68 Waiting in Ambush
He knelt there, the cold stone covered in long-since-dried blood.
His face was missing eyes, and dried blood caked his cheeks running from the empty voids. The body was limp, still... broken.
The wrists were peeled back, the skin long since dragged away from the flesh by the pulling of the manacles that he hung from, barely able to kneel on the floor, shoulders worn and stretched, sagged allowing the figure to kneel after what must have been years of hanging. It was brutal…
It was… tragic.
Nick felt nausea well up in his chest. He had burnt people and turned others into gore but never had he made someone suffer like this. The faint beep of machines indicated that a heartbeat was… still there. Barely. Forced to cling to life by the machines that kept his body functioning.
The IV drip in his arm was held by fresh tape. They were keeping him alive.
The secret to how the city was hidden all this time. The sovereign had started to spill everything once Nick let the crowds flow out of the arena. He had made him talk about the city, about how it was hidden and standing.
The latter was simple, it was standing because of the quirks of whatever bugs had built this place. They had been able to harden stone to support tunnels that would not have been possible otherwise. They had simply used that stone and sand to make this tower. Because he had wanted to be a god.
And now he was a god that knelt and begged like a coward.
The city had been hidden to avoid attention from the rest of the world, this city had started as the community that is from All for One but it had grown ever since he had started to leave it alone. It was something of a backup plan to him. Maybe to flood the world with bugs or something if things started to go terribly wrong… that didn't sound like something All for One would do, however.
Walking forward Nick watched the figure, there wasn't even any movement. Whoever this was had been broken so badly that they were barely alive, their mind was probably all but gone by now.
They were the secret to hiding, their quirk. Notice me not as the Sovereign had called it. A quirk to himself or any building that he was in. The entire city on the old ant nest counted as a building so the entire city was being shielded from sight by this one man chained in its depths.
He hadn't even been asked to stay, when the previous Sovereign had found him he had simply dragged the man back beaten and broken.
And he had been chained here since. Barely alive… somehow forced to live through death by sick machinery and a messed up quirk.
Since he couldn't hide something so big entirely the view had simply been shielded the higher you got. The stricter the conditions for hiding something the was the bigger the hidden object could be.
Walking forward he put his hand on the shoulder of the man, not even getting a response still. He had a quirk lingering in his body, one that helped people stay alive. Probably something similar to Kyudai's quirk… it was messed up though.
He couldn't heal this man, the damage to his mind was simply too much to heal, and even then if he could the man would live the rest of his life with indescribable trauma. No, leaving him alive was cruel… it would be better this way, for him.
With a single thought, Nick unwound and released the thread holding him to the world. Letting the man die.
Hearing the dull high pitch tone of the heart monitor fill the room Nick simply stared at the corpse for a moment longer. Taking a sample of the quirk before he filled the entire room with fire. The waves of golden flames turning everything in it to ash as he walked out. His face was cold…
---
Shigaraki felt a chill down his spine. Despite the warm breeze, he felt something was wrong.
Something was wrong…
Nick was close. Time was running out. His face grew grim as the slapping of the waves against the edge of the boat interrupted the rhythmic hum of the engine rattling in his mind along with the silent buzz. The scratching of his neck sent shredding sounds bouncing around his skull.
He would not fail when he was so close to success. No, he would force this world into fire and rubble.
"What is wrong brother." A deep voice spoke from behind him. A man walked to where he stood, the small boat was barely big enough for the five crew members. The rickety metal frame sounded like it would fall apart at any time.
"He will find us soon…" Shigaraki said, his voice low, looking towards one of their members. The fail-safe for when Nick did find them. The man's hair was fluttering in the wind, greys now prominent around his ears from both stress and age. His eyes fixed in the distance clouded with eager hope that shadowed the doubt that lingered in his mind.
"Is he who I think he is? Ni-" The man started to say but a glare from Shigaraki silenced him.
"We have spoken about this, we do not say that name… not around the rest." His words were soft, barely audible over the rushing wind.
Turning he saw their destination. A solid concrete pipe that had a diameter of 10 meters, would have to be big enough. It came out from under the stone of the shore and just above the ocean to rest on a beach. Whatever gunk had once flowed out of it was now dry and baked to the stone…
"We are almost there, Mario, do you think that you can do it?" His voice was low, a shimmer of threat in his tone.
"I-I can try sir… but I have n-never done one that b-big and that far." His stutter was dragged out by either a speech impediment or nerves. His thick moustache was frosted in the salty spray from the ocean.
"We will make it work… we don't have much time. So be as quick as you can. Our dreams will soon come true." Shigaraki said, a crazed tone seeping into his voice. The eyes of the four members behind him steeled with determination.
Sitting on the back of the boat an old lady tilted her head to the side. This disciple of All for One was much more her speed than All for One himself, she liked the madness. Cracking a grin that split into a horrid toothy smile beneath her cowl she watched…
She had watched for a long, long time.
---
Running from the city Nick propelled himself into the air using fire. They were close, maybe a few minutes travel with his speed. They had left about a day before he got there. They had taken a boat and The Sovereigns's main adviser had gone with them.
Travelling with Shigaraki for whatever purpose she had but he suspected she might have been an acquaintance of All for One.
Flying through the air at breakneck speeds Nick scanned the surface along the shoreline, he didn't know where they were heading but he would prefer to find it quickly.
And it didn't take long for him to find something. Slamming into the ground in front of a giant concrete pipe he saw that there was no one inside. Sending a heat ray down the centre he watched as the concrete cracked from the exposure to heat, the lingering moister gone in a moment.
The beam of light only lasted for an instant but it was enough time for Nick to see inside the illuminated pipe. Standing on the rim he walked a few steps forward. The smouldering junk on the floor from the rays of heat sent wisps of smoke into the air that caught the light from the entrance. His back to the beach he grinned.
They had been hearing. A boat was pulled inside…
A small camp had been set up. They were going to come back here soon.
Tilting his head he wandered a few steps further listening to the echo of his feet. This pipe was massive, it didn't make sense why they had camped here. Bugs may have made their home inside unless they weren't worried about them for some reason? Or they needed it for something.
They must have left to find something maybe? Or had continued on foot? No that made no sense. They wouldn't have travelled by foot when they had a boat. They were going to come back. He would wait for now, if they were not back by midnight he would search for them manually… he really wished he could merge with the search quirk but he hadn't had time to try to overcome his limit.
Merging with the floor he spread his nerves through the entire pipe. Fixing the damage that his ray had caused. Turning everything back to as it was before he got here. Closing his eyes he felt the air through the thin strands. He would wait for them. He would be patient.
A hunter waiting in ambush for their prey.
=======
Another chapter! Thanks for all the support for the people still reading! Probably finishing up the Australia arc soon and getting him back to Japan.
Reviews and Comments are always welcome, I would love to hear how I am doing!
