NinjaStripes


“Will you fuck off!” Her fist slammed against the kid’s face and he slammed backwards against the building wall. The kid’s face was already starting to swell and blood poured out of his nostrils. She’s pretty sure he’s got a busted tooth somewhere too. Thanks to her metal bones, all she had was a split lip and what was sure to be a black eye and bruising later. Arms wrapped tightly around her neck from behind and yanked backward. “Think you’re tough now?” a man’s voice growled. She gripped the man’s arms and put her strength and 316 pounds to good use. She pushed backwards into the man and slammed him against the alley wall. The wall gave out under the combined weight and they stumbled out onto the empty plot of a recently demolished building. She scrambled to her feet in a flash and kicked the man in the head and knocked him out. The other man stumbled through the hole in the wall and she grabbed a cinder block and chucked it at the man, hitting him square in the chest and tossing him backwards. The girl charged through the hole and dove on the man to straddle him and then let loose a flurry of punches. The man switched between trying to guard his face and trying to fight back but it was pointless. Soon, he was a broken, bleeding mess.
The girl wiped the blood from her nose and lip. Her nose piercing hurt the worst. She heard a police siren in the distance and swore. She got up and ran further into the alley. Heros didn’t venture into that neighborhood very often but police occasionally got called to the area. And where there’s police, there’s a hero nearby or not far behind.She grabbed her bag and made sure to stick to alleyways while putting some distance between her and the aftermath of the fight. Once she was sure she was far enough away she slowed to a stop to catch her breath. “Ugh, fucking assholes. Can’t walk home without getting jumped.” She dug through her bag and pulled out the wad of cash. She sighed with relief when she found none of it missing and put it back. She leaned up against the wall and let her wings droop low enough to touch the ground, the metal feathers scraping the asphalt. They looked a little worse for wear covered in dirt and some of the bristles bent out of shape. She took one more moment to clean herself up as much as she could before exiting the alleyway. She pulled her hoodie up over her head and glanced up at the street sign. Good, she thought, I’m not far from home. The police sirens were getting closer and she pulled her hood down lower and started walking.
The police sped by down the street and disappeared down the street. It was a rough neighborhood so it could be any number of things they’re speeding to get to. She perked her ears and listened to her surroundings closely. On a busy street, it was more likely to come across heros than gang members. The girl caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see two heros, one bouncing high and far with springs for legs and the other utilizing thrusters and what could only be described as oversized Heelies, speed ahead of her and turn a corner in the general direction of the fight she ran from. Don’t know if they’re responding to my fight, she thought, but better not stick around to find out. She quickened her pace and walked straight home.

Her building was a bit old, probably only a couple years away from being considered for demolition, but for now it was enough. She climbed the stairs up into the residential part of the building, making her way up to the top floor. Under normal circumstances she’d fly up to her window, but she was too banged up and tired. Probably not a good idea to draw attention to herself then, either.
The lock on her door clicked open and she trudged into her apartment. A young man with long dark hair poked his head out from the end of the halway. “Sup Angie. Damn, you look like shit.” Angie pouted as she took her shoes off in the entryway. “Well?” he continued, “Did you deliver it?”
“Yes, Noroi. The cash is safe too,” Angie groaned, taking said cash, a not-so-small amount, and tossed it to Noroi. He caught it and lazily pulled out a couple bills and offered it to Angie. “The cash isn’t my concern, Angie. We can always figure something out if our cash gets stolen. Pissing off the black market brokers is another.” Angie huffed, remembering the day Noroi caught the attention from the brokers as she shoved the bills into her pocket. Noroi’s Quirk was Curse. He could influence objects to negatively impact either a specific person or whoever was holding it. The curse was stronger and could last longer if he knew the person and had a clear definition of what the negative impact was. The more vague the information was, the weaker the curse. No problem for the brokers though. One day when Angie was about to start middle school, the brokers knocked on their door to “make a deal” as they put it. And with Noroi recently unemployed at the time, he was in no position to refuse. So, with rent due and bills coming, Noroi accepted and they became somewhat stable and given some protection to protect one of their cash cows.
Angie shrugged off the jacket of her high school uniform and pulled off her hoodie. She hung her hoodie up, but the school jacket needed a wash. So she dumped the jacket into the portable washing machine, put it on quick wash and left it to run. Then she trudged over to the kitchen and rummaged through the small fridge. Noroi was at the stove working on dinner. As his work can be done mostly at home, he’s in charge of making dinner. Angie wanted to get a part-time job to help with the household finances, but Noroi insisted she focus on school. With her parents having never married and Angie inheriting her mother’s family name, Noroi thought Angie had a chance at a normal life if she stayed out of trouble and got good grades. Well, she mostly stayed out of trouble.
Hard to avoid it in that neighborhood. Angie opened a can of soda and swiped through her phone notifications. She tapped open a text notification as she knocked the fridge closed. It was from a group chat with her friends. She glanced at Noroi and turned to sit at the table with the phone facing away from Noroi. She swiped up to the start of the new message thread:
Yumi: Some guys fucking jumped me today!
Yuki: WUT? Sis, u good?!
Yumi: yeah, my wallet’s gone though.
Sarah: wrd, 2 guys followed me around the market. i managed to lose them.
Jason: Scary! I found my workplace tossed and I had to clean it up! ;_; My boss is pissed.
Yuki: OH NO! DO THEY KNOW WHERE I WORK NOW TOO?! I JUST GOT THIS JOB!!
Angie: I got jumped today too. My jacket’s ruined.
Angie: AGAIN!
Noroi placed Angie’s bowl in front of her and sat across from her. She looked down; super spicy beef curry! She took a gulp of her soda and started to dig in, keeping an eye on the group chat.
Yumi: Isn’t that the third one?
Angie: Ugh! Yes.
Jason: Girl, you’re for sure going to be suspended.
Angie: Noroi didn’t say anything, so I guess he’s just going to buy a new one this time around if the wash doesn’t fix anything.
Sarah: That job u did pay well?
Angie: Eh, no more than usual. But we're pretty frugal. And it’s not like my school is fancy. We can swing it.
Jason: That’s good.
Yuki: OMG!!! You guys!!! You skipped the most important part!!!
Angie: ?
Jason: ???
Yumi: What??? What’d we skip??
Sarah: idk
Yuki: omg…
Yuki: Angie…
Yuki: HOW BADASS WAS THE FIGHT!!!!!!!!!
She smirked as she chewed one of the generous portions of beef. “What’s got you in a good mood all of a sudden?” Noroi asked. She swallowed her food and took a sip of her soda without taking her eyes off her phone screen. “Just Yuki being a fanboy.” Noroi smiled and opened a manga book and commented before getting to work on his own dinner, “He has always looked up to you. Him and Yumi both.” Angie hummed and then refocused on the group chat.
Yuki: WELDONTLEAVEUSHANGING!!!!
Angie: Lol, chill! I knocked one through a wall and then hit another with a cinder block.
Yumi: WOOHOOOO!
Jason: Nice!
Sarah: lol, ouch! Gonna need a doctor.
Yuki: Lol, there’s no way that’s it!
Angie: Yes, Yuki! Lol! I sat on one and gave him a flurry of knuckle sandwiches.
Yuki: THE KNUCKLE SANDWICH BUFFET!
Angie: Lmao. But anyways, really? All of us got jumped or followed on the same day?
Sarah: yeah, that’s sus!
Jason: Anyone recognize any of them? Or hear them say anything?
Yumi: could have been the Fisticuffs. Toma’s gang.
Yuki: Wut makes you say that?
Yuki: Shit! Ttyl, my break’s over.
Angie: Later, loser. Lol!
Yuki: Lol! Later, scrap heap.
Yumi: Later, bro!
Sarah: hav fun at work!
Jason: Later gator!
Angie: So what makes you think it was Toma’s gang?
Yumi: A friend at school said that she overheard Toma getting worked up about someone moving in on his terf.
Sarah: ooooooh, I heard about that! u think he thinks it’s us?
Jason: Don’t know why. We’ve always stayed at the park across the convenience store.
Angie: We’re barely even considered a gang. More like a bunch of kids than anything.
Sarah: we r squished btween Fistcuffs n Sky Breaker territories tho.
Yumi: Maybe they think we’re with Sky Breakers. Cause of your wings?
Angie: Ugh! Maybe. Toma never was very bright.
Sarah: lol
Jason: Putting it mildly.
Sarah: so… wut? we go kick his ass?
Angie: Cool your jets, Sarah. We’re not even sure it was Fisticuffs. It could have been Sky Breakers for all we know. Thinking we’re in Fisticuffs now.
Angie: Not to mention we have 5 people. And Fisticuffs and Sky Breakers have 25 minimum each.
Sarah: fine fine, ik.
Jason: Hey, you think Yuki’s gonna be okay?
Seeing as how we all got jumped.
Yumi: I’m worried, too.
Angie: We should meet up with Yuki when he gets off.
Sarah: yea! good idea!
Jason: What time does he get off?
Yumi: 8
Jason: The gas station, right?
Yumi: Yup!
Sarah: c u l8ter!
Yumi: See you guys there.
Jason: See you then.
Angie: See you guys later.
Angie: Yumi, I’ll get you snacks on the way home.
Yumi: YAY! :D
Angie took a second to check the time and made note of 6:00pm. “Hey Noroi, I’m gonna go meet up with Yuki when he gets off work.”
“Hmm? Why?” he asked and flipped to the next page of his manga. “Yuki’s the only one in the group who didn’t get jumped. Everyone else got beat up, followed or had their workplace trashed.” Noroi looked up from his manga, his expression tight. “You’re not going out to get revenge, are you?” Angie rolled her eyes. “C’mon Noroi, I’m not stupid. We’re just going to meet up with him and walk each other home.” Noroi tapped his finger methodically on the table. He looked Angie in the eye, concern evident in his features. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Noroi slumped into his chair and sighed. “Well, you’re just going to go anyway. Just promise to be careful.” Angie shoved another spoonful of curry in her mouth and saluted. “Scouts honor!”
He chuckled and turned his attention back to his manga. “Just make sure to clean yourself up before you head out.”

Angie scrubbed off the dirt and blood from her body and felt her muscles relax under the hot water. Her piercings were still stinging a bit so they sat in a glass on the sink soaking in jewelry cleaner. The scent of strawberries filled Angie’s senses as she scrubbed the shampoo into her platinum hair. The water at her feet occasionally turned light brown from a mixture of dried blood and dust from the empty lot she tumbled into. Angie kept washing until the water ran clear. She cleared the suds from her hair and then squeezed face exfoliant into her palm and carefully scrubbed her face careful to avoid where the skin broke. The exfoliant felt as if it scrubbed away a days worth of grime and left behind a cool feeling on her skin. Squeezing her eyes shut, Angie angled her face up into the shower water and rubbed away the excess exfoliant. Normally she would do more than a quick wash. But she had to head out soon.
She turned to soak her wings under the water. The water pelted against her wings like rain against glass. Water droplets glided down her wings, collecting the dust from the fight before finally sinking down the drain. She shut off the water and exited the shower area of the bathroom, scooting water towards the drain on her way out. She promised herself to clean the bathroom better later. Angie spread out her large wings just a bit and shook off the water. Then she grabbed a towel off the rack and dried herself off. She was careful to not get the towel tangled in her feathers. She felt no urge to repeat the incident when she was ten.
When she was dry enough, she put on her chosen outfit; black high-waisted shorts and a backless halter top. She wiped away the fog from the mirror with the towel and started to brush the tangles out of her hair. With the brush in one hand she looked at her phone in another. 7:06. She opened back up to the group text to see Yuki had opened up his phone at some point during work.
Yuki: Aawwwwwww!!!
Yuki: I’m so loooooooooved!
Yuki: Lol, see you guys sooooooon!
Dork, Angie chuckled to herself. She switched over to the music app and played a new heavy metal album. Well, new to her. It was released three years ago. Sounds of a guitar being shredded echoed in the small bathroom followed by the aggressive drums and singing. She tapped her foot and swayed side to side as she finished brushing her hair and tied her hair back in a messy ponytail. She took out her piercing cleaner and soaked a cotton ball with it and cleaned her pierced areas, mainly her nostril and her brow. Her nose looked a bit bruised. Well, at least there’s no school tomorrow. She made a mental note to ice her face when she got back. Her lip was the worst of it, but even that was too bad. She’d have to be careful when smiling for the next couple of days. She finished her clean up by applying a tinted moisturizer and BB cream with a dash of mascara.
She grabbed her phone and exited the bathroom with the music still playing. Noroi, now back in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner, poked his head around the corner to the hallway. “Hey, turn that down! You’ll disturb the neighbors.” Angie stuck her tongue out at him and turned the music off. She had to head out anyway. She checked the time to make sure she was still on time. “The neighbors suck anyway.” Angie shot back.
“Not that I disagree, but we do still have to live with them.”
“Hey, if you get bigger jobs maybe we can get our own house.”
Noroi sighed. “Angie, we’ve had this discussion.”
“Kidding, Noroi. Sheesh, let me dream,” Angie rolled her eyes. Noroi approached Angie as she zipped up her boots in the entryway. “Come back safe,” Noroi said. Angie got up and gave him a confident smile as she swung her bag over her shoulder. “Always,” she responded and headed out the door. Noroi stuck his head and the door with a final send off, “And stay out of trouble!”

As dingy as the neighborhood was during the day, the neon lights on the commercial streets hid the dirt and grime well. The gangs, large and small, the hosts and hostesses of the local bars and, in the more shadowy areas, the small-time dealers all came out to play. It was fairly early so it was still fairly tame compared to later on in the night. Noroi had a strict 11:00pm curfew because of this. Not that Angie stuck too closely to it at times. Angie liked the neighborhood at night. Compared to people sitting on stoops smoking and drinking, once the sun went down, the dive bars and clubs blasted their music and salarymen opened up with liquid courage and caused a minor ruckus; it made everything more exciting. It was prime time to get up to your own trouble. This was usually the time Angie and her own gang hung out, though they mostly just got snacks at the nearby convenience store and messed around until they either got tired or got lectured by a local hero, occasionally they fought with other small groups.
Angie lazily strolled down the sidewalk enjoying the view of her neighborhood at night. “Oi Angie!” an old man called out. She stopped and waved to the old man. “Hey Gengi. Closing up already?” He leans against a trash can and lights his cigarette. “Yeah. At my age, I can’t pull the hours I used to. And I can’t seem to find any good help around here.”
“I’d help if I could, but minors can’t sell tobacco products.”
“Speaking of jobs, when is your brother going to let you get one? Everyone needs something on their résumé.”
“Noroi thinks school’s more important. He thinks I can get a good job if I can get into college.”
Gengi took a long thoughtful breath of his cigarette and blew out a steady stream of smoke. “Can’t say I completely agree, but I guess being the son of an infamous villain, I can’t blame him.”
Yeah, everyone around here knows Noroi, everyone else knows about his mom. Angie remembered way back when Noroi often came back sullen. No matter what job he took, eventually he was fired. Officially there were a lot of reasons. But all those reasons came after they found out who his mother was. Blair, the one who doomed an entire town, killing half of its residents, including several heros. And due to the nature of her quirk, the town became uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. After that incident, and previous criminal history of his own, Noroi basically lost all hope of a better life and struggled until he found the stability he has now.
“Gah! Here I am holding you up. Hey where were you heading anyway?” Gengi changed to subject.
“Just going to meet up with my friends.”
“Ahh,” Gengi hummed, seemingly lost in nostalgia. “Well, don’t let me keep you any longer.”
“Nice talking to ya,” Angie waved goodbye and continued on.
Eventually Angie made it to the more well off-ish part of town and where people go to get onto the expressway that connects to the city. Still some of rough looking groups around, but they were only there to wait for friends before moving on to the commercial area. She stood at the street corner and looked around before spotting the gas station’s bright red lights and logo and waited for the cross signal. She saw Jason’s large frame off in the distance. Looks like some of them are already there, she thought. The signal changed and Angie jogged to the other side of the street. Now that she was closer, she saw Yumi and Sarah too. Even from a distance, Yumi looked a little banged up, though she looked more dejected than anything. Sarah was on her phone as usual, perched up on top of a vending machine drinking a canned tea. Jason was stroking Yumi’s back trying to comfort her.
Sarah looked up from her phone and spotted Angie jogging up to them and narrowly dodging a car pulling out of the lot. Angie and the driver traded insults and expletives before the driver screeched out of the parking lot and Angie gave him the finger. “Looks like our fearless leader finally decided to show,” Sarah quipped. Jason and Yumi turned to greet Angie. “Bout time you showed up,” Jason joked.
“Hey, I’m technically early,” Angie shot back.
“By two minutes,” Yumi joked.
“Hey c’mon. I’m here, ain’t I?”
The group traded light-hearted jabs while they waited for Yuki. Sarah toyed with her locks while scrolling through her phone. She had a knack for multi-tasking. Jason was rocking a new anime shirt. Finding clothes that fit his hulking frame was difficult so he looked very happy. Yumi looked as put together as she usually did, despite the bruised cheek and skinned knees. It looked like she put on a new dress shirt after her encounter.
“Yooohoooo!” A cheerful voice called out. The group turned to see Yuki’s bright spiky pink hair and his sunny smile poking out from the entrance to the gas station. “Awww, you guys care about me that much?!”
Angie smirked, “Nah, we’re just worried we’ll lose our mascot.”
“You off work yet?” Yumi asked.
“Just gotta take out the trash and then I’m home free,” Yuki answered.
“Well get a move on then, loser. You don’t wanna be here all night, do you?” Angie said sarcastically.
“Go ahead and finish up, Yuki. We’ll be here when you’re done,” Jason said, cutting off the verbal duel. Yuki gave a hearty salute. “Okie dokie! See you in a secooooond~,” Yuki sang and disappeared from view.
“He was made for customer service,” Sarah quipped. The rest of the group gave a nod of approval. His cute face and sweet sunny personality made him inviting and easy to talk to. “Actually, Yuki’s thinking about enrolling at a hero school,” Yumi added. Sarah looked up from her phone in shock. “Wait! Seriously?!” Yumi nodded. “Yeah, he mentioned putting a local one on his list of high schools he wants to apply to.”
“Out of all of us, he has the best shot at it, “ Jason added, “Might even do pretty well, too.” Angie ruminated on the news. Jason was right. Yumi and Yuki both had solid chances to make something of themselves. Yumi even got into a pretty prestigious high school on account of her academic gifts. And the siblings had no relatives with criminal history to speak of, despite their family’s circumstances. I AM happy for Yuki, Angie thought, and I guess he would be a good hero. Still, she couldn’t manage to share in the enthusiasm.
The group continued to gossip until Yumi addressed Angie directly. “Hey, didn’t you say you’d get me a snack.” Angie smirked and shrugged. “I did say that, didn’t I.”
“Can we get something now? I haven’t had dinner yet.”
“Sure, why not?”
Angie and Yumi broke off from the group and entered the gas station. Yumi browsed the aisles looking for her favorite snacks and Angie hung out near the register to wait. She looked around and noticed she couldn’t see Yuki anywhere. Another employee with a reptilian animorph quirk came out of the back room behind the counter and up to the register. “Good evening, miss. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Just waiting for my friend to pick out what she wants,” Angie responded then continued. “Hey, we’re actually waiting for Yuki to get off work, do you know where he is?” The employee crossed his arms in thought. “Last I saw him, he was going out back to take out the trash.” Taking a long time to take out a couple bags of trash, Angie thought. She had a sinking feeling. She looked for Yumi and found her near the chips holding a rice ball and decaf coffee. Angie took the cash Noroi gave her earlier out of her pocket and handed it to Yumi. “Here you go.” Yumi gave her a quizzical look. Angie gave her an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, I just gotta check on something real quick.” Angie jogged out the door and passed by Sarah and Jason, too caught up in their own conversation to notice her.
Angie made her way around the building. She heard a commotion as she got closer and she sped into a sprint. As she rounded the corner, she caught sight of Yuki being slammed against the dumpster by none other than Toma, his large frame towering over his victim. Yuki was putting up a good struggle, his hedgehog quirk on full display; baring his fangs and clawing at his assailant as best he could, his hair hardened into spikes. But without being able to curl into a ball, his ability to defend himself was near impossible. Angie didn’t slow down and barreled toward Toma, wrapped some of her feathers around her fists and then punched Toma full force in the head. Then grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for another punch. She took advantage of his confused state and delivered a swift uppercut to his jaw. Blood spurted out of Toma’s mouth. Angie went in for another punch but Toma put his arms up and blocked her attack. He then took advantage of the contact and hooked his arm around hers and pulled her in. Angie saw the skin around Toma’s fist harden before letting loose a barrage of punches to her stomach. “Little bitch,” he cursed. “Takes one to know one,” Angie spat and wrapped her arm around his head and gripped his hair and yanked as hard as she could. He let go of his grip to try and remove hers and Angie took advantage of his stance to knee him in the groin. He doubled over in pain and she proceeded to knee him in the stomach. She got a couple good hits in until Toma grabbed her leg and tackled her to the ground.
Before he could start his assault, a ball of spikes ran him over. On the other side of Toma, Yuki uncurled and landed on all fours then sprinted for another go, curling back into a ball and used the momentum of the sprint to bowl over Toma again. Angie used the time to get back on her feet to continue the fight. Suddenly red and blue lights lit up the alley and Angie and Yuki turned around to see five police officers with their guns drawn. “This is the police,” one of the officers announced, “Cease your assault and put your hands over your head!” Angie swore under her breath and complied, as did Yuki. Toma on the other hand turned and fled. Two officers broke off and pursued Toma. One of the heros Angie saw earlier, the one with spring legs bounced overhead on top of the gas station and joined the officers who stayed behind while the other one, the one with thrusters and oversized Heelies, zoomed past the alleyway on the street to pursue Toma.
The officers approached Angie and Yuki cautiously. Yuki looked worried and worse for wear. His nose was definitely broken and his lip split open, blood dripping from his chin, and his eye was starting to swell. Angie’s knuckles stung from her feathers digging into her skin and blood covered her hands. She was pretty sure she was going to have a nasty bruise on her stomach later. With the security of the hero not far behind, the police holstered their weapons. “Face the wall and put your hands behind your heads.” Angie and Yuki complied and the officers handcuffed them. Then they were both escorted to the police vehicles. When they exited the alley, Angie saw the spring hero keeping Jason, Sarah and Yumi away from the scene. Having seen the commotion they rushed to see what was going on. “Angie, what happened?!” Jason asked. The spring hero stepped in front of him, “Please sir, I’m requesting that you step back.” Sarah got up in his space. “Or what! Those are our frie—“ she stopped when she caught sight of Angie’s stern gaze. Angie shook her head and jerked her head to the side and then followed the police to their cars. “Ma’am, I’ll ask you one more time to back away and leave the scene,” the hero warned.
Sarah dropped her shoulders and backed off and Jason put his hand on her shoulder and gently guided her away. Yumi stayed back for a second and Yuki turned to give her a wide, albeit pained, smile. She returned it with a worried one and then turned to follow Jason and Sarah.
Angie and Yuki got put into seperate cars. From inside the police car, she saw the hero and the officers converse for a bit before he took off in the direction the other hero went. Angie released the tension and slouched in her seat. She leaned her head against the window. The officer got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. And then off they went with the other police car following behind. She watched the lights whiz by as they traveled down the expressway. Damn it, Angie thought, Noroi’s going to kill me.