Umi felt guilty for inadvertently leaving Taro behind, but the light-headed boy was right; they
had to press on if they were to procure a chance of passing the exam, and for the moment, that meant finding more dummies. Thankfully, there were plenty to be found. One was down in the sewers, another was up above, seemingly tangled within a series of power lines, and even more could be heard within the maze of barricaded houses. Umi considered her options as the boy let her know where they were. The boy himself seemed confident that the power lines would no longer be live, but Umi refused to take that same risk, if only on the off-chance that either one would get zapped. On top of that, she was afraid of getting lost through trying to save the dummies in the houses. That left the one that was underground.
She couldn't see a thing through all that darkness, but Umi could hear water flowing through the sewers, possibly enough for her body to grow into its Full Capacity Form. She measured the width of the manhole that lead into the sewers with her hands and put that same measurement against her hips, only to gulp nervously at her findings. There was no way her Full Capacity Form could fit back through that manhole! In fact, she'd get stuck in that form before she could even get her head through the other side. So unless enough concrete was bashed out to make the hole at least thrice its current size, using this place as a replenish-able source of water was going to be an impossibility. Umi started removing parts of her costume and placing them aside to reduce the chances that she'd get herself stuck in the manhole... and that was when the light-headed boy popped the all-important question.
“I don't suppose your quirk's useful in any of these situations?”"A-actually, it, uh... I-I think it c-can be!" Umi was finally able to say something in confidence in all this time, although her stuttering still plagued what she was trying to say,
"My b-body absorbs all k-k-kinds of w-water, and I c-can use that w-water to, uh... p-propel myself in a-any direction. Even sk-sk-skyward! There's j-just one problem..."As she finished unscrewing the tubes and other apparatuses and laying them down, Umi sat over the edge of the manhole and seemingly looked down into it again, her face visibly blushing. Well, she got this far; Umi figured she might as well finish her explanation of her Quirk.
"A-as I absorb w-water through my Q-Quirk, my... my e-entire b-body kind of b-bloats up. E-especially th-these of all th-things," she cupped her breasts as she said this, as flat as her chest was at this stage, and then put one arm back to her side and pointed down inside the manhole with the other hand,
"So i-in this case, I... I could get st-stuck if it a-absorbs too much. I-I think I know h-how much I n-need to, uh... make it th-through to the other s-s-side of the m-manhole, but I, uh... I-I need to g-go down th-there and find out."With that, she lifted her butt off the edge of the manhole and proceeded to lower herself down as much as she could. She'd need her teammate to lower her further, ideally to the point where she could then drop to the sewer floor in relative safety. Umi had a plan to get that dummy above ground where it was eligible to be rescued. She could only hope that not all of that water down there was sewage water and, more to the point, she'd be able to stomach whatever percentage of the water she needed to absorb actually
was the sewage water.
"This is taking way too long..." a handsome young heterochromatic man said after a brief sigh. He put in all that work, lining up the dummies that were to found in the zone he was to be encountered in, affixing smiles on their faces, changing some recordings around to suit his desires better, pulling a shutter or two down, even heaving a dilapidated truck into position and making resemble more of an ice-cream truck. All this just to set up one elaborate trap, and yet
none of it was seeing immediate fruition.
He wondered. Could this be the disadvantage of being stationed at one of the two corner zones that was way at the back, where students would often choose to leave until the final few minutes of the exam? Did all the other villains get to them before they could make it to where
he was? There was only one way to be sure. The Shadow would have to start mobilizing himself, and see what was going on.
And so The Shadow moved all the way over to Zone 4, grabbing one adult dummy at one side and stuffing two child dummies into a picnic basket that he picked up along the way. He rested them down, and spread a picnic blanket over a space on the overgrown grass, before seating them down on the blanket and placing the basket in the center. He removed the recordings that each dummy had, destroying the two for the child dummies, and replaced the adult dummy's recording with a new one that he'd completely overwritten the original with. Of course, this was only one Zone, and The Shadow would have to do something like this a few more times to try and guide everyone towards his big trap like mindless lemmings. But at least with this Zone, he could see where all the other villains were at, provided he climbed up the right tree.
To The Shadow's left, The Dragon was handily kicking the ass of one of the poor students that happened to encounter her. Much like the proctor of the exam, The Shadow had concerns that the concept of "going easy" on the students had gone through one of The Dragon's ears and out the other, but at least she seemed to be enjoying herself. At his twelve o'clock, The Shadow could just
imagine The Ruler spouting out her lines as drearily as ever, and to the right... no sign of The Mastermind; at least not in person. It was possible that the image of the bus driving around the respective Zone was
his doing, but The Shadow shrugged his shoulders nonetheless. Even further to the right, The Beast was... sleeping? The Shadow would have to climb down and venture closer to Zone 1's border in order to get a better look, but from what he could tell, there were three students who were just standing there when they could easily get the drop on...
"OOOOHH, I see what this is," The Shadow could only chuckle to himself as the epiphany hit him,
"To think he'd be bested before I even got to see an iota of activity. Classic..."The Shadow slipped away before he could be spotted by the trio. He figured that the three had only just recently beaten The Beast, which meant the most courteous thing he could do for them was give them the chance to recover from the battle. The next Zone he primarily wanted to get to was Zone 6; it was just a matter of either going the long way(s) round or trying to blitz straight through the crossfire.
Location: Zone 4; plotting a method to get to Zone 6 without being detected
VS.
Shiki came to a skidding stop, shocked to see The Dragon's sudden entrance blocking his escape route. Not only was she faster than he anticipated, but her towering height and yandere tone made her all the more intimidating to him. There was absolutely no way he could fight her by himself, he was aware of this. The only real combat experience he ever had, were from video games. At this moment, he wishes that he could just undo the triggered boss fight by reloading the save.
”Ah!! Go away! I don't want to die!” He was clearly frightened, but determined to stay alive. The only ray of hope he had left was his phone. If he could just call for some backup, perhaps there may still be a chance to turn this around. Had he not panicked during their initial confrontation, he could've alerted everyone of his situation while he was running away. Oh well, he now required a safe distance to contact the numbers he collected earlier. His eyes shifted upwards as the radio tower came to mind.
With one nervous gulp, he took a single step away from the villain before full on sprinting once more towards one of the radio tower legs. All he needed was to outpace the villain for a few seconds in order for his tail to be within range of the nearest brace. As he moved, his tail grew to its maximum length (5 meters) and attempted to coil itself onto one of the support braces above. His tail would act as a winch, since he was capable of reeling himself up by decreasing the length of his tail back to its base. That is, if he manages to escape the The Dragon's claws in time.
Action: Attempting to scale up one of the radio tower legs by using his tail.
In response to the plea that Shiki had made, The Dragon laughed as maniacally as ever. Perhaps that was simply the typical reaction one would get from someone as deranged as The Dragon had proved to be so far. But then again, perhaps her real self had found it hysterical that the proctor or any of the teachers, herself included, would allow the death of a future student to occur on their watch. Whatever the case, The Dragon slowly but surely advanced.
"I'm sorry, did you mean to tell me that your life had any amount of value to it? Any at all?" she asked mockingly,
"Well, maybe you should've thought about that before you stumbled upon my lair!"With that, she karate chopped the street lamp that was closest to her, instantly cleaving it away from its foundation in its entirety. At this point, an aura flared up all around The Dragon. She'd been able to make this aura through saving her strength up until this far, but now she was ready to do some damage. If Shiki was waiting for any sort of cue before he started running, the sight of that aura would be it.
"I mean c'mon; you must've thought you hit the motherload," The Dragon went on to say,
"And what? Now that the big bad Dragon's shown up to protect her treasure trove, you think you can just run away and not expect her to hunt you down? That just doesn't happen."That begged the question; why
was Shiki so desperate to turn and run all of a sudden? He had to know that every step he took that went against The Dragon's advance would be futile. Perhaps he wasn't exactly trying to run away, so much as trying to tun towards something
specific. A trap? An ambush? Some allies in general, perhaps? The Dragon took her time to analyze what she would do in Shiki's position, figuring she easily could react in time to stop any goals he might've had at that time from seeing fruition. That's when it hit her. If Shiki could reach the top of the radio tower, he could spot any of the other students and scout out the best direction to take. Knowing that, The Dragon realized her best course of action.
...
Shiki had already made his move towards the tower, but he wasn't fast enough to pull himself up to safety. Using her severe height advantage to... well, her
advantage, The Dragon grabbed him around his shoulder and anchored herself near the base of the leg that he was trying to scale, stopping his momentum instantly. She was curious about that tail of his. Its exact shape. The fact that he could extend and retract it at will. And more importantly, whether he'd feel anything if it were to be forcibly removed. For now, however, The Dragon rolled her hand down Shiki's arm, while maintaining more than a strong enough grip to prevent his escape. She grabbed the other arm and clasped Shiki's hands together by the fingers and reeled him in a little closer to her, before using the free one of her own to frisk him for any additional tools that he might have on him.
"Nice try," The Dragon said as she continued with her frisking.
Actions: Frisking Shiki whilst trying her best to hold him in one place
Aura Strength Level: 18 Hits
Treasure trove? Shiki didn't understand what The Dragon was going on about, other than having his self-esteem lowered by her taunts. It was never his intention to steal her 'treasures' in the first place. All he wanted to do was find someone reliable without crossing paths with a villain. His plan had obviously backfired on him. On the other hand, he is now curious to what this yandere has been hoarding inside her lair. He suspected it had to be the prized dummies, unless there was something better waiting to be discovered. Perhaps going through all of this trouble will be worth it in the end...right?
Nope! Watching the villain effortlessly cut away the nearby streetlight caused his heart to skip a beat. There was absolutely no way he could physically overpower her after that demonstration, he thought. Shiki ran the exact moment he witnessed the menacing aura swirling around her body. Whatever her quirk was, he didn't want to stick around to find out. What a terrifying villain this woman is.
SHIT!! SHIT!! SHIT!! I'M SO SCREWED!!When Shiki felt the abrupt pressure applied on his shoulder, he knew it was over. If only he was in more physical shape to pull himself up quicker. His face instantly turned pale white as he was petrified with fear. He barely put up a resistance while The Dragon restrained his hands together and frisked him. The only things he was carrying at the moment were his house/work keys, his wallet, some loose change, earbuds, and his precious smartphone. All of which were in his pant pockets.
The strength in his tail's grip loosened up a bit, not that it was any strong to begin with. It was only a mere half an inch thick, with the wires and insulators acting as a replacement for the bones and muscles that one would normally see in a tail. The lack of bone structure allowed his tail to be highly flexible, but it was also extremely easy to cut. Speaking of such, if The Dragon wishes to test that out for fun, then Shiki would most definitely feel the pain in return. Most of the pain receptors were concentrated around the base of his tail, due to it being designed to separate from his body. Whenever any part of Shiki's tail is severed, he will immediately regenerate a new one to replace what was lost. Allowing him to make use of the severed tail by using it as an extension cable with his new reconstructed tail. However, regrowing a new tail will not only drain his stamina, but it will also be quite painful for him. In his current worn out condition, he is only capable of regenerating a full sized tail just once before collapsing from fatigue.
Is this how it would end in the real world? So quickly?...The reality was crystal clear to Shiki, if this wasn't an exam he would probably be dead by now. But, he was still clinging onto the last remaining hope he had left. While The Dragon was busy frisking him, he waited for the exact moment that she would discover it. When that happened, Shiki decided to unfurl his tail off the support bracing and tried to tightly wrap it around the villain's neck in attempt to suffocate her. In addition to the choking, he aimlessly kicked his feet back at her in desperation. If he was going to go down, then he wanted to at least inform the others of The Dragon's mother-load as one last giant middle finger to her. It was the same kind of tactic he would apply in any multiplayer objective games.
Action: Attempting to break free and choke The Dragon via neck.
While Shiki was able to wrap his tail around her neck, The Dragon had stopped frisking him just in time to rip it off before he could apply the necessary pressure. At that same time, she held Shiki back so that none of the kicks that he'd launched her way could actually reach her. Suddenly, her expression changed; from presenting a crazy smile all on her face, to almost showing pity for the boy. She wanted to have a solid one on one confrontation but, while one couldn't fault Shiki for trying his best, he just simply couldn't provide for her. Perhaps it would be for the best if The Dragon were to just let Shiki go... or better yet, use him as bait to draw in some bigger game! Now wouldn't
that be nice?
"Meh, you're no fun," with that, The Dragon threw Shiki off balance, before kicking him so hard that he'd find himself soaring over into the far yonder. She made sure to kick him in the lower side in order to avoid damaging any vital signs, and delivered more of a straightened kick so that he wouldn't gain too much height, but the resulting landing would still be pretty damn hard.
Curious to see where he'd land, The Dragon set off in hot pursuit.
Actions: Had kicked Shiki all the way over to Zone 5, and is taking off after him
Aura Strength Level: 19 Hits
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Alby47
