A Certain Flying Head in MHA

Idly, she realised, that it hasn't been that long since her imprisonment despite it feeling like months have passed. Her invisible captor didn't bother feeding them a morsel of crumb or a drop of water since they were confined to the darkness, so Amane and the others hungry and dehydrated, sure, but they were still alive.

This means that it's been less that three days since then.

Sometimes she laughed, quiet and weak, about the state of her condition. Out of the pan and into the fire, she muttered under her soft breath.

Somewhere along the delusions of her hunger, the door creaked open and a red lantern's light made its way into the room. This was the first time that Amane even saw her captor, as usually he would simply snake through the darkness and take another person with it.

It had skin as pale chalk, the body that was fat yet simultaneously square in shape, like a living wall of flesh. Above it were more folds of skin and fat where it's neck should have been, along with an equally square head and a massive maw that would no doubt open like chest, but instead of jewels and gold, what's inside was simply a mouth full with layers upon layers of crooked teeth.

The creature waddle towards them slowly like a penguin, it's quiet steps beguiled it's massive size. It peered it's gaze on them one by one as if counting their numbers. Then, with a rumble from it's giant mouth, the walls came to life and embraced them completely.

In the darkness once more, Amane simply closed her eyes.

~~~

The inside of the dome was illuminated by the arcs of electricity coming from her, keeping my smoke at bay.

"Nii-chan, could it be that you're desperate?" Her voice took on a cutesy-mocking tone. "Are there more lasers from outside? Or maybe- gasp! -you're going to detonate yourself?!"

"...Heh"

"I didn't expect you to be that ty- huh?" I grabbed hold of her by the ankles. She isn't getting away after getting this close. "Did you go mad, Nii-chan? I thought you were stronger than that..."

"Not really." I chuckled. "And I am strong. This is just a bad match-up, is all."

"Pff- That's what they all say whenever they lose!"

"...Who said that I'm the one losing?"

"Oh please, if you can actually do something you'd have don-"

Crack!

CRACK!

SHATTER!

"-Eh? What was thaAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Multiple instances of her screamed in great pain all at once before all her eyes rolled to the back of their sockets and foam began bubbling from all her mouths.

The Naishoten has fallen.

"...even blessings have limits, brat." I reached out to one of the spears puncturing my torso and ripped it out abruptly. Immediately, the wound sparked in static shocks, briefly illuminating me and the Wisps-Heads as the flesh weaved itself close before healing. "Woah... I didn't think absorbing divine energy would have that sort of effect..." My eyes glowed red as I searched the ground near the Naishoten. There I found the remains of an yellow Omamori, ripped to shreds. "I didn't even think it'd work to begin with..."

I absorbed the remaining Wisps-Heads, taking in what little of the blessing they took.

If I allowed to to absorb as much as they can, they would have transformed in the actual heads and take up what limited space there was in the dome. And if they did turn in the actual heads, I wouldn't have been able to reabsorb them back to myself.

Waiting for someone else to take down the dome, I sat on the ground and began picking out the spears from the rest of my body. The wounds that I incurred were also healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

There was a faint whisper at the back of my mind, a voice that sounded from no one in particular.

A corruption, perhaps? It was weak.

Too weak.

Was it really from a divine?

~~~

Within the space of a chaotic somethingness, the twisting scenes of what-has-been and what-could-haves fill the the woven existence. With thoughts and memories drifting aimlessly yet with purpose, it was in this mindscape that has shifted as an outsider intruded.

The figure stalked, confidence in it's gait.

One moment it was setting little strings, the fine threads advancing towards immaterial somethings-

And the next moment came Pink.

The figure, gone and the threads erased.

Someplace else, a scream tore through a plateau.

And the Pink?

She giggled melodiously.

~~~

'Odd. The whispers are gone.' I furrowed my brows for a second before shrugging. 'Whatever. I might be mistaken then.'

I went back to pulling out the spears. I briefly wondered when someone would get me out of here as I didn't want to do it myself. I don't know who's outside the dome and I didn't want to risk hurting someone by accident. Also, who was the one causing such a ruckus outside? The rumbling of the ground didn't let up.

Then, a light in the darkness, colour of sunlight yellow began to glow from the inner breast pockets of Naishoten's other bodies. It was only then that things clicked into place.

'Omamori bombs?!.' I made more heads to cover me.

~~~

Amane felt the walls recede and gravity took hold of her, falling to the cold ground with heavy thump. She didn't move, she didn't have the energy to do so. However, the faint flicking of light behind her eyelids and the sounds of people gave her hope. Enough to at least arduously open her eyes.

It was another mistake.

The lights she saw came from blue orbs of fire and floating lanterns with eyes. The noise came not from people, but from more monsters of various shapes and sizes. Some too horrific and too gruesome to look at, some extremely revolting she to bear, some can pass off enough as human if they weren't so blatantly leaking bloodlust. Killing-intent so strong they dwarfed the ruthless battle-hardened instructors.

Amane despaired silently as she sobbed voicelessly. She realised that no help came, only anguish. Amane came to the reality that she isn't here to be saved, she's here to be sold like cattle.

Amane was too spent to move. Too starved to think. Too thirsty to reason. Too tired to hope.

Amane was too exhausted to live.

~~~

The whole stadium rocked as a chain of explosions erupted from the bodies, engulfing their surroundings with heat, light and viscera. The people cried out in suprise and alarm, trying their best to minimise their chances of getting caught in one of those balls of fire, some of the 'pro hero' even shoved people towards one of the body when it was too close to them.

From the ground, the hardened dome exploded, causing fragments of vine and cemedine to fly off hazardously. From the smoke and blood, came to be seen Kizuki hanging on to his consciousness by the strip of his teeth, Injured but alive.

In one of the tunnels leading further inside the stadium itself came out three figures of the Daiguji. They came out when they heard the explosions and one of them clicked their tongue at what they saw. "Find a body and bring her back. We're leaving!" Another one said as they separated to search for the Naishoten, or at least one of them.

The Daiguji expected it to be an easy retrieval, what they didn't expect was that some of the students were still capable of resistance.

One of them was electrified when they came too close to the 'fallen' Saten, not knowing that she still had enough power to shoot her weapons. Another was was struck in vibrations strong enough to rattle their bones before falling, courtesy of an one-legged Jiro. The last one put up more of a fight, being able to transform into mist before they were tricked by a bruised and bleeding Shinsou.

For a moment, everything seemed to be looking for the better.

~~~

Amane blearily opened her eyes when she felt water touch her lips. As soon as she came to herself, she began to greedily drink in the wonderful life-giving liquid causing her to choke and cough.

What she saw wasn't a scene of blood and mutilation that she was expecting, instead she saw priests going out of their way to get others like her to drink.

Moving her eyes, she sees that she's inside a large room or a hall. She didn't observe much of her surroundings before she felt the person holding her up bring another scoop of water to her lips. Somehow, it tasted sweet, almost like the nectar she licked from the flowers given to her by the kind old lady next door.

...Or used to be.

She was reminded that all of those are in the past now. What's in store for her future is unknown. She doesn't even have any hope that these people are doing charity work out of the goodness of their heart. For all she knew, they were simply doing this to fatten them up before boiling them in soup or something equally horrific.

But then moments pass, she found herself cleansed and clothed with fine garments, fed with delicious meals she experienced for the first time, and presented with fluffy futons where she can rest in a room with the others like her.

All throughout the arrangements, she didn't dare hope.

Amane kept her head down and simply went through the motions, waiting for some nightmarish creature to appear and drop the other shoe to turn them into toys or devour their soul.

And nothing happened.

She began counting the seconds, waiting for something horrible to happen. Then seconds became minutes, minutes became an hour and an hour became...

It was still dark but Amane knew that she fell asleep. She gave herself a once over, checking to see if everything was still intact and all four of her limbs were still there.

She was still wearing the clothes they gave her, no chains or ropes or seals, nails, blood- nothing.

Just plain old clothes.

The door to the large room slid open, drawing her attention as she remembered that she wasn't alone, that others were sleeping in the same room as her.

There were a few like her, taking her in their current circumstances and looking around. Most were just waking up, the people that brought them here rousing then from their dreams with the promise of breakfast.

Amane's stomach grumbled at the thought.

She stood up, still wary and guarded as she walked by some of the others that were sleeping like logs and followed along the other children that were being led to where the food is.

Breakfast was... Amazing.

She was cautious at first, letting the other children eat ahead of her in case anything was to their meals, a lesson beaten to her at during her short stay at the facility. When it didn't seem like anything was amiss, she hesitantly took a bite.

It was a simple spread: Rice porridge, eggs and a bowl of miso soup. The first tasted fine even if it was a bit watery, the second was a bit burned but she missed the runny yolk, the third was salty as if someone made added too much salt by accident. By all accounts, it wasn't the best meal she ever had. So why-

Why couldn't she stop the tears?