Chapter Text
They left in an eerie and unusual silence late in the afternoon of the following day. Sako had left the night before, and Tenko was confident in Sako’s ability to find Chisaki’s residence, so the rest of them stalked their way toward Musutafu to meet up with him before the raid.
The public and the government both were under the impression that all Mad Burnish were… well, mad; but they weren’t mad enough to just start attacking a yakuza group without a plan.
But their plan today was far too simple and not fail-proof enough for Touya’s liking. So many things could go wrong and they didn’t have alternative solutions.
Meet up with Sako. Find out where Chisaki was. Go to Chisaki’s place. Attack until they’ve killed as many people as possible. Try not to die. Go back to the compound.
Should things go wrong, they each go their own way and lay low until it was safe enough to go back to the camp.
Their safe place in the city was some abandoned bar’s parking lot. According to Tenko, the place had been left to rot many years ago and no one ever bothered to check on it. It was a shady and sh*tty rendezvous spot, but it suited their needs.
They finally reached the place and, sure enough, Sako was waiting for them. Iguchi stopped their new van in front of Sako for him to join them.
“Do you have the location?” Tenko asked.
“Yes. He and the other Eight Bullets should be in the suburbs. I haven’t been able to find where the bullets themselves were manufactured, just where he resides.”
“That’s good enough,” Tenko nodded. “We’re gonna turn them to ashes and make them pay for Magne,” Tenko said with a threatening tone
Sako gave the address to Iguchi, and off they went.
They got there quickly enough and Touya could never have guessed that a yakuza boss and one of the biggest Mad Burnish enemies lived there.
The house was so traditional and big; it reminded Touya of his childhood house, but it didn’t stand out too much compared to the neighborhood. The garden separating the street from the house itself was so huge, it was almost perfect to be turned into a battlefield.
“You sure it’s there?” Iguchi asked.
“Certain. Rumor has it there is a whole labyrinth of tunnels underneath it.”
“Hidden in plain sight,” Tenko commented.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go and kill them all!”
Jin made his way towards the door, ready to open it and burst out of the van, but Tenko grabbed his arm, stopping him from doing so.
“Patience,” he hissed. “Let's at least wait until one of them shows up to make sure we’re attacking the right place. Wouldn’t want Burning Rescue and Freeze Force to show up only for us to find out we burned the wrong place to the ground.”
And so they waited. Touya could feel that all of them were getting more angsty by the second. If theirs were anything like the voices inside Touya’s head, they must all be screaming for murder and chaos, begging them to let them kill everyone in that building until not even ashes would remain.
“There’s someone,” Iguchi said, pointing towards the door
They all looked to the right.
A man in a black fighting suit had come out, quickly followed by another two. They seemed to be guarding the place, perhaps wary of the black van stationed outside for what must have been ten minutes, judging by the guns they were carrying.
Touya recognized their ugly suits.
“It’s them. The one who shot me had the same black suit.”
“It’s fireproof, right?” Sako asked.
Touya hummed. “Even my flames couldn’t hurt them.”
“That kind of technology always has its limits,” Tenko started. “If all of us are attacking them, their suits are bound to give up or melt at some point.”
“What’s the plan, boss?” Iguchi asked.
Iguchi, though one of the prominent Mad Burnish, actually didn’t possess Burnish fire and thus rarely fought with them, usually sticking to being their driver and coming up with plans. The last time he actually fought with them was when they had lost Magne.
Though Touya wasn’t necessarily close to the guy, he knew Iguchi was the most nervous as of right now.
“As soon as we get out of the van, you start wearing your Burnish armors. We’re not risking getting shot like Dabi. Then, let your flames loose. I don’t care who dies and what gets destroyed as long as we all survive.”
Not even waiting for an answer, Tenko stepped out, his armor already starting to form.
Their leader’s armor was probably the tackiest of them all. Like all of their armor, it made him appear so much taller and more threatening than he looked without it. It made him look bulkier, with plaques of solid red Burnish flames glued to the exterior sides of his thighs and calves. His chest was also padded, as well as his forearms. One of his shoulders had another plaque, but the other one bore a spike. His helmet was adorned with raging blue and red flames.
Once their leader was out of the van, all hell broke loose.
Each of them followed and immediately started summoning their armor (Sako using extra flames to build one for Iguchi) and their leader was already charging towards the house.
Their armor all looked similar yet subtly different. After all, they were different people with different emotions and goals, and therefore had different colors for their fire; which was the one thing they all truly shared.
Sako’s armor was tall and thin, not as bulky as Tenko’s. It had raging orange flames behind him that looked like a cape.
Iguchi’s was the most unique as he took pride in his reptilian look and Sako, who was always extra, created a spiky tail out of pink flames. He also had raging flames on top of his helmet, similar to his own natural hair.
Jin’s armor was as crazy as the man himself. No solid Burnish flames were visible as he was roaring with green and red flames.
Toga’s armor was, in Touya’s opinion, the less practical one. She still insisted on wearing a skirt while in armor, for some reason. She had two red flames on her helmet. Even with her armor, she still looked so much smaller than the rest of them.
Touya’s armor was definitely the least flashy one. He just focused on making himself appear taller and sharper, but didn’t actually bother with any complicated designs. An armor was meant to protect and nothing else.
In a matter of seconds, they were all roaring towards the house.
At this point, the only coherent thing coming out of Touya’s thoughts were those childish waves of laughter bouncing around his skull, seemingly happy to finally burn as bright as they desired. He focused them at his fingertips, creating arrows, aiming for the suited bastards. If he could, he always preferred to fight from a safe distance.
As he was aiming more arrows, he summoned more flames to shape into snakes, who quickly made their way towards their targets, wrapping themselves around the Eight Bullets’ legs.
He didn’t know which member of the Eight Bullets precisely had shot him, and he treated each of them as the culprit. But for each arrow of fire he shot, three or more Instant Freeze bullets were shot at them.
Thanks to the element of surprise being on their side, there weren't enough members to overpower them yet.
They made quick work of the front security gate, easily burning through it, and triggering the security alarm in doing so.
But no matter how many arrows Touya shot or how many punches of fire Tenko dealt, their armor absorbed them all, leaving the Eight Bullets seemingly unarmed.
Touya spotted Jin and Toga beating another member down, but they also couldn't get through the armor. Iguchi was swinging his tail around, but all it trashed was the grass. Sako was also firing flames in the shape of sharp cards, but with no success.
What were those fire-resistant suits made out of? Even the Freeze Force soldiers would have been turned into rotisserie by now.
“Where is Chisaki?!” Tenko raged.
The Eight Bullet bastard had the audacity to cackle.
There were six of them out in the garden now, which meant each Mad Burnish member had to deal with one.
Touya let go of his arrows and got rid of the distance between him and the Eight Bullets, running as he created a polearm flame intending to pierce through that damn armor, but the Eight Bullet just kept firing at him, not seeming to care about the flaming spear at all.
So Touya changed tactics.
Letting his weapon burn away, Touya turned his forearm armor into a thinner one, and took hold of the Eight Bullet’s gun, and immediately started to shoot away at the Eight Bullets member, using more of his fire snakes to immobilize his opponent.
After having shot the bastard a few times with the Instant Freeze bullets, the suit gave away, if only for a fraction of a second before forming itself back up.
Touya kept firing, aiming at the helmet, which ended up shattering before turning into smoke. The Eight Bullet gnarled and the helmet formed itself back up.
Just like his own armor would.
“They’re Burnish!” Touya shouted, everything finally clicking in his head. They couldn’t get through their enemy’s armor because it was Burnish armor, just like their own!
They didn’t stand a chance. It was no good to fight fire with fire.
Tenko’s face snapped towards him. He saw that Touya was holding a gun and he immediately stole his opponent's as well. He fired at the member he was fighting against and when the helmet gave away, Tenko kept firing and, at the same time, was shouting darts of fire nonstop.
Ice quickly exploded out of the person’s skull before their whole body turned to ashes.
Touya kept mirroring this technique on his own foe until the same result occurred.
The wind blew the ashes his way.
It was at that point that he recognized what kind of weapon they were using. What he had assumed had been classic Instant Freeze guns actually turned out to be Burning Cold Guns. It was much worse than simple Instant Freeze guns, as it used Burnish heat to transform itself into ice.
The hotter you were, the deadlier it was. If it managed to lodge itself between their body and their armor, a Burnish was done for, condemned by their very own fire and leaving them with no way to save themselves.
He felt sick using the enemy’s weapon against another Burnish.
The voices were screaming at him, confused as to why they were used only to defend and not attack and why a weapon that had caused them so much wrong was in his hands.
He felt sick.
Sick.
Sick.
Sick.
“Dabi, move!” That was Tenko’s voice cutting through his ill-placed turmoil.
Trying to mute the voices inside his own head, he turned toward his leader who was now shooting at Iguchi’s opponent.
“We’re discovered, give it your all!” Shouted the Eight Bullet that was fighting against Jin. Ugly green flames started attacking the Mad Burnish, combined with still ongoing bullets.
Touya just started moving again when he saw Jin’s armor break.
He ran towards him, but hadn’t seen that a new Eight Bullets’ member had come out with another type of gun, one smaller than the other ones.
Touya immediately recognized that gun. He had been attacked by a similar one a few days ago. He witnessed Jin’s armor smoking away as the man got shot in the arm.
Acting more on instincts than anything, Touya summoned a wall of flames, protecting his fellow Mad Burnish who he knew couldn’t defend himself anymore.
He dropped his gun, his hands feeling disgusting, so disgusting, too disgusting, and kneeled next to Jin, who was already starting to panic.
“Jin, listen to me!” Touya shouted, grabbing Jin. “I know it feels weird, but just focus on my voice, okay?”
“The voices, the voices, they’re going away! They’re leaving me behind! Good riddance, I didn’t like them! Made everything more complicated! Why am I always so alone?!”
More shots came at them but Touya kept on building new walls of flames, not letting anything else hurt his fellow Lieutenant.
“Jin, listen to my voice, okay, you’re not alone, okay? We’re here and you’re okay, you’re gonna be okay!”
He wasn’t going to let Jin die.
He wasn’t going to let him down.
Jin would not die like Magne.
Not because of him.
Not again.
He knew how disorienting that damn bullet made him feel, and he knew damn well that Jin was a lot less mentally stable than he was, so he could only imagine how the man was currently feeling.
“It’s okay, Jin, I’m here and I’ve got you, okay?”
Jin’s breathing was starting to pick up, his blood was starting to trickle down his arm and he wasn’t sputtering enough insults.
“Dabi!” He heard Toga screech beyond his flames. “Let me in!”
Touya looked behind him. He hadn’t noticed he had let his flames create a full-on cage around the two of them, blocking them from the world.
“Jin, I’m going to let Toga take care of you, okay?”
“Hi-Himiko?”
“Yes, Himiko! You’re gonna be fine!”
He begged his flames to calm themselves down, opening an entrance where he had heard Toga scream. She rushed towards them and kneeled next to Jin, taking one of his hands.
“Jin! What happened?”
“I- I don’t know. You blind or what?”
“He got shot with the same bullet as I did. Toga, you take him and run as far away as you can. Once you’re far enough, use some of your clothes to apply pressure on the wound and apply a tourniquet, got it? Don’t take the bullet out, bring Jin back to the camp once you two are clear, okay?”
Toga nodded, but Touya bet she was crying underneath her helmet.
“He’s gonna be fine as long as you keep him safe. I’m gonna cover for you two so you can escape, okay?”
She nodded again and started picking Jin up, using her flames to handle the wounded man. Once Touya was sure she had him, he nodded at her and let one of the fire cage’s walls down.
He immediately exited and created even more flames to try and hide Jin and Toga from the Eight Bullets while they escaped.
Tenko, Sako, and Iguchi were still fighting against the Eight Bullets. Touya noticed another one of the yakuza members had turned into ashes, leaving four others.
He heard the sound of Burning Rescue’s siren coming closer, and he bet Freezing Force wasn’t too far behind.
“Disperse!” Shouted Tenko.
Not wasting a second, Touya ran.
He ran.
And ran.
And ran.
At some point, when he was sure no one was around, he let his flames turn from armor into a motorcycle.
He drove.
Was Jin really gonna be okay?
And drove.
Would Toga be able to keep both of them safe?”
And drove.
What about the others?
And drove.
What if someone died?
And drove.
Because of him.
He stopped.
It took his brain a second to figure out why he had stopped.
Then he realized where he was.
Keigo’s apartment complex.
He parked his motorcycle as best as he could in his panicky state. He took his helmet off, it was hard to breathe in, and realized his mask was gone. He probably burned it off by accident.
He headed towards the door.
He pressed on Keigo’s apartment bell.
Nothing.
Keigo wasn’t at home.
Maybe he was working.
Or maybe he was at home.
But didn’t want to see him.
Touya couldn’t blame him.
Not knowing what else to do, he kept pressing the button.
But nothing.
He pressed until his legs gave out.
He sank against the wall.
