Chapter 4

-[Ryota]-

Looking at the four men who attempted to appear threatening he held back a scoff.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked, only gaining mocking laughs in response.

"You don't know? Did we beat you up so bad that you can't remember?" One of them asked, seeming to be the leader.

The other three around him fit the description for lackeys perfectly.

'So they're the ones my predecessor fought.' He realized, scrutinizing them. 'They're not really strong.'

His main reason for coming outside was to find guinea pigs to test another aspect of his quirk on. He doubted that Ito would be happy if he experimented on their own members.

"Look at him, he can't even talk." Another one of them said in a mocking tone, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"You know, you came at just the right time." Ryota muttered loud enough for them to hear.

He observed them, noting their quirks from their physical appearance. The one who seemed to be the spokesman and leader had a widened jaw with visibly jagged teeth.

Another one of them had bat wings on his hands, the third man having a scorpion tail stretching from his back.

The last person who had yet to truly speak, a true background character, had porcupine spikes instead of hair.

"Are you crazy? Maybe you don't realize what is going on yet." The man with the scorpion tail said, taking a step closer to him.

"Maybe that blow to the head was harder than we thought." The one with the bay wings joked, getting a laugh from the rest of them.

Ryota volunteered a smile at their mockery. "Since you're volunteering, I see no reason to refuse." He said, his body tensing before rushing forward at surprising speed.

Within moments, he was beside their leader, a smirk on his face as his fist lashed out, sending him into the wall but still conscious.

"Hizashi!" One of them yelled in surprise before turning to Ryota. "Damn kid!"

Ryota ducked, dodging the scorpion tail that attempted to strike him. Quickly gaining balance, he kicked the tail away, disorienting its owner.

He smirked as he looked at the three of them who regarded him warily, guard up and ready to fight.

By manipulating his muscle density, he increased his strength to levels far higher than usual.

A surge of pain from his arm pulled him out of his thoughts as he looked back to see his arm caught and getting bitten by a large mouth of sharp teeth.

"Hizashii…" the men muttered in relief while Ryota frowned.

"You were still awake?" He wondered out loud, pushing past the pain as he looked at the man he thought was out for the count.

Before they could capitalize and continue their attack, spikes of bones skewered the large mouth from the inside.

One of the spikes pierced his brain, killing him instantly. "I wasn't careful enough." Ryota muttered regretfully, retracting the bony spikes as he pulled his hand out of the now free mouth.

The three men froze in surprise at the sudden death before snapping back to action.

"We'll kill you!" The porcupine man screamed, his spiky hair lengthening and shooting forward.

Just as it was about to skewer Ryota, his skin hardened, stopping it in its tracks and preventing injury.

Grinning, he grabbed one of the spikes, snapping it in a show of pure strength.

"Ahhh!" The porcupine man screamed in pain as his comrades rushed forward.

The man with the bat wings found a spike lodged in his wings while the scorpion man attempted to attack Ryota from behind.

His comrades' voice of pain slowed his reaction as a tail grew out of Ryota's back, immediately stabbing him through his stomach.

The young head of the yakuza then turned to the last man standing who attempted to pull back his porcupine hair. He was unsuccessful as Ryota had a hold on it.

"Please! Let me go! I'll do anything!" The man begged shamelessly.

"Anything?" Ryota echoed, walking up to him slowly as the man cowered.

Frantically nodding his head, the porcupine man spoke. "Of course! Anything!"

"Then tell me who sent you. I'll know if you're lying." Ryota warned, getting a nod from the man.

"It's the Matsuba gang. They want to start a war with the Kyodokai so they sent us to deal with you." The man revealed fearfully.

Ryota's brow arched a bit. "Why me specifically? Why not just outright attack us?"

"You're supposedly the easiest to rile up! If you were to start a fight that caused a war, they'd have enough reasons to attack with a few other gangs backing them up." The man explained before proceeding to spill their location as well, gaining a frown from Ryota.

"That's all I know! I swear I'm telling the truth!" The man added upon seeing the frown.

"I don't doubt it." Ryota said, his hand extending to touch the man's head.

Releasing his grip on the spikes, they retracted into the man's head as his body violently morphed at Ryota's command.

His attempt to struggle was unsuccessful as the change started, his appearance changing to look more monstrous.

A few touches to the brain ended his struggles as the transfiguration continued. By the time he was done, the man now possessed twice the muscle mass and a beastly body and face with spikes all over his back.

He didn't even qualify as human with how grotesque his overall appearance seemed.

Ryota frowned in dissatisfaction at that. 'Not bad for a first time but it could be better.'

Turning away from it, the beast stayed docile as Ryota moved the winged man who was pinned to the wall by the spike he threw earlier.

"Y-you're a m-monster! G-get away from me!" His fear gained a cruel smirk from Ryota who laid a hand on his chest, starting another round of transformation.

The human features violently morphed, giving way to a more monstrous physique as the man was forcibly transformed into what could only be described as a bat demon from hell.

The scorpion tailed man who was at death's door offered no resistance as he was morphed into a man sized humanoid scorpion with a few more sets of legs.

He'd given their brains some adjustments so they were docile at the moment. With a frown, he looked at the man who he'd killed.

'I can't use him like this. Resurrection isn't within my capabilities.' He thought in regret before an idea came to mind.

Walking to the corpse, he placed his hand on it. Barely a few seconds later, the corpse seemed to shake and decompose into a black substance that was sucked into Ryota's palm.

"So it also works like this…" he muttered, as the last of the black substance was absorbed.

It only took a thought as that very substance emerged from his skin coating his hand in a solid layer in the shape of a large blade.

What he had done was absorb the man's biomass into his own body to be stored and used at his convenience. Just as he had brought it forth, the black substance sank back into his skin.

He then turned back to his experiments, a smirk on his face. 'Time for a field test.'