CH. 4: Gone Unconscious

Alex stared hard at the metal chair, an unsettling thought crossing his mind - if he could somehow steal this woman's teleportation quirk, it would give him a way to escape more easily. He know that currently he could barely access the few quirks he already possessed. Trying to forcibly take hers might only cause further damage to his deteriorating body.

Yet a part of him couldn't shake the selfish impulse. This woman had helped him, true, but she could just as easily be some criminal herself. Alex felt conflicted, quickly dismissing the notion of stealing a quirk. He needed to focus on more immediate concerns first.

Exhaling slowly, he stepped around to the back of the chair. The woman was half-engulfed in its metal confines, secured so tightly that only her head and part of her torso remained exposed. He leaned down, using his laser quirk to burn through the locks keeping the front portion clamped shut.

Smoke and a sizzling hiss filled the air as the first lock ruptured. Alex grunted through gritted teeth, sweat beading his brow from the strain of activating his quirk. His left hand hung limply at his side, blood still oozing from where he'd damaged it fending off the Nomus.

One by one, the locks burst apart until finally the front panel swung open with a creak. Alex moved around to face the woman properly - and felt his breath hitch in his throat.

Where her left leg should have been from the knee down, only spirals of inky black smoke and shadowy tendrils remained. It was like the very limb itself had been displaced, erased from existence. An stump remained at her thigh.

The sight triggered something deep in the recesses of Alex's mind. Fragmented images flickered across his vision - a young girl around 6 or 7 years old, her eyes wide with shock and pain as a grisly wound was located on her leg. He could almost hear the child's anguished cries echoing in his ears.

Shaking his head forcefully, Alex blinked until the phantoms dissipated and the forest came back into focus.

'Why I am getting flashes of my past now?'

Before he could dwell on it further, the woman shifted. Perhaps sensing his intense stare, she abruptly sprang away from her restraints with surprising agility. She wobbled, struggling to balance herself on one leg and her remaining arm.

"What are you doing?" Her tone dripped with a mixture of alarm and irritation as she eyed Alex warily.

Snapping out of his daze, Alex met her penetrating gaze. Up close, he could make out the delicate features of her face, those piercing blue eyes glaring back at him with suspicion.

"...I'm sorry," He murmured, unsure how to explain his behavior. "I just...remembered someone close to me. Someone in a similar situation."

The wariness on her expression didn't fade, but she said nothing as Alex continued. "My name is..... you can call me Nine if you prefer." He intentionally revealed his alias, not yet trusting her with his true identity.

The woman arched one slim eyebrow quizzically but made no comment about the name. Instead, her eyes drifted down to his freely-bleeding hand.

"Since our deal is over, I think we should go in our separate ways," She said after a prolonged silence, already turning to hop away awkwardly on her remaining leg. "Based on the place where we were imprisoned, we're likely in the outskirts of Jaku City."

Alex frowned as he watched her clumsy attempt at fleeing the area, uncertain whether to try and stop her or not. As risky as it seemed trusting this mysterious woman, he couldn't deny that her quirk is an invaluable asset - the power of teleportation could be the key to his survival.

If he wanted to grow stronger and search for a way back home, having an ally with such an ability by his side would be immensely helpful. Perhaps even necessary. He had to find some way to convince her to stay, at least for the time being.

"Hey, where are you going alone out here at night?" Alex called out, hurrying to catch up with her surprisingly swift movements. "Everything around us is forest and darkness. You're handicapped - you'll likely fall down and injure yourself further before you get anywhere!"

The woman huffed out an exasperated breath, ignoring his words as she kept determinedly hopping away through the thick underbrush.

"Ugh, I don't think that's any of your concern!" She shot back over her shoulder, anger lacing her tone. "Ahhh...fuck!"

The shout escaped her lips as her remaining foot caught on a twisted tree root, sending her forward to slam into the muddy soil. Alex winced as the resounding thud echoed through the still night air.

Leaves crunched underfoot as he swiftly closed the remaining distance between them. Looking down, he could see the woman had managed to land on a thorny patch, multiple sharp thorns piercing her exposed skin and drawing droplets of blood.

"I told you," Alex said with a resigned sigh, rubbing his temples wearily. "Look, you really think you can get out of this forest alone in the dark while handicapped? At least let me help you with that."

Seeing the woman's gritted defiance finally fade into resignation, Alex squatted down beside her and began carefully plucking the jagged thorns from her wounded skin. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, the woman staring at him wordlessly while he tended to her injury.

"You still didn't tell me what I should call you," He said at length, breaking the pervasive quiet without looking up from his task. "Anyway, why can't you just use your quirk to teleport yourself out of here? Wouldn't that be simpler?"

A long, slow exhalation of pent-up frustration escaped her lips. "I can't!" She hissed through gritted teeth. "That fucking monster didn't give me enough food. Unless I get a chance to restore my energy and sleep properly, I can't teleport more than a few feet without risking puking up blood from the strain on my body."

Alex could hear the edge of raw exhaustion in her words now. He lifted his gaze and their eyes met for a fleeting second before she quickly looked away.

"You can call me Vesper, I suppose." She muttered airily, obviously not her real name just like how he said his name as Nine for his own reasons. "And your hand is bleeding - I think you'll die if that continues much longer."

"Then we need to find some safe shelter first, to seal off the wounds." Alex furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before continuing. "How about another deal? I can't see any lights from the city through these trees blocking our view. So I'll help find us a place to spend the night in this forest, and in exchange you'll use your quirk to teleport us both back to the city once you've regained your strength."

Vesper hesitated, absently chewing on her lip while she mulled over the proposal. Eventually she gave a curt nod of agreement, grudgingly accepting his logic.

Saying nothing further, Alex reached out and gingerly draped Vesper's arm over his shoulder, pulling her upright. She wobbled slightly on her remaining leg, weight pressing warmly against his side as he supported her slender frame.

"Thanks for the help," She said begrudgingly. "But where exactly are we going to find shelter out here?"

A sudden chilly breeze rustled through the dense forest just as Alex opened his mouth to respond. Fat droplets of water began to splatter down through the canopy of leaves above, quickly intensifying into a steady downpour of rain. Thunder cracked ominously somewhere behind the swaying tree trunks.

"A cave or some kind of enclosed space would be best," Alex replied, looking around with a deep frown. "Anything small enough to get out of this rain and...Vesper?"

Turning his head, he found himself speaking to no one. The woman had vanished, her arm slipping off his shoulders in the split second his attention had been diverted.

"Damn it!" Alex swore under his breath, pivoting in a circle with slitted eyes trying to see in the enveloped darkness for any sign of her. "Where did she—?"

A dull metallic thud cut off his words abruptly, prompting him to look down. There on the forest floor lay a figure, the blue-haired woman on the ground motionless. Alex felt a spike of alarm jolt through his chest at the sight.

"What in the...?" he trailed off, crouching beside her. Reaching out, he gently shook her shoulder but got no response, that delicate face utterly lax. He pressed his fingers against her slender neck, feeling for signs of life.

To his relief, a faint fluttering pulse beat against his fingertips. She had merely passed out. Most likely the blood loss and strain exacted on her body had finally reached their limit.

Alex's own dizziness chose that exact moment to attack him, his skull throbbed as a wave of dizziness blurred his vision. He swayed woozily, battling the sensation even as his consciousness slowly slipped away from him as well.

Just before the world went dark completely, he felt his body collapse atop Vesper's. Then blissful sleep that his body deserved had swallowed him up.

Eventually, the sound of rainfall penetrated Alex's senseless ears, causing him to stir back into wakefulness. His entire body felt leaden and dull as he felt the throbbing in his head.

"...Ugh...what the..." He slurred groggily, eyelids fluttering open against the sting of freezing droplets battering his face. A brief disorienting moment passed where he couldn't make sense of his surroundings - as the dizziness cleared, he looked around only to found out that he was in room, it looked like a normal room in a normal house. His eyes landed on the heavy dust around him, the room was so dusty that he can smell it.