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8. An Unforeseen Problem

Rule 18: Recklessness gets people killed.

Otsuka fell.

And she kept falling and now the dark mist that had swallowed her whole was gone and the ground was rising up to meet her and she was panicking because it looked like solid ground and she was about to face plant right into it and that was going to hurt.

Then she snapped herself from the panic. Layers of red formed underneath her and she crashed through each layer, gradually slowing her fall until she finally reached the ground, shaken but not in any pain that she was aware of— shock could hide a multitude of sins, she'd long learned.

She was alive, oh that was nice. Oh the sweet, sweet earth. Gravelly and rough and sticking into her shoulder as it was, she had never felt anything more comfortable. Oh the beauty of it. Oh the wonder.

There was a crunch nearby. Her adrenaline spiked. Tingling pumped through her system in a quirk one-two, one-two. She jumped to her feet and found herself in a sort of chasm. The place didn't exactly look familiar (but she couldn't be far from the USJ, right? Teleportation quirks usually had some kind of limitation on range, right?), but she appeared to be alone. The second crunch of the dirt behind her seemed to contradict that idea.

She whirled as another sound pierced the silence. She fought through her fear to keep her breaths deep and slow so her heartbeat would stay gentle rather than pounding in her ears. Normally, she didn't mind cramped spaces with low light levels, in fact, she'd found them comforting in the past. Not now. Not knowing there could be someone here with her and they probably weren't her friend.

She didn't plan on staying long enough to find out for sure. She jumped up, stepping stones forming beneath her feet at the last second, barely wide enough to cover her soles and she kept running up her stairs.

A shadow. Can't breathe. Chest tight. Pressure. Get it off!

She let her quirk ripple over her skin. Enough to give someone an electric shock and nothing more. Hopefully enough to get it to let go.

She was right.

Her chest released and she was breathing fine again. But also falling. Her stomach dragging behind her as she twisted wildly through the air. Again, translucent surfaces emerged to break her fall until she hit the ground— a little more roughly this time around. She was in a crouch the next second, wary of the opponent she still hadn't seen.

Skittering over the rocks.

Never had she thought she'd hope she was this close to a rat.

There was no warning. She was low to the ground, watching and listening, eyes and ears strained, and then she was groaning on the ground, winded from being thrown up against the cliffside. Ok. Definitely not a rat.

But whatever it was, it was fast. Too fast maybe. If she could only see better, maybe she'd stand a chance against this thing. As it was, she was a sitting duck. So, all she had to do was create light in a dark chasm, simples.

She coughed, curling up on the ground after being thrown against a second wall. She didn't feel like going for a round three.

Light come on, how could she-

She was such an idiot.

She relaxed her tight-fist control over her quirk enough to allow a thin, glowing mist to form a sphere around her, a finger on the cuff in her pocket. "I wouldn't suggest getting too close to this red stuff," she warned whoever it was out there, cursing the shake of her voice while also proud she hadn't stuttered. "Contact is lethal." It wasn't lethal as far as she knew, only capable of making someone dangerously sick, but they didn't have to know that.