[Third-Person Perspective]
After three days of continuous hell, the forest had turned into a slaughterhouse emitting a foul stench. The atmosphere was heavy.
"Hurry up, you two idiots!" ".."
The trees parted to reveal a small figure wearing a white lab coat and strange glasses; he was accompanied by two massive guards with enormous muscles, their appearance suggesting they were high-level criminals.
"We came to dispose of those failed, restrained models. Make sure to erase every trace..." The doctor stopped speaking suddenly, his eyes widening behind his glasses.
Before them stood a mountain of distorted bodies, hills of dead Nomu piled on top of one another. At the peak of this mountain stood a boy with yellow hair, his body completely covered in disgusting black blood.
Gulp... Doctor Garaki swallowed hard before speaking.
"D-did... did you do this?" the scientist asked in a trembling voice, stepping back as shock and horror paralyzed his movements.
"...." The boy turned toward him.
Toge didn't utter a single word; he simply cast a cold gaze that made the blood freeze in the scientist's veins. Then, with a slow movement, the boy descended from the peak of the mountain to appear directly in front of him.
Before the guards could react, a steel wire had already wrapped around Doctor Garaki's neck. With a simple touch of "Pressure," the wire dug slightly into his skin, causing a drop of red blood to fall from the doctor's neck.
[Are you the one who was putting these filths here?] "Tuna.." the boy whispered in a raspy, ice-cold voice, slowly tightening the wire.
Garaki didn't even know how to respond, for he didn't understand what the boy said, but he tried to summon the standing guards with a movement of his hand.
The muscular guards moved instinctively upon seeing Garaki's signal to attack, but the boy didn't even turn toward them: [Whoever moves a single step... will die before they hit the ground] "Tuna...."
The two guards froze in their tracks, feeling a massive pressure. Bloodlust covered the entire area. It was true they didn't understand anything he said, but the look in his eyes was enough to make them realize he was threatening them.
_____
[Toge's Perspective]
I tightened my grip on the steel wire and pulled the trembling old man toward me, looking into his eyes widened behind his strange glasses. This was the man who created the Nomu: Doctor Garaki.
[Do you know the extent of the suffering I lived in this forest because of him and because of your filth?] "Sushi..." I whispered in a voice dripping with hatred.
Two days ago, I tried to escape from this place, but no matter how hard I tried, I would end up back here again like a maze. Therefore, I concluded that this was perhaps the Quirk of one of the villains used to hide the Nomu from the heroes.
[Do you have any idea what it means to spend your days among monsters that know nothing but killing?] "Tuna...." As soon as I realized he didn't even understand my words, the frustration grew inside me.
Doctor Garaki tried to open his mouth, his lips moving tremulously as if he were trying to gather words to escape this situation, but my patience had completely run out. I didn't wait to hear his disgusting voice; I left the wire around his neck for a moment and grabbed the collar of his lab coat with my other hand, then delivered a powerful, direct punch to his stomach with all the strength I possessed.
THWACK!
His small body hunched forward, and his eyes widened until they nearly popped out of their sockets. He couldn't even scream; the air was instantly sucked out of his lungs. He fell to his knees, clutching his stomach, and soon opened his mouth to vomit red blood.
While the scientist was reeling on the ground in severe pain, I caught a quick movement out of the corner of my eye. The two massive guards, who seemed to have regained their composure, lunged at me from both sides at once.
Their muscles moved with power, and the weapons in their hands suggested they wouldn't stop until they saw my head separated from my body.
[So, you chose to ignore my warning..] I thought coldly as I tightened the steel wire again.
The guards charged at me rapidly. One of them carried a massive axe, while the other brandished two long swords that looked like a type of katana.
I didn't retreat a single step. On the contrary, I felt a cold smile forming on my lips. [I warned them... and now they will learn the meaning of true weight.]
"Pressure!" The words left my mouth as I struck the ground with my foot. Suddenly, a wave of intensified gravity exploded in a 30-meter radius around us. The air trembled, and the ground beneath the guards' feet buckled inward. They felt as if three tons had suddenly dropped onto their shoulders. Their movements slowed, and the veins in their necks bulged as they struggled to stay standing.
But the shock didn't stop them completely; they were seasoned criminals. The axe-wielder lunged forward growling, using all his muscular strength to swing his weapon at my head. At that moment, I released the steel wire from my left hand.
Swoosh!
Thanks to the "branches" training I practiced for hours, the wire wrapped around the axe handle in mid-air. I whispered a single word: "Reverse!"
A pulse of pressure launched, pushing the axe away from its path, causing it to hit the ground next to my foot with a force that created a deep hole. In the blink of an eye, I pulled the wire back to encircle the massive guard's arm. I tightened the wire with all my strength, using my gravity-enhanced body weight, hearing the sound of muscle tissue tearing under the pressure of the sharp steel.
"Aaaaagh!" the guard screamed, but his scream didn't last long.
I saw the second guard leap over his comrade, taking advantage of the opening to thrust his swords into my chest. He was fast despite the pressure, but he made one mistake: he left the ground.
[In the air.. you are entirely mine.]
I raised my right hand and aimed a "Pressure Pulse" directly at his chest while he was in the air. It was a concentrated explosion of gravitational force. His massive body slammed into a tree behind him with a force that shattered its trunk, and he fell to the ground gasping blood, trying to regain his faded breath.
I returned my focus to the first guard who was trying to rise despite his bleeding arm. I moved my fingers lightly, and the steel wire launched again, wrapping around his feet, then his waist, reaching his neck in mere seconds.
I was now in the center, the wire in my right hand encircling the first guard's neck, and the wire in my left hand extending toward the second guard who was crawling with difficulty. I began to tighten the wires slowly. I felt the resistance of their bodies while my eyes were fixed on them.
Suddenly, amidst the sound of the guards' agonizing gasps, a trembling voice full of pleading rose from behind me. It was Doctor Garaki, who had partially regained consciousness, crawling on his hands and knees, with tears and blood covering his face.
"Stop! Please stop!" the scientist cried out, reaching his hand toward me desperately. "Don't kill them.. we.. we will do whatever you want! Anything! I will give you everything you ask for.. technology, power, information.. just please.. spare our lives!"
I stopped tightening for a moment. Before I turned, I slowly rotated my head toward the doctor, and my gaze was enough to make him freeze in place.
"Anything?" I sat on the ground and wrote the words in the dirt while the wire was still digging into his guards' necks.
Doctor Garaki looked at my hand as it traced the words in the dirt; his breath was rapid, his eyes following every letter I drew.
"Yes! Yes! Anything!" the old man shouted in a faltering voice, gesturing with his trembling hand toward the two guards who were starting to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. "Just loosen those wires.. I will give you anything!"
I stopped tightening slightly, but I did not release the wires completely.
With my finger wet with blood, I wrote slowly and clearly on the ground before his wide eyes: [Fine.. then show me how to get out of this cursed town, now.]