A couple of months passed, during which time Taiko had fun with Akiko. When the first snow fell, they made snowmen next to other people's houses and threw snowballs at passers-by, and then ran away. This was the best time. The girl also loved to play pranks and once again throw a sharp joke about Taiko, he did not take offense, and in response a snowball flew to her.
The only one who was always busy was Doctor Ujiko, whose experiments on people began to gain momentum. At first, he wanted to make an assistant out of Taiko, teach him everything, but at the first sight of a human body, he abruptly refused. The scientist did not like his behavior, he began to lock Taiko in a room, depriving him of meetings with Akiko, sometimes did not feed him unnecessarily.
Taiko wondered what he did wrong, why did the old man suddenly change his attitude towards him? And then the answer appeared in his head on its own - he was always crazy and hid this madness very well. He is literally obsessed with Sensei and experiments. Nothing and no one will stop him from doing his dirty experiments. Whenever Taiko got in his way, he could even swing a painful whip at him. He had a couple of scars on his back as a punishment.
Another reason could be the unawakened quirk. Yes, something changed his attitude towards the boy. Against the background of clones in other shelters whose quirks are an order of magnitude stronger and higher than others, Taiko, who has no quirk at all, seemed like a laughing stock for whom there was too much hope.
When Taiko received wounds on his back, they miraculously went away the next day, leaving scars, but he failed to notice this. Every day the scientist conducted terrible experiments, Taiko could only guess how the scientist desecrated corpses and what he did with them. With each passing day, the hatred and disgust towards Kyudai grew stronger, and Taiko spent less and less time in the laboratory, which was already sickening from the very sight.
One winter, Taiko and Akiko were crossing the road to the Jaku Express market, Akiko was treating him to sweets, because her parents gave her pocket money. On this foggy day, they did not notice the car...
Taiko was closer to the car, but Akiko pushed him away, exposing herself. A tragedy occurred. The girl barely survived, Taiko cried so much for the first time, not so much because of the injuries the girl received, but from the realization that He would operate on her.
She fell straight into the clutches of Doctor Ujiko. The Mad Scientist understood how valuable she was to Taiko, and in order to traumatize him, he deliberately delayed the operations and rehabilitation. The girl never came out of the coma, Doctor Ujiko threw up his hands in front of the girl's parents, but Taiko knew. He knew that the doctor had not done enough, he could have done more, and the old man did not strain himself on purpose to anger Taiko.
The boy spent sleepless nights next to her, no one saw his suffering and accumulating hatred. There is no heavier burden than the realization that your life was saved at the cost of their own. He did not even celebrate his birthday, which he already doubted whether it was his birthday, no one celebrated. He prayed to heaven, to God, he prayed to every hero in the top. Soon he realized the futility of this useless exercise.
-Everything changed after the arrival of that "Sensei".
The overgrown boy, who can often be seen on the street, mortally dragged out the miserable existence of an abandoned child. One day, he overheard Kyudai about the new arrival of Sensei, which means he has a chance to change something. Sometimes he wondered how Kyudai was able to hide this mysterious Sensei so perfectly, and none of the staff even asked the question.
- "It seems this city has gone mad. They don't see or know anything while such terrible things are happening under their city, right in the clinic - in the place where people are given hope and salvation, but in reality they kidnap people and conduct monstrous experiments." Taiko began to think that he and Akiko could be next. Just this thought alone would be enough to start acting. He hid a small scalpel in the bosom of his tattered sweater.
Unfortunately, the scientist was waiting for him and injected him with a sleeping pill. The boy did not have time to do anything, as he quickly lost consciousness.
...
The first thing Taiko felt after waking up was a very dry throat. Metal shackles held his wrists. Suddenly the shackles opened, and after a couple of meters Taiko fell right onto the concrete floor. Taking the bag off his head, Taiko was horrified.
He was in the middle of a large cylindrical space, closed on all sides, similar to a concrete pit. Around him stood very similar white-haired boys and girls of his age. Each of them had an angry look. Taiko immediately remembered the sand arena where he pitted ants against each other. Without a doubt, this was the idea of a mad old man.
For some reason, now Taiko felt much stronger and more resilient. He could not describe this inexplicable feeling in any way, unless the Doctor did something to him. Conducted some kind of experiment.
The sound of the speaker roared.
- Ahem. Test, one-two. - the voice of the mad scientist was heard. - You probably wondered where you all came from and why you don't have parents. It was me, the one who created you from Sensei's blood. - the children listened attentively, but did not understand which Sensei was being talked about, only Taiko did not blink and was in frustration. - You were created in his image and likeness, prove that you are worthy of living. Ahem. Taiko... - the scientist addressed the boy directly. - If you win, I will cure the girl, and if not... well. - the scientist gave a hint about the fate of the lab rabbit.
- How cruel... - Taiko already knew the cruelty of this mad scientist, what cynicism and inhumanity he resorted to in order to achieve the result.
Without a quirk, to win... no, killing the rest will be too difficult, especially not knowing what quirks they have. It's easy to draw an analogy, if they are clones of the same person, then their quirks will most likely be similar.
-"Sensei... What a quirk he has. I can't think anymore." All the children stood there, staring at each other with a special passion in their eyes, and some were afraid. Taiko understood that if he didn't act now, he would lose the advantage. It was impossible to get out of the concrete pit. Children whose red devilish eyes seemed to be the direct embodiment of demons, this set the mood "hit or run".
He ran at the first closest child, whose look was not as confident as the others. He ran much faster and more nimbly than before, again possibly due to the doctor's intervention. Taking a scalpel from his bosom, he approached the child who had a tattoo of 07 on his neck.
Hesitation is not allowed, there was no time to think. With forced brutality, Taiko sliced the carotid artery with a scalpel. The girl with white hair and red eyes used her Telekinesis quirk and tore off a chunk of concrete that had flown into Taiko. He managed to hide behind 07's corpse, but he couldn't avoid being injured. Given their age and training, they didn't use their abilities often, so their level of mastery was insignificant, Taiko knew that.
Quirk after quirk activated, and the children began to fight among themselves, losing focus on Taiko and the bleeding 07, who were buried under a chunk of concrete. The main blow fell on 07, but a small sharp shard of concrete hit Taiko in the face and cut his cheek.
Turning around to look at Kyudai, standing high behind the glass panel, Taiko saw only cold, emotionless eyes. Peeking out from behind a rock, he saw a large child with the number 04 approaching the girl 02, whose Quirk was telekinesis. He endured the barrage of attacks, and when he got close, he began to strangle her. His body began to glow, as if energy was flowing from the girl into him, causing him to become larger, stronger, and more resilient.
Eventually, the carnage reached its finale, 00, who had a Quirk to absorb and release the energy of absorbed Quirks, released a blast of destructive energy at 04, marking the beginning of the battle between the two. Taiko hid behind a concrete block, experiencing monstrous surges of energy around him, he was able to get out from under the rubble only thanks to the corpse of 07.
The strangest thing is that Taiko felt déjà vu, which he experienced when he touched the still alive, but bleeding 07. That same warmth, which had moved into his body and was stored somewhere incomprehensible where, but inside himself. By a lucky (or not) circumstance, the body of 06 with a crushed head flew straight to Taiko, following another surge of energy.
With another touch, Taiko stole the warmth from the corpse. Feeling incredible pressure and fear of losing, Taiko tried with all his might to appeal to that warmth. Only emptiness answered. The guy realized that he had the same effects of the quirk as the other clones.
Having finished the fight, the hypertrophied brute 04 won, defeating 00 thanks to his endurance. Having pumped out another quirk, he felt like a God in human form, he was able to move mountains. His body grew even larger. A giant, a real colossus.
-Bravo, you almost won. - the scientist was already rubbing his hands, expecting to conduct an experiment with this monster. However, a deep feeling of disappointment because of Taiko did not leave him. -Only the last one remains. - he pointed to a concrete pile.
The giant kicked the pile of stones, smashing the concrete into pieces, and began to trample it with all his might, turning it into dust without really aiming.
"Yes!!!" the giant shouted in his own hope.
Doctor Ujiko looked at Taiko's indicators, but did not understand why he was still alive. "Where the hell is he?"
***
Being on the verge of life and death, Taiko's quirk, which he already had, changed greatly. Now he could feel the heat outside his body. Suddenly, when his quirk was activated, black and red hornets began to multiply rapidly from the dead bodies, they quietly ate the flesh of the surrounding bodies from the inside.
Kyudai, watching Taiko, nervously tapped the panel and wanted to stop the giant at any second. He was afraid that Taiko had never awakened his quirk and died in vain. This could well be true. Having already lowered his hands, Kyudai reached for the red button that would kill the giant.
-Apparently, the giant's quirk is an increase in size due to absorbed quirks, this is a temporary effe...-Kyudai stopped and looked at the screen more closely.
-It can't be...
As soon as the dust settled, Taiko's silhouette appeared. He came out completely unharmed.
-What?! How is this possible? - Kyudai felt relieved.
Since it took too long for the giant to understand, Taiko raised his hand, and then a swarm of hornets burst out of the bodies and attacked the giant.
- A-a-a!!! - he roared in fear. - Go away! Leave me alone! - he waved his arms helplessly, and a swarm of hornets made their way into his brain, eating out his eye sockets, rushing around and climbing into his mouth. In the end, he, the giant, died, clumsily damaging his carcass. With a touch, Taiko decided to remove even more hornets from the giant's body.
-Cough-cough. Who would have thought that you were afraid of insects... - Taiko said tiredly, coughing from the concrete dust. He was incredibly lucky to survive behind a small hillock, because the giant blindly attacked indiscriminately. Finally, Taiko looked majestically at Doctor Ujiko, who was barely holding back his fear, while a swarm of hungry hornets buzzed behind him and on the corpses.
-...you won, Taiko.
-Heal Akiko now!!! Let me out of here!
-...-The doctor complied and lowered the ladder onto his platform. The bloody Taiko rose and stood next to the Doctor. Blood was dripping from his jet-black hair. Kyudai bowed and said: -It is an honor for me to raise a true heir to Sensei.
-Was it worth it? - Taiko mumbled tiredly.
-Mm. But you awakened the quirk. - the old man hinted at the thoughtfulness of this plan to awaken Taiko's quirk.
-Shut up, you sick bastard. Heal Akiko.
-I will perform an operation on her, but I do not know if she will come out of the coma. Time will tell.
No matter how shitty his father was, and if he wasn't even his biological father, he wouldn't have the guts to kill him. Besides, this was all his cruel plan to awaken his quirk.
-How...cruel... - Taiko said through tears. -Why did you make me do this?!
-Well, well. Don't be upset. Now you've changed, you've become stronger and everything's going for the better. - He patted him on the shoulder and went to perform the operation, leaving him alone.
With a fierce look, Taiko began to work, cleaning the test pit from the remains of corpses with his swarm of hornets, which stopped buzzing loudly and threateningly at his command.
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