Defective (MHA)

Running from one dark alley to another, Taiko looked back and held his wound. Here he decides to take a shortcut and decides to run across the street, falling under the camera's influence, trying not to give away his wound. In spite of the braking and honking drivers, he hides from the distant camera, simultaneously exhaling. Drops of blood flowed down the holster, inside which a pistol was hidden. He put on a change of clothes prepared in advance, hiding behind a trash can, bandaging his wounds on the go and looking towards the road.

Through a strange grin, he remembered the gas mask and tear gas grenades. Taiko had no idea where they came from, right outside his door last night, as if Santa himself had prepared gifts for him for this not-quite-Christmas. Most likely, it was a gift from Giran, and his signal that he had figured out where Taiko lived. However, he had to leave that strange question for later; now he needed to avoid the camera that was blocking his path, filming the exit from the dead alley.

Looking around, he saw several windows on the stone wall. The ground floor was blocked by metal bars, and it was quite possible to try to get through the second floor. But it was quite high up. Taiko's consciousness had slightly dimmed from the loss of blood, but even so, gritting his teeth, through the pain, he had enough strength, pushing against both walls with his feet and hands, to quickly climb up the window frame step by step. He was lucky. The window was slightly open, and he crawled inside the unremarkable and rather modest apartment. The sounds of cooking and a faint smell of food came from the neighboring kitchen.

Quietly slipping through and quickly slamming the door, he ran out of the apartment to the next street completely unnoticed, as if nothing had happened. So his trail disappeared.

The night was sleepless for Taiko. Once again he felt that he should not be here, that this was not his room, and the people around were complete strangers. Ignoring the pain, he stitched up the cut wound with a surgical needle and thin thread, having sterilized the wound first. The katana made a long and deep cut, but Taiko had fairly tough skin and bones thanks to his HalfNomu Power, and his muscles had become stronger thanks to training. - "I should have blocked with my hands, they were covered in chitin." Fencers were a new experience in battle for Taiko, but it seemed that he would be able to stop their blades with his chitinous hands. - "In that case, it would be better for him to cut the skin than to pierce it. I should dodge at the last moment, reducing the blow to a cut." His skin was as strong as Nomu's, so it was even more difficult to pierce it and the blow was reduced to a tangential cut. The bleeding, by the way, was not as profuse as it could have been.

Having finished stitching up the wound, Taiko glanced at the uniform soaking in the bloody water. - A hero... I'm not a hero... Who are you trying to make laugh, Taiko? You were raised by villains. You're a criminal... - hesitantly, he spoke about himself in the first person again. - I'm a serial killer... - he clenched his unusual fist, holding back tears. Now he understands why he was unhappy. Because of his weakness and loneliness. The death of these bastards ultimately brought only due justice, perhaps a little peace. A strong desire for justice was born inside him, so that as few as possible like these bastards would walk around unpunished.

The deaths of these people didn't make him feel any better, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it. He acted knowing that he couldn't bring Kuin back, but since the law hadn't punished them, he had to act on his own.

...

Having barely fallen asleep, bandaged, with a bare torso, Taiko saw a dream at night that gradually grew into an oppressive atmosphere. The image of Kuinn, the pleasant smell of her hair... and a slowly growing buzzing, he noticed it only when Kuinn was no longer around. He tried to find the source of the buzzing, but wherever he went, it sounded equally loud. Only when Taiko looked at the bloody bandage from the wound on his stomach, the buzzing intensified. Slowly unwinding the bandage, the buzzing only became louder, until the blood-soaked bandage fell to the floor. Taiko realized that the floor was the ground, and the forest all around.

He was standing exactly in the same place where the hive had once been. Or rather, no longer standing, but floating in the air, unable to move. The buzzing continued to come from his stomach, and not just one insect, but a whole swarm. At some point, they began to tear his flesh from the inside. Bloodthirsty hornets made their way out and flew away, except for one. Taiko woke up from the pain... right in the air.

In an instant, he realized that he was directly above Musutafu, at a very high altitude. His heart pounded from the awareness of the height, something behind him that had previously held him in the air interfered, and he began to fall. Gathering his thoughts, he saw what was holding him. They were long wings, as he felt them, rooted deep into his body.

A sudden thought entered his mind. The transformation into the Hornet King was complete. He thought that the transformation had been interrupted when Taiko lost his quirk!

The wings responded to the mental command, forcing them to level out. Taiko stabilized his fall and began to dive, keeping them in one position. He felt the wind pressing on his wings, and they felt like his own. It was already early morning and quite cold at such a high altitude, but this did not stop him from admiring the huge city stretching beyond the horizon. "Japanese cities are really huge." Taiko was afraid to move his wings, so as not to upset the already fragile balance. As a result, he slowly dived and landed in the park.

...

- Damn, hide already! - was heard from the bushes. Right after Taiko admired the high blood-black wings. Unlike the usual hornet wings, Taiko's wings were not just larger and had a different color, they had pointed edges, giving them sophistication and compactness. They also almost did not make any buzzing and the flight took place in silence.

Straining, Taiko somehow folded his massive wings, bending and crossing their flexible frame between themselves. They stuck tightly to his back and seemed almost invisible.

- Phew... - having moved away from everything a little, the cold began to worry him more and more, and the only question was ringing a bell in his head. -What the fuck was that?! - Taiko continued to feel his wings and could spread them back out at any second much faster than he could fold them.

-I grew fucking wings... I woke up in the air, my wounds healed and finally I was fucking flying. Just like I once dreamed...

-"But why would the transformation suddenly end now? Did something trigger it? Maybe because of the injury or the revenge he had taken?" Remembering yesterday evening, Taiko was overcome with melancholy again and he went home while there were few people on the street. After all, walking around with a bare torso was quite embarrassing, although he didn't really see a problem with it, he wanted to get rid of the cold more. After all, he lives in a free country.

...

On the way, he hoped not to meet anyone he knew, for example Ojiro or his neighbors from the dorm. Entering the room again, Taiko, shivering from the cold, hurried to get dressed and wrapped himself in a blanket. Today is Monday, and he didn't want to go to school at all, because instead of getting enough sleep, he was floating in the sky.

He fell asleep for a couple of hours, lightly scratching the place where he had once been injured on his stomach, until he was woken up by a call on his cheap phone.

-M...- the guy mumbled listlessly, snatching the phone from the nightstand. It was Ojiro. - I think some monkey named Ojiro is calling me... - Taiko was the first to pick up the phone, joking.

-Didn't the monkey hit you with tail enough? - Ojiro answered through a smile. -Why aren't you at school today? Should I expect you at the dojo?

-Wait, wait...- Taiko's listless voice made Ojiro think about sleep.

-Were you sleeping or something...

Having come to his senses, Taiko drank some water and said. -Yeah, I was a little sick, probably got a chill after training, it was a bit cold at night. -His morning voice was a bit rough because of puberty.

-It really is a bit cold. -Ojiro told Taiko a little more about school and homework, but he ignored it, brushing his teeth and going to the shower, turning Ojiro on speakerphone. The only thing on Taiko's mind was the latest events. Only in the shower did he feel his wings, in particular how they got wet and slightly soaked with water, making it difficult to open them.

Maybe the idea of ​​becoming a hero isn't so bad?