On the Hunt (Open)

It was getting dark out on the streets of Tokyo, with only the various street lamps and shop fronts providing any sort of illumination. Despite the relative safety of these areas, there was always going to be a hint of crime. Young thugs looking to make an easy bundle of cash, often singling out the weak and undefended. Like a certain young woman who had decided to stray from the main roads to turn into some service alleyways, clearly a sign of trouble for any would be heroes passing nearby.

It was darker here, with flickering, failing or smashed lights barely able to illuminate what was about to go down. The target in question was clearly lacking in street smarts, she was wandering directly towards a known gang hideout situated in an abandoned series of warehouses. Despite how dilapidated they seemed, they made for a secure location for the dregs of society to congregate in relative peace. Most had a variety of useful quirks that kept the lower tier heroes from bothering them, and the big boys often had something more substantial to deal with.

The dim lights shone over the young woman and her rather revealing flowy outfit, a nice shade of red that seemed to hang off her body like it was specifically made for her. While she didn't seem to be carrying a bag, there was bound to be a phone or card-holder hidden away somewhere, all the young men following her needed to do was find them. "Stop right there girly, this here is Red Tooth territory" The larger of the three spoke, taking the lead in their little heist. In surprise the girl seemed to turn and back away instinctively, finding herself trapped against a bare concrete wall at a dead end in the alley.

"You wanna get out, you pay the toll. Got it?" He raised a hand, pointing at her like a child pretending to be holding a gun, though the metallic sheen that overtook his skin seemed to indicate it was an ability of his. "So, what's it gonna be? Think quick, you make a move and you're dead" The other two drew weapons of their own, makeshift shivs at best, but by now they had the girl cornered, unless there was someone willing to lend a hand.

"Tsk. lowly scum, couldn't even pass the academy exam, let alone use their unique quirks for the name of Evil...How dare you call yourselves anything above parasites." Spoke a view as a female stood a few feet behind the line of men standing at a height of 5,5, with the assistance of her thigh-high white boots with a black sole. A short white skirt length coat lined her thin body with black frills at the end. Her left hand resting on her hip as her right held a crystal blue blade. Her Ice blue eyes glowed piercing through the darkness as her knee-length snow-white hair slowed gently in a ponytail leaning to the left side of her body. the ground around her began to freeze over as the temperature began to drop. "Now drop your blades and surrender peacefully."She declared in a serious tone raising the blade up pointing towards the men "You there, Find someplace to hide if you don't want to be harmed on accident"She spoke to the girl in the same cold tone, not playing around.

The thugs looked back at the girl with the ice powers, while the largest of the three just smirked "Shouldn't have gone with a warning, you just cost this girl her life" There was a resounding crack as the man fired some form of projectile from his finger, hitting his victim directly in the forehead. The girl slumped back against the wall, crimson flowing from the wound to pool around her as she slid down. It seemed this hero had come across some bad men here, and they all turned on the spot ready to clear up any witnesses before claiming whatever goodies they happened to be carrying.

Amaya would probably feel a pang of dread, not for the poor victim opposite but the fact she was pulling herself from the ground with a manic smile on her face. The soft flowing dress she was wearing seemed to clamp down against her body, growing into more a chitin plate than whatever fibers it looked to be made of. She would hardly have a moment to warn the girl's attacks what was coming as the woman's right hand transformed into a wickedly sharp blade and her left into a hidous claw as she closed the distance almost immediately. It was over in moments, with the thugs barely recognizing they were under attack before their bodies began falling to pieces.

Her blade ripped through flesh like it was nothing, cleaving the one to the left literally in half before claiming the primary villain's gun-hand with another swift swipe of her arm. The third was dispatched just as quickly, the clawed arm leaving deep gouges in his chest and stomach as he keels over to bleed out. "Where are the rest of your friends? There must be more than this" She hissed, the 'leader' in shock as he looked at the stump of a hand before the girl brought him to his knees with some surprising strength, grasping his head in her taloned hand, slowly crushing the man's skull between her fingers. She paid no heed to the young girl behind her, too busy tormenting her latest playthings. Despite being covered in blood and gore, the liquid seemed to be seeping into her armoured body, as if it was absorbing it.

Amaya watched keeping an unmoved face at the sight even though seeing the light of a person's life dim to darkness did unshoveled the girl mentally. She could prepare for every death situation but nothing will ever prepare for the real thing. She brought her free hand to her blade moving it down and out to her side leaning forward a bit "Now you have decided which path I am to walk."She spoke allowing her calm demeanor change to a cold killer feel as the air rapidly began to freeze.

She bent her knees about to charge before she saw movement behind them causing her eyes to widen. The girl's body..It was moving. There is no way something like that could ever happen especially with a bullet to the head. her pupils shrunk seeing the gore feast of three grown thugs getting torn to shreds by a once unarmed helpless girl that somehow had a living clothing like quirk that was absorbing the blood. Amaya lightly pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming. This shit only happened in horror movies but here the second year student was watching the monster in front destroy three men in a near instant

"Holy fuck..."She whispered to herself. Her brain said to back up when not seen but her body, her soul shot her forwards charging towards the parasite. Amaya had no clue why she was attacking but every ounce of her body and soul said this girl needed to be slain, she will destroy the world otherwise.

The man did his best to try and escape the young woman's grasp, striking her armour with his stump wrist and even managing to use his remaining hand to fire off a few rounds that harmlessly ricocheted off the deep red carapace that armoured the girl. "Out of time" Were the last words she would speak to the man, who let out an inhuman wail of pain as his skull was crushed under the pressure of her grip. He fell limp to the side, the contents of his head spilling across the ground as Suzume stood up straight. Her armour seemed to be clean now, despite the gore she had spread across the alleyway. Even the bladed talons that had crushed the thug at her feet were sparkling clean, having lost none of their sharpness.

While Amaya finally plucked up the courage to act, she might choose to reconsider choosing to fight as the monster before her turned her head, locking their gaze. There was something obviously wrong with her, she could tell just by looking at her actions, though there was something in that glare that was unnerving. It was like meeting a true apex predator in the wild, the feeling of danger that comes with being considered prey by a woman who seemed entirely capable of tearing apart her fellow man.

"Mmmm, fresh meat" Her visage twisted into a smile even as the would-be hero decided to rush forward to attack. Suzume moved with incredible speed befitting of her agile frame, twisting on the spot to meet the girl head on, the twisted armour coating her left hand outstretched, ready to grab her at a moments notice. There would be no second chances in this fight, and it remained to be seen if Amaya was ready to step outside the Academy into the real world.

"Here goes nothing." She said during her dash waiting till the bear last moment before ducking into a sliding dash bring her blade of ice up grazing the surface of the women's arm as she passed underneath. Amaya turned midway through her slide facing the woman. Her trail of ice spread much like the small ice that had latched on top the woman.

"Don't stop...Keep pushing."She spoke to herself getting in a kneeling position raiding her blade, tip pointing at the ground before slamming it against the frozen ground. The blade scattered as it was pushed down but large spikes came up and out towards suzume in quick succession gaining height and volume the farther the wave moved soon taking up the entire alley.

It seemed to begin with the girl was just quick enough to dodge more straightforward attacks, though even if Amaya managed to avoid being grabbed by the talons on Suzume's claw, the counterattack practically bounced off her carapace armour uselessly. It seemed as the battle continued that it covered more of her body in a form fitting segmented suit of armour. It was not slowing her down at least, but seemed like it was going to be difficult to crack through. With the hero in training managing to counter-attack with her ice powers, Suzume would simply attack head on, the claw digging into the ground to help her turn and dart forwards to Amaya's new location.

The moving waves of ice spikes were hardly an obstacle for the agile villain, who leaped at just the right time to clear the forward facing ice spears to follow up directly down the ramp towards her target. Each step cracking through the frozen ramp to keep grip, more spikes forming upon the soles of her armour coated feet. This allowed her to close the distance once more, only she would lash out with her bladed right arm with a strangely wide swing, well out of range for this attack. At least she would have been if the sharp edge along her wrist didn't break of to form the tip of a bladed whip at the end of a braided cord of material the rest of her suit was made of. It snapped forwards, ready to gouge whatever she hit. Should the first swing miss, the follow up would twist about aiming to snag a limb to keep her victim in place.

Amaya Smirked see the ice continue to grow while Suzume got closer to her. "Keep going."She said to herself. She stood up seeing Suzume clear her wave of ice spikes. Amaya didn't move from her spot letting the crazed assassin bomb rush her. She bent her knees slightly before swinging her left-hand upbringing a wall of ice in front of her expecting to see a blade slice through it. She jumped back, allowing her heels to slide across the formed ice only to see a tip of a bladed whip slice into the ice wall "Thank god."She said to herself before deciding to go on the offensive. She just needed to get in a few good hits. That is all she needed. She placed her palms together before pulling them apart forming a blade of ice once again.

She took a deep breath holding the blade in front of her with both hands before darting from the left side of the wall of ice. She fired some ice in front of her in a ramp of sorts, allowing her to get a bit of air coming down at Suzume. She pulled her blade back before making a quick session of jabs towards the assassin once she got close. She soon changed up her gabs into swings making them small and precise trying to strike whatever part of the armor she could. She just needed her ice to spread to slow the girl down.

Suzume didn't seem to be slowed in the slightest as the ice spread, the spikes along her feet was more than enough to provide a stable footing for her. She didn't even seem particularly phased that the girl managed to form a wall to block the whip and instead decided to jump at her in an attempted to stab through the armoured carapace that covered her body. Though Amaya couldn't see it, Parasite was grinning underneath the helmet that covered her face. The jabs actually managed to break through the armour, at least that's what she might think but it seemed that this villain wasn't concerned about her own health so long as she got what she wanted.

She twisted with the strike, allowing it to gouge into her side while letting the girl get too close to escape. Suzume was fast after all, much faster than the hero in training had seen so far in fact. And in an instant the cold talons of her left hand were holding her wrist, digging into her skin. "Game over little hero" She cooed, drawing her right arm back ready to impale the girl so she could finish her snack in peace. It wasn't looking good for Amaya and there was a moment where could almost foresee her end.

Until that is she felt a hand on her shoulder while the grip from Parasite seemed grasp nothing but air and the blade that should have been lodged squarely though her chest had passed through like she wasn't there. A calm voice spoke from behind "Your quirk won't work for now, I'm going to have to ask you to trust me" Her saviour was none other than Phantasm, a rather reclusive hero and member of Nextwave.

Suzume was confused for a moment, she couldn't touch either of them for some reason but they were not moving. In a fit of anger she lashed out only for Aoi to swap her targets, for just a moment moving to make the villain her focus, making her intangible for just a moment while guiding her momentum through into the wall of the alley before stepping free to leave her there, stuck. Her torso had vanished inside as she squirmed and kicked, not dead but very much stuck. With the target captured, it gave Phantasm jut a moment to speak to the girl. "What on Earth were you thinking?"

Amaya watch her strikes stab into the villain as to her this was strange and something didnt feel right having someone like this just allow her strikes to hit them without so much of Yelp or sound of feeling pain. Was this villain toying with? No, something was off about that armor and just the woman in general.

She gasp feeling the talons of the woman dig into her wrist stopping her attack and for a brief moment Anaya knew she fucked up. She expected to feel some sort of pain then death's embrace but a voice spoke from out of nowhere as she felt a light pressure on her shoulder before her wrist becoming free of the talons. She looked over her shoulder as she and the new hero swapped places. Amaya took out her hairtue wrapping it around her wrist to cover any bleeding while she watched the hero at work watching the villain try striking at phantasm but seeming to do no damage.

She was amazed to see the villain taken down so quickly without much of a fight compared to her own with the said villain. "Originally I wasnt going to interfering as before knowing that she was a villain she had a rather revealing outfit walking in gang territory. I was actually here to go see a old friend and was passing by seeing her kinda cornered. She wasnt armed but the once men were "she said.

Aoi was mostly just lucky, her quirk was certainly not meant to be used in the front lines like this, but when she had an opponent so hellbent on killing with little strategy behind her actions it became a lot easier to de-escalate by giving them some time in the wall to calm down. Not that Suzume had calmed down in the least, she could hear scratching from the inside of the building. "I see, so there were others? What happened to them?" The older hero pulled out a rather slick looking tablet, as expected from a member of Nextwave, and put out a call for assistance. She recognized the attacker at least, and she was far too dangerous to contain alone. Even if it would probably be a kindness to just put her down, heroes didn't have the luxury of deciding who lives and who dies.

"I can commend you on being concerned for the community, but you must be more careful in the future." with the immediate threat dealt with for now, Aoi decided they had enough time to talk through the situation. "Backup should be arriving shortly, you're lucky I arrived when I did. That right there is Suzume Midokawa. Classified as a hero killer." She turned the tablet around to show off what information they had. The profile itself was rather short, but the number of suspected kills was rather astounding.

"Um uh...they are over there...Or what is left of them...That suit of hers was something else."She said looking towards where the villain was raging trying to get at the two of them. She reached into her pocket pulling out a handkerchief. She listened to Phantom speak while wrapping her wrist, knowing her minor injury wasn't anything to be worried about right now as right now she needed to take this learning experience as she figured if this villain was caught and taken to Tartarus prison that she was probably going to see parasite again. Amaya looked at the tablet remembering the information her eyes read about Suzume "Kinda sad to see a quirk like this just devour the possible human it came from."She said gently "Will she be taken to Tartarus?"She asked while she continued to read the tablet.

"They are connected, from what I've read she is semi-conscious most of the time, more of a passenger though" Aoi shrugged, looking over to see the grisly display left behind of the men that had been torn to shreds by the villain behind her. "That's unfortunate... you might need to hang around for the authorities, they might want a statement" The woman drew her tablet back and went about reporting everything to the relevant authorities. "It is sad, I don't think I've seen any other quirk quite like it which hopefully means it's rare enough to not cause issues..." She tapped her chin thoughtfully at the follow-up question. "Well, that would be the safest place for all involved, though I think it would be more useful to be able to study her. Perhaps there is a way to bring her back. Despite her actions so far, it is clear that she doesn't have control over them. Condemning her to Tartarus could be overkill" It seemed like she was suggesting taking the villain back to Nextwave headquarters, they certainly had the tech in place to contain such a creature, how ethical it was to do research on her was another matter.

"it seemed so in her existing to well feed it. Like even if most of her control of it is gone, she kinda seemed like having a quirk like that, that consume living things and flesh of others...needs her still somewhat mentally there to well exist."She said before sighing "I don't think it is best for her to be at some hero agency. You have to understand Tartarus was made to contain those like her so she can be contained and they can work on rehabilitation and families of those she killed can find peace knowing she isn't going to take anyone else. I am not saying you guys couldn't handle her but it is very dangerous either way if she isn't completely contained" she said