Chapter 18: Rabbit Meets Wolf

"HNNNNNNNNNNGHHHHHHHH!"

From the sands of Dagoba Beach, the squawk of an unfortunate Soul squeezed out from its throat, rasps filled with indescribable suffering as the soul walked towards the streets with heavy steps.

"Keep going, or I'll kick your ass," said the Soul's tormentor.

"He definitely will kick your ass!" Shouted the smiling boy hurrying past him.

Toshinori watched Izuku carry the broken air conditioner… a huge one with Garou sitting atop it. He could feel his disciple's pain, the effort he must have mustered even to support the weight on his back, and there was nothing Toshinori could say to alleviate Izuku's dilemma.

He shifted his attention to the boy training with him, carrying equally heavy stuff on with considerably less effort from which his smiling face reflected. Toshinori wondered what Garou's relationship with the young boy was. Was he Garou's little brother? Ghin did continue to call Garou Aniki with idolizing affection.

He didn't know Garou was good with children in the first place- ah, Izuku looked like he was going to drop down again. Izuku was making a very strained face; his cheeks red like apples as he neared towards the concrete streets past the promenade.

"Wimp!" Ghin gleefully shouted as he ambled past Izuku with a mischievous smile.

The boy seemed to enjoy overtaking his elders in a somewhat innocent but devilish manner.

"Excuse me, um, Bang? May I ask what the point of this training is? Wouldn't this kill him?"

Or cripple his spine, no less.

"Yep." Garou nodded.

"Eh?" Izuku halted upon hearing Garou's answer.

"Before I train them, I kill them. I grind their pitiful bodies to dust first then rebuild what's left of them from the ground up," Garou grinned with malevolence.

"Eh?!" So his training was to break down Midoriya at his substantial risk?!

"B-But that's inhumane! No one could get that strong at this level!"

"Look at the boy. I once threw him up the mountain and looked at how he turned out. Did you think there's a secret shortcut training method or something?" Garou glared at Toshinori, almost as if insulted by his implication.

"I…" Toshinori grimaced.

Regrettably, he had indeed hoped that there was a secret, but in turn, his secret was, in fact, no more than suicidal training if he was to be believed.

"There is no such thing as the easy way in life. You'll only hurt yourself if you keep searching for it when it isn't there," Garou scolded. "And you, why are you stopping? Get moving, or else I will drop a desk on this thing."

"Ah! Y-Yes!" Izuku yelped as he quickly straightened his back and strenuously pulled his legs with every step.

'Garou…' Toshinori didn't know what to say.

The flow of logic Garou follows wasn't simple to rebuff. Toshinori could not disagree with his form of wisdom since he also underwent many trials in his year-long journey to become the Symbol of Peace. Garou, on the other hand, took that to stride, only on a magnitude unprecedented if what he saw was of any indication.

"Hello, wimp! Bye, wimp!" Ghin shouted again with glee when he strolled past Izuku again, carrying a large sofa overhead.

Izuku could only grunt and whimper as he finally touched the planks of the promenade.

"This is like the Tortoise and the Hare…" Toshinori muttered, comparing the situation to an old children's story with Izuku as the tortoise and young Ghin as the hare.

Only in this case, the hare didn't let the tortoise catch up to victory. When Izuku finally dropped the appliance into the pile out the streets, he trudged back to repeat, his shoulders slouched and his face drenched with sweat.

He looked as if every fiber of his being was screaming in pain, and this was his first day since Garou took over his training. Then Izuku plopped face-first into the sands, groaning in agony with tears and snot dripping onto the sand.

"Ugggggggggggghhhhhhh…"

"Ah." Toshinori felt pity for Izuku, even more so when Garou walked over to him and started kicking him.

"Get up, or I will kick your ass for real."

Garou continued kicking Izuku's groaning corpse. He seemed to be stirring from his slumber, lifting his face from the sands.

"Help… can't… move…."

"Good, you're breaking down. Now get back up and move," Garou demanded without mercy in his tone.

"Now, now, Garou." Toshinori intervened, stepping up before Garou could carry out his promise.

"How about we take a break, huh? If you continue pushing Izuku like this, he might not-"

"Of course this Twerp can. If the boy can climb a mountain without rest, then so can he, and I didn't see boy complain."

"I did complain!" Arriving with another block of junk three times his size, Ghin interjected. "Countless times! No matter what I say, you won't let me take a break!"

Ghin was pouting at Garou; his cheeks puffed wide.

"But at least you heeded my words. Here, look at this guy." Garou kicked the groaning corpse by his feet. "Probably five or six years older than you, and he couldn't even withstand his first day on the job."

Toshinori found some offense in his evaluation of Izuku, but he was more concerned with how Garou trained his… very young disciple.

"Now that I cleared this misunderstanding, hurry, and get up." Garou continued kicking Izuku's corpse until he finally started to push himself up.

"I-I am sorry, but may I ask for some details behind your... gruesome regimen?" Toshinori asked the young boy.

He did hear Garou saying something about throwing him up a mountain, but…

"Like what? He really made me climb a mountain with my bare hands without rest for the first day as a 'warm-up' and then forced me into harsh, rigorous sets," Ghin bluntly clarified the whole picture.

The full weight of the truth pulled Yagi's jaw down to the sands. The level of difficulty Garou forced on a young child was… insanely hazardous, a death sentence for someone Ghin's age.

"W-What?! That's inhumane! He..." Toshinori yelled, trying to find the right words to express.

"Don't blame him. He didn't force me to go... actually, he sort of did, but I chose to do it in the end. And I don't regret my choice."

Toshinori couldn't accept his reasoning.

"W-why?! Children shouldn't climb mountains bare-handed! You should be playing with others your age, not...!"

All cheerfulness the boy emulated before dropped, his smile melting away into a severe expression unbefitting someone his age.

"Are you Quirkless?"

"What? Yes, why?" He wasn't lying in a sense.

He was born without a Quirk like Izuku.

"Because you of all people should know the pain of living in a world different from the others. Abandoned, tossed aside as useless."

This time, Ghin had spoken words that were too mature, too heavy for someone his age to carry. Whatever retort Toshinori had in his throat died within him when he looked into the boy's eyes. For a moment, embers burning of rage replacing the innocence as if peeking out from behind a mask.

"No one is there for me. No one, not even the only family I have. Not even the heroes around me... none of them can help me. There are no real heroes for the Quirkless. So don't tell me what I should or should not do, old man." Ghin's change of tone was sudden; the words of the cheerful child replaced by one that seemed to share Garou's hatred for heroes with substantial justification. Toshinori could practically feel what the boy was going through, something that even he, the Symbol of Peace, cannot touch.

Without a word, Ghin briskly left to pick another piece of trash from the junk pile, a thrown away drawer, leaving Toshinori stunned in silence.

"...no heroes for the Quirkless..." he muttered.

Toshinori wanted to retort, but he couldn't. Not even he could deny that there were heroes for those without Quirks... but he could not understand. What happened to the child? The cheerfulness he had before now felt like a mask to hide his pain... and something else he hadn't seen but could sense.

---------

"He has a disciple?! Are you saying he is taking in apprentices?!"

Within his hero office, Sir Nighteye shouted at Toshinori, nearly jumping out of his paper-filled desk. Seated across his office desk, Toshinori stared at his lap, fingers laced together in thought as he reminisced the boy that followed the most dangerous man in Japan.

"... Yes, I am certain." Sir Nighteye sighed, lying on the desk with his elbows as he pinched the bridge of his nose out of stress.

"It appears we have severely underestimated him… again. He continues to shatter our expectations just when we thought we'd seen it all." Sir Nighteye looked up at Toshinori and laced his fingers together. His eyes were staring at Toshinori in a deep rumination on the subject. "Forgive me if I sound demanding, but tell me everything you know about this apprentice."

Toshinori looked back at his former sidekick in thought as his thoughts were still stuck to that boy he met on Dagoba Beach.

"I don't know if I should."

Sir Nighteye did not react.

His facial features remained stoic, unflinching despite his idol's refusal.

"Is there a particular reason that you decided to withhold critical information? If Garou is taking in others and spark a following, then who knows-"

"It is complicated," Toshinori interrupted.

'Complicated,' however, did not complement the complexity even at surface level.

"Complicated? I don't understand. What could be so complicated behind trying to stop others from becoming like him?" In the silent room, nary a single noise in the air, the gazes of their eyes were almost clashing, grinding even with a competitive intensity that simple words could not describe.

"You would understand my motivations if you've seen him in person. All I can say to you is… his age is much younger than I anticipated."

Sir Nighteye slowly widened his eyes. He had caught his idol's message.

"How old is he?" Nighteye immediately asked.

Toshinori pursed his lips as he answered.

"If I must be blunt, his apprentice is so young that his head could barely reach my knee."

The stoic features of the man in glasses quivered, faltering as if struck in the face. Toshinori took notice of Sir Nighteye's eyelids lifting from their narrow, sempiternal glare. The information seemed to have shaken him just as much as it did him when Garou introduced the boy to him. His hands were starting to shake, his jaw slightly unhinging the more he parsed the information his idol confessed. Words seemed to have failed him, barely a single word coming out of his throat as if paralyzed with a seizure.

"What… what? Are you… I cannot imagine him recruiting a child out of every other Japanese citizen! A teenager, I could understand, but a child no less?!" When the words formed, it transformed into an outburst of skepticism, warping Sir Nighteye's features in a mix of outrage and disbelief.

Toshinori could sympathize with Sir Nighteye's reaction. He would've reacted the same if he learned it from Sir Nighteye's mouth if their positions were reversed.

"I don't know why myself… but from the brief time I had to chat with him, I can see he is hiding a lot of pain. One thing I do know for sure is that Garou did not force him. The boy joined him out of his own free will."

"From what I could understand, what reason would a child want to undergo harsh training from the most dangerous Villain… no, my mistake, man known to our country?" Sir Nighteye sighed, pinching his nose in stress once more.

Toshinori did not understand either.

"He seems to have lost faith in the current hero society... I don't know what happened to him, but it seems strong enough for him to follow Garou."

The corner of Sir Nighteye's lips quivered. He slowly lowered his gaze until it reached the desk. An awkward silence descended into the room. After a moment passed, Sir Nighteye slowly reached for his glasses, pushing it up back into position.

"... Does his apprentice have a Quirk?"

It sounded as if he knew the answer to the question, but must ask it anyways to steady himself.

"No."

Sir Nighteye stayed silent for a few seconds after that.

"...so he wants to gain strength to change our society..." Sir Nighteye conjectured.

Toshinori shared his opinion. Knowing Garou and his philosophy on Quirks in general, it would be a miracle if some of it didn't rub off onto Ghin.

"What does he want to become? A Villain? No, that would be too rude... does he want to follow Garou in his footsteps?" Sir Nighteye asked.

That was something Toshinori didn't want, a child growing up as the next Hero Hunter. Some of the villains nowadays chose to reject society because of how it viewed individuals based on their Quirks. Most of the Villains were outcasts, shunned because of how society mistreated them due to their Quirks, unfortunate souls they are. However, since Garou's emergence, there is a good chance Ghin would take a more dangerous path, one Garou paved with his own two hands.

"I don't know. I... am afraid that if I find out, then I might not be able to convince the boy to choose otherwise as I am now. I didn't ask... we got off on the wrong foot when I asked why he chose to follow Garou."

Sir Nighteye sighed as he slowly raised his head, his gaze meeting Toshinori's once again.

"So far... I have an idea of your answer to this question, but I will ask anyway." Sir Nighteye closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them, Sir Nighteye resumed. "From what I can conclude, you are speaking as if the boy's training was bearing fruit…"

Toshinori broke eye contact with Sir Nighteye, looking down on his lap.

"To my shock, yes. The boy has shown strength that his age should not allow. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't know any better, honestly."

"I am afraid of this… yet, I cannot help but be surprised."

Toshinori was still surprised even now.

"How effective is his training?"

"I am afraid… that in a few years, we might have another Hero Hunter in Japan if nothing is done."

Sir Nighteye buried his face into his hands. Toshinori could see the migraines from his information drilling into his skull.

"I cannot believe this… to think that he found a way to make our lives even harder than now."

Toshinori understood the implications behind his worries. The fact that the disciple was a child, an innocent bystander that did no wrong was more than enough indication tied their hands. They could not arrest a child for no reason, and if anyone of them intervened and took the child away from Garou, it would impact the public image of them and provoke the Hero Hunter to incur damages they could not repair.

"How would you describe their... relationship? Did Garou abuse the kid?"

Toshinori looked up. Recalling Ghin's attachment to the Hero Hunter, and how Garou was handling him, Toshinori couldn't help but bring a little smile to his face.

"Well... no. Surprisingly, believe it or not, Garou is very good with children."

Sir Nighteye did not react, but his skepticism was felt in his next question, "Are you sure?" He asked as if querying Toshinori if he was joking. As humorous as it was, that heart-warming scene was not false.

Toshinori let out a chuckle, "On the contrary, he is very attached to Garou. Almost as if he is his family."

Sir Nighteye pushed up his glasses again, "Does the child bear genetic relations with the Hero Hunter?"

"No, Garou told me otherwise, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were."

Sir Nighteye hummed in thought, lowering his gaze as the reflecting light masked the translucent glass.

"To sum your report, we have learned that Garou has a disciple of an alarmingly early age, and his power derives from a force unrelated to that of Quirks as proven with our failed manhunt with Eraserhead as our vanguard, a power that can be nurtured through effort. However, one that we have no clue on how to harness."

Toshinori found that to be a very apt summary of his report.

"This information could prove valuable to the hero community, and dangerous for any Villain that dared learn of this possibility."

Toshinori agreed. He cannot imagine what would happen if the Villains were to come to claim this power.

"But this only leaves the question… what should we do with them?"

'A good question.'

At Garou's current state and position, there wasn't much the Heroes could do, the same for the Villains as well. Garou was simply too strong, too skilled, and he held knowledge of Toshinori's critical condition. Ultimately, Garou won the moment he defeated him in a fair fight, respecting the code of honor even no less.

"It might be best if I continue monitoring Garou. If I can learn more about him and his origins, I might be able to convince him to change his ways." Toshinori couldn't remember the one time he reformed a Villain…

Well, a Hunter in this case. In his prime, he did manage to change some Villains, although 'coerced' was the better word. Actually, now that he thought about it, he didn't give them a choice, it was more of an ultimatum situation he enforced upon the society of villains.

Meaning this was Toshinori's first, earnest attempt at reforming a dangerous man that strayed from the righteous path. The fact that Garou had honor, never kills, and refused to involve civilians and bystanders into his conflict was the only consolation that assuaged Toshinori's distress. Even so, there was hope for Garou, and that was enough cause for Toshinori to move forward down this treacherous path.

"Hmm… I am still not sure if it is still possible to sway Garou to surrender his crusade," Sir Nighteye voiced his doubts.

"Even so, it is our only option. There is hope for us," Toshinori rebuked.

"It depends on his past… All Might. You must find the source of his hatred for Heroes in your mission if you wish to make strides in your progress. There is always a root cause for every motive, no matter how big or small, simple or complex. Not even Garou is exempt from this rule no matter his power."

Toshinori couldn't agree with this statement more.

Hopefully, the more he and Midoriya spend time with Garou, the more the man with many titles would open up to them. Who knows, maybe Garou would one day replace him as a Number One hero if he performed well enough… Toshinori could imagine it with ease, surprisingly. Garou had a soft spot for children, and he even took Izuku in when he learned he was Quirkless.

He smiled a little from entertaining the thought.

"I understand, my friend."

"Hmmm… it is getting late. I think you should return to your hotel in Hosu and get some rest."

Toshinori nodded. Today left him much more exhausted than usual. Dealing with Garou was a testament to the adversity the Hero Hunter wrought.

"That might be for the best." Toshinori rose from his seat and went to the coat stand, taking his jacket he brought to warm himself in the cold of fall.

"Is there any news from the Villain side?" Toshinori asked as he slipped his arms through the sleeves one after the other.

While dealing with Garou was imperative, Toshinori and the others could not ignore the other evils infesting their society. The crime rate has decreased nowadays, but recent events gainsaid the notion that Villains have diminished. Instead, there was a rise of criminals soaring… not the kind that would rob stores or hold civilians hostages in public.

There were those rising to challenge the Heroes in single combat. Most likely, some were inspired by Garou's brazenness to confront heroes publicly. It was a personal war between Heroes and challengers, the latter testing the current Heroes, some of the challengers facing the heroes publicly and some secret in isolated areas. In short, one could call them post-Garou Hero Hunters, or at least self-declared Hero Hunters.

"Hmm. If you refer to the usual pre-Garou Villains, then not so much; as for the new troublemakers after that, their attacks on Heroes specifically have grown more apparent than before. On a specific note, the Hero Killer has stopped his activities for a while."

Within the shadow of the Hero Hunter, many former hero hunters and other villains that specifically targeted heroes overall were shoved out of the spotlight.

Those from the pre-Garou era held a growing hatred for the Quirkless hunter while new criminals, post-Garou, rose to challenge the Hero in an attempt to mimic Garou's feats or to continue what he had started and left unfinished. One of those trapped in Garou's shadow was the Hero Killer, Stain.

He committed a string of murders in the first few months, mostly in an attempt to one-up the Hero Hunter in an unofficial race to be Garou's contender, but Garou had proven too much even for the murderer's efforts. The number of his victims rose to sixty-three in the months, a number the Hero Society could not ignore and a number dwarfed by the Hero Hunter's victim count. However, he had stopped his activities a month ago. Either because he had given up or had decided to bide his time.

"…Hmmm." Toshinori hummed in worry. Garou had damaged both the Hero and Villain side, but Garou did not hunt the evils hidden in the cracks of society, leaving much breathing room for them to plot and scheme, those like the Hero Killer, for example. "I will return if I learn any new information. Have a good night, Sir Nighteye."

Bidding his former sidekick a good night, Toshinori left, exiting the door, and walked down the dimly lit halls for the elevator down to the lobby.

Out of the automatic sliding glass doors, Toshinori left the building under the biting cold of the night air, his breath opaque white with each breath escaping his lips. Toshinori sighed as he left, recalling what Garou did to Midoriya…

The Hero Hunter reduced poor Izuku into a wreck, a mass of aching muscles on the verge of begging to return home on the first day. After they left, Toshinori had to call for a taxi to drive Izuku home. He was afraid that Izuku might not wake up in time for his school day, making him wonder how he should persuade Garou to lessen Izuku's newfound training enough for him to endure his school and personal life. It was a miracle that Ghin endured the initial months of such a harsh physical course… a blatant testament to boy's tenacity.

Overall, it was an exhausting day, but it was also a successful one. They made contact and befriended the Hero Hunter… plus extra.

"I wonder what other surprised he has in store for us," Toshinori muttered.

After today, he was curious to know what Garou's personal life was like. Where did he live and how did he get by? As far as he knew, there was never a report of Garou committing robberies, neither from stores nor banks, yet he managed to procure a source of income that he used to pay for his excessive lunch.

And to think Garou was that good with kids. Toshinori smiled when he saw the child riding the shoulders of the 'Demon of Hosu' without fear.

In a strange way… he kinda looked forward to learning more about Garou, treating this as an educational experience to better himself not as a hero, but as a person.

---------

The morning thereafter was just as usual.

Izuku was in his home, recovering from the aftereffects of Garou's brutal training, leaving the poor preteen nearly crawling his way back home due to severe muscle fatigue. Garou condescendingly chuckled as Ghin laughed at Izuku with an air of smug superiority.

Despite that, Izuku said he was used to verbal abuse throughout his years. Although, it was the first time someone else offered to help him in his training beside Toshinori himself. The two martial artists have pride, but they weren't without honor and respect. The boy even promised to show Izuku the basics of combat as well today after school, although only if Izuku declared him 'Sempai' from now on.

Today, Toshinori decided to check up on Garou. Garou always followed a particular schedule, always being at the same spot at the expansive crossroads, sitting cross-legged in the center from eight in the morning to the late afternoon in his costume. Sometimes, Garou would stay longer, depending on his whim or secret lifestyle.

After having his breakfast at the hotel's cafeteria, Toshinori left the building. He stopped by a bus stop and waited for transportation to arrive. Once it did, he got onto the bus, taking a seat in the front as he calmly waited for the bus to accelerate back on track slowly.

Along the way, Toshinori took out his phone, clicking on his bookmark after opening Safari, wondering if Garou would sit there without a challenger or some commotion would occur.

Toshinori still couldn't believe how dedicated the people of the internet were for recording Garou of all people. Garou wouldn't touch them, yes, but there were still other factors like villains taking them hostage or offshoot debris from Garou's fights. However, as he looked at the screen, his eyes nearly popped out of his sockets when he saw a Hero that he didn't want to face Garou at all costs.

"[Yo! You the pansy they call the Hero Hunter? You don't look so tough, now that I look at ya!]"

The Rabbit Hero Mirko gruffed with a toothy, confident smile, standing before the cross-legged Garou as he stared back with his demonic black mask.

"Mirko's confronting the Hero Hunter!" One of the passengers shouted.

"What?!"

An uproar erupted, causing many phones to be taken out of many pockets.

To Toshinori's worst fear, another challenger arose to face the Hero Hunter. It was neither a Villain nor a foolish Hero like Mt Lady. It was one of the Top Ten, standing in the ring of police fences surrounding the Hero Hunter - inside his territory. Toshinori felt his legs moving on its own, ready to rush over to the scene at the slightest chance. He wanted to return to his muscle form and intervene, but knowing Garou and his rants on All Might in general, that person would tear him to shreds on sight if he arrived in imperfect condition.

Immediately once the bus reached his stop, Toshinori ran out of the bus, some other passengers running out along with him to see the fight between the Number Five Hero and the Hero Hunter. With the rushing herd, Toshinori took a sharp right, heading towards the crossroads.

The surrounding emergency vehicles and cordon slowly entered his sight in his wheezing run, blood spewing from his lips as he coughed, but he endured as he arrived at the scene, doubling over and wheezing with his hands on his knees. Looking up, Toshinori saw Garou merely sitting there with Mirko continuing to egg the Hero Hunter. Toshinori was, fortunately, at a position where he could see Garou at his left and Mirko on his right, watching from the side.

Garou's gaze was seemingly scanning Mirko's athletic form behind that mask, almost as if appraising his new, bold prey that trespassed his domain.

"What's wrong, punk? Rabbit got your tongue? I heard you used to be chatty when you were hunting the weaklings, hehe." Mirko taunted.

'Oh god, what is she doing?!' Toshinori felt his panic yanking his jaw down as he saw the woman continuing hammering Garou's patience.

"She is going to fight him…"

"The Number Five Hero is challenging the Demon. She has no chance..."

"I know, right? I want to root for her, but…"

Whispers rustled around Toshinori like weeds under a gentle breeze. Their doubt in the Hero was palpable, the result of Garou's months of victories, and Toshinori knew that their doubts held weight from his experience.

Finally stirring, Garou slowly rose to his feet, leaning his head slightly to the left. He seemed to be wordlessly taunting Mirko. He did not even enter a stance, Toshinori noticed. He was looking down on Mirko, and Mirko seemed to have caught wind of that.

"Hoh, so you want me to go first? You sure? I'm nothing like those weaklings you crushed."

Mirko grinned as she started hopping on her heels as if warming up while Garou remained eerily still. Not a single twitch came from him. Toshinori could feel the other spectators around him gulping. Stealing a glance, he caught sight of their sweat trickling from their pores. He doesn't blame them as he was sweating in response to the tension as well.

"I'll show those pansies in the hospital what a real Hero's like."

Garou simply watched as Mirko stopped bounding, leaned forward, bent a knee, and curled her toes one after another. Caution wasn't like her, Toshinori caught. The Heroine had a history of recklessness, headstrong in battle, the kind to always rush in first on adrenaline without a second thought.

It seemed that even she learned to tread carefully around Garou, albeit with anxious excitement. Toshinori, and also the crowd, could sense the accumulating anticipation boiling under Mirko's smile.

Silence arrived and blew the whispers away into bated breaths, unheard but heavy, suffocating. Then it was blown away as Mirko made the first move.

She jumped, frisking in zigzags with mighty hops, asphalt cracking under her feet.

She somersaulted, turning like a wheel, gathering enough momentum to throw down a mighty, downward heel kick against Garou. However… No one saw him move, only saw his foot somehow lodged into her gut before she could reach him - in a flawlessly executed reverse high kick - and tumbling away, she went like a ragdoll dragged by a monsoon.

Gasps erupted, breaths were still. Toshinori knew the outcome, but he even couldn't help but be surprised by the martial artist's grace and form as Mirko pulled herself back up, coughing blood with one hand holding her contused stomach and the other wiping the blood off her mouth.

"Ack, okay, not gonna lie. That hurt…" Mirko, however, was smiling fiercely, a lion's grin. "But don't think that's enough to keep me down!"

Garou did not respond, merely lowering his leg back to standing form. He simply watched Mirko return to her basic stance - her posture lowered as she prepared to jump at him again.

Garou, surprisingly, started to enter into a stance, a different one than Toshinori remembered. Instead of using the martial form he used to beat him, Garou assumed a different stance… one that was unexpectedly more passive - one leg slightly bent with his hands pulled up inward, his knuckles facing Mirko.

'What is he doing?' Toshinori did not know what fighting style Garou took, but that stance was not the same as before on that fateful day.

"Here I come!" She shouted, commencing the second round, rushing straight with reckless abandon as Garou gazed at her with, in contrast, the calmness of a lake.

The battle was like two opposites clashing at this moment to Toshinori's confusion and shock. Either something was wrong, or Garou was trying something different.

Mirko flew like a rocket, but Garou bent back as Mirko shot over him. Skidding the concrete in her descent as Garou straightened his back, she turned around. She pounced at Garou, throwing a volley of wild kicks, reverse and normal swings, at him as he danced with her, swiftly evading and deflecting her legs with wasteless motion.

Her kicks were heavy, strong, the force behind them like cannons firing swings and thrusts at the man before them. However, Garou maneuvered like water and something else, parrying and pirouetting around her roundhouse kicks, high kicks, medium swing kicks, and even the trite stomp kick, each kick barely grazing his cloth or his expressionless oni mask. The man knew how to stay marginally close to her while still out of her reach to her growing chagrin, irritation starting to contort her features.

"Damn it, why can't I hit you-ugh!?"

At the last sentence, with one foot nailing her rabbit-shaped footwear as his foothold, Garou struck her with a swift jab to her throat, pinning her down. As she gagged and coughed, Garou struck her cheek with a straight punch, flinging her head back, and followed with repeat hitting her as her head bounced back.

To the spectators, they either winced or leaned forward in suspense. To Toshinori, he saw Garou holding back with less surprise mixed with it. This wasn't Garou's usual fighting style. Was Garou practicing new martial arts and techniques on Mirko? Knowing him, Toshino could see Garou trying new martial arts considering his skill, though he couldn't understand Garou's reasons.

Even so, Garou had Mirko pinned. He was dangerously close to her, past her comfort zone, one foot nailing down Mirko's while his fists proceeded to barrage her with swift, furious blows rapidly - ones different compared to Garou's mighty strikes.

His fists were vertically revolving around each other in rapid motions as they continuously struck Mirko in the face, no contrails of blue or red streaming behind them.

"Mirko! Hang in there!"

"Don't give up! You can beat him!"

"You're one of the top ten! Don't lose!"

The crowd started to root for Mirko despite Garou overwhelming her with his fusillading blows. Blue spots started to color Mirko's face, a black eye on her left. She couldn't take any more hits or else she would drop out like the others.

"OHhhhhhhhhhhh!" Mirko shouted as she reached out and grabbed Garou's hands, locking them in place as she threw her unpinned knee up from under Garou's chin. The crowd gasps, the first counterattack they've seen about to hit the Hero Hunter back… only for the Hero Hunter to raise his knee, simultaneously parrying and pushing back her leg and striking her chin with a flawless reversal.

The crowd dropped their jaws at the sight, Toshinori included. Garou was displaying his skills, showing his dominance over Mirko in close combat with excellent choreography.

Garou struck her neck twice with two swift rolling jabs; the thudding sounds soft yet heavy. She was gagging, choking, her eyes losing focus of her mark.

It now looked like a one-sided beating with the Rabbit Hero helpless under Garou's seemingly endless barrage of fists.

In the end, he struck her chin with an upper elbow strike and pirouetted to her left as her head arched back, snaking a hand from under her nape and hooking his fingers around her chin. With a mighty yank down, he threw her off her feet as her body whorled - her spinning body paralleling the floor spinning before Garou delivered a barrage of devastating blows. With his final blow, he hurled her towards the ambulance as she broke past the metal doors, the metal shrieking under her weight.

The emergency staff shrieked upon seeing Garou throwing her over to the vehicle with pronounced precision, a bold wordless statement 'join the losers.'

"Holy hell, this guy is no joke."

"He just threw her into the ambulance. Shit, man, this is the end."

"Now I'm sure that Endeavour couldn't beat him."

"Can All Might beat him, then?"

"Maybe, but you gotta admit, the guy knows how to fight. His moves are sick as hell."

"That is true..."

Toshinori could sadly not beat him, but he agreed that Garou's techniques are visually entertaining and awe-inspiring. However, just when they were about to dismiss Mirko, she jumped out of the ambulance and landed back in the arena, blood leaking from her nose and lips as she fired a ferocious grin at Garou.

"Like hell you beat me! I'm just getting started!" Mirko shouted as she jumped, twisting her hip, and throwing another midair roundhouse kick aimed at Garou's head. However, Garou fell back, swiveled his upper body in a full rotation, and intercepted her kick with his own, forcing Mirko in a painfully awkward position.

Both stood on one leg with the other held up high painfully straight, only one of them was holding up the leg of the other.

"Huh…" Toshinori was speechless.

This reversal was new… creative… and knowing how Mirko fought, he cannot imagine how she could work around this. The rest of the spectators dropped their jaws even lower, almost beyond awestruck.

"...huh..." Mirko uttered.

Garou responded by dropping his heel past her leg and slamming it down into her stomach and to the concrete below with a heavy ax kick. Her legs and head bounced up from the impact while her spine tasted concrete. Toshinori could see blood flying out of her mouth as her eyes rolled up in white.

Before her head landed back on the stone, Garou kneeled down, pressing his knee down on her chest and knocking out blood and spit from Mirko's mouth.

The spectators watched in horror when Garou began to punch her in the face, again and again, but his fists stopped mere millimeters before hitting the heroine in the face. However, in his last punch, Garou's fist flew past her head. It struck the concrete, the result leading to cracks spreading, chunks of landmass uplifting as a shockwave exploded, shattering the street like glass - to emphasize the power behind his blows and the consequences it would lead if the strike connected.

Toshinori wasn't sure if Mirko saw it… wait, Mirko was turning her head to Garou's fist, but her face rolled away from his sight. Then Garou grabbed her head and spun, pivoting a whole revolution, and threw her into the ambulance again. She crashed inside the ambulance loudly, banging in the walls with metal rent on impact.

Garou did not say another word, turning his back on his challenger with apathy while the spectators gawping at the scene dumbstruck, slack-jawed and eyes wide. Shocked would be redundant for their expressions. Hope-shattering was more proper to describe their faces.

As Garou returned to his original spot, before he sat down, Mirko shouted at him from inside the ambulance.

"Hey, asshole." Mirko shouted, one hand gripping the wall of the ambulance as she struggled to pull herself out, her face poking out of the emergency van.

Garou stopped. He did not turn around to give her the pleasure of his face, only his back.

"Mirko's still getting up?"

"Isn't this hopeless?"

"I don't think she can win. She can barely stand…"

Toshinori could see it. Mirko's legs were wobbling. Even to the untrained eye, one could see that Mirko was on the verge of giving out. The beating Garou inflicted had taken its toll. He could tell that he was not the only one wondering when she would fall to Garou on the spot.

"This isn't over, punk." Mirko grinned as she walked, no, hobbled over to Garou in shaky steps, stepping out of the warped and throttled ambulance as she limped towards him. Toshinori was surprised she could still speak with such vitality despite the damage.

Her voice was a rasp, blood trickled from her head and lips, down to her chin before dripping onto the floor. Bruises and contusions colored her skin dark blue and unhealthy red, her left eye was closed from the blood invading her eye. The rabbit-shaped footwear on her feet, the metal-plated extensions on her toes, was in tatters, crushed during their exchange.

She was mercilessly beaten black and blue, but, despite all of that, she still pulled herself back up, driven by her desire to pay Garou back and accomplish what the other heroes failed.

Toshinori could see the futility in her efforts, but he could understand her fighting spirit. Unlike the heroes before, she was grinning. Garou turned around finally, taking in Mirko's battered state, and her belligerent smile.

Mirko spat the blood at her feet and wiped the blood of her eyes, seemingly regaining her second wind. Shaking off the fatigue from her beatings, she ran towards Garou's arena before jumping over the crowd and fences.

Garou turned around as she landed, meeting her gaze head-on.

---------

Mirko was not gonna lie.

This was probably the most challenging fight she ever fought.

The rumors weren't lying - he really was as monstrous as those peons claimed. Mirko thought that wimpy strawman with glasses was exaggerating. The guy knew how to fight and, to her annoyance, he was holding back against her.

Even so, she did not come here to receive the same shame treatment. She was here to experience the famous Quirkless Man that gave the heroes their ass-whooping!

"Come on, where's that crazy strength when you put Endeavour in the hospital?! You afraid of hitting a girl, or what?" Mirko demanded.

And what did she get?

A few seconds of silence first and Garou wagging his finger at Mirko second. He actually told her to come at him - if she can - without uttering a word. It is somehow more insulting than hearing his voice in from the recording in that boring mass hero meeting, the one the glasses guy organized to educate the heroes to not provoke the Hero Hunter.

"Oh ho. Alright, punk, it's on."

Mirko could feel her veins bulging at his taunt. She didn't care if Garou had overwhelming might and skill, she will beat the shit out of him on this day, this she swore. To top it all off, she could somehow feel his smile behind that mask, and it was annoyingly smug.

With posthaste, Mirko returned to Garou with hopping zeal. She refused to let herself be his punching bag again as she maintained her distance. A girl can only take so much from a man, after all.

Even so, Mirko couldn't stop her sweat from breaking out. With every attack she doled, the Hero Hunter simply dodged, stepping out of her reach or blocking her kicks with ease, sometimes both. This wasn't the usual kind of opponent she could charge in and thrash about, she knew, but reality can defy expectations. She was facing an opponent that she could go all out and still be on the losing end no matter what she did. How he managed to redirect her kicks without killing her momentum she did not know. Either Garou was a perfect liar about his Quirklessness or he was just that good, and she was more inclined to believe the latter. It was like trying to attack a magnet with another magnet of the same polarity, only one can touch the other while the other can't to it.

Aim for his head, he either ducks or divert her blows with his hands. Try to kick his guts out, he steps to the side and punches her twice with two hooks. Aim for the legs…

When she tried a low kick, Garou did something she did not expect. With a pivoting stride back, he spun and hooked his leg onto her low kick, pulling her in as she dropped and slid to the side.

A familiar sensation spread out from her legs, one she hadn't felt in a long time. Outside, she looked calm, but inside she was thrown into awkward uncertainty as she digests her second painfully inconvenient position - on the floor with her doing the splits.

She was limber, of course. She did not reach the Number Five spot in the hero rankings because of her Quirk alone, training nonstop to be limber in her job. However, the bastard threw her off her tempo - the suddenness of her transition was cramping her legs like hell.

"Aaack… sssss…" Mirko hissed as she felt her legs go numb a second later, the pain almost rivaling the humiliation her position brought. She could hear the onlookers crooning 'Ohhhhhhh's out of sympathy.

"Pff."

She heard someone laugh. She turned around, seeing Garou behind her. Did he just laugh at her? She wanted to retort, but she could barely find it in her to stand back up, and the beatings Garou pounded into her didn't help her stamina.

The fact that she couldn't see his expression ticked her off even more, but she couldn't feel her legs. Instead, she wobbled back and forth, unable to maintain her balance as she fell forward on her hands, seemingly helpless. Quickly, she pushed herself back up straight, panting as she heaved a heavy breath, trying to get her legs to move.

But she felt something pinching between her shoulder and neck, cracking something.

Before she knew it, Mirko felt a sudden blackness taking over her vision. The next second when the darkness lifted, she awoke to the sight of a white ceiling, blinding light, and sudden warmth, the aching pains burning a familiar sensation.

"Congratulations. How's it feel to join the losers?"

Mirko turned her head left to see the familiar form of a toothy-smiling Mt. Lady, uncostumed, and in a warm bed. A warm hospital bed. Mirko slowly parsed the sight of Mt Lady before she quickly looked down, finding herself in septic-doused bandaids atop her bruises and her costume replaced by the same hospital clothes.

Once Mirko realized what happened, she could not help but seethe as her cheeks fumed furious red.

"That… fucking jerk!" Mirko swore teeth clenched as she swiftly tried to stand, but stopped as her stomach panged with stabbing pain, forcing her to double over.

"Whoa, Mirko! Please settle down."

Mirko looked to her side, seeing a bald doctor with glasses, cheeks as droopy as that of a bulldog's with the stereotypical stethoscope around his neck.

"I know what you're feeling, but please, don't rile up while your body is need of rest. And… I am aware of your personality, so we have a few heroes waiting outside the door, ready to bring you back in your bed."

Mirko couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"How the hell did I lose? I was…!" Mirko threw her head around, seeing herself in a room filled with other heroes, some decommissioned out of their beds and into the line of duty while others still remained, Mt Lady, Endeavour, and Crimson Riot included.

"You were severely outmatched." Crimson Riot informed from his bed. "The outcome was recorded live… he knocked you out."

"HOW?!" Mirko demanded furiously.

"Well, did you know he can knock people out with a shoulder grab?" Mt Lady snickered at her.

Mirko felt like kicking her face in for that.

"...don't tell me…"

"Here, see for yourself." Mt Lady threw her iPhone at Mirko. As it landed in Mirko's hands, she looked at the paused recording of the video, just when the Hero Hunter stood behind her helpless form. She could not help but consider how frustratingly helpless she looked in the vid, down in the splits, and at his mercy.

When Mirko pressed play, she saw Garou casually grab her shoulder and squeezed. She gawped when she saw herself fell on the floor face-first, drooling with the whites of her eyes showing - Garou walking back to his spot hereafter as the medical staff quickly ferried her off into the van as it drove off into the distance.

"That… jerk!"

Mirko swore to return there one day. She will train herself through hell and kick Garou's ass one day or another or else.

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