Chapter 97: Eri's Revenge (IV)

The drunk man was surprised at her decision and couldn't react to Eri's daring move in time. As soon as Eri reached half a meter away from him, he felt as though he had lost something.

"Noooo.....!" The man widened his eyes in shock as he saw himself turn back into a kid just by merely being near Eri.

Soon, his screams disappeared together with his body, leaving behind only his clothes.

Seeing this, Chisaki didn't have any other reaction apart from an annoyed, "Tch!"

He didn't stop sprouting spikes as he moved from one place to another together with his caped companion to back away from Eri.

Chisaki used whatever he could think of as he prevented Eri's advance towards them.

"Annoying...Nemoto, remove her quirk for the time being." Chisaki tossed a gun loaded with a particular dart towards his companion as he erected a shield between them to distract Eri.

As expected, when Eri realized that the duo had split up, she decided to go after Chisaki first. She chose to ignore the caped man as she knew that his quirk wasn't suitable for combat, thus prioritizing the more dangerous man, Chisaki.

Chisaki was very irritated at this point, and his brows furrowed deeply.

"I look forward to seeing where can our future experiments lead to." Chisaki said as he enclosed Eri in a tight box.

Eri felt that something was wrong with what Chisaki said but didn't panic. She used her quirk on the four walls surrounding her when she suddenly felt a stinging pain on the back of her nape.

Her horn quickly shrunk back to its original length of three centimeters as the illumination promptly dimmed.

"NO!" Eri screamed in shock as she found out that she couldn't use her quirk. Seeing this, Chisaki instantly took the opportunity and went forward to her.

Eri, without her quirk, was no threat to him.

"How dare you run away from me. Who took you in and managed to hide you for so long?" Chisaki snarled at Eri as he wiped away his sweat and put on his gloves.

Although afraid, Eri had complete trust in Shido to help her when push comes to shove.

"Not telling you." Eri backed off as she turned tails to run towards the caped figure.

"Tch! Nemoto, make her confess everything." Chisaki spat out as he reconstructed the entire place to act as a prison for Eri, trapping her inside.

"Who took you in?" Nemoto started his interrogation. Although the walls that trapped Eri was opaque, their voices could still pass through.

"Shido." Eri quickly covered her mouth as she involuntarily said.

"And who is this...Shido?"

Eri didn't really want to answer that question. Not because it was private or anything, but because it was embarrassing, especially knowing that the said person was listening in.

"A boy."

"More details."

"An indigo-colored hair boy. Same age as me. Looks very cute and handsome." Eri turned red at her last statement. Although they were very close, Eri had never actually complimented him this straightforwardly before.

"Oh? Handsome? Do you like him?"

"Yes." There wasn't any hesitation in her. Eri hurriedly closed her mouth as she peeked at the ground as if looking out for some sort of signal or movement within it.

Seeing that nothing changed, she sighed with a mixture of relief and disappointment.

Did she want Shido to hear that? She didn't know.

Did she want Shido to react to that? Definitely.

Now that she had (technically) confessed first, she was afraid.

How would her relationship with Shido change? She was perfectly satisfied with the way their relationship was. Going on mini-dates, cuddling as they sleep, just hanging out around in general.

But would all that disappear if the nature of their relationship changes?

Unbeknownst to her, the duo outside was thinking of entirely different things, namely whether to get rid of this 'Shido' or not.

"So both of you live together?"

"Yes."

"Alone as children? Who is your guardian?"

"All Might."

"Pft..."

Hearing Eri's confession, both of them spat a little before Chisaki grinned madly.

"Where do you live? Is All Might present? How weak is he?"

Three consecutive questions were raised, but both of them still heard no reply even after fifteen seconds.

Their instincts screamed at them that they were in danger, and as veteran criminals, they obviously trusted their instincts and leaped backward.

And just in time, too, since the four walls of the hastily-made prison suddenly blasted away, knocking back everyone and everything that was within a meter from the wall.

Chisaki's vigilance instantly shot through the roof as he prepared himself to immediately use his quirk the moment he felt danger.

"Who are you?!" Nemoto shouted at the clearing smoke but received no reply. He wasn't scared of many things since he often knows the truth, but that figure within all the smoke and dust? It scared him. For the first time in his life, his quirk didn't work on somebody.

"Me? It's funny that you ask." A childish voice rang out, "By the way, your quirk only works if the person you're interrogating actually hears your voice. It's pretty similar to one of my students, now that I think about it."

"So, who the hell are you?"

Both villains didn't want to make the first move against the unknown person and chose to get some information out of him first.

"As I said, I can't hear you, so why do you keep asking questions?" An annoyed voice rang out. The figure still hasn't stepped out of the smoke until now.

"Yo-"

"But I will introduce myself." The voice interrupted Nemoto and continued, "My name is Shido. Little Eri had very kindly given you some information about me, but it isn't complete. So I'll try my best to answer all your questions."

"What is your quirk?"

"Why do you keep opening your mouth and asking questions, Nemoto?" Shido's voice was now amused as he laughed a little, "I can't hear you at all since I'm trying to prevent myself from being inflicted by your own quirk."

"YOU!!!!" Nemoto lost all his patience at this point and dashed towards him.

"Devour."

One word was spoken as countless white hands appeared all around Nemoto and dragged him into the walls and floor.

Chisaki tried to manipulate the walls to try and save Nemoto but to no avail. Regardless of how far Nemoto was separated from the walls, he was still eventually dragged into the shadows.

"Damn!" Chisaki cursed, "Nothing has been going to plan ever since five years ago! We lost our primary source, but we at least managed to clone her cells to keep our research going. The damn league of villains brats killed ten of my underlings, and now this! Who the hell are you, and why are you doing this?! Return Eri to her rightful guardian!"

"Finally, I can hear and talk without that annoying person around." Shido didn't immediately reply to Chisaki's outburst and commented casually.

Shido turned to face Chisaki and bowed slightly, "Good afternoon, Kai Chisaki."

Chisaki didn't reply to his introduction and waited with a mixture of nervousness and rage present on his face.

Seeing that Chisaki didn't reply, Shido got slightly annoyed and said, "It's rude not to reply to someone who just introduced his own name and greeted you, you know?"

Although Chisaki's temper was about to be blown, he still opted to keep his silence, observing Shido's every move.

"Tch...fine." Shido clicks his tongue before finally stepping out of the smoke like a final boss's reveal after a dramatic and tension-build-up.

Chisaki wasn't too surprised seeing a 1.5-meter kid show up as he already knew Shido was a child, but it still surprised him that two children would have destroyed their entire gang. He didn't know where his two most trusted confidants, Hari Kurono (Chonostasis) and Joi Irinaka (Mimic), had gone but believed that the boy in front of him had something to do with their disappearance.

"For the third time now, I'm Shido. You may or may not know me, but my 'hero' name is Phantom. Now, before you freak out, the reason I'm here to ensure that Eri can have her revenge. Society is a bitch, don't you agree?"

Chisaki had no idea why Shido suddenly cursed the society but being on the side that thinks that the presence of quirks had ruined society, he naturally agreed with him. However, he wasn't going to show it on his face and reveal it to Shido.

"The sudden appearance of quirks just messed up society. Discrimination exists everywhere, and statistics have shown that people's discrimination has increased by as much as fifty percent compared to the era before quirks. And as if that wasn't enough, the amount of destruction caused to both public and private properties have also escalated steeply." Shido ignored Chisaki's silence and just continued on with his own pace.

"You see, quirks have made the society as it is today. People used to think that quirks have helped us, and some people still believe that today. But if you really thought clearer, all quirks have really done for this society is increase the number of crimes - corruption to become a hero, robberies because people believe that only heroes can stop them, murders and rape because their quirks have some sort of side effects (extra lust or murder tendencies, discrimination because their quirks aren't 'flashy' or are considered 'villainous'."

"So what are you trying to say?"

"I'm no hero, and I don't believe that 'peace' was ever an option for humankind. After all, without the seven sins that take up in our daily lives, we are not humans." Shido slowly spoke as he shrugged his shoulders, "However, I do try my best to help those I see need help. Eri was one of the poor girls that needed help. She screamed and cried for help in a dirty alleyway, where three people were present to capture her back. Two of them were willing parties, while the last one was forced to do so because you threatened his family. You weren't there personally because you thought no one was there when it was dark and isolated."

"Eri was a sweet, kind, and pure girl. She would have grown up like that if you didn't experiment on her for what, two, three years? While some society follows the jungle law, we are still, after all, in a civilized society. What's the point of being a civilized society if we still do barbaric things?"

"So what are you trying to say?" Chisaki repeated his question, but this time his tone was laced with nervousness and...fear? Why was he feeling fear? He was sure that he would never feel fear even in the face of All Might. His ideals and the end goal was much more significant than something meager as fear. He would sacrifice everything to let the Yakuza prosper once more.

So why did he feel fear in front of this child?

So why was he so afraid to die in front of this child?

The only logical explanation was...

"YOU! What did you do to me?!" Chisaki yelled shakily. His face was contorted with panic. After he had pointed that fact out, his originally quiet surroundings started to have creepy, distorted, and jarring music playing.

Shido looked impressed at his questions and smiled, "I'm impressed. You had quickly realized what had happened to you. What I did to you was nothing special. You see, my quirk doesn't only allow me to summon weapons. Those weapons are part of me, so they sort of...buff me a little."

Shido was in no hurry to explain. He was just stalling time for Eri to regain back the power of her quirk. After all, without direct samples from Eri's blood, their bullets were nothing more than a temporary quirk eraser.

"Take, for example, Raphael." Shido summoned his lance and pendulum and aimed it towards the ceiling.

"El Re'em."

The lance in his hand quickly formed a winding spiral at the tip of the spear before Shido threw it at the ceiling.

They were dropped quite deep into the basement, around five hundred meters deep, but the spear managed to pierce until sunlight could be seen shining through the hole.

Chisaki's heart fell as he witnessed the destructive powers of the spear.

"You see, Raphael here gives me the ability to manipulate wind. That is my so-called 'buff'. On the other hand, my dearest piano allows my voice to be amplified and has various different effects on people. The one I used on you was my special move known as Cacophony."

"Cacophony: A harsh or jarring song that puts listeners into a frenzied state, extreme fear, panic, terror, etc. The scariest part is that it doesn't sound out of place. The music that would be heard sounds completely natural to listeners, and they wouldn't even realize that they were under the music's effects."

"A pretty neat effect, right? That's why I'm rather impressed that you managed to figure it out. But that's enough talking."

Shido concluded their talk before a bunch of white, ghost-like hands appeared from the shadows as they grabbed in and pinned him down, not allowing his arms to touch any surface.

"Eri." Shido called out to the ground beside him, and the called girl appeared, "It's time to end this."

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