Koichi Haimawari vs. Number 6: Rematch

The Crawler vs. Number 6 is a battle taken place during the Naruhata Lockdown/Operation Anonymous between the Vigilante The Crawler and the Villain Number 6.

Prologue[]

After being forced to leave the hospital momentarily, Number 6 sends a bunch of Anonymous on a suicide mission to take down the police and Koichi's allies, as he rethinks his strategy to assassinate Kazuho. While trying to settle down and come up with a new plan, Number 6 sees The Crawler blasting his way into the sky, and deduces that he plans to leave Naruhata and call in All Might. His mental illusion of O'Clock tells Number 6 that he will have enough time to kill Kazuho and flee before All Might can get there in time. The villain does not like this though, because it would seem that he is “running scared” from Koichi, and would defeat the purpose if he was to remain "nameless and faceless." Ultimately, he decides to indulge and try to slaughter everyone himself.^[1]

As he flies away from the scene to summon All Might, Koichi thinks that he is doing the right thing because he knows that he is not capable to face the villain directly. However, he realizes that no matter how fast he is dashing, in the time it'll take him to call for help, his friends and allies will face Number 6 and his creatures alone, and may end up injured or even worse, so he decides to turn back, landing right behind Number 6 to finally confront him. Once he lands, the Anonymous stop moving since all the attention of Number 6 is focused on Koichi and his desire to eliminate him.^[2]

Battle[]

Number 6 taunts Koichi, asking if he is looking for a fight, but the young vigilante just asks him if he is the same person he met during the incident with Bee☆Pop, because his countenance is completely different. Number 6 freaks out when he realizes that he has had his real face on this entire time, and quickly changes it to Rokuro Nomura's. Number 6 comments that it’s his best face, but the problem is that it’s modeled on Koichi's, and because of that he angrily states that he has to disappear. Once he's gotten rid of him, the duo "Rock and Pop" will make a remarkable comeback, though the “O’Clock” personality says she’s a liability and she has to get eliminated.

Not wanting Kazuho to be in any danger, Koichi does something that takes Number 6 by surprise: He gets on his hands and knees and pleads with the villain that he’ll go away and disappear forever just on the condition that he doesn’t hurt Pop. Koichi's request pisses off Number 6, as he clarifies by making him “disappear”, he was actually talking about killing him.

Number 6 pulls his leg up and prepares to stomp on Koichi’s head using the bomber cells. To the villain's surprise, Koichi had foreseen this and uses his Ultimate Move, Kowtow Evasion, to avoid his explosive stomp, which destroys Number 6's right leg, having only the left to stand.

Koichi quickly slides behind the villain and uses High-Speed Double Sweep to trip him. Number 6 gets surprised when Koichi sweeps his pivot leg. Before the villain falls to the ground, Koichi jumps up and prepares to use a Shooty-Go-Kablam at full force. Number 6 tries to accelerate to avoid the attack but notices he is still on mid-air and can’t use Overclock. Being aware of Number 6's main weakness for monologues, thanks to a previous conversation with Soga, Koichi uses this opportunity to catch the villain off guard and ready to end it with a finishing shot to his head.

Unfortunately, right then Koichi remembers Kazuho's disapproving face whenever he shot his most lethal beams. This causes Koichi to hesitate for a second and miss the target. His hesitation gives Number 6 enough time to recover and speed up behind Koichi, mocking him for his missed shot before punching him with a powerful Knuckle Bomb.^[3]

Although the attack destroys his arm, Number 6 does not care and begins to regenerate it, commenting how the combination of his various Quirks gives him a limit of three explosive punches in one breath, although he thinks that only one has been enough to finally kill Koichi. Then the villain realizes that Moyuru and Rapt have been nearby watching the combat, and asks them to wait for their dying turn.

However, to all their surprise, Koichi gets back up relatively fine. Irritated, Number 6 wonders how he is still alive before attacking him again. "O'Clock" advises him to act calmly and suggesting to move even faster and observe what is happening in detail. Number 6 agrees while Koichi jumps back, trying to avoid Number 6's incoming explosive blow. This time, Number 6 notices Koichi uses the repulsion force from his Slide and Glide Quirk to disperse his explosions, as well to move backward at the moment of impact, neutralizing the damage. Number 6 calls out Koichi for breaking out another cheat code.

At first, "O'Clock" suggests to attack The Crawler quickly without giving him time to react since they only need one Knuuckle Bomb to connect, but after seeing Koichi on guard, and recognizing his speed, maneuverability, and flight, he instead suggests a retreat and to strike another day. This suggestion frustrates Number 6 even more, to the point of calling Koichi a freaking pest. In the end, he decides to ignore "O'Clock"'s warnings and attacks Koichi again.

On the other hand, after dodging the last blow, Koichi realizes that sometimes he feels like his body is moving on its own, and how sometimes this makes some villains even angrier at him. Still, he plans to use this situation to his advantage to keep making Number 6 mad and buy time for everyone else.^[4]

Number 6 attacks with another explosive punch that Koichi just dodges and then runs away. This leads to a speedster fight. Both the vigilante and the villain are racing throughout the city, with Number 6 throwing explosive blow after explosive blow, trying to kill Koichi, who manages to dodge each of his attacks.

"O'Clock" tries to help Number 6 by reading Koichi's movements and plans. He warns him that his foe is taking him away from the hospital, trying to get him out of town so that he can enlist All Might's help while protecting the allies from him, and Number 6 is taking the bait. The villain annoyingly replies to the illusion to tell him something that he doesn’t know, and the only thing he has to do is kill him as soon as possible. He once again tries to hit him with an explosive punch, but Koichi instantly uses Slide and Glide to dodge to the side and keep his distance, causing Number 6 to miss again.

“O’Clock” figures out that Koichi’s been reading his patterns and using sound as his main marker when where Number 6 is when he makes his attacks, and instinctively dodging them. He suggests in order to catch him off guard, he’ll have to alter his approach to eliminate his hang time and draw closer. Number 6 agrees and thinks about how before the advent of Quirks, humans could run for 45km/hour, and once the body moves faster than that, air resistance pushes back.

Number 6 realizes that he has to do something to fight against the drag and comes up with the idea to mimic how The Crawler moves using his Slide and Glide Quirk. The villain begins to modify his body, developing claws and talons to grip the ground and crawl on all fours. This new style of running makes him move faster, and he dubs it “Number 6: Crawler Style”.

Koichi gets surprised when he sees Number 6 getting closer to him with his new running style. Koichi jumps and turns backward to use Shooty-Go-Blam-Blam-Blam-Blam-Blam, blasting off several repulsion blasts towards Number 6, who dodges all the strikes, much to Koichi’s shock. Taking advantage of the fact that his prey is the one still in the air this time, Number 6 passes Koichi and catches him from behind. The villain taunts him once again before attacking him from the back with a detonation punch.

However, to his surprise, Koichi manages to project a force field from his back and block the explosion. Number 6 quickly uses his left hand to try to another punch, but Koichi again protects himself from the explosion using his Quirk. The explosions send Koichi flying and rolling on the ground, but he doesn't have a single scratch.

Irritated by what had just happened, Number 6 realizes that Koichi can project the force field anywhere on his body, not only on his hands and feet, and starts to wonder how Koichi has been managing to keep up with his Overclock.^[5]

Furious at the fact that Koichi is still alive, Number 6 hits one of the cars on the street, causing it to blow up. As he heads towards Koichi, the villain explains the destructive power of his Knuckle Bombs, irritatingly asking him how he's still kicking after after being hit multiple times by this attack. Koichi is unable to give a proper answer, and "O'Clock" points out that he isn't playing dumb, so he deduces that Koichi has been able to protect himself from Overclock's attacks subconsciously.

After listening to the explanation, Number 6 believes that The Crawler just got lucky from surviving the previous strikes, and instead of going again with a calculated explosive punch, he goes with a brute force approach of attacking with volley of regular punches that go really fast, putting quantity before quality. Koichi is able to defend himself from the barrage of blows, although not without having a hard time.

"O'Clock" advises him that his tactic is ill-advised, as the Overclock Quirk is meant to accelerate one's thought process, allowing them to choose the optimal action each time, and states that without a power akin to All Might, he’s not going to be able to break through Koichi’s defenses. Number 6 tells his "Master" to stop lecturing him as he didn’t get the right body to use Overclock at his fullest potential, while he is able to push past his limits.

Number 6 continues with the rush attack, assuming that Koichi can't keep up, and he is just desperately moving around his force fields to block the attacks, but then he notices that Koichi’s defense is surprisingly precise, just barely able to react to his movements. The villain then decides to accelerate into high gear, increasing the speed of his punches, and finally he succeeds in overcoming Koichi's defenses, delivering a strong gut punch that stuns him, leaving him off guard to blow his head off with a Knuckle Bomb.

But as soon he’s about to use that explosive punch, Koichi instinctively reacts and fires a repulsion blast that grazes the face of Number 6, forcing him to back off. Perplexed, Number 6 wonders how he managed to interrupt his acceleration state since Overclock's speed is unmatched. “O’Clock” notices something about Koichi and comes to the conclusion that he has reached a level that his body can react subconsciously at a speed even greater than Number 6's brain processing.

He suggests to Number 6 that he abandon the mission entirely and be careful to never encounter The Crawler ever again, as Koichi possesses a superior Quirk, range attacks, defensive force field, and subconscious reflexes to trigger each of those actions when needed. He may only be able to flee and dodge currently, but in the days to come, if he perfects his abilities, Koichi will become Number 6's ultimate foil, a foe that he must avoid facing much like All Might.

Number 6 angrily rejects this suggestion, commenting that he doesn’t care about the upcoming days since his turn was supposed to be today. Number 6 gets furious and decides to use his full power to crush Koichi. The villain begins to modify and alter his own body, transforming into a monstrous creature with four eyes and a tail, which he dubs as Operation Anonymous "Phase 6": The Hi-Crawler.^[6]

Shocked that Number 6 has transformed again into a new monstrous form, Koichi comments that he now seems stronger than before. The villain declares it's built to withstand his high-speed movement and he is about to taste his true speed, dashing toward Koichi who is surprised by his blazing speed.

Number 6 runs past Koichi and tries to rip his legs off with his claws. By the skin of his teeth, the young vigilante manages to activate his Slide and Glide Quirk on his feet and move his legs back to avoid being sliced up. Number 6 keeps on swinging, but Koichi crouches to dodge another attack, and crawls back at full speed, being chased by the Villain.

Despite the situation, Koichi thinks he could keep dodging, as he realized that Number 6 slows down when he attacks with his claws. He decides to keep on crawling to stay safe, only to be caught off guard when the villain charges at him, landing a clean headbutt, followed by a body slam. These blows leave Koichi momentarily vulnerable, which is used by Number 6 to attack him furiously with a flurry of slices and, to make matters worse, this time Koichi realizes that Number 6 isn't slowing down at all.

Koichi tries to protect himself as best he can from the constant strikes of Number 6, taking all his focus to defend his vulnerable spots, but each hit is like a stab from a spear when they land on him, and sooner, he is no longer able to maintain his defenses, leaving an opening for Number 6 to land killing blow. Number 6 does not miss the opportunity, and Koichi thinks that he is going to die.

Inside the head of Number 6, "O'Clock" advises him against his current tactics. He tells him that even though his remodelled body structure allows him to use Overclock to superior levels, The Crawler is an unusual opponent.

Unlike most Heroes and Police who have been trained to make the first attack, throughout all of his life as a vigilante thus far, The Crawler has had so many fights where the opponent makes the first move, so his body has been fine tuned to become reactionary. All these years of combat experience has culminated in his body essentially able to move on its own to counter any attack, thus making him a Variant Fighter, as “O'Clock” dubs.

Completely moving his body with instinct alone, Koichi avoids Number 6's killing blow and then dodges and counters every one of his attacks with his Quirk and superior reflexes, which his eyes gloss over until he is in a safe distance again. Koichi is surprised that he somehow survived those dangerous blows, while “O’Clock” tells Number 6 that trying to overwhelm Koichi with speed won’t work, so he advises him to try another strategy, using the true purpose of “Phase 6.”^[7]

"O'Clock" gives Number 6 strategies in order to defeat Koichi. He warns him that using an O'Clock striking style is not suitable against a variant fighter like Koichi, so he needs to think steps ahead of The Crawler’s reflexes in order to corner him; Number 6 agrees to that plan.

To Koichi's surprise, Number 6 modifies his body once more, growing a pair of extra arms out of his back. Instead of using them to attack with more Knuckle Bombs, the villain generates lumps on his back loaded with explosive substances to use them as grenades. He uses the extra arms to pull several lumps off his back and throws them into the air.

This momentarily distracts Koichi, and Number 6 throws some bombs at his feet, forcing Koichi to jump in the air to avoid the explosions, thinking that the ones in the air were just a feint, only to realize that it is just the opposite, and those who are in the air are the real attack. With numerous bombs are all over around Koichi, the villain makes them explore like a mid-air minefield.

Koichi uses his Quirk to propel himself out from the explosions, however Number 6 notices that he still takes damage from the force of the blasts, so he throws a second wave of bombs at him, sure the attack will finish the job. Koichi uses his Shooty-Go-Kablam to fire a large amount of repulsion blasts that destroys all the explosive projectiles from a safe distance.

The downside of overusing his Quirk is that it leaves him gasping and drained, unable to stay airbone for long. He falls into a pile of garbage, but he is fine and dashes away. “O’Clock” points out that the grenades were not the key to victory, so Number 6 comes up with a new strategy, reactivating the Anonymous.

Koichi is soon chased by dozens of the mindless automatons. He spins with the intention of shooting repulsion beams to hold them off, but the Shooty-Go-Blam is a no-go against the Anonymous, and the Shooty-Go-Kablam against their legs is ineffective, so he keeps fleeing to avoid get flanked.

“O’Clock” states to Number 6 that Phase 6 of Operation Anonymous is throwing all available resources at the target, and he is able to do this because his monstrous body allows his brain to withstand the burn of having to control all the Anonymous and accelerating his cognitive abilities simultaneously. Number 6 feels like his brain is on fire because of this, filled with rage and hatred that shoots his synapses as messages to each individual Anonymous, aiming a web of pure bloodlust directed at Koichi.

"O'Clock" proceeds to think to himself that while the "mission" is a failure, when it comes to the “experiment” as a whole, it has taken an intriguing turn. With a sinister smile, “O’Clock” encourages Number 6 to follow his twisted path and seek his culmination to surpass every last limit.^[8]

The Anonymous continue chasing after Koichi, self-destructing with an explosion when they are near him. Koichi tries to evade them by sliding down an alley, but there are two Anonymous waiting for him and they blow-up on the spot. Koichi manages to avoid the explosion by taking a great leap backwards, but while he is in the air, he notices two bystanders in the street, clueless by what is happening and unaware that several Anonymous are approaching them from behind, ready to detonate. Koichi jumps behind the two and takes the massive blow, saving their lives.

Even though his Quirk protected him from being blasted away, he is not unscathed. Still, Koichi makes sure the pair are unharmed, telling them to take shelter before he continues dashing away, with more Anonymous still on his tail. Koichi realizes that he has to go somewhere where there are no citizens that might get hurt, so heads down a straight road out of the neighbourhood, with the intention of escaping and getting a hold of All Might.

What he does not know is that he had fallen into Number 6's trap. The villain had strategically controlled the self-destructing automatons to push Koichi to choose precisely that route, making him careless enough that he can finally eliminate him with a supersonic shot.

Positioned at the top of a building, Number 6 extracts parts of a rifle that he had hidden inside him along with the barrel and the bullets. Then, he modifies and restructures his body once more to turn it into a human sniper rifle, dubbed “Number 6: Sniper Style.”

Using Overclock to its fullest capacity to stimulate his brain to perform the precise calculations, take into account any factors that might influence the shot, and focus all his rage and bloodlust on the target, Number 6 is about to blow Koichi's brains out, excited that he will never know what has struck him.

However, Number 6 is so focused on Koichi that he doesn't notice the arrival of a new and unexpected opponent.

Aftermath[]

Before Number 6 can pull the trigger to kill Koichi, he is attacked by surprise, punches to the head. Knuckleduster reveals himself, assuring the villain that whatever he is planning it won't happen because he is there.^[9] The veteran vigilante had meticulously planned that trap with which to end Number 6, waiting for the best moment to completely frustrate the villain's plan.^[10]

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