Decade stared calmly at the spikes rushing toward him, and without even lifting a finger, the metal on his clothes split apart and broke into large swarms of tiny metal grasshoppers. They moved with surprising precision, shifting around him in an instant and forming several large metallic shields that floated in front of his body, completely blocking and neutralizing the attack before it could reach him. He kept his eyes on Overhaul the entire time, and a playful smirk slowly formed on his lips.
"Oh? I didn't expect you to agree with me so fast," Decade said in a casual tone, clearly unbothered by the attack. "I mean, I thought you had more of a spine, or in your case, maybe more of a brain. You talk so big about your ideals and goals, only for them to fall apart the moment someone points out the flaw in them."
"SHUT UP!" Overhaul roared, slamming both palms down as the terrain shifted again, the ground twisting and rising as it tried to stab and strike Decade from every angle, but none of it ever made it past his defense. The metal shields continued to move on their own, intercepting every spike, crushing some and cutting through others before they even got close.
Decade let out a small chuckle, wearing that same smug expression that only seemed to make people angrier the longer they looked at him.
"Face it," he said, still walking forward without a care, "your ideals are nothing more than a fantasy. You're just a third-rate drug dealer who likes to touch and hurt small children because they can't stand up to you."
Overhaul glared at him with clear rage, and this time he rushed forward himself, trying to close the distance. With one touch, he could kill Decade, and he knew it. That should have been threatening enough, but against the Destroyer of Worlds, the charge looked clumsy too direct and too slow. For someone who spent his days dissecting and experimenting on a little girl instead of training like a normal fighter, Overhaul's movement was rough and heavy compared to Decade's.
Even with more than half of his Decade power gone now, it didn't change the fact that his combat experience and the powers tied to his existence were still far beyond what most people could handle.
Decade calmly shifted his body and slipped past the touch without even looking bothered. His left hand lifted, and crimson blood burst out from it before wrapping around his fist and hardening into a blood gauntlet coated in cursed energy. He clenched the hand once, then drove a punch straight into Overhaul's side. The impact sent him rolling across the ground, clutching his insides in pain as he use his Quirk to break apart and repair the damage his body had just taken.
Decade didn't care that he was healing, he simply pulled out his deck, his fingers moving across the cards before selecting one and turning it over. He slid it into his Driver.
Kamen Ride: Hibiki!
Purple flames rose from his feet and climbed up his body in an instant, burning brightly in front of everyone there. He lifted his hand and swept it outward, sending the flames scattering aside like embers caught in a strong wind. Then he drew out his Ongekibou Rekka from his back, spinning the two red drumsticks once in his hands.
Overhaul charged again, still trying to touch him.
Decade shifted just enough to avoid it, then swung one of the drumsticks into the side of Overhaul's head and sent him staggering back. Before Overhaul could steady himself, the second drumstick crashed into his face, forcing him back another step. Decade then moved behind him and started raining down blow after blow onto his back, driving him toward the ground with relentless pressure.
When Overhaul fell to the ground, he slapped both palms onto the floor again, forcing stone spikes to rise once more in a desperate attempt to stab Decade from below.
Decade jumped back to avoid the attack and let the Ongekibou Rekka disappear, then clapped both palms together and pointed his fingers straight down at Overhaul.
"Piercing Blood!"
A concentrated line of crimson blood formed at the tips of his fingers and fired forward at high speed, splitting into multiple crimson arrows that came down from different angles. Overhaul tried to shift the ground again to shield himself, but some of the shots still hit him, piercing his body and forcing out a painful scream before he quickly healed himself.
Decade landed back on the ground just as the floor shook and burst apart. Overhaul leaped up from the ground with bloodshot eyes, clearly furious now. Decade tilted his head aside to avoid the touch, but Overhaul still managed to brush his hand against Decade's left hand.
I won.
That was what he must have thought.
His eyes lit up slightly, but only for a tiny moment, and in that 0.000001 second, Decade's right fist burst with black and red lightning.
"Black Flash!"
The punch landed directly on Overhaul's face with devastating force, shattering his nose and cracking his skull as his body was sent rag-dolling through the wall behind him. He crashed into the next room hard enough to leave a broken path in his wake.
At the same time, the left hand Overhaul had touched began to grew and expand, but Decade reacted instantly. He used Dismantle to cut off his own arm before the effect could continue, and the severed limb exploded beside him in a burst of force.
Both Lemillion and Eri looked on in horror at the sight of Decade losing an arm, and before either of them could even say anything, the missing limb was already growing back at a rapid pace. Bone, muscle, flesh, and nerve all returned together, restoring the arm in seconds as it shifted back into his purple oni skin.
Decade turned back to the two of them and gave them a smile despite the oni's face. "I'm fine, see."
It was the kind of thing he had said so many times before that it had almost become routine.
During his trip across Japan with Miyabi and Mirko, there had been plenty of moments where he got injured, lost a limb, or otherwise made them think something terrible had happened to him, only for him to instantly heal himself with RCT and act like nothing serious had occurred.
Still, even if he was used to it, the people around him usually were not, and the shock that came with seeing him get torn apart and immediately recover had clearly left its mark.
This led Miyabi to tell him that even if he healed himself, he should also reassure the people he was trying to save that he was fine and there was nothing to worry about.
Mirko had scoffed at that and said Tsutsumi would never listen to something that sensible. Only when it happens the next time, he actually listens to her, causing a "Mirko.exe has stopped working".
Before anyone could settle into the moment, the wall behind them burst open again as Deku came flying through, with Eraser Head and Nighteye close behind him. The moment Deku saw Mirio kneeling there, injured and shaken, with Eri looking terrified on the ground beside him and a purple-skinned figure that look like a villain standing in front of them, something in him snapped.
Anger surged through him at once, hot and immediate, and he didn't stop to think past that first reaction.
In his mind, all of it came together at once: the fact that he hadn't been able to save Eri sooner, the thought that if he had acted faster, she wouldn't have ended up suffering under Overhaul's hands, Nighteye telling him he wasn't worthy of One For All, and Mirio seeming far more reliable and suited to inherit it than he was.
It all piled on top of itself until there was only one thought left in his head, over and over again, driving everything else out. He had to save Eri no matter what. He had to prove that All Might hadn't made a mistake when he chose him.
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!"
He roared and burst forward at full speed, swinging his fist with everything he had without breaking himself.
"Deku, no, that is not an enemy!" Eraser Head shouted in alarm when he saw the familiar Driver on the oni's waist, but Deku was already too far into the attack to stop himself or listen.
"SMASHHHH!!"
"Heh?"
Decade turned just in time to see the incoming fist, and for some reason, he didn't look surprised at all. In fact, the entire thing felt strangely familiar to him, almost nostalgic in a way he couldn't help noticing. Still, that did not mean he was in the mood to get punched, so he raised his hand and coated his palm in multiple thin layers of Cleave.
Deku's fist crashed into Decade's palm, but instead of the usual impact or shockwave, Midoriya let out a cry of pain. The force behind his punch was cut apart the moment it made contact, his glove tearing apart as invisible slashes ran through the fabric, then through his skin, then deeper into the muscle beneath. The attack had been strong, but it had been cleanly cleaved before it could fully land.
Decade let go and watched as Deku fell to his knees, gripping his hand in pain. The expression on his face shifted from anger to confusion, then to horror as he looked up and finally noticed the Driver at the figure's waist.
"D-Decade?" he said, the shock clear in his voice as he realized what he had just done.
Decade crouched down a little so they were eye level, and the Hibiki form faded away, revealing his usual Decade outfit once more. "Midoriya… were you always this weak?"
The others nearby were left speechless. Mirio and Nighteye both knew that Midoriya had One For All, and by all logic, it should have been stronger than All Might's in time, but even with only ten percent of its power, he still could not make Tsutsumi budge from where he stood.
Eraser Head, on the other hand, did not seem nearly as surprised. He knew Midoriya was strong, but he also knew that strength alone did not mean much here. Against someone like Tsutsumi, whose potential is without limit, raw power is meaningless against his absolute power.
Decade could understand why Midoriya reacted that way. The moment he saw him, he attacked without thinking, and from Midoriya's point of view, that reaction wasn't completely unreasonable.
Unlike Sentai, where the powers usually stand completely apart from the villains and monsters they fight, using the powers that usually represent goodness.
Rider powers usually came from the same villains and monsters themselves.
Most of it came from the same kind of forces that created the enemies they were facing in the first place, and that alone made the whole thing a little more dangerous. Riders fought with power that could just as easily be turned from protection to destruction; the line between hero and monster was not always as wide as people liked to believe.
It was the kind of power that made crossing that line easier than it should have been, and once someone stepped over it, there was no guarantee they could come back the same.
So when Midoriya rushed him, Decade didn't find it especially offensive.
It was not hard to see why someone unfamiliar with that type of power taken directly from the monsters would mistake him for an enemy the moment they saw the shape of his form.
Then the ground beneath them began to shift.
Sharp spikes started rising from below, shooting upward, which would have caught everyone off guard if they had not noticed it in time. Nighteye and Eraser Head both saw it immediately, and they were just about to warn the two kneeling students when Decade suddenly raised his voice.
"Stop!"
Everyone froze at once.
The spikes halted where they were, just short of actually reaching any of them, and the entire area went still as if the order itself had locked the world in place. The black markings that had been on Decade's cheeks and tongue faded away as he straightened back up again.
"Sensei, you should lead them out," he said in the same casual tone as before, his attention already shifting toward the open hole in the wall. "I'm going to play with Bird Face a little more."
His gaze settled on Overhaul, who was now standing there with an expression that had shifted from shock to something even uglier. The man looked different now, more monstrous than before, with four arms instead of two, his upper body now looked slightly larger, and that change immediately drew Decade's curiosity.