Syphon's Peace

Chapter 31: Broken

Please God, no. No! Not like this. Not like this!

All Reina could see were those dead eyes. The only thing that seemed to break through the suffocating wave of sheer panic and grief was the permanent expression of horror that gazed blankly back at her from what little remained of her guardian, an image she knew would be branded into her memory for the rest of her days. Her throat was burning, and she knew she was screaming, but she couldn't hear anything. She wasn't even allowed that distraction from the horror before her.

"I'M SO SORRY! OH GOD, PLEASE, NO! IT'S ALL MY FAULT! GREGORY!"

Toshi and the others froze as the bloodcurdling screams reached them, hesitating only a second before rushing towards the source. Toshi's heart seized at the sound, for he knew whose voice that was. He would recognize it above a million others.

"REINA!" he yelled, using One For All to move faster. Gran Torino was hot on his heels, using his jetstreams to keep up with Toshinori as they both barreled towards the living quarters.

When they found her, Gran Torino cursed at the gruesome scene, not hesitating a second to move forward and engage the enemy as Toshinori rushed to grab Reina, who seemed to be immobilized. From an injury or shock, he couldn't tell. There was so much blood everywhere and she was sobbing so hard that it would be impossible to tell at the moment. Biting back his own grief at the very sudden and gruesome loss of his Professor, he scooped her up into his arms and ran back out into the hall, where Dave and Hana were running towards the room with Visage in tow. Their eyes widened when their gazes fell on Reina, covered in blood and crying into his chest, babbling on and on about how it was all her fault. He handed her over to Visage, kissing her on the head as he did.

"What's going on, All Might?" Visage asked.

"They're here. And Gregory-" He paused, not willing to finish that statement. "You know what to do, Visage." he instructed. "We'll join you when it's safe." His gaze fell down to Reina, who he could tell was in horrified shock, and he frowned as he tilted her chin so she was looking up at him. "None of this was your fault, Reina. Do you hear me? You were innocent in this."

She shook her head to protest, but he merely kissed her before turning back towards the apartment, where the sounds of shouts and Gran Torino's jet propulsions could be heard. Using his quirk, he propelled himself forward, rejoining Gran Torino in the apartment in less than a second. He was giving the marines a run for their money, he'd give him that. One of them was unconscious, slumped over awkwardly on the floor while the other two, the one with Gregory's head still in his grasp being one of them, were using their quirks to attempt to defend against the Hero.

Gritting his teeth in anger, but trying his best to keep his personal emotions in check, Toshinori dashed so he was standing behind what he assumed was the leader. "DETROIT SMASH!" he bellowed as he delivered a quick blow towards his head.

The attack was dodged at the last second, the man seemingly glitching for a moment before reappearing slightly to the left of where he had been a moment before. The man smirked over his shoulder at Toshi before his body seemed to glitch again. Toshi didn't know where it came from, but all of a sudden he was punched in the face by the guy's fist, which was suddenly floating in the air beside his head. Frowning, Toshi cautiously put some distance between them as he watched, observing this man and his quirk.

"You must be Toshinori Yagi." the man said, seemingly at ease despite the still battling hero and his partner very loudly getting his tail kicked behind them. "We were warned you might be a problem."

"Yeah? Well what did you expect when you're trying to take my wife?" Toshi spat, turning to keep the man in his sight as he paced. Perhaps he has a teleportation quirk of some kind? Though just teleporting one part of the body has always shown to cause damage to that limb. And what was with the glitching?