ellipsanet | 01; un: GRTEXPLSNMRDRGDDYNMT

[ She didn't know he could do that, so she waits a bit longer than anticipated -- "BOMB," she gets it now. Cute. "Incredible speed" is relative, however. ]

[ It looks like she's not going to do a thing to react for most of his path over, but just before he reaches her, she -- vanishes. There's an odd blurring to the shape of her and then only empty air. ]

[ Out of absolutely nowhere, she gives a hard kick toward the center of his back. Her strength is substantially held back and even so this blow could knock over a car, which is why she's striking with her shin and not her knee or foot. Whether it lands or it doesn't, in a nearly simultaneous act her sword comes down aiming for his shoulder -- sheathed, mercifully. When did she do that? ]

[ Whatever the outcome of those strikes, she's gone again by the time he turns. ]

[Any confidence that Katsuki was going to win this fight within the first five minutes was immediately shattered, the moment he felt that shin dig into his back. It's sudden and powerful enough to take his breath away and knock him down, but even so he's fast enough to use his explosions to catch his fall and dodge the sword.

And he uses them to blast himself a few decent feet up into the air to get a better view of the area. His eyes start searching for any movement to send explosions towards.]

[ The explosions are pretty cool, actually. She can see why he thought he could handle things. That's why she'd much rather his first "villain" battle be against her, where she'll only hurt him the bare minimum. She knows all too well that there are many things just as powerful or even more than herself here. Two of her friends -- well, one, and one that can't remember her -- are actual gods. ]

[ While he's looking down trying to find her, she's already above him. Her species can jump from flat-footed to the top of literal skyscrapers. This time she leads with her shoulder, aiming to miss his head and instead strike the back of his shoulder, right on a nerve cluster, with only a small portion of her strength but enough to possibly make his one arm fairly hard to use for a few minutes at least, half a day if he's unlucky. As soon as the attack either hits or doesn't, she spins and, if she can, pushes off him with her feet to send him flailing to the ground -- of not, two huge silver-white bat wings burst from her back and it takes her only a fraction of a second before she's regained enough speed to vanish again. ]

Edited 2023-03-12 04:25 (UTC)

[Katsuki has no idea what he's up against, but he has been against some villains that nearly took his life away. Quite recently, in fact, he had holes torn through his body in multiple spots. His chest, arm, shoulder, leg... they were still healing. And one of those spots happened to be around the bundle of nerves that end up getting hit direct on.]

Fuck!

[He spits that out as the pain rips through his arm and into his back and he can't think fast enough to dodge her kick. It sends him careening to the ground, and he only thinks to hold his good arm out to make an explosion big enough to bounce him a couple feet off the ground.

Rather than crash landing like a meteor, he simply falls and rolls as he hits the ground as to get on his feet quick. His arm may be in pain but that doesn't mean he's ready to just give up. He waits and looks around, and the moment he sees her appear again he wastes no time shooting himself off the ground like a missile.

Once he's near, he'll rapidly shoot explosions to try and hurt her before she can teleport again... though the explosions coming from his injured arm are noticeably smaller and weaker.]

[ Kid, are you going to make her beat you utterly senseless?! Saya hates this enough as it is. But then she knows the answer to that, she's fought him before. ]

[ This time no disappearing act, she charges right at him, still incredibly fast, but slow enough that he'll be able to see everything that happens. There's a point that needs making, and he'll see it when one of his smaller explosions hits her bicep -- her eyes flash a brighter red, and the wound heals up instantly. ]

[ When she gets to him -- she can dodge most of his attacks by a few inches, and what she can't doesn't even slow her down -- she jabs her sheathed sword forward toward his gut with enough strength to put most people down for the count. If he tries to send another explosion at her, there's a blur of movement as she moves out of the way and is back so fast it seems there's no way she could have avoided it. If he dodges, she turns up the speed and does the same again, in the chest. And again. Again. Relentless. ]

[Katsuki is able to dodge the first jab, but as she predicts he's quick to try another explosion and he gets hit in the chest. It hurts, goddamnit. Another weak spot, but he can't just. Give up. He wanted to prove a point to her.

That he knew what he was doing, that he had experience. That he wasn't just some stupid kid.

It takes three of those rough jabs to the chest for him to finally relent a little, though. The third was enough to completely knock the wind out of his sails, enough for his vision to temporarily go black and he suddenly couldn't make sense of where he was anymore.

He knew he was falling, again, so he tries his usual but his body wouldn't respond immediately. He felt like he couldn't breathe, that his heart had stopped. Honestly, it may have for a second or two.

Either way, Katsuki falls into the ground with enough force to make a nice little dirt hole for him to lay in. He lands on his back, which only exasperates his wound, but still.. he doesn't give up.

As he lays there gasping, catching his breath, he forces his better arm up and tenses his hand, concentrating his power into the palm of it until he makes a ball of fire. It only takes about 3 seconds, before he sends out his last effort: a huge beam of fire hot energy that blasts about ten feet up into the sky.]

[ She wanted, with everything in her, to catch him before he fell. But -- no. She can't be soft-hearted, no matter how she feels like she knows him, no matter how she knows he wants to do the right thing and be strong enough to see it through. She's trying to keep him from getting himself killed, or worse, his abilities used for everything he would stand against. ]

[ His last effort is an impressive one, she watches it from far enough away that there's no chance she'd be caught in it. Her body heals, but no need to take this hit. ]

[ She's standing over him as soon as the heat disperses, her sword pulled out now and its sharp tip a centimeter from his throat. ]

Are you done, now? Do you get it? [ Her voice is as cool and hard as her blade, but her expression is anything but. Doing this ripped open a wound in her that had only just begun to heal over. ]

[Katsuki thought for sure that would do something. Even a Villain that can regenerate can't heal fast enough in a blaze that powerful, and something similar has worked in the past before. There's hope in his chest as he watches the blinding light dissipate and scans the sky for her corpse, but she's nowhere to be found.

Until she's not.

Katsuki lays there on his back, every part of his body screaming at him to give up. His lungs burn as he coughs and gasps, his mind swimming as the tip of her sword is suddenly unsheathed and pointed towards his neck. And when he feels the cold metal and a sharp pinch of the blade, a memory suddenly flashes in front of him. A memory of his childhood friend so scared of something horrible that had happened to Katsuki that he wouldn't tell him. Scared as if he had witnessed Katsuki's death. And if something like that really did happen, or was going to happen, then that just meant that Katsuki was...

That Katsuki was weak.]

Do it.

[As a reflex, he raises his arm once more, muscle shaking as little sparks pop and crackle out of his palm. He knew he was the loser, it was obvious. But he would rather die then surrender.

So he smiles. But there's tears welling in the corners of his eyes.]

I said... it doesn't end.. until someone g-gives up or.. or dies.

[ She clenches her jaw against every bit of her that wants to start wailing, beg him to just give up. ]

So you don't get it. You still think you can make rules here, and everyone will follow them. [ Absolutely not. She's not going to kill him, no matter what he does or doesn't admit. ]

I'm not a villain, but can you imagine if I was? And I'm not the most powerful person here, I promise you that.

It doesn't.. matter. I don't.. fuck....

[His sentence falters, as well as his arm which instead grips at the cloth of his Hero Costume, right over his chest. It hurt in more ways than one, not just the physical pain that was inflicted upon it but the emotional turmoil that he was currently going through was making his heart ache.

He knew he wasn't the strongest in the world, he never claimed that he was. This was a lesson he had learned before, time and time again and he couldn't stand how many times he had to keep learning it.]

I'm a.. Hero. Heroes don't... give up. I don't care if you're a Villain.. or if you're not. I'll get stronger.. and even stronger... and I'll beat you..!

[Was that last blast the last effort he had? That's not entirely so. He's fought and fought until he physically could not any longer, and he had one last trick up his sleeve.

He had fire breath, thanks to his newfound abilities given to him from this place. And even though he felt like he was only just gaining his breath back, he uses all his strength to draw in one big, burning inhale...

...just to puff out a little bit of smoke.]

[ She lets out a slow exhale and then pulls her sword away from his throat to sheathe it with a ringing sound. ]

Good. Don't get yourself killed underestimating those around you before you can beat me.

I know you want to do the right thing. I know it stings like hell to not be able to win. There are plenty of those here who will be with you when it comes to protecting people. I'm one of them. Making allies is as important to defeating villains as how strong you are.

[ She stoops down, looking him over. ] I'd appreciate it if you'd let me help you back.

[Katsuki lets out a sigh of his own when she puts her sword back in it's sheathe, and he allows himself to close his eyes for a moment of reprieve. He listens to her words as his breath rasps, and he hears her. He gets it. He's already learned that he needed to cooperate with other Heroes if he wanted to be the best he can be. That wasn't ever a question.]

You're... just.. looking down at me.

[He opens his eyes again, vision blurred with tears that he wipes away as he forces himself to sit up.]

I'm not just some.. some stupid kid who's naive enough to think that I can.. that I can beat every person I fight. I'm not... the kind of person that I used to.. to be.

[Slowly, he pulls himself together and to his wobbly feet.]

I'm more than willing to accept help... I have to be! But I can't trust just anybody! That will get me killed sooner than if I held everyone at arm's length!

I'm not looking down on you. Not at all. I know you can do what I can't -- that's not being patronizing, it's just the truth. I'm a -- a monster. I can't be a hero. [ Hearing it now, the pain in her voice, maybe he'll believe her better than he did over text. ]

But I can help people like you. To atone for what I did, that's the best I can do. I wish I could do better, believe me. I wish that more than anything.

[ She stands when he does, mentally prepared to catch him even if she doesn't make any move to try. ]

Trusting people you don't know is a risk. I know it is. It's messy to figure out, but if there's some better way then I'm all ears.

[Hearing the tone in her voice does help paint a better picture. A more genuine picture than what he heard over text.. though he was more inclined to believe her from the start, despite all his arguing. It helped that she had someone to stick up for her, that alone told him that she probably wasn't all bad.

The words he hears from her, though, just piss him off. She says she isn't looking down at him, but isn't that all she's been doing from the start?

They started arguing in the first place because he didn't trust her intentions. He expressed his mistrust with Villains due to past experience and she told him that immediately distrusting things that sound wrong to him was too simple. But then she used that argument against him when it was convenient for her, by telling him from HER experience that the worst Villains were the ones who were sweet and used your trust against you. More or less spitting his own words back at him.

She thought he was naive for "underestimating" Villains, when he from the start was being cautious by not immediately believing it when he was told that she didn't remember her crime. She made her own assumptions about him as a person, that he didn't cooperate with or trust anyone else and that he thought he was powerful enough on his own and felt the need to teach him a lesson he already had learned. That he spent months learning. That he broke his body learning.

And it still ended back at the same place they started. All about her and this.. past that she can't get over.]

Ha.. I see. I hit a sore spot.... and now that you took it out on me you want to use me to fulfill some selfish want to "atone" for whatever bullshit you did before.

[Katsuki turns around, stumbling as he puts one leg in front of the other so he can start the walk back to his apartment. He went along with this fight because he thought he'd kick her ass at the best or learn something interesting from it at the very least, but now that she's made her intentions clear he just feels like this was a waste of his time.]

I'm not interested. I have plenty of people who can-- and WILL help me when I need it.

[ goddamn this stubborn kid. But like it or not she's going to follow him, it's not like he can stop her. ]

Knock it off. You don't get to be pissed at me for wanting to make up for my past. Meeting you wasn't about that. You think beating someone up on someone weaker than me is helping me one bit? Do I sound like I feel good about this?

I did it so you'd use the head on your shoulders. If you don't want to trust me because you're too busy being a pissy brat, that's fine. But wanting to protect people to make up for my past isn't any worse of a reason than doing it because I want to be some hero.

Oh, fuck off!

[Katsuki snaps right back, and he tries to speed his pace a bit to get distance but that's.. not going to do much obviously.]

Stop acting like you know a damn thing about me or the head I have on my shoulders! I'm protecting people because I feel like they deserve to be protected! It's not just being "some hero", it's risking my life to save the lives of people who can't help themselves!

[He stops after saying that, doubling over a little to clench at his shirt with the pain in his chest burning with every word.]

Just.. leave me alone!

I'll fuck off when I'm good and ready. If you can stop me, feel free.

[ He can't, obviously. ]

You think I'm looking down on you? You've looked down on me since the second you heard I did something bad in the past. I said I want to protect people and I've proven I'm strong enough to do it, but that's not good enough for you.

You know what I did with my life after that bad thing I did? My twin sister was hurting and killing humans, and she was doing that because a human held us captive and tortured us for decades. At least fifty years. I hunted her down and killed her. In the process I lost my father, my brother, and the man I loved for two centuries, then I eradicated my entire species. For the sake of a race that treated me as a plaything. [ By halfway through this little rant, she's crying. Damn it. ]

I didn't do that for my own benefit, or to atone. I did it because it was the right thing to do, and it cost me everything I ever loved.

[Katsuki listens, but any sympathy he feels is blocked by just how.. frustrated he was. How tired he was. How much pain he was in. She's still going on about her past, and he frankly doesn't even remember her name enough for him to consider taking all of this baggage onto his shoulders.]

What do you want from me? Do you want me to thank you for being sooo strong and willing to protect me, when I never asked? Do you want me to tell you that you're a Hero just like me and that you're absolved of everything you've ever done?

I'm not a priest! I'm not someone for you to confess your sins to! I just asked three goddamn questions on the internet!

[ Oh yeah hearing about her shitty life must be real hard for ya there pal ]

Apparently I'm telling you this not so you'll see I'm sincere, I'm dumping it on you because I want your forgiveness? [ Yeesh, he absolutely is reaching to find the worst possible explanation for everything she says and does. ]

Okay -- look. I was honest with you. I'm not looking down on you. I'm not asking for your absolution or whatever. [ She sounds absolutely flat and deflated. ] You don't trust me, you don't believe me, you don't like my reasons, it is what it is. If you want to train to get stronger, I can offer that and my intentions don't really matter for it. If you've got so many training partners as strong as I am that you can't use another one, then that's your call.

[ That's it. She turns around. ]

[Well, if she wanted him to train with her she's definitely not going about it the right way. Especially not by ending her speech by acting all high and mighty about her power, like she was God on Earth. Of course she was strong, obviously he understood that but he's seen people just as powerful as her in his own universe. He wasn't that impressed.

It makes him scoff, and he doesn't bother to stop her. He just says one thing:]

I know someone stronger than you, and he's the only person I need.

[ It's not a want to subject herself to this horseshit regularly, it's an offer to take or leave because she does want to help. Seems like he picked the latter. That's fine. ]

[ She hopes he gets the message eventually, that he needs to think before he challenges people because it could end very badly. He keeps saying he knows he needs help and this and that, yet he didn't get any help before meeting her. She could have killed him 100 different times during that fight and he was without this strong friend that could have maybe beaten her if they'd been together. (Although, could they have? This kid has super warped views of a lot of things, and she held back a lot of her strength. She hopes they could have beaten her.) ]

All right.

[ No more following, she takes off in the other direction. Her body might be perfectly unharmed, but her heart hurts. ]

01; un: GRTEXPLSNMRDRGDDYNMT

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