Issue #23: Behind the Mask'Those fucking assholes…' She thought annoyed as she kept jumping from building to building.

  She never felt this angry at someone escaping her before. She didn't even feel fazed when she fought stronger opponents than her. It only made her more eager to keep fighting until she could overwhelm them and achieve victory.

  But there was something about Smiley that triggered something in her.

  Something she couldn't put her finger on.

  Something primal.

  And it annoyed her to no end.

  She growled as her rabbit-like feet nded close to the window of a skyscraper and jumped to the opposite building in a diagonal direction.

  Memories of her encounters with Smiley began to resurface once more.

  Their first ever encounter.

  Another day, another mundane patrol.

  Until he appeared.

  A vilin with a gigantification quirk she was about to fight, was immediately brought to the ground by a yellow, bck and white blur. At the time,she had only felt mild annoyance that her prey was taken down by a complete nobody. But it turned out that 'that nobody' was a vilin that cospyed as a hero like a total loser.

  Her annoyance grew, but something else was kindled deep inside of her.

  A feeling of eagerness for a challenge.

  It only grew bigger when the 'Hero Public Safety Commission' offered an opportunity- that the next time she saw him, she would be the one to put a stop to him.

  The thing was, even though she often failed to capture Smiley, she began to look forward to their encounters.

  The exhirating feeling of meeting someone that would match her energy, her drive to improve and face strong opponents.

  And she knew he felt the same.

  She couldn't quite expin it, but she could understand him each time they traded blows.

  Seeking him became an obsession.

  It didn't matter what she was doing before. The moment she got a lead on his appearance in public, she would follow it until they met again. Everything else became an obstacle.

  But after today's events, her mood soured.

  He's been pulling his punches since day one.

  Learning he had the ability to kill her at any moment felt like getting drenched with a bucket of cold water.

  She tsked in annoyance.

  There had been an encounter in which she had clearly heard his leg being pushed to its limits, she was sure she cracked it. Was that fake too? Did he underestimate her on purpose that day?

  That thought only angered her more.

  She didn't give a fucking damn that Smiley killed in cold blood. The victim was definitely a vilin; it didn't matter what those assholes thought. She knew deep down that he wouldn't strike a civilian, especially with another hero there.

  What pissed her off was their interference.

  The information of him holding back.

  "Next time I see you-" she got cut off as she miscalcuted her jump from one building to the next. As she began to fall, she remembered the time when the two of them had taken care of a brawl on the street, and she had seen him in the air.

  He wasn't flying like people thought.

  He was kicking the air itself.

  With a grunt, she tensed briefly as she fell and she kicked the air as rapidly as she could - several times in less than a second - and immediately she felt it. It was as if she had leapt off of a solid surface and propelling herself forwards, she nded on the roof of the next building.

  As soon her feet touched an actually solid surface, the sneer that had been pstered across her face receded and was repced with a bloodthirsty grin- one that kept growing until it couldn't grow any rger.

  "Heh… So this is how you do it, huh?" She asked herself with mirth, but her expression dropped as one of her rabbit-like ears twitched. Her eyes narrowed as she directed her attention towards the sound of an explosion and a column of slowly rising smoke in the distance.

  The heroine known as Mirko crouched and jumped to the next building with all her might.

  Her lips curled upwards the closer she came to the epicenter of the explosion.

  Nothing could sour the etion she felt at that moment.

  "Your secret ain't so secret anymore," She whispered to herself, all the while utilizing Smiley's technique to readjust and increment her speed in mid air. "Just you wait. The next time we see each other…"

  Mirko's feet blurred while in the air and flew towards the street as she saw a group of robbers running away from the bank towards their car.

  She raised her leg.

  "You won't be able to escape me!!"

  "Hmm…" She quietly hummed, gaining the attention of her teammate and friend.

  The brown haired young woman to her side turned her head towards her while holding a gss of beer.

  "Something wrong, Tomoko?" Shino asked, making the rest of the group who were seated on the table around her perk up.

  The green haired woman blinked before she looked at the confused faces of her friends.

  The members of 'The Wild Wild Pussycats'.

  "Mmmm… I guess I've been pretty distracted tely, that's all," Tomoko, hero name 'Ragdoll', said before reaching for a slice of meat with her chopsticks, dipping it in the egg dip and taking a bite with a content smile.

  Yawara, hero name: 'Tiger', raised an eyebrow as the silence dragged on, only interrupted by the sounds of eating.

  Ryoko, hero name: 'Pixie-bob', directed her gaze from her male teammate towards Tomoko while taking a sip from her beer.

  Shino, hero name: 'Manday' and leader of the group, made an uncomfortable sound as they waited for her to continue.

  But it appeared to them that she was no longer interested in resuming her piece, so Shino began to make an attempt to guide the 'conversation' in another direction.

  "Uh… so…" She began, only to be interrupted by Tomoko.

  "That time at the Sky Egg," she said with a thoughtful expression as she put her chopsticks down after finishing her part of the meal and raised her index finger and touched her chin. "The course of events leading to the fall of the tower made me forget somewhat, buuuut I think for a moment I saw Smiley's true identity."

  The eyes of the brown haired woman widened.

  Cough Cough Cough

  Everyone's heads snapped towards Ryoko who was coughing uncontrolbly after inhaling the beer she had been in the middle of drinking. Immediately, Tiger began to pat her back while sporting a distressed expression.

  Manday's gaze went back to Ragdoll who was calmly taking a sip of her drink with a smile on her face as if she had been talking about the weather.

  A few beads of sweat fell from her friend's brow.

  She licked her dry lips before opening her mouth.

  "Uh… Are we…?" She began before stopping.

  Tomoko could immediately tell Shino's head was working overtime to come up with a proper question. It made her feel nostalgic for their time as students.

  "Are we the only ones that know about this?" Maday asked with a frown, then her mouth opened. "Did you remember this just now or…?"

  "Mmm?" She made a cute sound, tilting her head to the side. "I did say I forgot because of the chaos. We were going to die."

  She paused, raising her gss to her lips.

  "But I remembered three days ago."

  "Thr- Three days ago?! Wh… Why are you telling us now?!" The brown haired woman loudly asked in disbelief. "This is important! We need to tell the other heroes and the authorities as soon as possible!"

  Tomoko took another sip of her drink.

  "I don't think that's a good idea," Ragdoll said with a shrug, finishing the rest of her drink.

  "Why not!"

  "Because I don't think I should?"

  Shino was taken aback by her "answer". She opened her mouth to inquire about her reasoning but Ryoko beat her to the punch.

  "Why not?! He's supposed to be beled as a vilin in a year from now!" Pixie-bob hissed, eyes wide. "Were you even listening to the debrief? For god's sake, he's a murderer!!"

  "Mhm. I was listening," she nodded, putting her empty gss on the table. A contemptive expression marred her face before she started to rub her chin. "But I was unsure at the moment. I still am."

  Tomoko's gaze met the rest of the team, but more precisely the leader, Manday, who opened her mouth then closed it, then opened it again.

  "Ah… You told me you saw him once before during one of our patrols," a look of comprehension fshed through her eyes as she began to discern details of every single conversation and information they got of the viginte.

  "His strengths were only physical in nature back then. He has been growing in power ever since Eraserhead made contact. You managed to get a glimpse a few years ago. Your quirk… it's able to store information of every single person your eyes y upon."

  A frown marred her friend's face that kept intensifying as she loudly voiced her insights.

  "Back then you were hesitant on telling us more details besides his physical condition and weaknesses. But we didn't mind, Smiley wasn't our priority, he didn't really approach our sector anyway… You were relieved of something…"

  Tomoko winced.

  "You… You kept the information of his location all this time, but you never told a soul. Not even us. So the next time you saw… him…"

  Manday's head snapped to her, eyes wide open in shock.

  "What did you see?" She silently asked.

  Ragdoll closed one of her eyes and tried to hide between her shoulders in shame.

  "Tomoko, I'm asking a question. What did you see?"

  The green haired woman let out a long sigh before opening her mouth.

  "The first time I saw him… He was young. Very young," she said, looking down to her interced hands. She nervously began to py with her thumbs. "I kept tabs on him from time to time, but as we went on other patrols, took care of vilins and made rescues in the mountains I forgot to check on him… So…"

  Her gaze slowly went up, only to meet the stunned expressions of the rest of the team.

  "The next time I saw him at the 'Sky Egg' tower. Um… He was still young."

  It took a while, but Tiger was the one to voice the question that everyone was thinking.

  "How young?"

  …

  "16?"

  …

  "WHAT?!"

  'It's been a while since the st time we had a meeting without the old man,' I thought as I ate my bowl of noodle soup.

  It kinda resembled a ramen, the only difference being that it had less ingredients, a small piece of meat and cheap noodles, garnished with green onions and cabbage that were harvested from the small garden one of my clones has been maintaining on the roof of the warehouse.

  My eyes nded on a pink haired teen who was looking at her phone in total concentration and scribbling some words in her notebook while she ate from her bowl from time to time.

  Then my gaze turned to the left, only to fall on a small gir- young woman of red hair who had a ptop open in front of her with multiple streams and new channels open, her bowl on the table, empty. Her hands flew across the keyboard, rapidly opening and closing tabs as she worked.

  'Weird… Most of the time I'm the one who concentrates on my work as a hero during meals... Well, at least I'm not eating on the streets like I used to,' I mused while looking at my food. ' …For some reason Manami and Kazuho have been putting a lot of their time into helping me.'

  I managed to catch both of them gncing towards each other before directing their attention back to their devices.

  'Well. As long as they don't push themselves too hard I won't stop them,' I hummed as I silently slurped the rest of the noodles.

  I heard Kazuho sigh. Putting her cellphone aside, she grabbed both sides of the bowl and drank what was left of the broth.

  Old man knuckles was still in bed. Salt did say he needed a few more weeks before he could start the steps for his recovery, so it was only a matter of time before he's in top shape and he'd be able to drop by and we could resume our work as heroes.

  Or he could finally visit his daughter.

  Last time I heard, that guy with the spikes and his friends were taking care of her needs.

  Once I finished my food, I put my bowl on the table and opened my mouth.

  "Have you girls noticed it yet?" I asked them, gaining their attention. "The cases of triggers in this and nearby districts have been going down since we took care of the culprit of the terrorist attack at Sky Egg."

  "A-Ah yes, but they're not completely gone. In fact," Manami said, trailing off for a moment as she pressed a few keys of her ptop and turned it so I could see it. "As you can see in the footage of yesterday's vilin attack, the criminal injected himself with a trigger pump before he could fight Ingenium's team. But it seems the vilin was aware of what he was doing."

  "Not only that, but the use of trigger is still prevalent in cities across the country. Some of them are not even close to Naruhata," Kazuho followed by showing me a few pictures of some ninja hero fighting a man made of rock, one of the pictures showcased a bck tongue hanging out of the rock man's mouth. "Maybe someone took over?"

  "Or maybe there are other suppliers unreted to the previous operation," the red haired woman commented while giving a side gnce towards Pop. She turned her ptop back so she could resume her research.

  "You could ask Iwao when you are free."

  I remained silent, observing them for a bit before I looked at the clouds that were zily moving by.

  Immediately after I heard Manami press the button of her earpiece and speak.

  "Five blocks to your right there's a car chase in action. One of them has a lighting quirk." I heard my clone mutter 'Got it' through the earpiece, before it went silent.

  The sound of Kazuho giving instructions to my other clone through the walkie-talkie came after.

  Kshh…

  "Gu- I mean Hood, tell me your location…"

  I heard my clone response but I immediately forgot it. No need to put in effort if it didn't involve me.

  "Um… ok, there's a fire in the residential area close to where you are. Do you see the smoke?"

  I see it.

  "Mr. Gentleman, the viginte, is on the scene. No other heroes yet."

  Got it. Keep me informed.

  Kshh…

  "You almost said his name," Manami muttered while she kept loudly pressing the keys of her ptop. "Do you want him to get caught?"

  "Y-You…! Y-Yeah?! Well you do the same thing too!"

  "Ghk!" I heard Manami grunt. I reminisced on all the times they both called me by my name on patrols. Which happened way too often for comfort. "That happened once. I didn't know any better!"

  "Liar! You've done it just as much- if not more - than me!" Kazuho excimed loudly. It seemed like she was actually getting heated

  'Hm… This is getting out of control,' I thought while idly listening to their bickering, but for some reason I didn't find it annoying at all. It reminded me of simpler times. When I used to argue and butt heads with Salt whenever he annoyed me. 'But I don't want them to keep fighting, so I guess I'll intervene.'

  I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then I opened them.

  'Oh. I know.'

  Compliments.

  Girls like compliments.

  Girls like to receive compliments.

  "Y'know," I began, gaining the attention of both girls as I kept my eyes fixed on the blue sky, sporting a pcid expression. "I've been training so much that I keep forgetting how much I like these meetings. Old man knuckles told me to cherish these types of moments. I guess he can be right sometimes…"

  I saw a few birds fly north.

  A smile adorned my face.

  "What I'm trying to say is… I'm gd I met both of you." I said before lowering my gaze, closing my eyes and my smile widened. "I don't know what I would do if you weren't here with me."

  Opening my eyes I blinked, noticing their red faces. Kazuho's eyes went to the side while Manami just timidly nodded before she tried to hide her face behind her ptop.

  'Did I say something wrong?' I wondered. I inclined my head to the side in confusion. 'Well, at least they're not fighting anymore… so I'll take it as a win.'

  We stayed in a slightly awkward silence that was broken by Kazuho sliding her notebook to me.

  "H-Here you go Gurē. I organized the social media accounts you could follow for live disasters and locations of heroes," the pink haired girl informed me while sporting a serious expression. My eyes drifted towards the highlighted… symbols with yellow marker. No pictures in sight. "And I wrote a report of the upcoming vilins that have made an appearance recently."

  Oh…

  She wants me to read it.

  And use a phone.

  Mmm…

  "Uh… how do I put this?" I loudly pondered while scratching my cheek, I could feel the droplets of sweat run down from my head to my chin. I lifted my eyes from the notebook and I awkwardly smiled. "I can't read this."

  …

  "Eh?" Were the words that came from Pop's mouth. My eyes shifted to the side and saw Manami looking directly at me, confused as well. "Why not? Is my handwriting that hard to follow?"

  "Maybe it's too long. He's a busy hero," Manami said, moving her eyes towards Kazuho and narrowing her eyes. "Gurē doesn't have the time to waste it on searching and sorting accounts of celebrities or livestreamers. That's your job."

  "H-Hey! I just want to share my findings with him. We're supposed to rey information to each other and work together!" Kazuho grumbled, looking straight to the red haired young woman while sporting a frown. "Right, Gurē?"

  "Leave him out of this!" Manami excimed, raising her voice. I blinked as she pointed her finger in Pop's direction. She locked eyes with me for a second before returning to the pink haired teen. "Gurē, you don't need to respond to anything she says. In fact, if she asks you to accompany her to any of her events just say no!"

  "Ah?!" I grimaced in discomfort as they both kept increasing the volume of their voices. "He can refuse at any time! Gurē likes to hang out with me, that's why he goes with me!"

  'There was a time I didn't want to go though… but she doesn't need to know that,' I thought, uncomfortable. I released a long sigh that went unheard.

  Why did it come to this?

  We were supposed to have lunch, pn the rest of the week and mingle.

  Why did I open my mouth?

  What a drag…

  "Y-Yeah? Well he also likes to spend his time with me!" Manami countered immediately. "He visits my apartment all the time! And we hug and have dinner together! I don't need to ask him to come either! He visits me on his own accord!"

  "Grrr!" Kazuho growled, irritated. At this point they were almost butting heads by how close they were to each other.

  That's it!

  Before any of them could open their mouths I raised my voice.

  "Stop it already." They yelped and directed their gazes at me. I didn't need to yell to get their attention - They flinched as they saw my irritated expression anyway. "I don't know what's going on between you two, but whatever it is, it needs to stop! Kazuho is right. We're a team. We're supposed to work together."

  My expression softened as I saw them lower their eyes.

  "Manami. Pop. Nothing makes me happier than saving lives and spending my time with you. Both of you," I said, smiling with my eyes closed, praying that they'd listen to what I had to say and calm down. "So please… don't fight."

  I opened my eyes just to witness the red haired woman pying with one of her pigtails while the pink haired teen scratched her cheek. Pink dust covered their faces.

  Their eyes were locked with mine.

  My smile faltered as I remembered the thing that started it all.

  Well… Here goes nothing.

  "Um… So… Ahem!" I made a fist and put it in my mouth, embarrassed by what I was about to say. "Kazuho, you asked me to read your notes before. And I appreciate the help, really. But… T-To be completely honest…"

  The next words got caught up on my throat for a moment, but the moment I saw their faces I sighed in defeat.

  "I… Um… I don't know how to read."

  …

  "Uh?" "Eh?"

  "And that's it! Smiley is going to be beled as a vilin in a year from now. That would give us plenty of time to create strategies and contingency pns in case anything goes wrong," the man with dark blue hair said with a stern expression as he showcased the information he was delivered by his colleague, Eraserhead. "Any questions?"

  "Uh… Mr. Ingenium, sir?"

  "Yes, Crawler?"

  "I know this may sound kind of, um, well, selfish. But what about public appearances?" Koichi, his now sidekick, asked with his hand extended above his head. "Hospital visits and rescue drills in schools are important, right?"

  It didn't surprise him that a few sidekicks and interns joined Koichi, raising their concerns about the decision.

  Some of them had a more selfish outlook around the issue than others.

  As he kept listening to their questions and inquiries, he shifted his gaze across the room, and spotting a few fearful expressions he silently sighed. He tried not to think of Eraserhead's words during his second meeting when they exchanged ideas and requested insights on the situation.

  'Their first reaction will be to ask about public appearances. Heroes who only get into the job for fame are not needed. Make sure to cut those out of the operation.'

  His mouth turned into a thin line before he nodded to his team.

  "Yes. We discussed this issue in the debriefing after the Sky Egg incident. Team Idaten is going to split their focus into three different squads," Tensei expined, turning the projector off now that the presentation was over. "1st Squad will concentrate their efforts into rescues and information gathering to mobilize the rest of the team should the situation require it. 2nd Squad is going to be in both public appearances and rescue missions. This group in particur is going to work overtime to make up for the members who form part of the next squad, which brings us to: 3rd Squad. The members of this group in particur are going to cease all public appearances and will undergo a strict training regime - led by myself- for the sole purpose of preparing for confronting and capturing Smiley."

  He heard his team murmur between themselves and tried not to wince as he noticed a few people in the room visibly rexed by his words. Tensei pondered his next words while remembering what Eraserhead had said.

  'There's going to be decent heroes from your agency that would fit perfectly for the operation but they'd rather not participate. Make sure they don't run away. You're going to need every single hand on board.'

  Tensei closed his eyes, then he opened with determination.

  "You're free to request which squad you would prefer to be assigned to," he calmly expined, a serious expression marring his face. "But the squads are going to be assigned by me and I have the final say in the matter. If I see you fit for the 3rd Squad then you're in it. I don't want to hear any compints about it. Am I understood?"

  Annoyance began to bubble inside his chest at the ck of response.

  "AM I UNDERSTOOD?" He loudly asked, startling the people in the room.

  It was a huge contrast to his usual serious and cheerful way of addressing his team.

  But it was needed.

  'Not bad… But not good either… Dividing your agency into teams will give you the opportunity to undertake the training of the members you pick for the operation and keep doing rescues as your agency normally does. Your rank will go down, but you can remedy this by dealing with vilins whenever you're free.'

  Because the st thing he wanted…

  'But know this; The moment you give people the option to do what they want, they will always choose the easy way. Don't let them run all over you.'

  …Is to be a pushover.

  "YES SIR!" The rest of the team shouted in unison.

  A smile returned to his lips before he spoke.

  "Good! Now everyone is excused. Return to your posts, any further questions will have to wait until the end of the day," Tensei informed them before he started to gather the papers with information on Smiley and disconnected his ptop from the projector.

  He let out a sigh of relief the moment the st person left the room.

  'That was stressful,' the dark blue haired man thought. He took his briefcase and closed the door of the conference room. As he exited his agency's headquarters and made his way towards his car he pondered the course of events that had led to the meeting. 'Is it even possible to accomplish this task? I don't even think the time we have is going to be enough…'

  He tried not to think about it. Once inside his car he looked up and audibly sighed.

  "Why did you have to kill that person, Smiley? Everyone had… No. Everyone has so much respect for you… Why throw it away?" He muttered, distraught. "What happened? What pushed you over the edge to do something like this?"

  Without even moving his gaze he reached for his left pocket and brought up a small mint fvored bubblegum package. After his conversation with Eraserhead he quickly learned that while smoking could potentially help him rex, it wasn't for him. He could try to learn how to properly smoke, but as a hero that constantly ran at high speeds, it would end his career earlier than he would feel comfortable with.

  He brought a strip of bubblegum to his mouth. The artificially fresh taste of mint fvoring hit his taste buds the moment he began to chew.

  "Gurē." Tensei closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as the memory of a boy of whiteish hair, almost the same age as his little brother, ran with him through the less poputed streets of Naruhata. "Why of all heroes… you decided to choose Smiley to be your hero?"

  His hand covered his eyes and slowly began to fall until it nded on his thigh.

  'What should I do?' The high speed hero pondered, the only sound he could hear was the loud noise of the bubblegum being chewed. 'I can't tell him. And now that we're going to be putting all of our efforts into Smiley's capture, I won't even be able to donate to his shelter…'

  Tensei Iida closed his eyes, minutes passed as he went through his options and outcomes of his future actions.

  Then instead of Tensei, the person who ran with a teen of whiteish hair.

  Ingenium, the hero, opened its eyes.

  'This will be my st gift to you, Gurē. Because the moment we capture Smiley…' He thought with a grimace, he inserted the key into the ignition and turned it. The dark blue haired man moved his gaze towards the windshield and began to drive away from the parking lot of Idaten's building. 'I know you won't want to speak to me ever again.'

  I let out a small chuckle as I rexed the muscles of my back and shoulders while jumping from building to building.

  Old man Knuckles's pce had some perks. I had some doubts at first. I usually trained by hauling around boulders and tended to spar constantly against a clone who, while not being as physically stronger than me, knew all my abilities and weaknesses. It helped me to improve and find what I was cking. But carrying trains down their tracks and using chains to lift several engines at once… Well, it was an interesting way to exercise and I could see the results.

  Of course they were minimal in comparison to my early days, but should I keep at it, it wouldn't be too long before my speed, strength and coordination improved two, maybe three times over compared to my current levels.

  I breathed in as the cold wind of the morning passed me by. After a few grueling days of training non-stop, I decided to do a patrol as 'The Hood' to rex. While going as Smiley was more gratifying I felt taking it easy was the best course of action.

  One of my clones was off doing errands at multiple convenience stores to stock up on meat, canned food, spices and so on and so forth. All the while my other clone was patrolling as Smiley.

  Manami was directing my clone while Pop was busy with exams. From what she told me, she was about to finish high school really soon. She was really enthusiastic about being a hero with me full time, but just wasn't comfortable with that decision.

  She had a life ahead of her. I didn't want her to squander her dreams of becoming an idol just so she could help me.

  'Hmm… maybe Jin can make a clone of her in the future so she could help me while the original can dedicate her time into her idol career?' I thought as my feet met the roof of a small building before jumping to the next one. 'I think she would like that idea.'

  I heightened my senses with the intention of locating a crime. I could hear the sounds of the birds, the sounds of people opening their shops, the sounds of people walking through the streets and…

  I frowned as my ears caught faint snickers from a distance. All coming from male sounding voices. I breathed in and I immediately knew why they were so giddy that early in the morning.

  Because I caught the scent of a young girl.

  My eyes narrowed before I increased my speed and nded on the edge of a building. From my perspective I could see a group of men, six in total, getting awfully close to a girl who had her back against a wall.

  My eyes focused on the closest person to the girl who had a knife in his hand. Then-

  'Wait… What was I doing again?' I thought, zoning out for a second before my eyes widened. Immediately I tensed my entire body. 'No. Wait. Something's wrong here.'

  I growled silently.

  My gaze traveled from person to person trying to discern their quirks and identify which one made me-

  'Wait… Why am I-' A sneer marred my face. Then I realized 'One of them is affecting my mind.'

  Before the user could do it again, I jumped from where I was and without a care if I was seen, my feet blurred at high speed and I flew towards the center of the men that were surrounding the girl in the alley.

  I breathed in, time slowed down and my hands blurred in fluid motion, simir to waves on a stream, hitting every single person multiple times. I didn't even flinch as I heard bones break.

  A poor sod got his whole jaw dislocated by one of my blows.

  The encounter ended in less than a second.

  I exhaled, hot air left through my teeth as I exhaled. It whistled like a boiling kettle.

  A look of disgust made its way to my face.

  'No wonder people who walked across the street didn't notice. One of these guys has a mind control quirk. Powerful. But not powerful enough.' I thought while I unfurled the rope to tie them up. 'He was targeting everyone outside the alleyway. Good thing he did. It made the effects less intense. I don't know who he is, but I'm hoping the pain will mess with his concentration so the authorities can do their job.'

  As I began to rope the assaints, I redirected my gaze towards the girl who was still against the wall.

  I blinked once I noticed what she had on her left hand.

  A box cutter

  My eyes then traveled from top to bottom.

  Blond hair styled into two buns. Bright yellow eyes. Dark bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in days. Beige sweater with dark blue colr with red tie. Dark blue skirt. Dark gray socks and brown shoes.

  I tried not to sneer at the people under my feet.

  They were trying to rape a high schooler.

  My blood boiled as the image of Kazuho in her school uniform repced the girl before me.

  "Are you ok?" I asked, holding a pin expression but with a tint of worry. I was doing everything I could to not throw everything out the window and break every single bone of these pedophiles. "They didn't touch you, did they?"

  To my surprise I saw the girl smile, a cute blush made its way to her cheeks.

  She shook her head.

  "They didn't y a finger on me~" She sang. She did a pose while closing her right eye and doing a peace sign over her open eye. "And if they did, I had a way to deal with them. Hehe~"

  "That's good," I nodded awkwardly before directing my attention back to the st man of the group and tying him with more force than I usually do with other quirk users.. "Be careful out there. You never know when you're going to face someone you can't beat."

  As I was about to round up the assaints and tie them to a mppost so they could be found by the authorities, I heard the girl ugh.

  "Guhuhu~ Thank you~" The blond girl silently giggled, covering her huge smile with her hands that were closed into fists. I felt slightly unnerved at how she held her box cutter so close to her face. "But more importantly… You move just like him!"

  I raised one of my eyebrows in confusion.

  "Hm? Like who?"

  Her smile widened.

  "Like Smiley~"

  My other eyebrow joined the first one. I tried not to act surprised as I inclined my head to the side.

  "And what makes you say that?" I asked, cursing myself for using 'Water Flow' just to deal with the group that were about to rape this girl. "Isn't Smiley a few cities away from here?"

  The unnerving smile never left her face.

  "Maybe~" She sang with mirth, I managed to get a glimpse of her long fangs. "Buuuut people have seen Smiley in two pces at once in the past… They say that he may have a clone quirk? Guhuhu~"

  "That's just a rumor though." I said, raising one of the downed men and putting him on my shoulder. "And put that thing away or you'll hurt yourself."

  "But I love rumors!" She excimed, pouting. I winced, blushing at her adorable face. Good thing I had a mask.

  Before I could repeat myself about the box cutter she put it away with a cute 'Kay'.

  "Good. Now-" I started, before stopping right on my tracks. "Wait a second, now that I think about it… Shouldn't you be in school?"

  "I don't have to go to high school anymore. Hehehe," She giggled as she slowly approached me and stood a few steps away from me.

  "And why is that?" I asked, raising one of my eyebrows.

  "Because I graduated, silly. Guhuhu~"

  "Then why are you still using your school uniform?"

  "I don't have any more clothes," she said before raising her fists and holding them close to her chin. "I'm homeless!"

  Fuck.

  I loudly sighed.

  'Even if she unnerves me, she's still someone in need of help.'

  "Ok. If you want to, there's this pce that accepts anyone who's going through a bad time," I told her, giving her a signal so she could follow me, something she immediately did, skipping while sporting a big smile. "As long as you don't cause any trouble and you're respectful of others you're welcome to join in."

  She cutely inclined her body to the side and looked at me in a way that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

  "What do you say?" I said, once I tied the man to the mppost. "Wanna join?"

  "Okay!"

  Once I changed in an alleyway a few streets away from the shelter I made my way towards it. My hand reached to my scalp and I scratched it, an annoyed expression found its way to my face.

  That girl…

  Himiko Toga.

  A 14 year old girl that cims that she ended high school st year? Not even I could come up with a lie so btantly false like that.

  Kazuho and I were the same age st time I checked, and she's graduating next year. There are special cases, after all looks could be deceiving, but from what I managed to glimpse from her personality, she was not smart enough to make me believe she passed all her grades and graduated from high school this early.

  I hadn't exchanged words about her personal situation, but I was 80% sure that she ran away from home.

  Most likely because of her special needs.

  Once inside, I gave a signal to the nearby clone so he could go out and continue my patrol.

  I walked to the girl of the hour who was on top of the bunk bed she shared with the other female teen of the shelter, Cream. The moment she spotted me across the room she rose up, turned her position towards me and began to bounce in pce.

  Once I was two feet away from her I opened my backpack and took two red cans.

  "Here you go," I said, handing her two cans of tomato juice. "I made sure to bring you one at room temperature and a cold one from the fridge."

  "Yaay~!" She cheered, her feet moving in delight as she held the cans close to her chest. "Thank you Gurē~!"

  I sighed.

  "Try not to drink them so fast. Go for the cold one and leave the room temperature one for ter," I told her before she could start to chug the first one like she did the st time I offered one. "We're tight on money and I can't accommodate everyone's special needs."

  "Mm! Mmm!" She nodded while she took small sips from her now open can.

  As I was about to go to my next target she got my attention.

  "You knooow~ I wouldn't be so thirsty if you offered me some of your blood. Guhuhu~" She giggled while she tried to hide her face with the can of tomato juice.

  There it is.

  Her quirk was one of the reasons her parents were not searching for her, and probably why she decided to ditch school in the hopes to cross paths with Smiley… so she could satiate her hunger.

  She needed to drink blood or her mental state would deteriorate to the point where she would, well… Go to the nearest person to "satiate her needs".

  She tried to cut one of my clones with her box cutter. Thankfully he was able to restrain her and keep her contained until I got home.

  Salt was the one to come with the idea of offering her tomato juice. Same color, different taste but it would keep her sane, for a while at least. It worked, but she still had urges.

  Which brought us here.

  "I'll think about it," I said, turning away. "You need to behave first. If you repse and try to kill someone again, then you'll get nothing."

  "Yaaay! Thank you Gurē!" I heard her say.

  I covered my face with my left hand as I walked towards Ena.

  Why does she have to be so cute?

  Manami…

  Kazuho…

  And now her…

  'Stupid hormones,' I growled in distaste, trying to forget the things those three made me feel. 'They've been a thorn on my side ever since I turned 13. I hope once I become an adult it goes away. I can't let them control my emotions forever…'

  The moment I arrived next to her bed, Ena's eyes met mine before she extended her hand. An unamused expression was spttered across her face.

  "How many?" I asked, fetching the expensive coffee, a different brand from the usual one she's used to and offering it to her.

  I prayed to whoever was listening that her coffee would st longer than st time.

  She had to share it with the others. She never did that in the past. What happened?

  "Six," she said while rudely snatching the coffee from my hand and began to inspect it. "I gave one to the kid, another to the psycho girl you brought here. I wanted to give two to those teens that help you around but they declined for now, so I gave the rest to the people who needed it the most."

  It didn't surprise me that Kon and Cream declined the offer considering they had spare clothes to withstand the winter that was fast approaching.

  The reason I went ahead and got a more expensive brand of coffee for Ena was because we needed more coats and bnkets of good quality. The funds were slowly increasing, but they were not fast enough to invest in food and clothes at the same time.

  The silver lining was that we now had three heaters instead of one.

  With enough luck, everyone was going to be cozy this winter.

  'I might need to steal… Uhh, borrow more money and supplies. Just in case,' I thought with a hum.

  "Before you go. Call the electric battery," Ena spoke with disinterest. "I need to taste this coffee pronto."

  "Her name is Cream. You've been with us for years, stop disrespecting her."

  "Why would I want cream with my coffee?" She asked, completely disinterested in what I just said. "Bring the girl already."

  I frowned.

  "You can be infuriating sometimes," I told her, annoyed. "Can you at least try to be a better person? This is why Salt hates you."

  "You're such a ftterer," the old woman drawled, not looking at me, her eyes fixated on the contents of the can. "Now go. I want to drink my coffee in peace."

  I sighed in frustration before I made my way towards the girl who was ruffling the fur of a dog while Kon was watching from a small distance.

  "Thanks, Gurē." Ena muttered. High enough for my sensitive ears to listen to.

  "Don't mention it." I said, giving her a zy wave.

  Once I was done with distributing food through the shelter I walked straight to Salt who was idly listening to the radio. He sported a thoughtful expression as he scratched his beard.

  "Hey kid," he addressed me without looking at me. "Did you bring me the goods?"

  "Yeah," I said before I gave him a non-alcoholic beer and a cheap brand of light cigarettes. "How's the ck of alcohol treating you? Any side effects?"

  He hummed, then he gave a hollow chuckle.

  "Like shit," he snorted. Opening a can he brought it to his mouth and took a huge swig. "I really want to drink a proper beer. It helped me forget."

  "There's some things we should never forget," I smiled, watching him stop. His eyes met mine.

  "I taught you that, didn't I?" A smile found its way to his wrinkled face.

  "Yeah… After Emiko's…"

  "Don't repeat the same mistakes I did," he said as he took another swig of his drink. "Alcohol helps you forget, but-"

  "But it won't solve anything."

  He nodded.

  "Right on the money."

  We stood in silence for a while, the only sound was the voices of the radio talking about the past strategies of a soccer team that's going to confront the one Salt and a few people of the shelter liked.

  "By the way, I haven't seen Jin," I asked, trying to identify everyone in the room. "Where is he?"

  Salt immediately stopped drinking and looked at me for a moment before he lowered his gaze and kept his eyes glued to his can.

  "He's on the… Roof," he shrugged, then he took another swig of his beer until there was no more in the can and put it in a pstic bag for future recycling. "He told me not to tell you… But frankly? I'm not the one to keep secrets."

  "Salt?"

  "He needs help, kid." The man I met all those years ago closed his eyes. "Just go."

  I frowned and immediately made my way towards the stairs leading to the roof and opened the door.

  Just to see Jin with his mask raised while drinking straight from a bottle of whisky.

  "Jin… What are you doing?"

  A/N: (Nov 16, 2024) Man, 2023 and 2024 have been hitting me hard huh? Recently I fell down on the pavement and I couldn't get up or sit down until recently. Sometimes I feel better and sometimes I can't get up from bed. It's a mess.

  I hope this chapter was satisfactory. I don't know what it is about, considering that sometimes I do the author notes before I write the chapter.

  EDIT: (Dec 8, 2024) I had to visit my home city for the holidays and let me tell you, it's really hard to concentrate here. There are too many people in the house and all of them are asking me to do whatever. If this doesn't get uploaded before the end of the month I'll be extremely mad.

  EDIT 2: (Jan 12, 2025) Welp.

  EDIT 3: (Mar 16, 2025) Now that My Hero Academia: Vigintes is finally getting animated, I no longer have to tell you guys to read the manga. Now I have to tell you to watch the anime lmao. Joking aside, considering I butchered, changed and kept plot points of Vigintes there's no much need to watch it if you guys don't want to. To be honest I might just watch a few reactors because going through the pain of PopStep becoming Queen Bee was painful enough, I don't want to suffer through that again a second time.

  Anyway, here's my plug:

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