Doctor Garaki's limbs trembled as he read the words scrawled in the dirt, nodding frantically. "I will! I'll do it immediately! The forest... the forest isn't random; it operates on a signaling system that only I know!" he shouted in a ragged voice, trying to stand as blood dripped from his mouth.
I loosened the wire from the necks of the two guards who fell to the ground gasping, but I didn't free them completely; the wires remained coiled around their limbs like serpents.
"This way... follow me this way!" He pointed with a shaking hand toward a massive tree that looked like all the others, but he pressed a hidden protrusion in its trunk. Suddenly, the thick fog began to dissipate, revealing a narrow passage.
We walked quickly until we reached the edge of the forest where the density of the trees changed. Garaki pulled a device resembling a mobile phone from his pocket, pressing several buttons with manic speed while muttering incomprehensible words. Then he screamed into the device: "Get me out! Now! Deactivate the system!"
In that moment, I felt a strange ripple in the air before me, and the transparent veil in front of me began to tear. A wide gap opened, revealing the outside world; I saw a distant asphalt road and heard the sound of the wind, along with the obese guard waiting there—who appeared to be the owner of this "Labyrinth."
[Finally...]
I darted out like an arrow, feeling the chill of the real air touch my face, which was stained with black blood. I turned toward them with lightning speed before they could think of fleeing or closing the exit.
[Stay here.. I'll be back in seconds. Do not try to move.] I wrote the words in the air with a swift motion of my hand. In the blink of an eye, my steel wires shot out to bind the Doctor, his two guards, and the guard who possessed the Labyrinth Quirk. Surprisingly, despite owning such a skill, he surrendered the moment I pointed the wire at him. I bound them together in a single, tight mass, anchoring the wires into the ground with my force so they couldn't budge.
I ran away from them, far from the foul stench of the "Nomu," until I reached the back of a massive rock out of their sight. There, the wall of endurance I had built over the past days collapsed.
"Uuuugh!"
I leaned over the ground, my stomach exploding with nausea. I began to vomit violently; even though I had eaten nothing but bitter herbs and roots that barely kept me alive, what came out was terrifyingly much. It was a mixture of burning yellow bile and herb remnants.
I was shaking entirely, my blood-stained hands trembling over the green grass. Tears gathered in my eyes from the intensity of the vomiting and the purging of the toxins within me. I wiped my mouth with the back of my shaking hand and looked at the clear sky above me.
[Now... it is time for the real reckoning.]
After regaining my breath and drying my eyes, I stood up again, trying to ignore the bitter taste filling my throat. After a minute of rest, I retraced my steps toward them. The three were still in their bound positions.
I stood before Doctor Garaki, who was on the verge of fainting from sheer terror. With a quick flick of my fingers, the wires around his small body alone loosened, while they remained coiled around the guards like hungry snakes.
I looked into his eyes and wrote firmly in the dirt: [Take off your clothes, now.]
The Doctor froze, his eyes widening in shock and suspicion. "W-what? My clothes? But why?" he stammered in a trembling voice. He didn't have the luxury of refusal; I felt his desire to argue vanish as soon as I pressed a simple steel wire against his throat.
He began taking off his white lab coat and shirt with heavy trembling until he was left in his undergarments, covering his frail body with his hands from the cold and fear. I picked up the clothes from the ground coldly; I knew the guards' clothes would be too large and wouldn't fit me, while the clothes of this fool were the only choice available. As for the master of the Labyrinth, he was obese, and it would be disgusting to wear his clothes.
I hadn't asked for the clothes before going behind the rock because my stomach had reached its breaking point, and I couldn't have endured that smell for one more second without vomiting on him.
I went back behind the rock, but to a spot far from where I had vomited. I stripped off my torn clothes and put on the Doctor's attire. The lab coat was a bit long, but it was clean and felt luxurious. The high-collared shirt and black trousers fit surprisingly well. I looked strange; a child with sharp features and yellow hair wearing formal lab attire, a pristine white coat fluttering behind me with every step.
I returned to them again, and Doctor Garaki's eyes fell upon me. He looked stunned and terrified seeing me in his clothes, but I paid him no mind. I stood before him, the wind dancing with the edges of the white coat.
"...." I moved quickly toward the Doctor, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a notebook and pen because of the difficulty of writing on the ground. I wrote in the notebook:
[The time for settling accounts has arrived.]
The Doctor's lower lip trembled. "S-settling accounts?" he cried out, his voice filled with shock. "You punched me in the stomach with a force that nearly killed me! On top of that, I got you out of the forest and fulfilled your request! This is completely unfair.. I kept my word, let me go!"
While the old man grumbled, a loud voice erupted from behind. The obese guard, the owner of the Labyrinth Quirk, was trying to shift the wires I had anchored into the ground with gravity. His face, flushed with blood, turned as red as a tomato, and he screamed foul insults: "Damn you, you little brat! Undo these restraints now! Do you think a white coat makes you a man? I'll crush your bones once I'm free!"
I didn't even turn toward him, nor did I bother responding with words. Honestly, this person who possessed no offensive Quirk was like a fool who only looked for a fight after being hit; even when I bound him earlier, he just stood there watching like a helpless girl.
I focused my energy on a single point, right over the obese guard's extended arm. "Pressure!"
CRACK!
The sound of bones shattering echoed with terrifying clarity in the quiet area. The guard didn't even realize what happened until he saw his arm bend completely backward.
"AAAAAAAAAGH!"
The threats turned into ear-piercing wails. The obese man remained rooted, unable even to fall to the ground, writhing in pain as he stared in shock at his hand.
Silence fell immediately. Doctor Garaki stopped talking, frozen in place, his eyes fixed on his guard's shattered arm. I looked back at the notebook and wrote calmly beneath the previous sentence:
[Justice is a relative concept.. To me, I don't care whether you are villains or heroes. Justice begins when you suffer as much as I have suffered. But there is an option, and it is your only means of survival right now.]
I raised my head and looked at the Doctor before finishing the writing: [What will you choose?]