***
"So, this is kinda crazy, but I never knew your name, darling."
Max kept his eyes forward as he tried to ignore Vox's voice as they walked along the empty streets. But it seemed the more he tried to ignore her, the more she just kept talking.
"Max," He said flatly, hoping the answer would get her to keep quiet.
But he was wrong.
"Max! What a beautiful name darling." Vox beamed from beside him. "I'm sooo happy we get to go on a mission together, Maxyy?"
Max froze mid-step. Teeth clenched tight.
His head snapped towards her, eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare ever call me that name." He growled at her.
She blinked, her hands raised defensively. "Ohh touchy. But why not? It's cute."
"Just don't." He warned her once more.
"Fine, fine." She pouted, muttering under her breath. "It was cute though."
Max ignored her. He stared down at the crumpled piece of paper in his hands. His eyes went over the location of the group. His target.
His eyes travelled up to the building just ahead of him. The site matching its description.
They were deep on the outskirts of the Prefecture. Time had rotted the surrounding buildings, leaving crumbling holes big enough to see the people inside.
Max shifted his focus back to the warehouse. It was a simple warehouse. Oversized, rundown, and currently being guarded by two men out front, armed with sleek weapons that looked similar to guns but more advanced-looking.
'The Tenku syndicate.' Max recited the information in his head. A small-time syndicate run by Kyodai Shin, a brilliant inventor who traded custom arms for specialized drugs. He had defaulted on his arrangement and held back a shipment. Now, it was Max's job to…wipe them out.
Every single one of them. To send a message.
Max clenched his fists. There was no avoiding it. He had to kill.
They're criminals, he told himself as he kept walking. They brought this on themselves.
The guards immediately took notice of them.
"Hey! This is restricted property, turn back—"
"Shoot 'em down!" The one beside him screamed in terror, eyes fixed on Vox's innocent smiling face. That's Kazumi's Executioner! Vox!"
Their rifles snapped up at them, but Max was already in motion. Gold light bursting from his eyes, his legs strengthening.
He crossed the gap in a second, driving his fist into the first guard's stomach. The man doubled over, coughing up spit. Before the second guard could fire off a second shot, Max raised his left hand, his shield materializing. Bullet met solid metal, bouncing harmlessly.
"W-What—?!" The man stuttered.
Not allowing him to regain his composure, Max bashed his shield face-first into the man's jaw.
The man slumped down cold.
Max stood, panting slightly. 'The rest of the building should've been alerted by now.'
"Darling," Vox purred, stepping up beside him.
He glanced at her. He had briefly forgotten she was beside him with how quiet she had been.
"You remember the mission, right?" She tilted her head, her smile widening. "No one left alive. Don't tell me you're hesitating now?"
Max clenched his jaw. The mark on the back of his hand heated lightly, reminding him of the contract he signed.
His fingers slowly went up to the sword pendant around his neck. He clenched his right hand around it, then with a sharp tug, pulled it free. Golden light burst forth, manifesting his long sword in his hand.
Max's gaze dropped down to the guard, who had awoken sometime before, groaning in pain. His hand gripped the sword tight, knuckles whitening. Slowly, he levelled the sword's tip to the guard's chest.
Seeing the blade levelled to his chest, the guard's eyes widened with terror. "W…Wait, kid. Don't!" He weakly said.
Max stared straight into the criminal's panicked eyes.
He's a criminal. He's just a criminal.
"Die!" Moving with desperate speed, the guard snatched a pistol at his holster and pulled the trigger straight at Max's face point-blank.
The bullet bounced off Max's shield. Anticipating another attack, Max plunged his sword straight down the man's chest.
Max forced himself not to look away. He watched the guard choke on his own blood, the man's eyes dimming by the second, breathing slowly down by the second. And then…nothing.
Max witnessed the exact moment the guard had taken his last breath. The exact moment the light in his eyes…snuffed out.
The guard was dead.
Max has taken a life.
"Amazing, darling!" Vox squealed from beside him. "I knew you could do it!"
The words fell on deaf ears. His legs turned to jelly as he stumbled back, falling on the hard pavement. The movement caused the blade to rip out of the man's chest, blood dripping from the tips of his blade.
Max jerked his arm away, unsummoning the blade so he wouldn't have to stare at the blood.
"I…I—"
Bile rose up from his stomach. Collapsing on his arms and knee, he threw up right there on the pavement.
"Woah! Let's hold off on puking now," Vox said, dropping beside him. She grabbed his shoulder. "This isn't the best time to panic, darling. Our commotion has probably alerted the whole floor. And as much as I want to find out the taste of lead, I don't want to know. So snap out of it!"
Max blinked through teary eyes, his eyes focusing on her.
"There we go. Now as cute as you are now. We have a mission." She yanked him up to his feet.
Max nodded numbly, wiping the vomit from his mouth with his sleeve as the two entered the warehouse.
Golden brilliance flared from his eyes. Eyes of Truth seeing through the walls and pillars.
"T…Thirty enemies," Max muttered to Vox. "Ten on the second floor, twenty below. I'm taking the upper level."
The sheer number made Max cautious. He had no idea how many of them had quirks. What type of quirks did they have? Kazumi's instructions echoed in his mind: Think on your feet. Think of it like a test.
But it seemed the number didn't deter Vox as a large, psychotic grin stretched across her lips.
"Aww, darling! Leaving me with the bigger kill? You really know how to spoil a girl! You look way more handsome like this than throwing up over a kill."
Max clenched his jaw tightly. "Just move."
He turned on his steel, taking the flight of stares to the upper levels.
***
Vox watched Max sprint up the stairs to take care of the ten guards. A small smile bloomed on her face.
She had always found the boy intriguing from the first time Kazumi had sent her to capture him. She'd expected it was just another one of Kazumi's dealings that refused to honor a deal. But when she met him, the first thing that stood out to her were his eyes. Those eyes that shone with hidden hate and pure anger.
Since then, Vox didn't want to kill him. And now, having to work together with the boy was a gift she would cherish.o
Though, she'd have to teach him to endure one's first kill. Can't have him puking every time he kills somebody.
Vox turned her attention to the twenty men stationed across the room. They were scrambling to throw tarps over equipment and pack up the warehouse.
Unfortunately, they won't live long enough to finish it.
Blending through the shadows, Vox closed the distance to the nearest guard.
"Well hello, little thing." She purred right beside his ear.
The guard's eyes widened. His hands scrambled to raise the rifle as he swiveled on his heel. But before he could pull the trigger, Vox buried her hand in his gut.
The blow knocked the wind right out of him, launching his body as he crashed into a cluster of heavy cargo crates, kicking up dust.
Shouted orders rang across the floor, immediately, dozens of red lasers were levelled at her chest.
"Hands where we can see 'em! Who are you?!" One of them barked.
Vox didn't lift a finger. She just grinned, her mind briefly going back to Max before fixing back on her targets.
'Let's clear the room of these things first.'
She dashed forward, a grin on her face.
***
Max reached the top of the stairs just as a massive crash shook the stairs. Vox had already started her massacre. Up here, the men would have been alerted already.
He peeled into the hallway and was immediately forced back by a volley of bullets.
Max pressed his back against the wall, clenching his sword to stop his shaking hand. They're criminals. I am not a monster. He repeated it like a prayer. He couldn't be hesitant again.
He jumped out from his cover. The golden aura in his eyes flared to life, cascading down to his sword as it hummed with power.
.
"Golden Art: Ira Regis."
.
An explosive arc of golden light shot from Max's sword. It ripped across the hallway, cleaving the closest of the two men clean in two.
"He has a quirk!" One of them shouted a warning to the others.
But it wouldn't make a difference.
Max continued his dash, his chest heaving. Having his quirk not functioning for what felt like forever, getting used to it again would take some time now.
Golden brilliance flared along his sword once more. Blocking as he continued, though, a few stray bullets clipped him, but Max gritted his teeth as he continued.
He brought his blade down on one. His blade passed through the man's gun like butter, cleaving him in two.
Without a moment's waste, he lunged at his next targets. The golden energy shifted from his sword to his legs as his speed increased tremendously.
Reaching the next two guards, his quirk snapped back to his sword. A golden flash tearing through them at their waist.
'That's five!' he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. His eyes locked onto his remaining targets.
It seemed none of them had any quirks.
Max hardened his chest, the bloodshed continuing.
Max stood panting in silence, his chest heaving as the final guard collapsed lifelessly on the floor. Sharp burning stings riddle his body, more from the wound at his side.
Ignoring the pain, and wishing not to look at the massacre he had just caused, he limped down the corridor toward the door at the end.
Kyodai Shin should be here. Max thought. He gripped the handle—
Eyes dilated as Max pushed his quirk to the Max
KABOOM!!!
The door exploded outwards. The force blasted Max through the floor, straight down into the ground floor as he crashed into the concrete floor.
"Darling!" Vox yelled, dashing towards him. "You alright?! What happened?!"
Max ignored her, forcing his aching body to its feet as he stared up cautiously. Not for him blocking the initial attack with his shield and strengthening his back, he wouldn't have been standing at this moment.
A figure dropped down from the hole in the ceiling. "So," the voice rang out. "You must be Kazumi's new lapdog."
Max glared up at the newcomer, his breathing heavy.
The facial features were unmistakable. Short black hair, eyes of the same color, a crooked nose and missing front teeth. Kyodai Shin. The head of the Tenku syndicate.
But that was where the description ended.
The man was no inventor. Standing in front of them was a bulking figure. Eight-foot of pure, grotesque muscles. Dark, shadow tendrils wrapped around his arms and legs like armor.
"It does come as a surprise to me that you are but a child." he said, observing Max. "It seems Kazumi's wretched ways knows no limit."
"No matter," he shook his head. "I shall not be brought down easily for I have been enlightened. Evolved."
He extended an arm out. "So I'll extend to you the same hand that I, myself, received. Salvation."
Max ignored the speech. His eyes fixated on one distinct feature on the man, a pendant around his neck. A symbol he could never forget. A symbol he had burned into his very being.
Two hands holding a broken world.
The same pendant that hung around Raphael's neck that very day.
"Where did you get that pendant?!" Max growled, his hands tightening around his sword.
Kyodai offered a smile in response. "From one of the prophets themselves, the very same I offer to you."
"I don't care about your salvation!" Max snarled. "You will take me to that man, right now!"
Kyodai's expression turned cold, a frown marring his face.
"A shame," he said. "It seems you cannot be saved. And those who reject salvation…must be purged."