EXTREMELY GRAPHIC fight. Gore warning. Skip past this if you're queasy.
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Nagant kept the men in her line of vision and stretched out her right arm. A hole opened in her palm, but she closed it, "Can't do that... the noise of my quirk will get me killed by the guards even if I get these guys."
She gripped the bar until her knuckles were white, and her eyes shot to the other side of the room through the gym mirror, where two other people were staring at her. 'Four of them?'
She licked around her mouth as they slowly stood and the squad of four approached her.
She cracked her neck and took a brief glance at their reflections: One had orange hair, one black, one brown, one blonde; all of them were muscular; the blonde was 2 meters tall. The blonde one grabbed a 45ib weighted bumper plate.
She observed the camera in the corner of the room frying as the brunet pointed at it. 'One quirk is electronics related, all the others are unknown.' She gulped.
She felt her heart rate increase rapidly along with her sweating. She turned around and forced a smile at them all while hiding her hands behind her back. "Did you boys need something? It's rude to stare." She made sure her hand was within reaching distance of a 2.5lb plate while her eyes darted between them all.
The brunet returned the smile, "You know what we want."
Her smile dropped, "Yeah... I do, but why? It's not like any of us are leaving Tartarus alive."
He wagged his finger, "Unlike you. We were recently given the generous opportunity to clear our names. So let's not make this difficult, ok? It'll be quick."
Most of them glared at her, and she returned the scowl. Her mind returned to the conversation she had with Hawks not long ago, "... Hard pass."
After a moment of silence, the men shared glances with one another, and then they all charged her at once. She gritted her teeth and grabbed the 2.5 plate, chucking it at the blonde one's throat.
He gagged, grabbing his throat unable to breathe. The brunet tried to tackle her, although his jaw met with her knee, causing a sharp crack.
The black-haired one released a barbed whip out of his arm and threw it at Nagant. 'A whip quirk!'
She quickly wrapped the towel around her arm as the whip caught her and pulled her in. The man clotheslined her, breaking her nose as she slammed into the ground. Her vision blurred for a moment as she made out a foot coming down on her head.
She just barely evaded it and kicked up at his balls; she took out his legs with her own, bringing him to the floor, but before she could follow up, the ginger dragged her by her hair and pulled out a shiv. Her eyes went wide as he screamed and tried to stab her, but she blocked it by grabbing a dumbbell.
The blade snapped against the black part of it, and she gut-checked him with it, making him reel over. She kicked him away and made distance between her and everyone, 'Can't let them out my line of sight! Where's the blonde one?'
She felt a huge arm wrap around her throat from behind and she struggled to breathe as she felt his hot breath blow on her hair. "You bitch, let me pay you back for that plate thrown at my throat earlier!"
'How is he speaking right now?! That should have crushed his windpipe! Healing factor quirk?'
Blood poured down her nose and the brunet picked up a 45ib plate. "Hold her still! I'm gonna maul her!"
As he charged at her again, she activated her quirk so the tip of the rifle uppercut him. A shrill scream erupted from her throat, and she bit down as hard as possible on the blond's arm. He screamed, and she kicked her leg out and back into his balls; the sickening crunch that followed made him gasp, and she did an overhead throw, slamming him on the ground.
She spits out a chunk of his arm and axe-kicked hard into his nose, caving it in.
She spotted a whip coming from her left and ducked under it. Ignoring the pain, she grabbed the barbed whip and pulled him toward her into a roundhouse kick to the dome. While he fell in a daze, she grabbed him and wrapped his own barbed whip around his neck, and yanked it hard, making it slice his own throat.
Both the brown and orange-haired one charged her from both sides, but she jumped off a bench away from them. She grabbed an empty bar off the rack and swung it full-force into the ginger's stomach.
As he fell, the brunet grabbed the bar and pulled it, bringing her closer. In response to his haymaker, she weaved past it and wrapped around his neck, and slammed him into the ground. As he recoiled from the thump, she stretched his arm out and kneed it in the wrong direction. Before he could have any chance to recover, she picked up the bench press bar again and cracked it hard against the brown-haired one's head with a full swing; there was a loud clang, and his screams instantly faded, leaving his hair more red in color.
The orange one growled, "It's just one bitch! Get up!" The blonde one slowly stood up, but the brunet never did.
Nagant licked the blood off her lip and smiled, "If I'm just one bitch then finish me off already."
The ginger grabbed a couple of 10ib plates and ran at her alongside the blonde man. The blonde threw a bench at her, which she evaded. She responded by spitting blood in his eyes.
While he tried to clean them, she easily weaved under the orange-haired man's swings and elbowed him in the solar plexus, followed by a knee to the groin. His soul left him with a gasp as the sound of crunching was heard again. "2.5ib was enough, idiot. Don't try to show off in the next life."
His eyes showed desperation and his body glowed, but before he could show off his quirk, she snapped his neck and flipped over him while the blonde attempted a sloppy kick. She glared at the healing chunk of flesh she bit out, "You healing types are always so annoying."
He breathed heavily while his nose reformed, "Screw all these other guys! You can't keep me down! I'm outlasting you one way or another!" He ran at her. She elbowed him in the mouth, but he powered through it and grabbed her as he slammed her head against the glass, cracking it.
She groaned and he grinded her face into the glass, cutting her up as he laughed maniacally. She gritted her teeth and transformed her elbow into a sniper; the barrel stabbed into his eye. He yelled and she grabbed a shard of glass, sharply turning to him and stabbing down into the almost-healed wound. He shrieked and she gouged out his remaining eye while sweeping his feet and mounted him. She tied up his arms with her legs and started raining punches and elbows down on his face, painting the floor red.
His good arm slipped out and grabbed her chin to push her off, but the blood helped her slide out of his grip and rain a hard elbow down into his nose, caving it in again. "Just die already, bastard!"
She picked up a 2.5lb plate and used it as brass knuckles to strike him with full force non-stop. "Out heal this you piece of shit!"
He grabbed her throat and choked her hard, but she didn't stop. She kept striking, digging further and further into his skull with every blow. Each blow crunching more than the last, until his arm plopped to the side.
She stopped and gasped for air. Sweat poured down her face, and her knuckles ached and shook. She struggled to stand and wobbled over to a nearby bench, grabbing a towel while observing the half-destroyed gym. She wiped the blood and glass off her face. She groaned and thought, 'Hopefully that was just that one guard that wanted me dead and not all the staff.'
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END
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Her ear picked up the sounds of guards yelling outside and getting closer. She sighed and raised her hands, "Either way, this isn't a good look. I just might never see the light of day again... I hope you keep your word, Hawks."
The guards unlocked the door and ran in, some gasped at the grizzly sight, and one froze. She side-eyed him as he turned around to leave, but stopped when more guards came in. A lot of the guards glared at her. One walked up and placed her in handcuffs, "God... someone call the medical staff. What happened here? Your answer will determine how severe your punishment is."
She peered at the guard who acted awkwardly earlier, 'You all wear the same uniform, but your own body betrays you.' The guard stood gripping his rifle harder than usual. His feet keep shuffling around slightly. Nagant smirks, "That guard right there was paid off to turn a blind eye to these guys attempting to kill me. One of them messed with your cameras using his quirk."
All the guards turned to the fidgeting one. He straightened up, "What? You filthy felon, how dare you accuse me of something like that? This woman is lying!"
Nagant tilted her head, "Have you even had time to put the money away yet?"
He stuttered, "W-why would I keep money on me in here? There's nothing to buy!"
"You're right; in that case, you shouldn't have an issue with one of your buddies checking you, right?"
"You have nothing to base your claim on in the first place! I have no reason to comply with such a silly request." He waved his hand sharply; Nagant made eye contact with the guard next to her.
The guard looked back at the nervous one, "Well you were the guard assigned to this room, Mizuki. Why did you leave your post?"
"I… I had to use the bathroom. The cameras and turrets watch them anyway!" Mizuki exclaimed.
The guard lowered his head, "Did it cross your mind that one of the inmates here could mess with electronics? I can give you the benefit of the doubt for that, but there shouldn't be an issue with searching you."
Mizuki reeled back, "Iruka, are you really gonna listen to this crazy broad with blood all over her face? She clearly just went insane and killed four people in cold blood! What sane person would cave in a man's entire skull like that?!" He gestured towards what was previously the blonde-haired man.
Nagant maintained her posture, "He had a healing-factor quirk. He was pretty set on killing me, so I had to do what was necessary to defend myself."
Some of the guards in the room started holding their rifles with both hands and stared at Mizuki.
Iruka nodded, "Mizuki, why are you getting so worked up? What she's saying is relatively reasonable, despite the brutality. Just let me check you real quick. It'll only take twenty seconds."
Mizuki froze in silence. Nagant was straight-faced on the outside, but internally she had a huge grin, 'Danzo, you must be getting senile in your old age. Gotta pick your henchmen better. This guy's brain must have stopped working after hearing about money.'
Iruka ambled towards Mizuki. Mizuki briefly gripped his rifle, but released it as Iruka searched him. "Don't get so worked up, I'm sure that you're"—
Mizuki looked down as Iruka pulled a stack of cash out of his pocket. The other guards whispered among themselves.
Iruka gripped the bills hard, "You would break the rules to this degree to kill an inmate... for 500 thousand yen?"
"Tch… don't lecture me, Iruka. It's not like the world would be losing anything of value anyway."
They stared at each other for a long time before Iruka stuck his chin up and ripped up the bills in front of him. "Take him away."
Nagant pulled down her eyelid with her middle finger and stuck out her tongue at him as other guards cuffed and took him away. He seethed but was pushed out of the room before he could respond in any way.
Replacing their absence was the medical team who rushed in and spread throughout the room. Checking on the bodies and her.
Iruka turned to her while she was tended to, "Do you have any idea why they attempted to kill you?"
The lady tending to her plugged her nose, making her sound nasally, "You wouldn't believe me."
"Try me."
She stared up at him for a while, "Ever hear of someone called Danzo Shimura?"
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I've been listening to Blood Meridian lately, so hopefully the action flows better than it used to.
Chapter 30 will be out in less than or around 12 hours.