Chapter 18: Fatal Mistake
"Drip, drip," blood was leaking from Shinji's mouth.
As the blood touched the floor, the sounds of crying children reached his ears.
The sound was faint, the rough and blotchy concrete made his body feel as if it weighed a ton.
"¡Hahaha!" Several men were laughing at his situation.
Their faces were poorly concealed and they exuded a strong, disorienting smell.
As he was losing consciousness, he felt it. Deep in his chest, his quirk was taking form.
Though he could not see the small girl, he could sense her.
The quirk was still active in his chest and he felt every emotion.
Looking up at the window, he saw the heterochromatic girl sobbing with a fearful expression.
Shinji felt someone approaching him, he was grabbed by one hand and lifted high in the air by his hoodie
It was a massive man that took hold of him, his platinum body shining brightly under the moonlight.
What the man didn't realize however, is that his head was flying high into the sky.
It landed a few seconds after, the small smirk he had was still plastered on his face.
"Splat!" Then the body followed.
Toad man opened his eyes widely looking at the pale hand that came out of the boy's chest.
A strange and grotesque creature came out before letting out a loud screech.
"Screech!!"
The little girl observing through the window opened her mouth widely before letting out a big smile.
The other children were creeped out, staying away from the window and cowering in the corner of the room.
After the creature came out of his body, he dropped to the ground without any resistance.
His body was drained and all he could do was pray that things would work out.
He was careless, it started with fighting the toad man who wasn't stupid at all.
He never got close to Shinji and had powerful jumps that barely kept him out of harm's way.
'With my speed I should've reached him, but no matter what, I can never do it.'
If only he was as fast as his full quirk he could've done something about it.
Then, reinforcements started coming out due to the noises being made.
Shinji had been injured a couple times with the spears and now he had to fight a four person group.
After the Yuuji situation, he avoided taking down villains in groups of two or more, always deciding to separate them one way or the other.
Now that he was caught off guard, he realized his mistake.
This was his first time doing something big like going to a small child trafficking ring, and he had barely prepared for it.
His successful experiences these past few years made him arrogant in thinking that he could take on anything that came his way.
Looking at his quirk charging at the group, he could only hope that everything would be alright.
Having the monster a few feet away from them, they all frowned.
Toad man looked around the area before giving out his commands.
"Hakaru, try to take the creature's back, Eizo, get the boy lying on the ground."
He then proceeded to jump to a tree and take out a bow hiding in it.
Hakaru had a quirk that made his bones much stronger than average, he charged at the creature with relentless power.
The creature barely flinched before swinging at him, he avoided the attack skillfully and got behind it.
Now holding the creature with a tight hug and incapacitating its upper limbs, he shouted.
"Eizo, get the kid."
Eizo ran past him before he fell to the ground. Looking down at his legs, he realized that they were gone.
"Huh?" The pain hadn't registered, but then he started screaming.
"Ahhhh!"
Looking at his partner, he was missing the upper half of his body, the creature was stained with blood.
Toad man could barely swallow his saliva, he'd seen everything that had just happened.
The boy's quirk had turned his head completely in a flash before taking a big bite out of Hakaru and taking Eizo's legs with a swing from his arms.
The monster stepped on Eizo's head before crushing it, successfully painting the ground a scarlet red.
Seeing the monster looking at him, he didn't think twice before running away with all his might.
The monster started chasing after him but stopped once it reached 100 meters of distance from his user.
Toad man looked back at the monster.
"I need to report this to the higher ups."
With that being said, he kept on running until his figure was no longer visible.
Back with Shinji, he was barely holding his consciousness.
'I wish those kids were brought to safety.'
His quirk reacted to his desires, it broke the second floor window and took the children out of the house.
The children trembled at the sight of such a creature, the only exception being the strange girl that kept looking at it as if she was in a trance.
"Take them to a safe place," he pleaded.
Just as his quirk took a hold of the children, he passed out.