The deep night of the poor district was different from the others. Taiko slept in an embrace with Kuin, he wanted to sneeze several times, although he rarely got sick before. - "Someone remembers." flashed a sleepy thought. Today, Taiko was bothered by some thought on the edge of his brain, somewhere slowly creeping up and scraping. Slowly, but inevitably.
He carefully got up so as not to wake Kuin and went out into the hallway. Something clearly did not let him sleep. When a large shadow seemed to be standing, he could not stand it, got dressed and touched the door handle. The subconscious screamed at him not to go out, to take Kuin with him and run as far as possible, but this feeling, nevertheless, remains illusory.
A moment. The wood on the other side of the door creaked. Nomu burst into the house, smashing the door. Taiko was taken by surprise and could not dodge. Nomu began to hold him in the kitchen, driving him into a tree. He defended himself with his hands, but Nomu's powerful fists, applying their great weight, shook his hands with each blow, causing his bones to creak and ache with pain.
After two sustained blows, Taiko dodged, and Nomu's blow landed on the floor. The guy tried to get out of the grip, but Nomu persistently held him as long as possible. Taiko took out a knife hidden in his shoe and ran the blade along Nomu's massive hand. Nomu's skin turned out to be quite strong, but still a lot of blood gushed out.
The creature, not feeling pain, grabbed Taiko and threw him out into the street. Having got into the neighboring house, Taiko had only a moment to grab a chair and throw it at the monster, who didn't care about anything. Nomu did not allow him to be distracted by anything extraneous, completely occupying his attention.
Taiko called the hornet, which was unable to penetrate Nomu's skin. Nomu crushed the hornet, leaving only a wet spot. This gave Taiko time to find a kitchen knife. The screams of the owner of the house along with his wife were heard. Taiko rushed after them, provoking Nomu to take action. With a heavy fist, the creature walked over the owners of the house, crushing them in a narrow corridor. Having gone to the second floor, Taiko used Expansion and summoned both hornets from the corpses, then aimed at Nomu's eye sockets.
Minus one of Nomu's eyes. The poison did not affect him.
Nomu confidently went to the second floor. Having torn the door to shreds, he entered the room, where a long sheet fell on his head, and Taiko himself, who had previously been hanging from the ceiling, aimed a knife at Nomu's neck.
The room was painted with spattered scarlet blood. Nomu growled and became more aggressive. Taiko held on to him and inflicted damage with the knife as best he could. Nomu jumped out of hatred onto the street right on his back to throw Taiko off.
The guy jumped over and began piercing the creature's torso. Powerful hands squeezed him and began breaking his ribs. When the kitchen knife broke, Taiko crushed the eyeball with his bare hands with the sharp claws of the Hornet King, penetrating deep into Nomu's brain and killing him. Gasping for breath, Taiko still could not get his thoughts in order. The pain from a couple of broken ribs was incredibly invigorating.
-Kuin...We need to send the hornets...- as soon as Taiko tried to activate his quirk, someone grabbed him by the neck from behind.
-Your games are over, Grimm. This is your last day. - a familiar, cunning voice rang out.
-Sen..sei... - Taiko croaked hoarsely.
-I think I'll take your quirk. - Taiko was stunned, feeling the devastation. He could no longer give the hornets a command, they did not listen to him. The entire swarm eventually died, killing each other in the hive, because they had lost their king.
Realizing who his enemy was now and what he could do to Kuin, Taiko was overcome with hatred.
-How...how weak are you, bitch!!! - overcoming the unbearable pain in his ribs, Taiko first broke a couple of All For One's fingers, who, due to the pain, lost control of his namesake quirk and gave away some old and forgotten quirk, stolen too long ago to remember it. Due to the weakened grip, Taiko broke free and accidentally activated the stolen quirk.
-!!! - All For One had never lost control of his own quirk before and he couldn't explain it. Since Taiko had All For One's blood, it was no wonder that the stolen, old and unstable quirk would get lost and confuse its owner. The so-called resonance of quirks. This reminded All For One of how One For All was formed.
-Oneself. - in the middle of the quiet night, Taiko's barely perceptible whisper was heard. The sharp release of energy due to the resonance pushed All For One a hundred meters away from Taiko. All For One minimized the damage from the collision and flew into the air using Air Walk.
-What!? It can't be. -Only his brother managed to cause a resonance of quirks. -Could it be...No, it's impossible. -While All For One was lost in thought, Taiko tried to hide.
-I didn't have such an ability! Where did you get it?! -All For One felt like one of his abilities was stolen, no, rather lost, and something else awakened in Taiko instead.
Suddenly, All Might appeared and attacked All For One without further ado. He activated several quirks. Taiko ran away, hiding behind a house. An entire block was blown to smithereens by All For One's quirks.
-"No matter how much I train, there will always be someone stronger than me." There will always be a bigger fish than you think. Stunned and with a whistling sound in his ears, Taiko was lying in the ground among the rubble of burning and destroyed houses. Screams and cries could be heard around him. Pain pierced him, and he could not move.
-I can't sleep. I need to go to Kuin... - he barely moved his hand, throbbing with pain, and was incredibly glad that she was in her place. Taiko, not caring about anything, stood up on trembling legs. Lots of smoke, fire, screams and tears, that's all he saw. As soon as he left the yard of a burning house, Taiko saw fighting silhouettes. One looked like the Almighty, the other like All For One. The arrival of the Almighty somehow made him exhale.
-"And when did he have time..."
Each blow from the Almighty shook the area, and the counter blows with a bunch of All For One's quirks destroyed many more buildings. The Gods of this world fought, and he contemplated it like an ant.
He limped towards his destroyed house, tears starting to fall from his eyes. At the same time, he felt how the hive destroyed each other, now he was like a defective and fallen king incapable of anything in the world. He felt their pain, how they furiously tore each other's throats.
-Forgive me... forgive me...- Taiko muttered through clenched teeth as he entered his burning and half-destroyed house.
-Kuin! Kuin, please, answer me! - He rushed into the other room where she might be. The first thing he saw when he turned the corner was a bloody hand. His heart sank and his breathing stopped, only a humming sound could be heard in his ears. To his horror, the body belonged to Kuin.
-No. Please don't! Not again! - He crawled on his knees towards her body, unable to stand on his feet. Tears fell from his eyes even harder. Looking into her face, trying to find at least a drop of life, Taiko saw only a bloody eye socket, where the Queen Bee should be.
He was gone for only a couple of minutes, during which time they killed Kuin. Numerous traces of dirty soles are visible on the floor.
-For what!? Why the fuck did this happen to me?! It hurts so much... A-a-a-a... S-stop...
The house gradually burned and collapsed. Sirens of ambulances and rescue services can be heard outside. A minute later they ran into the house.
-Is there anyone there?! - the fireman shouted.
Taiko didn't speak up, he just sat spellbound by her body, waiting for her to wake up and for everything to turn out to be a stupid dream.
-Here! There's someone here! - the rescuer found him.
The last thing he remembered before losing consciousness from pain was Kuin's bloody body burning away in his house.
-----------------
End of First Arc
33.56k Words