CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Rio poked curiously at the skinsuit on his downed opponent's body. The material wasn't just reminiscent of flesh or a tactic to disgust opponents psychologically—it was made of actual flesh and blood. The familiar warmth of a body and the visible veins of the suit made for a creepy and distorted sight.
"The technology behind this is very crude but surprisingly sophisticated at the same time."
Since the advent of quirks, the world had been turned on its head. All kinds of strange abilities had popped up endlessly, but they couldn't curb the greed in people's hearts.
An ability with amazing and destructive potential like his Speed Force, All Might's One For All quirk, or Endeavor's Hellflame would be ideal. But for those with inferior abilities, they were limited in the number of things they could do. So the next best thing for them was to gain an extra quirk.
But quirks weren't something that could be easily grafted or extracted from a person's body. The quirk factor might manifest primarily in certain body parts, but those were just adaptations to display the quirk's abilities. It didn't mean that if someone chopped off Uraraka's fingers, they'd have a gravity-negating glove. All they'd get was a mangled mess of fingers.
It was tied more closely to a person's physiology, down to the genetic level. So the fact that the Donati family was able to replicate and manifest another quirk was an incredible feat.
At the same time, though, it was very crude. From what Rio had observed, instead of isolating the quirk factors, they had just roughly merged living humans together into a suit. Instead of calling it quirk multiplication technology, it was more accurate to call it a chimera fused with a user.
"These bastards are using people as equipment."
Rio looked at the bodysuit with pity. These people were technically alive, but it was a state worse than death. From the configuration, the bodysuit relied on nutrients from the host to survive. If it was taken off, they'd die in a few minutes. Rio even doubted that any form of consciousness still existed in these things.
Ash hobbled over slowly, leaning on a broken piece of wood as he stared deeply—with a sense of foreboding—at the enforcer.
"What's on your mind?" Rio asked as he turned to Ash.
"Nothing… I just hope I'm wrong about this," Ash said, his face growing increasingly grim. His expression changed in an instant and he screamed, "GET BACK!"
ROAR
Ash and Rio stepped back as a deep roar of pain bellowed out from the enforcer's mouth. He squirmed in untold agony as foam poured from his mouth, with only the whites of his eyes visible.
The flesh suit on his body pulsed chaotically as the face on its chest screamed in unison—a toothless and pupil-less face twisted in pain. It was a truly disorienting sight.
The enforcer's cries grew more frantic as the veins and capillaries on the flesh suit widened and pierced deeper into the man's skin.
He thrashed and howled, rolling across the floor in relentless torment. The sound stretched on for minutes, and just when it seemed it might never end, it slowly faded... until it stopped entirely.
"He's dead," Ash said with a note of finality as he took his hands off the enforcer's wrist. He closed the man's eyes and stood up solemnly, as if announcing farewell to this troublesome enemy.
"Today keeps getting more fucked up by the second," Ash muttered in frustration, running his hands through his hair.
"Where's Gideon? I need to talk to him," Rio said with determination as he stared straight into Ash's eyes.
"I thought I told you earlier. He's at a café down in Via dei Tribunali. He said he's meeting with someone who can sort out this entire mess."
"We need to go see him now!" Rio said as he started making his way outside. "I did some snooping around earlier, so I think I understand what's going on here. I need his input to verify my hypothesis."
"As you can see, I'm not in the best condition to be walking around right now. It's not like we can call an Uber or something, now can we?" Ash said sarcastically.
Rio pursed his lips for a while, and then, as if he had thought of something, gave off a big smile.
"Don't worry. I'll get us both there."
Ash's face twisted in horror. "You wouldn't dar—"
With a crackling surge of air and a sudden blur, Rio and Ash appeared at the edge of Via dei Tribunali, the cobbled street momentarily whipped by the winds of their arrival. Ash dangled unceremoniously in Rio's arms—princess style, his feet dangling close to the floor. A child carrying an adult man would have made for an amusing sight to any onlookers watching them.
Ash scowled in embarrassment. "We will never speak of this again."
"Sure thing, princess," Rio said, smirking. He was really enjoying the arrogant man's embarrassment now.
The amusement hadn't had time to sink in when Rio looked up… and then dropped Ash from his arms unceremoniously.
"Seriously, kid, you're starting to get on my nerves. I ought to te—" Ash said in annoyance as he nursed his injured legs, which had just made rough contact with the ground.
"Look up, man. Is that the café you were talking about?"
"Huh? What do you mean, is that the—holy shit, what happened?"
They were looking at the café—or rather, what was left of it—as it came into view. The place was gone. Burned out from the inside, its windows blown apart, brick and timber scattered across the road. Smoke curled upward as some brave onlookers rushed forward with buckets to put out the fire, while others stayed behind, filming the scene on their phones and gawking. The wail of sirens echoed in the background. Any minute now, the police and fire department would be at the scene.
"Do you think he was still in there? Is he still alive?" Rio asked in shock.
Ash blinked slowly, and then shook his head. "No. No way. While it would have been amusing to see him suffer a bit the bastard is much more durable than you might think, this much damage wouldn't be enough to take him out."
"So he's in trouble then?"
"Not if we get to him first," Ash said with an air of finality in his voice as something dangerous flashed in his eyes.
Without another word, Ash lowered himself to the ground, grimacing as he pressed both palms flat against the cobblestones. A soft white glow erupted from his hands and rippled outward in a visible wave, passing over the stones like a low fog. People nearby didn't notice it—it seemed like something only he could see. It was very fast, too fast to be captured by the naked eye.
Ash stayed frozen like that for a few seconds, his eyes fluttering faintly.
Then he stood up with effort, leaning on the splintered chair leg he'd fashioned into a walking stick. "This way."
Rio fell into step behind him as they ducked into a narrow alley. Ash stopped every few meters, pausing to press his hands to the ground again. Each time, the white wave pulsed outward and then faded. Rio was curious how that worked, but he didn't ask—content to just follow behind Ash slowly.
The alleys narrowed as they moved deeper into the underbelly of the city. The noises from people's activity faded as they slipped in deeper, passing through clotheslines, broken tiles, graffiti-stained walls, and the occasional stray cat.
Then finally, after what felt like an endless sequence of corners—
"Over here."
Gideon was slumped against a wall, his chest heaving as he breathed heavily. His right arm was bleeding badly, and his coat was scorched into a mess. He smelled like soot, but he was alive.
"Well," he rasped, "I keep ending up in sticky situations since I returned to Italy. Is this some kind of sign?" Gideon said with a grin.
Ash dropped into a crouch beside him. "What happened out there? I thought you were a goner."
Gideon didn't answer immediately. He just looked at the two of them for a moment, hesitantly, as if weighing how much to say. Finally, he shook his head.
"It's worse than I thought. I thought it was because we'd been messing around, playing both sides, but now it's like the entire city is rejecting us."
He gestured back to the ruins of the café. "They're not letting outsiders like us mix into their world anymore."
Rio's face darkened as he interrupted. "This doesn't have anything to do with being 'outsiders.' You guys are being used for some kind of demonstration."
Ash turned to face Rio. "Rio, what do you mean by that?"
"Think about it. This has been a systematic blockade. Government officials have gotten involved in the suppression. I don't think whatever petty dealings you've had with the Donati family before warrant this level of interest."
Ash stiffened.
His mind began racing, pieces clicking into place like an unseen puzzle he'd been working on since they arrived. The attack at sea. The radio broadcast denouncing them as dangerous terrorists. The attack at the Pineapple Lounge—even though everyone knew that was mutual ground. The overkill responses. The feeling of being watched. The way the Donati enforcers had started pushing them harder with their disgusting new gear and experimental tactics… wait.
"Don't tell me," he muttered aloud, his eyes distant.
"Are they using us to test their weapons?" Gideon muttered in disbelief.
"They're using us," Ash said through gritted teeth. "To see what their new tools can do. To collect data. We're being used as goddamned guinea pigs."
"But why? Why exactly does the Donati family have it out so badly for Black Vellum?" Gideon asked in confusion.
"Have you guys heard about the Golini family?"
Author's note: So, on Thursday my laptop fell into a puddle of water. It would have been fine but smooth brained me thought it would be best to remove everything (the battery and stuff) so it won't get wet. Long story short I kind of broke the SSD and now my battery is fucked up but Hey I'm back... again.