighting thugs who fell into despair the moment they couldn't use their quirk that she had forgotten that some people don't mind losing their quirks.
Due to that distraction, Kendo managed to find an opportunity to attack. Although weaker and slower than before, Kendo managed to land a clean punch at her sides.
"Argh!"
Eri couldn't help but exclaim as she vomited a little blood.
"Eri!" Shido couldn't help himself from yelling out loud, but he restrained himself to not go out of his shadow realm.
Shido had contradictory feelings. He didn't want to let Eri suffer anymore, but at the same time, he also wanted her to get some experience on some real fighting and killing experience.
Eventually, he decided not to help Eri and watch over her closely.
Eri didn't waste a second and quickly healed herself.
'I let my guard down...' Eri thought as she stood back up.
"You are truly sturdy." Kendo couldn't help but praise the little girl when he saw her stand back up as though nothing had happened.
"And you are one battle-maniac true and true. You didn't pause when you realized that your quirk is gone." Eri replied in kind. Hekiji, on the other hand, didn't feel too good when he saw that his friend had lost his quirk.
"You!"
"Enough, Tengai! Right now, all I want to do is have a death match with Eri here! Now I know why Overjerk intends to capture her. Her quirk is truly unique." Kendo snapped at Hekiji and stopped him from saying anything more, "Besides, the moment Overjerk founds out that my quirk is gone, he's gonna dispose of us anyway! Without the strongest spear, the strongest defense would be useless."
Eri stood there and couldn't help but feel a little sad for Kendo. To be honest, out of all the Eight Bullets, Kendo treated her the nicest among all of them. His only flaw was that he liked to battle to the death a lot, resulting in many deaths to his name.
Eri took a deep breath and exhaled, "I'm coming now, Rappa."
Kendo had a huge grin and exclaimed, "Good! Now, let's fight to the death!"
Despite losing his quirk, Kendo's ability to fight still remained. He dashed towards Eri and, although slower than before, would have reached her in a few seconds.
Eri didn't panic and dash towards him as well. Seeing Eri's bold actions, Kendo's smile deepened as he prepared his fist. Eri also clenched her fist and aimed it towards his face.
However, just as their fists were about to meet halfway, Eri's arm suddenly lowered, barely missing Kendo's fist.
Kendo's eyes widened as he didn't think Eri would play a trick at the end of his life, but his smile didn't fade.
Eri's fist managed to land on his abs. The impact wasn't anything hard; it was just a light tap. However, a light tap was all Eri needed to activate her quirk.
"Rewind."
"Be careful of Overjerk..." Kendo let out one last warning before disappearing, leaving nothing behind but his clothes.
"Rappa!" Hekiji cried out as his eyes reddened. He took a syringe filled with a strange liquid and injected it into himself.
"ARGHHHH!" Hekiji screamed as his muscles bulged grossly. His height didn't change much, but it was apparent that something changed.
"You will pay for what you did to Rappa!"
Hekiji screamed as he dashed towards Eri with an inhumane speed. Barriers after barriers appeared all around the place. Some of them weren't even barriers, more like shields with all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Hekiji's arms were surrounded by some sort of barrier with jagged and sharp edges, making it look intimidating.
'Fast!'
After injecting the liquid into himself, Hekiji's speed became even faster than Kendo's. Eri barely had time to disappear and reappear behind Hekiji and aimed a kick at his nape.
Hekiji didn't even turn around, but a barrier was suddenly erected in between them. Eri hurriedly used her quirk on the barrier and made it disappear, but she also received a cut in the process.
'He has gone mad.' Eri internally thought as she saw his blank eyes and his mouth wide open. Hekiji wasn't producing any audible words and was just making random growls and roars.
However, a mad person is simpler to fight against than a sane person as a mad person only fights with his instincts.
Eri didn't mind the cut and reached her hand and used her quirk continuously without pause. Barriers after barriers were set up, but each barrier was taken down as fast as it appeared.
Eri spared no effort to reach Hejiki's arms, and sure enough, she soon managed to touch his arm and use her quirk on him.
"Goodbye, Hejiki Tengai."
He soon met the same end as his companion, leaving behind nothing but rags of clothes behind.
"The only ones who are left are two more of the Eight Bullets, and the main culprit..." Eri murmured but was interrupted by someone.
"Welcome back, Eri. It seems that you have missed 'home' and your 'father'?"
A familiar man of slim build with short, shaggy auburn hair walked out accompanied by two other men beside him.
"Chisaki..."
"I've already abandoned that name. Don't call me Chisaki again, Eri. Otherwise, I would have to punish you."
"Stop it!" Eri screamed, "I'm never going back to that place ever again!"
"Oh, no. You will be going back with me whether you like it or not." Chisaki shook his head and placed his palm on the ground.
The ground suddenly caved in as all three of them fell into the basement.
Eri landed on uneven ground and grimaced in pain as her ankle twisted at a weird angle.
Chisaki didn't stop there as spikes started to protrude from the six walls of the basement.
Chisaki had no qualms in stabbing Eri to keep her from moving about as long as she didn't die since he would be able to reconstruct her.
Eri wasn't going to stand still and let those spikes stab her. She started dodging each spike with her utmost concentration with minimal movements.
However, halfway through, Eri suddenly felt a bit dizzy and did not manage to dodge one of the spikes.
"Argh!" Eri wobbled unstably on one leg as she quickly used rewind on herself. However, although the injuries disappeared, the dizziness only disappeared for a second before coming back again.
"Huh?" Eri looked up and saw a person standing, or rather, crouching on one of the spikes that came out from the ceiling.
He was a very skinny and bony but muscular man with greasy black long hair that reached just below his shoulders. He had a mask on, but his mouth was currently exposed as he gulped down some wine.
Eri had heard all the information that she needed to know from Shido before coming here. So the moment she smelled the scent of alcohol, she instantly decided to leave as far as possible from him.
"Hm?"
The man didn't seem happy about Eri's decision as he started throwing his knife at her body, careful not to hit her head or heart under Chisaki's orders. Eri got out of his range in time as she started dodging skillfully again.
"Tch...annoying..." Chisaki muttered as he continued creating spikes, trap falls, crush traps, and many others to fight against Eri. He knew that he couldn't go in head-on against Eri as her quirk was very dangerous. One wrong move and he would cease to exist.
Perhaps he would be able to win a head-on confrontation against Eri if he managed to deconstruct her arms before she could activate her quirk, but if she knew her own true potential, no one would be able to win her in close-quarter combat. Thus, he didn't want to risk anything and opted for a long-range fight instead.
If only he knew that Shido had unlocked her even more of her quirk's potential, he wouldn't even have targeted her from the beginning.
Eri disregarded everything and used all the power of her quirk.
Rewind: Rewind gives Eri the ability to reverse any matter back to its previous state. When rewind is activated, Eri's horn grows and glows brightly.
However, though not widely known, Eri doesn't have to contact her target to affect it. As long as it was in the vicinity of Eri at the moment of activation, it would rewind back to its previous state.
She can revert people back to a point before they even existed, effectively erasing them from existence like what she did to the Eight Bullets' other members.
Her horn on her right temple grew longer and longer until it reached fifteen centimeters long. It glowed brightly, illuminating her surroundings in half a meter radius.
All the spikes that protruded out of the floor instantly shrunk back into it. Eri soon felt the dizziness struck again, but instead of backing off like before, she chose to jump up towards the source, albeit unsteadily.
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