The Passing of The Torch

**The Passing of The Torch, belongs to Kasumi12346 and it should not be edited or used without the author's permission.**

Otohime Watatsumi let out a long sigh as she looked up at the warehouse that stood before her and that no doubt held dozens of villains inside. “Seems like their choice of hideouts hasn’t changed since way back in the day when my father was alive…” Otohime noted to herself. She knew exactly what was waiting for her inside; a group of villains who her father dealt with on a monthly basis throughout his time as a hero. Judging from the villains in their ranks they were no doubt a threat, but Ryūjin always talked about them like they were nothing more than a nuisance. This was to be expected since he had to find them and take them back to jail on a monthly basis since they always managed to escape. According to Otohime’s sources they had once again escaped not to long ago and the League of Gray Heroes decided it was fitting to handle the situation by sending Otohime to deal with them.

Otohime continued to look at the rundown wooden warehouse as she decided on her method of her attack and if she was really up to the task. After a couple of minutes, she stood up from her hiding spot on the right side of the building and away from any windows. The dozens of cars that sped back and forth provided more than enough noise to conceal Otohime’s footsteps as she began to creep her way around the building to the front door. When she had reached the front door she closed her eyes and focused on her the many different smells that were wafting out of the place. She could pick up on the scent of a lot of people; a little more than she had expected.

In realization of this, Otohime focused in on the place a bit more allowing her to pick up on the faint smell of Dragon Slaying Weapons. Her entire body shivered in response both out of fear of the deadly weapon and the implication of it being in their possession; they were expecting her. She stood up straight and opened the door to walk inside.

The inside of the warehouse was large and open with nowhere to hide. The strong smell of cigarettes and drugs clung to the air. This smell irritated Ryūhime’s nose greatly and it took all she had not gag as she instinctively brought her hand to her nose to block out the smell. With her right hand pinching her nose, Otohime looked around the first floor of the warehouse. There was no one that she could see on the first floor and the many sounds that came from above suggested that the entire group was upstairs. As Otohime walked her way to the stairs located on the opposite side of the room, she couldn’t help but to feel uneasy at the idea that no one was on the first floor to guard the building. In Otohime’s experience this usually meant one of two things; there was a trap waiting for her or the villains are very strong enough and very confident.

Sure enough, just as that thought cross her mind and she had reached the bottom of the stairs, an uneasy shiver ran down her spine prompting her to jump to the side. Deciding to trust in this feeling, Otohime did just that just in time to dodge a throwing knife that came from behind to fly right past her and embedded itself in the wall in front of her. Otohime spun on her feet and faced the direction the knife came from and scanned the area furiously for any sign of her attacker, but to no avail as she saw nothing. “An Invisibility Quirk,” Otohime thought and closed her eyes to make it easier for her to sniff out her attacker. It didn’t take long for her to lock on to their scent and as she pushed the thought of how they were able to avoid her nose the first time to the back of her mind, Otohime lowered herself into a defensive stance.

Her invisible assailant wasted no time and darted toward Otohime and began throwing a barrage of attacks Otohime’s way when he got in close. Unaware of whether he was using a weapon or not, Otohime was forced to stay on the defensive and evade her attacker’s assault instead of blocking it with her arm. When she noticed a small break in the villain’s barrage of attacks she threw a quick kick her attacker’s way, but missed leading her to pull her leg back quickly just in case. This continued for sometime: a barrage of attacks from her invisible opponent followed by a small pause where Otohime would take the chance to strike and ultimately miss. After two minutes, of this when the villain paused yet again she lifted her leg as if to kick once again. The villain, now conditioned to react as he normally would, reacted in the same manner. Instead of kicking, however, Otohime snapped her tail at the opponent. The opponent, who was to distracted by the kick was unable to react in time and was sent flying back by the force of the attack. Pain coursed through his body, which made him lose his concentration, which in turn deactivated the Quirk. He flew through the air for a few seconds and his body came to an abrupt stop when it hit the wall on the opposing side with a loud bang and collapsed to the ground.

Remaining in a guarded position, Otohime starred intently at the body for a while. Only after a couple of moments of the villain remaining perfectly still as if he was unconscious did she relax her guard. “People with invisibility Quirks always seem to have impressive reflexes and frail bodies,” she muttered to herself.

Otohime could hear the sounds from upstairs grow louder as the dozens of villains that were working ran to the stairs in response to the sound. Otohime jumped back and landed in the center of the room where she waited for their arrival. Otohime simply stayed still and allowed them to run down the stairs in a single file line and surround her. When they did a voice from the back said to her, “For someone who is praised for their intelligence you have been doing some pretty stupid things Ryūhime. Allowing us to surround you, making a lot of noise in the fight, and not being careful with who you decided to inform that you were coming here. You even had Hoori stay home. Your father would be disappointed.”

“Maybe I am just having an off day. No one is perfect you know,” Otohime responded indifferently. “As for my father being disappointed, you would be an expert on that. After all, you never learned anything from the hundreds of times you faced off against him. My father was actually bored with you guys at one point,” she continued knowing full well that was a sore spot for the leader. The man in the back clenched his fists in anger and Otohime could hear the faint sound of the crackle of lightning coming the man’s direction for a brief moment before it disappeared along with the lightning. “Unfortunately for you, this mistake will cost you your life. Now men, charge,” the man said. Much to the leader’s surprise none of them did. They were much more afraid of Otohime than they were of him.

“What are you waiting for! Did you not hear me,” the leader said; his anger rising by the second. “D-don’t you think this is a little suspicious? Ryūhime is feared for her intelligence and yet here she is. Acting stupid. It could be a trap,” said one of the villains. Otohime tried her best to hide her sneer as she overheard this. Everything is transpiring according to her design. “War strategy number 3. Amidst the turmoil of events do not lose your presence of mind. War strategy number 4: reputation is a weapon far stronger than any Quirk,” Otohime thought to herself.

Despite the fact that the underling had a fair point the leader was to angry to see that and thus marked the beginning of a furious argument between the leader and those who served him. In very little time their formation broke up and became unorganized. In no time at all the group of villains became so unorganized that they lost all the advantage they once had over Otohime. When Otohime saw this, she charged her hand with draconic energy and raised it toward the sky to fire a mass of water in the shape of a dragon’s head at the ceiling to blow a hole through the second floor and ceiling.

This signaled to the police that the nearby police station had placed under Otohime’s command who had taken advantage of the group being too focused on Otohime to notice them surrounding the building to crash through the windows and doors and charged at the villains who were unorganized from all sides. The villains who could have normally handled the police could not in this case as they were unable to recover fast enough. Panic spread through their ranks and they ran toward the doors in an attempt to escape.

It didn’t take long for the police to round up all the underlings and a few attempted to go after the leader, but he proved too strong for them and swiftly knocked away any police who attempted to detain him with a swift kick. Otohime didn’t move an inch throughout the chaos and kept her eyes glued on the leader. After all the underlings have been detained and placed in police cars, one police walked back inside and approached her. “Everything went exactly as you have planned Ryūhime. We managed to get all the drugs they had upstairs and the hostages. The only one left is their leader who seems to be too strong for us,” the police said. Otohime kept her eyes glued on the leader who was staring her down as well.

“That’s fine. You are free to go, I will in handle him myself. All I ask is that you leave a body bag behind,” Otohime responded. The police opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it without a word and walked out of the building. He was smart enough to know that arguing with her was not a good idea.

“You are going to kill me? What would your father say about that,” the leader said once everyone else had left. “He is a pro hero and I am a Gray Hero and so we handle things differently. The fact that you have escaped from prison time and time again, have continuously been a huge threat to society, and killed hundreds of innocent people tells me you are too dangerous to be kept alive,” Otohime said. She bent her legs and raised her clenched fists in front of her face. “I am curious to see if you can escape from hell as easily as you escape from prison,” she continued.

The villain laughed and mirrored Ryūhime’s stance. “I am going to enjoy torturing and killing the great Ryūhime; Ryūjin’s daughter. I can finally settle the score with your father in that way,” he said. The fight began the moment Otohime took her first step toward the villain who was known far and wide as “Demon Beast: Raijū.” He was located on the other side of the room and at first her steps were slow, but soon quickened into a running pace and Raijū did the same. When they met in the center at the room Raijū wasted no time with sent several punches aimed at her stomach Otohime’s way and on the fifth and final punch he charged his fist with lightning. Otohime lowered her arms to protect her stomach from four of the punches and dodged the fifth punch by stepping to the side and turning her body to face his arm to grab his arm. Turning quickly on her heels, she flung him through the air by throwing him over her shoulders. Raijū spun uncontrollably in the air before managing to get his feet under him moments before making contact with the ground. He released a discharge of lightning from his feet to propel him forward at high speeds just as Otohime was taking in a deep breath and gathering a large mass of water in her mouth. Otohime would let out a loud draconic roar and expel a powerful blast of water at Raijū who was racing towards her.

In response, Raijū released a discharge of lightning from his right foot to propel himself to the left and dodge the attack. When he landed on his left foot he would bend his left leg and lunge forward to continue his fast approach. Otohime responded by releasing a long stream of water from her left hand that is shaped into a long draconic tail and flicked the draconic tail made out of water at the opponent like some sort of whip. Once again Raijū would dodge Otohime’s attack. This time when he did, he stuck his hand in the stream to send a powerful electrical current into the stream. The electrical current ran up the stream and into Otohime’s left arm to propel her back with a burst of electrical energy and delivered an electrical shock in the process.

Losing control of the water, the water lost its form and splashed lifelessly to the ground as Otohime would fall to her knees in great pain because of being exposed to one of her greatest weaknesses. She tried her best to fight off the paralysis and push through her injuries while Raijū fired a blast of lightning her way from his hands. With what strength she had left Otohime would roll over on her side to dodge the blast and flood her bloodstream with draconic energy causing it to release a faint green glow. The draconic energy improved her blood flow to help her slowly gain her second wind by giving some of her physical abilities a small boost. Even with this small boost in her physical abilities, Otohime struggled to get and stay on her feet. She could feel her legs and body trembling she had to put in much more effort than she would care to admit into getting into a defensive stance.

When Raijū reached her he threw a barrage of kicks and punches her away. Otohime, who was putting most of her effort into pushing through the paralysis and her injuries and pain, could do nothing, but remain in her defensive stance that guarded her head and torso. She managed turn her body every now and then to protect her sides when needed.

Every now and then she would throw an attack of some kind. Sometimes it was a simple punch or kick and other times it was a draconic energy enhanced punch or she would use the Draconic Claw move to slash at him with her nails. None of the attacks had that much effect as Otohime was still too injured to put much power into her attacks.

This went on for several minutes and Otohime could feel the tension rise with every passing minute. Fortunately for her, she found it a bit easier for her to move with passing minute. However, the many electrical burns on her left arm and the pain told her that it would be unwise to drag the fight on much longer. “I really hate lightning,” Otohime muttered to herself after the four minute mark while Raijū threw a side kick in her direction. If it wasn’t for the lightning she could have ended the fight a long time ago.

Otohime quickly deactivated the Dragon Veins move and released an aura of draconic energy to give her physical abilities a greater boost enough to full regain her second wind. Now, that she had finally fully regained her second wind Otohime was able to dodge the side kick by jump over the kick. While in the air she raised her right leg high above her head to aim a powerful falling axe kick at Raijū as she descended back down to the ground. Raijū was able to dodge it by backing up, but the sheer force of the kick was enough to release a pressure wave that hit him and made him stagger back a little.

After staggering back, Raijū was able to quickly regain his composure and ran back to Otohime and threw a lightning charged punch at where he thought Otohime was. Unexpectedly, the punch passed through; revealing it to be nothing more than an afterimage that would disappear soon after.

Otohime reappeared on the left side of her opponent and leapt forward with her leg extend to hit him with a flying side kick. “Ryūjin’s Return!” Otohime spoke when the kick made contact. When the kick made contact she released a concentrated pulse of draconic energy to add to the damage of the kick that was strong enough to break his ribs with an unsettling crunch sound before sending him tumbling to the side. She continued to press the offense by darting to his other side at untraceable speeds to assault him with a fury of kicks and punches when he was getting back up. Her attempts were successful and he could nothing, but to stay on the defensive and slowly back away; unaware that he was heading in the direction of the pool of water on the ground from the blast of water several minutes prior.

After a few short moments, she was able to push Raijū back into the edge of pool of water at which point he tried to hit her with another side kick. Otohime was able to predict this and responded to this by ducking underneath the kick and hitting beneath his chin with a jumping uppercut that knocked him into the air along with her. While in the air, Otohime followed this up by releasing another blast of water downward that when it hit him rocketed him back down to the ground with enough force to crack the ground.

Raijū’s breath was very shallow and all the injuries appeared to be really handicapping him. It took all his effort to stand up in the ankle pool of water. He tried to limp to toward her who had landed on the outer edge of the water, but fell after every couple steps he made at which point he would get back up and continue his slow approach. She took a moment to watch him and thought back on all of the stories her father told about him.

When Raijū managed to get within five feet of the edge Otohime got on her knees and placed her hands on top of water. The water Raijū was in quickly turned into dragon ice; he was trapped. He tried to pull his feet out of the dragon ice, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t free his feet or get the dragon ice to crack.

“Finally,” Otohime spoke. “I am kind of tempted to let you live and bring you back to jail. It would be nice to fight the same man my dad did on a monthly basis on a monthly basis as well. If I was in position to think only for myself I probably would let you live,” Otohime said with a small tint of sadness. The man who stood helpless before her was one of the few people alive who had a close relationship with her father, albeit their relationship was that of enemies who clashed often.

Otohime began to focus draconic energy to her right and influence it to give it a sharp edge. “Unfortunately, I can’t do that. Say hello to my dad for me,” she concluded. She ran toward Raijū and appeared right before him moments later so she could thrust her hand straight through his body to pierce his heart for the killing blow. Raijū’s eyes widen and his body went rigid before collapsing lifelessly the ground seconds later.

As the afternoon turned to evening and the sun began to set, Otohime retrieved the body bag the police had left outside and put Raijū's body in it. She took a moment to walk around the warehouse; making sure the police didn't miss anything of importance before picking up the body bag and grew a pain of draconic wings that sprouted out from her shoulder blades to beginning her flight to the police station, staying high up in the clouds to avoid being noticed by civilians.