The Hunter Becomes The Hunted
Summary: On another hero hunt, Garou sets his sights on a S-Rank Hero by the name of Gorgeous Gladiator, a magical girl hero, and gets more than he bargained for.
A/N: Have you ever fallen on your back so hard the wind gets knocked out of you? It’s not fun and it hurts so bad that you want to eat somebody lol. Nothing romantic in this but maybe in a future fic. Wrote this cause I recently started OPM and fell for Garou so hard that I wanted to break the bricks off of him.
So far, Garou has not made it a point to add female heroes to his hunts. Mainly based off the fact that there’s not a lot of high ranking ones.
Tornado of Terror proved to be evasive, she wouldn’t give him the time of day and clearly regarded him as merely a nuisance that didn’t deserve her attention.
However, there was another one that was way easier to get to.
Real name? Unknown to public, obviously. But you’re hero name? Gorgeous Gladiator. A magical girl looking hero surrounded in bright colors. Honestly, to him you looked like a joke.
He didn’t understand what children (or anyone for that matter) saw in you because to him, you were like an aged out idol trying to desperately cling to the popularity of your youth. (That was rude bitch)
‘Pathetic.’ He thought when he watched coverage of you defeating a demon level monster and posing for the cameras.
Though, he will admit it was cute watching the crowd of children mimic you. During one post-battle interview, you struck your signature poses and spouted your signature line.
“Gorgeous Gladiator, I save the innocent!” You hit a Pirouette before winking at the camera with a peace sign. “And destroy the villainous!”
And the kids watching the broadcast followed suit. Each of them flashing their own unique pose.
In hindsight, he wonders if those kids noticed something about you that the adults never caught onto because some of their poses made them look like little henchmen to a villain, not the pupils of a magical girl.
He probably would have completely changed his mind on targeting you but you found him first.
The Day of The Encounter
He had just wasted some weak hero desperate to prove himself by trying to take out the infamous ‘hero hunter’.
Of course, said hero was beaten to a pulp but just as Garou was about to walk away…
“Gorgeous Love Boop!”
He turned to see you posing as you sent off an attack. A pathetic one at that. A small, slow moving attack that was making its way to him…………………
………………♥️……………
Slowly but surely.
You were in your civilian clothes holding a bag of groceries. You didn’t look like you were ready for a fight.
“You messing with me? You know who I am and this is all you—”
A sudden urge overtook him as he jumped back from the small bubble. He watched with intensity as the bubble collided with a pole and merely popped.
‘It…it wasn’t a bomb?’ He thought. The bubble was so small and slow, it was clearly supposed to throw people off. ‘It wasn’t a trap?’
Your giggling cut the tension. “Aww, is the big bad hewo hunter scared of bubble gum? And here I thought you’d be a threat.”
“You…” He growled.
“Oh well.” You shrugged and turned your back to him.
That pissed him off, unaware that he was playing into your hands.
The monster dashed around to your front, launching a punch to your face. You caught it with ease, shocking him. Your palm enclosed his fist and while it looked like you were softly holding his fist, Garou’s perspective was VASTLY different.
Around his fist was a grip so tight, it felt like you were trying to crush an egg. Your fingers dug into his hands and he was sure you were trying to draw blood.
“The other heroes called you a monster. I wonder what color you bleed…monster.” You had said that last bit with such malice, that he forgot the dynamics in play.
Garou was so focused on your hand squeezing his that he failed to notice the bigger red flag. His eyes looked up to see your mouth contorted into a menacing grin. Your canines baring and everything.
You were like a hungry beast.
You came to him.
You were looking for him.
The hunter was being hunted.
Like a scared animal, Garou attacked again, attempting to send his other fist into your face but once again, you caught it.
“I was starting to think you were purposefully avoiding me, hunter. I’ll admit, it hurt. I was SO excited to hear about you and waited like a kid waiting for Santa Claus. But then you never showed up when I defeated those monsters. I even made sure not to look exhausted to show I was ready for a fight just in case you only fight heroes that are ready. But then I thought of something worse, maybe I wasn’t even on your list because I was a woman. Y’know some heroes are sooo 1700s. They have such backwards views on female warriors. I don’t mind the ones who wanna be gentlemen and all but the ones that annoy me are the ones that think they’re stronger than me cause they’ve got dicks when they couldn’t even beat a wolf level threat at tic-tac-toe. I’ve been fighting monsters for years while they were still trying to get girls to talk to their sorry asses. Being a villain wouldn’t have worked out too much for me, y’see? My patron and I realized that a long time ago. But a hero? It’s perfect. Villains ain’t got no morals. No chivalry. No code of honor. They never cared that I was a little girl and they always went all out. The monster problem in Japan was a dream come true but there was competition for the big fish and then you showed up, hunter. My precious golden goose sitting pretty on my alter of blood.”
Your rambling had caught him off guard and all he could think was:
‘What…the fuck…is we…DOING?’
“So let’s dance, MONSTER!” Then, you delivered a mean knee to his jaw (with sparkly vfx to add insult to injury) stirring him out of his shock as he was pushed backwards.
He was hunting you and you were trying to be found yet he wasted time and energy on nothing heroes and you were waiting for him. Like a demented princess in a tower waiting on a knight with a dagger behind your back.
There was no dragon around your tower. You WERE the dragon and the princess was an illusion made of nets.
You flashed your normal peace sign as seen in the interviews, but you slowly positioned your two fingers in front of your forehead, mimicking a demon.
That set off your transformation in a cloud a smoke that overtook the whole area. It’s flashy on tv but in real life? Garou saw it clearly, this was a deliberate tactic.
He felt his edginess flare up.
‘Where did you go?’
“Since sneaks are allowed…!” You shouted, you voice carried a menacing echo.
He felt the air shift behind him. He spun around and blocked you kick attack. You had tried descending onto him with an axe kick and the force was something else.
With your attack blocked, you jumped back a bit.
“So, monster, you gonna go all out? Or are you just a pup?” You asked with an evil smirk.
You kept calling him monster. Sure, all of the heroes he had beaten bloody called him a monster but there was something…deliberate about how you did it.
Like……ohhhh.
It was deliberate.
No one will stop you from beating a monster to a pulp. Oh…so you were a monster too.
“Ok…I understand it now.” He said calmly.
“Oh? Do you now? Well then, what’s it gonna be, monster?”
Finally getting into it. Garou smirked. “Let’s dance, hero.”
The grin on your face grew larger. You wasted no time in charging towards Garou again, swinging your scepter toward him like a bat. Much like the kick, he blocked it.
But you wasted no time, snapping out of his vision. He tried anticipate it.
‘She’s coming from up top again!’
He felt his balance shift as you appeared behind him and ducked down, delivering a sweeping kick to the back of both of his ankles, effectively sweeping him off his feet.
Another opponent probably would’ve fell straight to the floor. But Garou wasn’t going to let himself become your next sacrifice.
Once his back touched the ground, Garou kicked up back onto his feet, clearly quicker than you anticipated which allowed him to punch you square in the stomach, sending you sliding back.
The punch hurt. There’s no point in denying that. You can see how so many lower ranked heroes get clonked out so easily and badly.
“How’s that…hero?” Garou chuckled.
You began nodding. “Yeah…yeah…I understand it now.”
“Well, then stop holding back on me! Or else I’ll kill you, right here and now.” He spoke the last part with such a menacing tone.
“Am I not going all out now?” You asked with an annoyingly sweet voice.
He glared at you for a moment. “You haven’t used your plastic toy at all.”
“It’s called the Scepter of Eternity…in public.”
“And in private?”
“The Scepter of Sacrifice. I only use it for serious threats, though.”
Garou didn’t appreciate your little jokes.
“Aw come on. It was just a joke, monster. Monsters can take jokes, can’t they?”
He flashed out of your vision.
“Apparently not.” You muttered.
You then quickly pulled out your scepter and braced yourself for his next attack. Firmly gripping the rod, you resonated with it causing it to glow your signature color and with a determined look, you called out one of your spells.
“Love Love Protect!”
A hardened shield enveloped you in time to catch Garou attempting the same axe kick you did earlier. When he tried to distance himself, he found that he couldn’t move.
Your voice was haunting. “What type of monster hunter would I be if I let catches escape?”
Sparks of electricity then began to materialize around the shield as you raised a hand and snapped your fingers, sending a shockwave of electricity outward and nearly roasting the hero hunter.
While the shield did let him go, he was shocked. Pieces of his clothes began to show weariness and parts of his skin were on their way to smelling like burnt flesh.
Garou knew that if he faced you, that Scepter of yours would be a challenge. He’s seen your fights in bits and pieces on the news. You didn’t exactly NEED it to use magic but it seemed to help for stronger attacks. Additionally, when you need it to, it can transform into other weapons.
One such battle you had turned it into an axe and decapitated hordes of zombies. Another battle saw you wrangling monstrous pigs with it as a lasso.
In hindsight, maybe he shouldn’t have egged you on to pull it out but his ego won’t allow him to beat an S-Rank hero at only half their strength.
When shit gets rough, he’ll just have to separate you from the scepter.
Garou charged towards you at break neck speed, leading the both of you into a vicious scramble. One that saw him needing to counter every one on of your attacks.
Blissfully ignorant of the destruction around you. You’ll deal with that earful from the Association later. Right now, you needed this. Months and months of dealing with mindless monsters who couldn’t last longer than ten minutes.
You NEEDED this.
There Garou stood, bruised and bloody. He was struggling to maintain his breathing as a cut above his eye kept leaking. You were doing better…only slightly. The benefit of being a magical being but that didn’t mean you were in the clear. Garou had successfully marked your skin with some bruising hits. Sure, you can heal faster than he could but it didn’t stop it from hurting.
A savage uppercut sent flying into the air before Garou appeared above your ascending form and brought a vicious axe handle down onto you torso, sending you flying hard into the ground, creating a small crater.
The air was knocked out of you but you couldn’t take a moment of reprieve. You knew that. Garou came down again, this time looking to practically put a dent into your stomach with a falling stomp. One that you managed to dodge in the nick of time with a roll, leaving Garou’s missed attack to create an even bigger crater.
Garou could only watch as your signature color washed over you and you charged at him. He prepped himself to be speared but that wasn’t the case as you launched yourself into the air to deliver a powered dropkick that sent Garou completely though a nearby clothing store.
You thought you would’ve had a moment to catch your breath but Garou was no longer going to let you keep your current strategy going.
‘She keeps sending me off to catch her breath…she’s testing me…she wants to see how safe it’ll be to up close and personal. I should let her think she can get closer and strike.’
He had managed to catch himself before he hit a wall and quickly charged back towards you. He managed to catch you off-guard with an elbow to the gut, sending you flying backwards with your spine hitting a lamppost but if Garou thought he had you, he was wrong because then he saw you rip the lamppost out from it’s mechanical roots before you launched the pole towards him in a fit of rage.
“THAT HURT, YOU DICKHEAD!” You shouted.
“Wha….IT WAS SUPPOSED TO! DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?!”
You let out a fierce war cry before charging towards him at nearly light speed.
‘Is this the spear?’
Nope!
Instead, you firmly wrapped your arms around Garou’s waist, lifting the hero hunter off of the ground and squeezing tightly, fully enveloping him into a straining Bear Hug. Garou felt like his bones were being ground together and you were not trying to let him go any time soon.
This proved to him your style. You mixed in professional wrestling into your book of moves but since most of your enemies were giant monsters, it was clear that you never had more opportunities to use more of these up close and personal moves.
But this was his opening.
He took the opportunity to chop you on the back of your neck. The pain causing you to loosen your grip on him but you did so by throwing him overheard towards where the lamppost once was.
Now the both of you both needed a moment. The rage fueled adrenaline was now wearing off and the spine inflicted on your spine was going into effect. Meanwhile, Garou wanted to get his breathing back to normal.
But your faster healing struck again, as you summoned your scepter once more. Garou began prepping himself for whatever attack you had in store.
CRASH!!
A thunderous sound of destruction a few blocks over caught the attention of the both of you.
You looked at each other, Garou could see your eyes desperately darting over to the source of the noise.
You’d be in trouble wouldn’t you? This close to a monster attack and didn’t immediately rush to the scene? You’d probably be hit with some penalty.
Another opportunity! But just as he was about to charge at you, he heard screaming. Screaming that sounded like children. You both exchanged glances before you huffed.
“Get yourself cleaned up, monster, we’ll finish this later. Love Love Cloud!” You shouted, manifesting a heart balloon object big enough for you to ride on and flew to the sound of the noise.
Garou could only look on in frustration, spitting some blood onto the ground before running off.
This was DEFINITELY not over.
