A Frog's Tale [Tsu x Male Hero]

Chapter 77: Chase

It is said that when someone goes through extreme physical or psychological distress, one's Quirk may undergo a transformation, a metamorphosis of sorts. Some even call it... A Quirk awakening. It's likely to do with the sheer amount of adrenaline coursing through their body which gives their Quirk a boost. But maybe they had the ability all along, but just didn't know it yet because their body didn't allow them to.

But this awakening was particularly nasty. Misaki cried out in anguish, and instantly everyone was falling to the ground in agony, an unbearable pain no human had ever gone through before, Misaki's years of absorbing pain for others was being expelled against everyone in the palace, both Hero and Villain. Even the ones who had gone through pain their entire lives, or since getting their Quirk, were incapacitated.

Neither I nor Kaiyo could move, not even Deku or Bakugou. However, the effect began weakening over time, as if the pain Misaki was emitting was like a stock piling Quirk, such as One For All or Rewind, meaning that she had to store up pain to then use it. Of course, her extreme emotional distress likely contributed to just how powerful this blast was, but as soon as I noticed it was lessening, I turned my attention to Kaiyo and immediately jumped up to launch an attack against her.

She was the next to move, going on the defensive now rather than the attack, and then Deku followed me, along with Bakugou too, the three of us rapidly attacking left right and centre. We were destroying walls and shields faster than Kaiyo could produce them, and she was even starting to lose a rib every so often. She grit her teeth and retreated further and further, before forming an incredibly thick ball around herself that we couldn't break through. "Coward! Open up and fight us!" Bakugou shouted.

Though it was strange... Kaiyo should still be able to attack us even if she can't exactly see us, she had the capacity to attack around us for sure, we were certain of that... What was she up to in there? Ribbon Dancer stood up and saw Kaiyo's state, and made a run for it, several officers as well as Jirou and Mineta gave chase, Monoma still recovering from the blast and shakily getting on his feet to figure out what to do. Since the three of us seemed to have Kaiyo cornered, he also joined them to chase Ribbon Dancer.

Misaki was tending to Mr Aizawa's wounds, with Shinsou helping her, trying to stop the bleeding with what limited tools they had on hand. And that was when the rumbling started, and we all figured out why Ribbon Dancer was running and abandoning his love... While Kaiyo was cocooned, she used her ultimate weapon, the very thing that took even Gigantomachia down; her last Quirk Enhancing Drug. But even back then, she didn't have as much firepower as she did now. This... Was beyond bad.

[Theme: Sterbenshall from Re:Zero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7guFSnH4l4Y]

"Everybody... Run!" Deku shouted out, slinging himself towards our backline and picking up Mister Aizawa, Shinsou, and Misaki as Ryukyu and Miruko also evacuated, Ryukyu picking up the remaining officers from the ground as the very floor itself began moving, the texture of each and every inch of the building changing into the liquified version of her Quirk... This was the real reason she had made a palace. Not just for safe keeping... But to become a weaponised castle.

Kaiyo began to hatch from her egg, staring at me with an intense gaze and bloodlust that froze me in place for just a brief moment... It was me she was after, without a doubt. "It's always you... It's always your fault!" She said to me, which I could barely hear over the sound of the entire building collapsing in on itself to reshape into something different. "Once you're gone, no one will stop me... You're dead!" What looked like hundreds of hands shot out from the floor, pillars, and ceiling to grab me.

I could just teleport away to safety, of course, but she had already made her threat of killing everyone else if I did that... And she was infinitely stronger this time. There wasn't a chance in hell I could do anything to her even if I pulled Deku's 1,000,000% desperation punch, so all I could do was run too. Not even trying to fight back, I fled and ran as fast as my legs would carry me, which was actually pretty quick since I was still using my other form. Taking a page out of Shishida's book, I turned the rest of my body back to normal size as I felt several fingers graze my sides.