Hey, I hope yall are like the story so far. I don't know how yall feel about Cid and him being so emotional here, some feedback would be nice to know if I am handling it right, also did yall think I got the description of how he felt right or done well please let me know it'll help alot.
Anyway hope yall enjoy
Chapter 57: Unstable Situation
The forest was a mess of smoke, fire, and drifting gas. They couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of them.
Yui ran with Momo, Jiro, and Kaminari toward where the teachers were supposed to be, the masks Momo had made sealed tight over their faces. Even with those, every breath still tasted slightly like chemicals and burning trees. The camp had gone from training to a battlefield in minutes.
'Where is he?'
The thought kept cutting through everything else. Cid should have been out here by now. If villains were attacking the camp, he would have already been in the middle of it. She hadn't seen him or heard him anywhere this whole time.
'The fire had been lighting this whole forest up for 15 minutes already, there's no way he wouldn't notice something wrong.'
Yui's steps faltered and her eyes widened behind the mask.
'That's right the only reason cid wouldn't have been out here dealing with this was if something was wrong. But what could have happened this is cid, there's no way…..'
"Something's wrong," she said, slowing just enough for the others to hear her. "Cid isn't out here. He would be by now."
Kaminari looked over, still running. "He's fine. I've never seen that guy lose a fight. We need to get to the teachers, we are just gonna be in the way."
Yui shook her head. "He said he was going to the hot spring. I have to check, this isn't normal, there's definitely something wrong."
They all shared a look then decided that she was right and didn't argue further. Cid was their friend; they owed it to him to at least check on him, even if he didn't need it.
The closer they got to the springs, the less it looked like a rest area. There was little to no gas or fire anywhere in sight, almost as if they avoided this area particularly. Then Yui saw them, a group cutting through the trees ahead, moving fast. Her eyes narrowed and she spotted something that made her heart skip a beat. Cid was slung over one of their shoulders.
"They have Cid, they're getting away!" she yelled. "Give him back, right now!"
The villains saw them and tried to sprint faster to get away.
Yui's group chased after them with Yui at the front. Momo passed creations to Yui as she ran, nets, sticky traps, anything that would catch or slow them down. She used her Quirk on them and expanded their size after throwing them at the villains, turning small obstacles into walls and traps that forced the villains to slow down and dodge through the trees. It slowed them, but not enough to fully bring them to a stop.
It did however catch the attention of one of the nearby teachers.
Aizawa came in from the side and saw Cid limp over Spinner's shoulder.
He didn't hesitate even slightly, his capture scarf shot out and tried to grab Cid.
Spinner twisted and stumbled just enough to dodge out of the way. When he stood back up ready to fight, the weight on his shoulder shifted causing him to look over. His eyes widened like he saw something horrible.
Cid's eyes snapped open.
-present time-
Cid stayed on his feet in the crushed circle of dirt, tears still running down his face as he looked over the people in front of him. Not like he was counting them. Like he was hunting for a crack, a tell, something that would give them up.
A man with blue hair near the middle of the group flinched and dropped his eyes.
That was all he needed.
Cid was in front of him before the man could correct it. One hand locked around his throat and hauled him clean off the ground. The man kicked and clawed at Cid's wrist, anything to get air back. Cid's grip only tightened.
"I—I didn't—please—" The words came out broken, slurred, barely shaped around the pressure on his throat. "I didn't have a choice—they have my family—"
Cid held him there for a few very long seconds, eyes burning, hand shaking around the man's neck.
Then he dropped him.
His arm jerked back like he'd had to rip it away from him before he did something he would regret.
The man hit the dirt coughing while holding his neck and trying to pull air into his lungs. When he looked up at cid all he saw was a fist coming at him then darkness
Cid straightened then turned toward the villains he assumed had caused all of this with a look that promised pain.
What followed wasn't a fight so much as it was torture. He broke them all systematically, joints, fingers, legs, arms, none of them were spared. He was making sure that they weren't getting back up and that they thought twice before messing with him again.
(Note he doesn't know who any of the league members are yet, I just don't feel like writing descriptions over and over again.)
A couple of the villains dissolved into mud coming apart under the pressure. Splattering everywhere, their numbers being cut down by at least half.
Mr. Compress tried to crawl away but didn't get far. Spinner panicked at the casual way cid was dismantling his group. He started slamming his thumb into a device on his wrist over and over again as cid started towards him.
"I'm asking this once, if you don't answer truthfully I'm honestly not sure what I will do. who are you with, how many of you are there, and what is your objective?"
"Screw you and all you heros you don't Care-" spinners rant was cut off abruptly by his femur snapping in half "Aaaahhh"
He was abruptly silenced by a force clamping his mouth shut. When he calmed down slightly cid asked him again
"Who are you with, how many of you are there, and what is your objective?"
This time spinner didn't say anything but there was a look of fear in his eyes. After a few seconds of waiting Cid crushed his fingers one by one. Then stopped letting him calm just enough to answer, this time spinner spilled everything, their targets, their plan, how many members they had and details on them. The whole time he was crying and apologizing internally to his friends.
Cid patiently listened to him explain everything, the look on his face remained cold even as tears still very slowly ran down his face. Once he was done he finally decided to knock spinner out.
When it stopped, he looked up at the area around him and saw it was full of bodies that were still breathing but no longer useful.
Cid just stood there spacing out slightly still drowning in grief. Blood was splattered across his face and hands. His chest rose and fell in rough, uneven breaths. He was shaking and didn't even seem to realize.
Then Yui slammed into him with a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, holding on like she could keep him from coming apart if she just held him tight enough. Cid went rigid the moment she hugged him, and let out a muffled sob that he tried to hold in. After a second his hands slowly came up anyway, clutching the back of her shirt so tightly she thought it might rip.
She could tell from the moment he woke up that something was horribly wrong. Whatever they did to him left him shaken enough to cry openly like this. In all the time she had known him she had only ever seen him cry one time, and even then it wasn't nearly this bad.
So she ignored what he had just done, what was happening around her and held him. She looked up at his face with worry and concern showing on her as she gently called his name.
"Cid? Are you ok?"
It was that same voice, same worried tone, the dream version of her when she was worried about him.
It caused him to flinch against her as if he were shocked, but he didn't let go. If anything it caused him to cling to her tighter, dropping his head into her shoulder. As a sound she never wanted to hear came out of him, it was a broken and choked sob, muffled by nothing but her body.
The pressure finally eased enough for the others to move.
Momo, Jiro, and Kaminari pushed themselves up off the dirt, coughing, shaking dust and crushed leaves from their clothes. Aizawa was already on his feet, eyes locked on Cid.
He didn't like what he was seeing.
One second the kid had been cold enough to methodically break someone apart for answers. The next he was shaking in Kodai's arms, the switch was too abrupt, too erratic. That wasn't ordinary panic.
'Something's wrong with him. Whatever they did affected him to an extreme.'
-Yui pov-
Yui felt Cid flinch against her and only tightened her grip in response.
'This is bad, whatever they did to him to hurt him this much….. had to have been horrible to make him revert to that cold version of himself..'
She'd seen what he did. The version of him that had just taken those villains apart. That wasn't the Cid who cooked breakfast with her in America or let her drag him through the country doing stupid tourist stuff. That was the version of him the HSPC tried to make him, the cold efficient weapon. The one he used to keep from getting hurt again.
He'd slipped back into it.
The only good thing was that even in that state, he had still come back to her. That meant her Cid was still in there, just hurt in a way that she didn't want to think about.
She needed to get him out of here. Somewhere quiet, somewhere she could help him deal with whatever hurt him before it could sit and rot him away inside his head.
'It's my turn now, I have to be the one to save him, even if it's from himself.'