His hand touched his face.
— Damn... — TN, staggering from exhaustion, couldn't find his mask; it must have slipped off during the fight in the water.
The silence that settled after the brothers' fight was deceptive. The air in the park suddenly became viscous, and the morning mist became unnaturally gray. TN, still standing a few steps from Kuinn and Taiko, was the first to feel it. His Quirk Vision sent a sharp pain through his temple as a flood of familiar quirks washed over him.
Out of the depth of the park area, breaking young maples like dry matchsticks, it emerged.
The creature moved on four limbs, but an intelligent cruelty was guessed in its gait. Black skin with orange stripes absorbed light, and the exposed, pulsating brain on its crown seemed like an alien control organ. The Nomu-Tiger stopped twenty meters away. Its presence weighed on the psyche more heavily than Taiko's gravity staff.
— Kaito! — TN rasped, not looking back. — Take them. Fast. Into the car and drive until you run out of gas. — Until the very last moment, he hadn't wanted to involve them in this battle. A battle against his past, which obviously wouldn't let him go until TN died.
Taiko, whose consciousness had just merged back with his body, opened his eyes. His gaze was hazy, but he saw his older brother's back, blocking the monster's path. He saw TN trembling from overexertion but not retreating a single centimeter.
— Brother... — Taiko's lips barely formed the word.
— Leave, — TN ordered, hissing through his teeth. — If I twitch, he'll spring. If I run, you're all dead meat. Get her out of here!
Kaito, understanding the fatality of the moment, grabbed Kuinn and the semi-conscious Taiko. Kuinn turned, casting one last look at "Nomura-san," who stood alone against a nightmare familiar to her from a shadow in their house. In her eyes, there flashed a mix of lack of understanding and horror before the car doors slammed shut.
TN prayed to the gods that the creature wouldn't react to the car and would continue to stand there, sniffling the scents and assessing the situation. Their gazes met: the amber, predatory eyes of a mindless predator and the exhausted purple eyes of TN, like a cornered animal. The Tiger recognized him, snorting loudly to clear its nostrils. TN's knees barely managed not to betray his fear. He understood that there would be no winners in this battle. On one side was him, willing to do anything to survive, and on the other, a monster controlled by Kyudai, ready to go to its death at a single word from him. Thoughts, previously racing at light speed, suddenly froze like molasses.
«Tonight is the night i'll die.» — that thought made something inside him snap, a nauseating lump rose in his throat, and his head spun. The wounds from the fight with Taiko made themselves known; Nomu blood doesn't act quickly, the result would only be visible after sleep, when the body recovers. But sleep was something he could only dream about now.
As soon as the engine sound faded, a mechanical, rattling voice echoed from the Nomu-Tiger's chest. These were not the monster's vocal cords; it was a speaker implanted in the Nomu-Tiger's chest. The voice of Doctor Kyudai Garaki.
— You have always been too sentimental, my dear project, — the doctor's voice sounded almost affectionate. — Look at yourself: wounded, drowsy, the stolen quirk you hold has drained your last forces. Frankly, you have little chance of opposing me at all.
Thoughts were tangled, and TN barely managed to catch the fact from what was said that Kyudai only knew about his quirk partially.
— Let's make a deal. You come with the "kitty" voluntarily. I swear to leave your... "family" alone. I will even pay you so much that you can buy yourselves a whole island. Just one small manipulation in the laboratory, and I will let you go.
TN smirked crookedly, spitting out blood that tasted of iron on his gums. Damn it, he had even lost a tooth from Taiko's hit, and his cheek was swelling slightly. He knew perfectly well the price of Kyudai's oaths, and trusting him was the absolute last thing on the planet he would resort to.
— A small manipulation? Like the one that turned this guy into a striped rug with his brains inside out? — He was stalling for time, feverishly peering into Quirk Vision.
What he saw made his heart skip a beat. If before the chances were low, now they were approaching zero. He needed to change his approach to the fight. Revise his survival strategy. Only then could he do anything.
— I will give a last piece of advice. Though I doubt you will get out of such a situation. Strength is the only thing that allows one to somehow level the playing field against the injustice of the world. You and I are miserable insects compared to this world. It will digest us and spit us out! One needs the patronage of the strongest to survive, for people like you and me! After all, I was born without a quirk and was able to survive the era of societal collapse due to the growth of quirk numbers.
— Strength must be used to build and protect, not to destroy. — TN resisted. He had no strength even to move from his spot. His whole body felt numb. «Damn it. Come on, move...»
— Like a bulldozer, strength is needed to demolish inconvenient and wrong buildings in order to build something new, something of one's own. — Kyudai found a compromising continuation of the thought. — Your delay is the strongest signal for me to act first. That means you are on the edge! — The Nomu-Tiger was huffing, inflating its muscles from the anticipation of battle. It seemed Kyudai's vocal command would not be enough to stop this beast in case of unforeseen circumstances.
Thanks to Quirk Vision, TN managed to detect some kind of device located inside the Tiger's ear. Highly likely, it was a high-frequency sound relay — the key element that allowed Kyudai to send command signals directly into the Nomu's brain. If he could neutralize or destroy it, he would deprive Kyudai of the retreat option, and then the creature would fight to the death.
— Kaito, — he whispered with just his lips, noticing a returning silhouette in the shadow of the trees. The chances increased sharply. — Be careful. He has a second quirk — regeneration tied to blood. — TN whispered, more to himself.
— Okay, Kyudai! You won! — TN raised his hands in defeat, sighing. — I will go with you. You wanted to use my quirk, right? Yes, it's true, I can steal one quirk and use it! But what do you need it for?
Kyudai understood perfectly well that Taiko, or rather TN, was not stupid, and quite the contrary, after all, the doctor himself had for some time thought he could raise him to be his successor, so approaching and making the first move suddenly became dangerous. «Bluffing? Have you prepared something for me, you little piece of shit?»... he thought.
— I will tell you only if you follow me, in the laboratory.
The "hit and run" tactic had shown itself well against Nomu, but this creature was very agile and fast. It would not work now under time constraints. He bought enough time for Kaito to prepare to strike him in the back. He pulled the remainder of a chocolate bar from his pocket and ate it, activating Sugar Rush again. «Kaito attacks from the back, and I will destroy the relay.»
— How sad to see such limitless potential thrown into the trash... Although you originally had little chance, you have lasted surprisingly long. And all to serve as simple raw material, ha! If you survive, the backlash of such a quirk will be incredibly painful, you might even die from shock, though in any case, today you will die. — hissed the speaker.
— That's not your problem anymore. — TN's muscles began to swell, blood flowing faster, and his heart pumping blood into his muscles with force. He barely staggered, realizing what a painful backlash would come after deactivating Sugar Rush. Now he needed to fit into these ten minutes to not only destroy the relay but also to escape and transfer the fight to another location.
The Nomu's second quirk was something like regeneration with a blood element. Probably something similar to vampirism. There is a possibility that Kyudai had specifically bred such an ultra-hunter that fed on human flesh so it would be trained to hunt people and thereby regenerate.
When Kaito was ready, he did not hesitate. He saw that Nomura had now become different, more masculine, and when his dear people were in danger, he did not hesitate. For Kaito, who had survived his own tragedy and hated himself for weakness, this became the best driver. His body transformed in an instant: bone blades, as sharp as mantis razors, burst from his forearms. He jumped high onto the Tiger from behind, aiming to open its jugular vein. Blood gushed in a fountain. Kaito acted based on the assumption that it was a human. Yes, tall, yes, strong, but a human (wrong). Or rather, a Villain.
The "hit and run" tactic crumbled to dust when faced with the primal power of the monster. As soon as Kyudai's command sounded, the air exploded with sharp movement. The creature needed to be stunned to deal with it, and besides breaking the relay, there was no other plan.
Kaito, whose jump was calculated by years of survival, brought his bone blades down upon the monster's scruff. A sickening crunch echoed, the skin burst, and thick black blood splattered onto the grass. But the Tiger did not even flinch. For him, this wound was no more dangerous than a mosquito bite.
Before Kaito could push off for a second strike, a huge, clawed paw intercepted him in the air, crushing his ribcage. With a short, gagging roar, the Nomu pulled the guy toward it. TN watched in horror as the creature's jaws opened in an unnatural grin.
Crunch.
The Tiger literally tore a piece of flesh from Kaito's shoulder. The scream of pain was drowned in the monster's roar. Before the eyes of the stunned TN, the wound on the Nomu's neck, inflicted by Kaito's blades, began to close with incredible speed. The edges of the skin knit together, fueled by the absorbed blood, as if on fast-forward.
— No! — gasped TN. Under the effect of Sugar Rush, his perception was sharpened to the limit. He saw every capillary, every shudder of the creature's muscles.
He dashed forward, closing the distance in fractions of a second. His goal was the right ear — there, under a layer of coarse skin, the relay pulsed. TN folded two fingers, concentrating all remaining amplification power into one point.
The first strike. Miss! The Tiger, even occupied with its "food," instinctively jerked its head, and TN's fingers only grazed the stiff fur, leaving a deep furrow. The Nomu threw Kaito away like a broken doll and switched all its attention to TN.
The second strike. It was a do-or-die moment. TN ignored the swing of the clawed paw flying at his temple. He put not just quirk power into this thrust, but all of his desperation. His fingers entered the creature's ear canal with a wet sound.
C-crack!
The relay metal snapped under the crushing pressure. In that same instant, TN's fingers erupted in an unbearable flash of pain—the bones could not withstand the recoil and fractured, twisting at an unnatural angle. Pungent, bluish smoke billowed from the Nomu's ear, and the speaker in its chest emitted a deafening, choking whistle.
The Tiger howled. The sound resonance from the destroyed device struck its exposed brain directly. The creature collapsed to its knees, wrapping its paws around its head and tearing at its own skin with its claws. Choosing between survival now and the possibility of swapping bodies in the future...the choice is clear. TN steals the tiger's blood regeneration quirk, replacing the one stolen from Taiko, Body Swap. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice something to gain or save something.
In the laboratory, Kyudai Garaki sprang from his chair, glaring at the static on the monitors.
— Impudent brat... — he hissed, feverishly clicking switches. — You broke the leash, but you will not get away.
The control signal was gone, but the visual feed from the Nomu's face was still active. The doctor saw the Tiger beginning to recover. Now it was not just a tool—it was a wounded, enraged beast whose instincts demanded only one thing: to destroy the source of pain. This creature had been exceptionally difficult to subjugate during the brainwashing stage even before; the beast's innate wild spirit, combined with the rushed conditioning, had now produced a predictable result.
Garaki hovered his finger over the immediate recall button but froze. He imagined this infuriated "project" and the equally dangerous TN bursting into his sterile sanctuary. In the heat of their struggle, his priceless equipment—the work of decades—would be reduced to dust.
— Johnny! — Kyudai shouted into the void of the laboratory. — Immediately teleport the Tiger! Not here! I need him alive more than dead, but I will not allow him to tear my lab to shreds... To the port of Hosu! Now!
For Johnny Nomu, Port Hosu was a familiar "drop point"—one of the logistical hubs used for picking up cargo.
A viscous, foul-smelling black ooze began to pour from the convulsing Tiger's mouth. TN recognized the quirk—Johnny's Warp Gate. The slimy mass touched his skin as well, pulling him into an icy trap. But Garaki deliberately withheld the command to complete the transition instantly. He wanted the disorientation and the pressure of the void to squeeze the last drops of resistance out of TN.
— Kaito!... — TN managed to shout, but his voice cut off.
The world around him collapsed. The sensation of falling into an icy abyss lasted longer than usual. Every second in that dense darkness literally sucked the glucose out of him, accelerating the burnout of Sugar Rush. The fabric of reality pressed against his chest, turning the remnants of his strength into nothingness.
Finally, salty, humid air burned his lungs.
TN collapsed onto the hard concrete pier. Everything was a blur; Sugar Rush was incinerating the last molecules of sugar in his blood, and his broken fingers pulsed in time with his frantic heartbeat. His body trembled from hypoglycemic shock—the Doctor had achieved his goal, turning the fighter into a half-dead shadow.
Enormous cargo containers loomed around him, creating a narrow, echoing labyrinth, and the dark surface of the bay stretched out ahead. Ten meters away, breathing heavily and dropping beads of black blood onto the concrete, the Nomu-Tiger was rising. Now, between them, there was no Kaito, no Kuinn, and no orders from the Doctor. Only a predator driven by pure rage and its exhausted prey in the silent labyrinth of Port Hosu.