Chapter 15 Interns Part Two
Magne, otherwise known as Hikiishi Kenji knocked out another bandit, taking his wallet. She looked around, ready to escape the scene.
"Stealing isn't nice you know," Magne snapped around to see Black Lightning, the number two hero lighting a cigarette. She instantly attracted him to her so she can smack him with her weapon. Black Lightning stomped the ground with both feet, burying himself to his knees. When that didn't work, he took out a familiar marble and tossed it behind him, causing a gigantic magnet to appear to cancel out the magnetic attraction.
"Smoking isn't nice, you know," Magne quipped as she cancelled her quirk. "I wouldn't expect a hero to do something so evil."
"Hey, everyone's got shit to deal with it, ya know?" Kuro shrugged as he took a drag out of his cigarette. "Want one?"
"Like I would trust a hero," Magne sneered.
"Just take the damn thing," Kuro tossed a cigarette and a lighter to the woman. She huffed and lit it and took a drag.
"So what the hell do you want?" Magne asked. "Since you didn't arrest me on the spot, and since you somehow got the trust of Mr. Compress enough to have him lend you your abilities without him being there to make a show himself, you must be here for something else other than that stupid confined occupation you call a job."
"Speaking of jobs, I've come here to offer you a job," Kuro shrugged. "Work at my firm-"
"Hell no," Magne cut the man off. "I chose this life to be free. Working as a hero is the exact opposite. There are so many rules and punishments."
"You didn't let me finish," Kuro sighed, a puff of smoke coming out of his mouth. "Look, I know how you want your life to be, and frankly, I'm not gonna stop you. I actually joined the Hero Organization to try and convince them to be a bit more liberal. I've already hired some ex-villains, so you won't be alone. I'm just going to pay you, give you a place to stay, and take your name off villain records to not to bang up the heroes too badly and come in when I call you, and when I do, I won't tell you how to do your job."
Magne thought about it before smirking. She had never seen a hero who treated villains like Black Lightning. She truly appreciated it. He wanted to employ her services while being cautious to not impede on her freedom too much. It was a win-win. Although he had to take her rights to kill heroes away, he never said anything about killing villains. "Deal."
"Alright," Kuro smirked as the two shook hands. "So I'm going to need you tomorrow. I'm sure you know where my firm is, after attacking one of my subordinates on his way back. I'll need you there by 10 am."
Pony rolled out of bed and stretched. The room that Kuro gave the students were very comfortable, and she only had one roommate. She heard from her friend back in America that he had 8 other people in the same room for his internship, so in that sense, she considered herself lucking.
"Good morning, Kendo-san," Poni said cheerfully as she saw the other girl drag herself out of bed. "How are you this morning?"
"Tired, my arms are killing me," Keno replied, shooting a dirty glance at the huge mallets on the other side of the room. "Your Japanese has gotten a lot better."
"Thank you," Poni tilted her head in a slight bow. "Kuro-san noticed my difficulty in speaking Japanese and offered to let me borrow some books which I have been studying. Did you know he speaks fluent English?"
"No. He's a weird one," Kendo said. "He seems strong, and it looks like he has invested a lot of time in finding out our strengths and weaknesses, even if some of us didn't even make it past the first part of the exam. According to Ibara-san, he always holds back and encourages and accepts them. She said he took several hits and complimented her when she started to feel a little down. He always seems kind and cheery towards us, despite letting loose actual villains on us and the injuries he sustained yesterday. I really don't get him."
"Oh!" Poni exclaimed as the alarm clock in the room went off. "Breakfast is in thirty minutes! We better go we lose to those stupid bastard A students!"
"Nieto," Kendo growled. "I swear I will kill you when we get back."
After breakfast, Poni and Kendo made their way to the training field. Kuro and the "Vanguard Action Squad" as they called themselves were waiting for them, with a new person. It was a burly dude with sunglasses and brown, shoulder length hair.
"This, my kawaii interns," Kuro said, gesturing to the man. "Is Magne, another ex-villain who so graciously volunteered to help me in training you. I've politely asked her not to injure you all too badly, but if you refer to her as a man, then I can't make any promises."
"Damn straight," Magne said as she dropped her cigarette and stomped on it. "You brats better not waste my time."
"Alright, let's get started," Kuro said. "Tsunotori-san, you're with me."
The interns paled as they realized they had another villain to deal with. They groaned as they all prepared to deal with another day of training.
"So, Poni," Kuro said in fluent English as they entered the separate training room. "How have your studies been?"
"It's been going well," Poni replied in English. She was really thankful someone could speak her native language. Even though she has been improving, it was comforting to speak in the language she originally learned. "Thank you again for the books, Mr. Kuro. It really means a lot."
"Please, call me Gisei," Kuro said. He was much more comfortable with the last name he chose, but for the sake of comfort, he was willing to be called Gisei. "Anyways, from what I've seen you've mostly used your quirk to immobilize your enemies. Is that correct?"
Poni nodded timidly as Kuro calmly approached the girl. He gestured to her horns. "May I?" She nodded as Kuro plucked her horns off of her head, causing her to squeak a little. "Sorry," Kuro said sincerely before walking over to a tree. With a wave of his hand, he slashed the tree with one of her horns, slashing the tree and cutting it down.
Poni gazed at him in awe. She didn't know her horns were capable of doing such a thing. "Your horns are really durable," he said. "You're a smart girl. Let's try to think up of some more ways to use your horns."
Shihai walked into the training room and noticed that Kuro had changed his original outfit from black to orange and he dyed his hair blonde while wearing blue contacts. Shihai's step instantly pressed with caution as he realized that Kuro was aware of how his quirk worked.
"Ah, Kuroiro-san," Kuro said, smiling at the boy. "It's a shame that Koromi-san didn't come with us as well. I would have really liked to see what would have happened."
"W-what?" Shihai sputtered, completely off guard. He had planned on acting a bit more buddy-buddy and cheery towards the hero to surprise him, but he did not expect the man to bring up his crush like that.
"First lesson," Kuro said thoughtfully. "Always be prepared as if your opponent knows everything about you."
Shihai grimaced. He was beaten at his own game. "Life's but a walking shadow," he muttered to himself. "So, what are you going to teach me?"
"Ah, Shakespeare," Kuro nodded. "Not bad. Anyways, after analyzing you abilities for a little while, I've determined that your tactical mind is already enough in combat. Since you aspire to be an underground hero, I won't force you to do a thousand sit ups or whatever. I thought I would spend this time teaching you a much more valuable lesson."
"And that is..?" Shihai asked tentatively. Black Lightning was a total enigma. He thought he had researched all he could, but it seemed that Kuro was more deceitful individual than even Shihai himself, managing to fool the entire country into thinking that he was a calculating hero who cared only about results.
"How to talk to girls," Kuro said, smirking. As if on cue, Miruko hopped over to Kuro.
"I swear if you use me like this again, I'll kill you," Miruko grumbled.
"The way to dusty death," Shihai sighed as he prepared for the torture about to be ensued.
Shoda Nirengeki walked into the training field, confident that he could impress the number two hero with his skills. He was a very competent fighter and ready to take on whatever Kuro had. His friend Iida said that Kuro was immediately able to deduce his shortcomings and found a way to solve them, though Kuro had spent a lot of time loitering around class 1-A.
"Shoda-san," Kuro said, back in his normal uniform. "I have to say, I'm quite impressed with the way you were dealing with the squad."
"It was nothing," Shoda started. "They still consistently wiped the floor with all of us without even trying."
"Don't beat yourself up about it," Kuro said, waving his hand. "Some of these villains have spent decades in the field. Don't tell anyone else I've said this, but you guys are probably strong enough to take low class villains and thugs on your own already."
"R-really..?" Shoda asked the man.
"Of course. I would never lie about something like that," Kuro lied. Of course he was lying, the students were already much stronger than that. "Anyways, your use of your quirk is very impressive, though I think I have a way of improving it."
"How so..?" Shoda asked. His quirk was extremely strong, an Shoda thought he had already mastered it.
"Are you aware what a feint is?" Kuro asked. Shoda nodded his head. "So I was thinking that you can attack someone, but your impact would strike in a completely different area."
"That's a really good idea," Shoda said, thinking about the possibilities. "Thank you, Kuro-sensei."
"No problem," Kuro said. "Now, let's start working on that feint technique, shall we?"
Shoto didn't know what to expect when the ex-villain known as Dabi came along with him. As they entered the training room, Kuro was sitting on a large stone, munching on some cookies. "Oh, hey Sho-kun."
"I told you not to call me that," Shoto scoffed and gestured at Dabi. "What's he doing here?"
"Oh, he's going to teach you," Kuro said. "He could do a way better job than me."
"Really?" Shoto asked in disbelief. "I doubt it."
"I wouldn't if I were you, bro," Dabi said. At that, Shoto's face paled as the realization slowly started to sink in.
"Touya?"
Meanwhile, Izuku got off the train and headed towards the house marked on his phone's GPS. When he arrived at the place he knocked. No answer. "I-I'm coming in," he said as he pushed the door open.
What he saw was a short, old man, laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. "He's dead!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, almost dropping his phone.
"Ah?" The old man looked up and stared Izuku in the eye. "Who are you?"
"He's alive!" Izuku shouted in shock.
"Sora-kun, you need to stop doing that," A woman's voice could be heard as the door at the end of the room opened, revealing a tall woman with a black and white hero costume. "You're Midoriya Izuku, right? All Might told us about you."
"A-All Might did..?" Izuku asked. "Why is that?"
"Ah, let us introduce ourselves," The woman said. "My name is Shimura Nana and this is Torino Sorahiko. We're All Might's teachers."
It was mid-afternoon when the harsh training ended. The Vanguard Action Squad jumped back as Kuro came back with Shoto and Dabi. "You all did pretty well," He started. "I'm going to end off this course today because we're going to be doing something different tomorrow."
"What could that be?" Iida asked.
"Well, I have some important business down at Hosu," Kuro said, smirking. "So tomorrow, we're going to go patrolling."