Off the Premises (Nick + Sean)

Nick at first did not realise the call of ‘hey’ was directed at him, too focused on getting out of this godforsaken, people-infested hellhole. It only dawned on him that it was as he caught sight of the waving figure who stood out from the sea of faces simply because he recognised them.

Jesus Christ on a cracker. Thinking about his foolish classmates was apparently all it took to summon them.

He had not spoken to everyone in his class – pretty much no one aside from Rin and Jasmine, in fact – but he watched. He listened. This young man he knew to have some kind of water-based Quirk, though not how it worked or the extent of his power. Or his name, however the Quirk was the main thing on Nick’s mind. It would be idiotic to pass up an opportunity to learn more about him and his abilities, Nick knew even his current mood.

So, he stopped and allowed the other student to approach him.

“Hello,” he replied. “You’re from 1-A too, aren’t you? I’m Nick.”

He resisted a grimace, not at the other student but at their location. He really did despise crowds with every fibre of his being. If this other student was not going to leave him alone easily, then he was going to have to think of somewhere else for them to go, or at least find a quieter part of the mall.

It was almost as though Sean had read Nick’s mind. Nick tried not to let his lack of enthusiasm for socialising show. He kept his expression neutral as he glanced around the increasingly full mall, attempting to think of where they could go.

“Well, it’s probably best we get out of here,” he said at last. “Never been fond of places like this. And I’ve got everything I came for.” He raised his bags to demonstrate. “I trust you have, too.”

He set off, forcing his way through the currents of bodies with little regard for the people in his way. He left the mall behind and emerged into the thankfully somewhat less overcrowded street. Now where? Well, if this other student truly did have a water-related Quirk, then the best place to go and test that would be somewhere with water.

He knew there to be a small park with a pond nearby, so he made for it. The park was nowhere near the scale of the Tokyo Park, being much calmer and more personal. There were few people around, a stark contrast to the mall. The few that were there kept to themselves, chatting and walking dogs. He glimpsed the pond only a few metres ahead with no one around it.

“Here’s fine,” he said, turning to Sean. He gestured to the pond. “I want to see what you can do. You have a water Quirk, that much I know. Let’s try not to overdo it and draw too much attention, though.”

Nick watched Sean demonstrate his Quirk with enough interest to make him forget all about the park and the risk of being caught. Sean may have purposefully held back the true scale of his power, but Nick got the gist of it. Sean could manipulate water using available sources, plain and simple. He made a mental note of how Sean had moved and how the water had responded to him. His mother and the rest of the Gifted Underground would be eager to know this, just as he had told them about Miku and her Quirk.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he almost missed Sean asking him about his own power, which resulted in him blinking for a second like a blithering idiot. “My Quirk?”

He almost asked how Sean had not seen it back during their rescue operations class, but then again he really did not want to reminisce about that. He had overdone it with his Quirk and let himself stagger out of there in a humiliatingly weakened state. With that in mind, perhaps it was a good thing if Sean had not paid any attention to him when he had left the building, because it hopefully meant the rest of his class would not have, either.

“It’s not exactly something I could show off in public. At least, not easily.” And how he lamented this fact. Damn the Quirkless and their suppression of Quirks. He wished so much to be able to revel in his other form and the power it awarded him whenever he wanted, but alas, he could not.

“It’s a transformation triggered by a growth on my back,” he continued. “I spawn a layer of biological armour that makes me stronger and faster. Definitely not a power to be messed with.” He could not help smirking as he added that.

The smirk wavered slightly as he noticed a pair of rough-looking men lumbering towards them from behind Sean. “You might want to turn around…”

Perhaps he would get to demonstrate his Quirk after all.

Nick knew a threat when he saw one. The two dishevelled men lumbering towards them were clearly on something from how bloodshot their eyes were, the lack of cartilage between their noses and their rancid, rotten grimaces. Likely they came to this park to shoot up; it was quiet and out of the way. That and only someone high out of their mind would be stupid enough to attack two Quirk users in broad daylight, right after one of them had just demonstrated his Quirk involved using the body of water he was stood directly beside.

“Can we help you, gentlemen?” Nick asked with not a hint of friendliness.

“We saw that shit!” howled one of the addicts, pointing a withered finger at Sean.

“You goddamn mutant freaks!” barked the other. “You think you can just show off your stupid powers whenever you want, huh? You think you own the place?”

He did not even wait for an answer before he pulled a knife from the inside of his tattered jacket and came swinging. Nick hurriedly dived out of the way and not a moment too soon.

“School prohibits the use of our Quirks off the premises,” he called to Sean. “I don’t believe they have a problem with us using them in self-defence, however. Let’s send a message here!”

That message being do not even attempt it, Quirkless scum. The disc on his back bulged out and black, sludgy flesh spewed from its centre, consuming his body and solidifying into his terrifying armour. Watching the colour drain from the two addicts was beyond satisfying.

“Yes,” Nick declared as he ran for the nearest one, leaving the other for Sean. “You have fucked up!”

Nick, meanwhile, seized the other worthless scumbag by the collar with one hand and curled the other into a fist. Wham. He punched him square in the middle of the face and let go at the same time. The sheer force of his blow sent the man reeling back and he stumbled onto his ass.

Nick approached him slowly and menacingly, relishing in the raw power that emanated from him, eager to show it off and leave this piece of shit in a state he would never forget. No – he stopped. He had to remember not to go overboard. If he seriously injured this man even in self-defence then he put his future at Yuuei in jeopardy, which would mean failing the mission the Gifted Underground had set him.

Nick’s hesitation gave the thug time to scramble back onto his shaky feet, right as the other thug began to ditch him.

“Damn it, Daichi!” he snarled at his fleeing companion, though his voice contained more fear than anger. “You can’t leave me with these monsters!”

Nick’s shadow fell over him. He turned to face Nick with wide eyes and his lower jaw began to quiver.

“You made a mistake and you know it,” Nick said.

The much more cowardly thug did not resist as Nick wrestled him to the ground. Nick maintained his hold on him, but allowed his armour to revert back to its sludgy state and recede into the disc on his back, which shrank again.

“Hurry up and use your water to tie this guy,” he instructed Sean. “Ugh, this is going to be fun to explain to the authorities.”

He had gotten something good out of this, though: he had seen more of Sean’s power in action. He had even more juicy information for the Gifted Underground now. So, perhaps this had not been a waste of time at all.