Sup! This is another 'I had the time so why not?' fic.
Like with Perfect Mix, and whatever comes with this chapter, don't expect constant updates. That is the deal.
Kamui Candy is actually almost to canon and I promised to switch back to Dust in Dark Silver after that to get that one to canon as well.
Once I have both to canon… I'll probably crank out a few more of these 'In between' fics' chapters, if only so people get more of what they want.
I hope you all are having a good day.
~NRK~
He let out a sigh as he brought the papers in front of him into a neat pile before setting it down to the side.
"Good work, Uchiha," came a voice from the side of his desk, the door he was situated by opened to reveal an individual he had the pleasure to know in the past year.
He smiled as he nodded, peach skin, black eyes, and spiky black hair shifting as he did. "It's no issue, Nighteye-san."
That name might seem odd to many but it was rather normal here.
After all, it was his Hero Name.
Nighteye nodded, his dark green hair, with yellow streaks on the right side, in a clean-cut hairstyle that curled around his noggin.
He dressed unlike the hero he was or was it like the hero he was? Wearing a white suit with a white dress shirt underneath along with a red tie with polka dots, the only thing odd about him was his eyes behind his glasses.
Bright yellow eyes, gleaming with high intelligence, observed his secretary as the man got up.
Wearing a dark blue three-piece suit, the man before Nighteye couldn't be more unassuming if he tried.
"It was a good idea to hire you," the hero said with a nod and a hand cupping his chin. "Though I will be honest, at first, I feared for your quirkless status."
"I understand, being quirkless isn't exactly what people would see as a beneficial trait," the Uchiha said as he packed up. "That said, I think people underestimate people like myself too often. Mocking a downed dog isn't what I'd call a good idea, one day, that dog will prove to be more than anyone could imagine."
"An apt assessment, though rather dangerous."
"I didn't mean to make it sound like that, apologies."
"... I understand, I can't truly relate to your plight, Obito-kun," Nighteye, Mirai Sakaki, said with a slight bow.
"No, I understand," Obito Uchiha, hidden reincarnate, said with a shake of the head. "In a world where the average person can literally spit fire from their armpits, being without makes you the odd one out."
Oh, hadn't he learned that as he grew up? Being reborn into this world without power to his name had been one he'd been fine with.
His surroundings certainly weren't as he'd been, for lack of a better word, bullied, as far as they thought he cared, for being 'quirkless'.
Quirkless, a term coined for those without superpowers which were normally called 'quirks'.
People with quirks typically found themselves a life with, or around, it. Super strength for construction, x-ray eyes for doctors, superspeed for mail couriers… Or for becoming a hero.
Heroes, the fact such people existed kind of filled Obito with amusement.
The average do-gooder would typically end up in this field, being people who used their quirks for the sake of those who couldn't protect themselves.
People idolized people like his boss and Obito wasn't surprised, heroes were heroes, who didn't want to be a superhero?
Well, Obito didn't but he wasn't normal. His nephew was just like he was, in that he was quirkless, but boy did that boy want to be a hero so bad.
Obito chuckled as he and Nighteye left, them being the last two in Nighteye's hero agency. Such an establishment was basically the HQ for heroes who had their own places.
Nighteye's was a normal floor of a building, the man having only himself, Obito, and two other heroes, his 'sidekicks'.
The two walked towards the exit, Obito opening the door for his hero employer.
"Thank you, Obito-kun."
They walked out into the night, the passing cars, lit-up buildings, and passing people filling their sight and ears.
"Are you going to take the train?" Nighteye asked as he checked his watch. "It's eleven. You still have time."
"Oh, no, nothing like that, I live nearby," Obito denied as he jabbed his hand behind himself. "I live in a house a few blocks down. I was lucky to get it with some help."
"Hm, very well," Nighteye nodded as he adjusted his glasses. "I hope your walk is uneventful."
"Same," Obito said with a nod and wave as the two of them separated.
Watching his recent hire walk away, Nighteye let out a breath through his nose before walking his own way home-
A shadow passed overhead, a hard to see thing if he hadn't already felt a presence nearby.
"No!" he exclaimed before running after his secretary. 'It was after him!'
He'd been feeling watched the whole day… At least, he had assumed it'd been himself.
Nighteye always found it odd that this feeling would disappear whenever he left his agency.
So he ran after Obito with a grimace.
Meanwhile, Obito had been running off towards his shared apartment, mind on more mundane matters.
'I hope Ry-' his thought process was halted as time froze, his eyes locking onto a person he'd passed.
Their eyes widened in horror at something behind him, getting a sigh from the Uchiha.
"Not aga-" he'd been scooped up a moment later, luck always hating him. "Dammit!"
"Fufufu~" came the laugh of the person that had kidnapped him. "Why, aren't you a good-looking man~? That dragon won't do anything with you in my grasp!"
A harpy woman, it seemed. This was a new one.
"Why does Ryuuko have so many kidnapping enemies?" he asked himself as he saw the running form of his employer. "Nighteye-san!"
"I'm coming!" the salaryman-looking hero shouted as the people down the sidewalk parted for him. "Be careful, Obito-kun! This one has thicker talons!"
'Well, knowing my luck-'
"Where do you think you're taking my housemate?!" Came a roar from the skies, a large figure bearing down on his kidnapper.
His body was shaken badly as he was thrashed along with the harpy villain, her thick claws jostling him before she let go as she, too, fell from the skies.
Obito sighed before pulling on a string hanging from his backpack.
A parachute shot out, slowing his descent greatly, before he landed on the streets below, safe and sound.
"Well, at least that one went well enough," Obito said to himself as a large 'thunk' came from behind him. "Thanks, Ryukyu."
"I-Is everything fine?" came its voice, feminine in nature but full of worry, something a little bit departed from a dragon. "O-Obito?! Again?!"
"I… I have no words for this time, it just happened," Obito said with a shake of the head and a sigh. "Apologies."
The dragon scratched its cheek, beginning to shrink. "I don't think that's your fault," came a far less bellowing, female, voice as, wherein there used to be a dragon, there was now a young woman.
She was an average-height individual with slightly long blonde hair that was held in check by a thick green headband, yellow eyes that looked at him with worry and slight embarrassment, and a healthy complexion. Around the back of her head was an ornament in the shape of two long dragon's wings.
She was wearing a long, blood-red, qipao with yellow on the breechcloth's end and on the collar's zipper. It was a completely sleeveless article of clothing with the woman wearing separate, white, wrist sleeves that went up to her biceps and a little bag holstered around her left thigh.
She jogged over in her shin-high black boots, wincing as she saw Obito.
The Uchiha blinked before looking at his body. "Oh."
His blazer had been completely torn-up from the shoulders down. It seemed like him looking was the cue for whatever adorned him to fall away as well.
"... Well, thankfully, Nighteye's insurance covers clothes," Obito said with an amused chuckle as the hero in question nodded.
"All my employees have such. In this line of work, all forms of wear and tear must be addressed," the tall hero said, nodding to Obito before turning to his roommate. "Ryukyu, yes?"
"U-Um! Yeah! Ryukyu, the dragoon hero!" she said with a nervous chuckle, grinning with wobbly lips that also showed her sharper than normal teeth. "S-Sorry if I'm intruding."
"Nonsense, more heroes is a necessity," the older hero said before checking his watch. "11:15, you may wish to return home, you two. I'll do a little more patrolling before heading home."
"Alright," Obito nodded, adjusting the collar of his white dress shirt, thankful his vest hadn't been destroyed. "If there are any reports in need of doing, let me know, Nighteye-san."
"I will," the man said, smiling a bit. "Good night, you two," the older hero said, walking off with a small wave.
Obito nodded as Ryukyu waved back to the older hero.
"T-Thank you!" she said with a shout before breathing in and then letting out a sigh. "Well, the first month as a pro isn't exactly working out like I thought it would."
"Being fair," Obito rubbed the back of his head. "It's kind of my fault."
"Yeah, you need to stop getting kidnapped," she said with a chuckle as Obito shrugged. "Seriously, though, how?"
"If I knew, I'd tell you," Obito said as they walked off, ignoring the crowd of people as Nighteye stood off to the side, calling the police. "Now, I was just going to walk home."
"... You asking for a ride?"
"Are you off?"
"... Yeah, for today, I think eight hours is good enough," the dragoon heroine said with a nervous smile. "I keep forgetting I make my own hours now. Thanks for the help, by the way."
"It's the best schedule I could think of," Obito said as they walked down the street.
"It's still better than I could have come up with," Ryukyu said with a frown. "I'm really not good at that part of this job."
"You'll get used to it."
"Maybe if you become my secretary?" She asked hopefully.
"If you can get big enough, with a competing salary," Obito said with a smirk at the downtrodden look on the dragon woman's face. "Come on now, that's just how the world works, I mean no affront to you."
"I know," she rolled her eyes before grunting. "... You'd still help me with my schedule, right?"
"I'm doing so as we speak, aren't I?"
"Yeah, I guess," she said slowly but smiled all the same. "Come on, did you have plans for cooking today?"
"I wasn't sure, had to see if I got kidnapped and for how long."
"... Obito? Why is it that I feel like you're not joking?"
"Sadly, because I'm not."
This was his life now, being the secretary for the Nighteye agency, being a housemate with Ryukyu or as he knew her, Ryuuko Tatsuma, and, worst of all, being kidnapped on the regular.
It'd been something that had started close to a year ago when he and she had come to an agreement of living together.
She'd been breaking out on her own in the hero world and he'd simply needed a good place near his job which she also needed.
The only good location with amenities he wished for, as well as a second floor for Ryukyu to have her own place, was rather pricey and that's how they'd met again, them both having been classmates at one point in the past.
So they walked home, discussions of dinner on their lips.
~NRK~
He grit his teeth as Harriet was taken away, the harpy woman knocked out and in cuffs.
Slamming his fist onto his desk, the furniture didn't even budge, his frail body not able to produce normal strength like an actual adult's.
His suit creased as he got off his seat, long legs that led up to a lanky body filled with black spots allowed him to move to the large windows behind him.
The view of the night of his district always brought him a sense of tranquility as he looked to a board on the far end of the room next to the door.
Pictures of heroes were strung about it, over half of them with red 'X's through them.
And, on one of them, sat the picture of the newest female hero, Ryukyu, the dragoon hero.
The pain in his side from over a year ago.
He grimaced, bad vibes coming to him once more before he moved back to his desk and placed a lone finger down on the button of his transmitter.
"Shiyon, do we have someone monitoring her?"
-Yes, sir, as always- Came a kind voice over the small intercom. -As always, they're going home. I don't think she's going to come out again, tonight.-
He grimaced.
-And, before you ask, I already sent out another to try and get close- the kindness slipped into an annoyed tone. -Though I question if she's not onto us already, what with how the others were handled-
Oh, yes, that phenomenon that seemed to surround the dragon hero and protect her. To this day, as of a month ago, he had no idea how or who it was.
They'd already ran a background check on the one living with her, Obito Uchiha, his records were basically all pointing to 'worthless'. A quirkless man like him shouldn't have had anything to do with this.
'What a pathetic mutation,' he shook his head, some form of pity coming through. 'Thank god, I'm not plagued by it anymore.'
And that was all thanks to a mysterious benefactor who'd only asked for him to kidnap and give him heroes! While some might have found that a particularly hard task, he'd been able to handle it easily enough. Especially with his quirk.
His skin, that which was capable of being seen outside of that covered by his suit, turned black.
A little 'touch' and they'd never find them.
He wanted to smile before remembering his failed attempts on the dragon woman.
He sat back down before templing his hands.
The numerous attempts to kidnap the man living with her had been fruitless as well, who'd have expected someone like Nighteye to pick up a quirkless secretary?
Well, then again, while powerless, it's been noted that, due to not having a quirk to occupy that fabled percentage of the brain quirks were supposed to be using up, many believed that being quirkless allowed them to have farther limits.
The ability to increase their strength, speed, intelligence, and reflexes to far greater degrees than would have been noted before close to 100 years ago.
Of course, it was hogwash, it had to be. Besides the fact that training all that much to still be lesser than a person with a quirk that specialized in such a field, there were no documented people like this.
~NRK~
Obito stretched in his portion of this home's living room half-naked as he went through his stretches. His arms reaching over his sweatpants-covered legs and, then his feet, surprising him.
'I've been able to reach further than my toes today,' he thought with a nod.
His training continued to bear fruit. He had assumed he'd hit a wall years ago but he continued to get stronger, faster, and more flexible.
What an odd body for a quirkless person like himself to have… Then again, it helped that he was capable enough to deal with those people trying to tag the home he lived in.
"Hey, Obito! D-Do you have any bathroom scrubs?!" Came Ryuuko's call from upstairs. "I-I think I'm out!"
"Let me get some!" he shouted back, pushing off the floor with his arms before landing in a crouch that he stood up from easily. "One moment!"
Going to his room, wherein he then went to his closet where he retrieved the needed items before leaving and going upstairs.
Reaching the second level of the home, he ignored the gaming room that had been repurposed into a living room… along with a gaming room. He didn't judge.
Going down a short hallway, he turned to the sole bathroom in the house, its lights on and Ryuuko's soft grunts as she scrubbed down the shower a continuous rhythm.
"I have them, are you decent?" he asked.
"Yes, can you come in and hand them to me? I don't want to forget this spot."
He did as asked, coming in to see the dragon woman in a t-shirt and shorts, a shower cap on, as she worked a brush against her shower floor.
"Thanks, I was just-" she looked up, thanking him at the moment before freezing. "C-C-Cleaning?!" the hero nearly squeaked.
Muscles greeted her and moved as they came over before crouching down to have her housemate's face near her, handing her her asked-for items.
"Here you go," Obito said with a nod as he looked at her work. "You're pretty good at this."
She blanked at that, eyes unfogging to look at him oddly. "H-Huh?"
"You clean just as much as I do," Obito said as he saw the whiteness of the shower area. "Damn, you're good."
"..." she found her brain and snapped her head back to her work, ignoring Obito's shirtless body as much as she could. "I-I have to!" Ryuuko winced at how loud that had been. "T-That is, I'm kind of crap at some of the other things."
"You're fine with most of the others, comparing to my own methods isn't going to do you any good."
"I just thought being a girl meant I was supposed to be good at this," she said with a sigh. "Then again, that sounded kind of sexist to me."
"It was," Obito said.
Ryuuko was a fine housemate. She was clean, did chores, and was an overall kind person.
… The issue was that she had a slight confidence issue and indecisiveness that may get someone hurt one day.
With the first part, she couldn't cook to save her life, it seemed. He wasn't sure about dragons, he'd only known those of the attacking variety, but Ryuuko had a dragon's cooking sense.
And, seeing as dragons weren't real here… Was about as real as her ability to cook was.
"Hm!" she grunted as she hit that damn spot. "Finally! I was getting annoyed with that," the dragon woman said with a grateful grin, turning her head at her housemate before remembering that, oh yeah, he was shirtless and ripped.
How'd she forgotten?
"...?!" she coughed into her shoulder. "I-I'm good, now! T-Thanks! Seriously!"
Obito nodded as he got up, leaving a few seconds with abs before taking off.
What a glorious behind.
Left alone, Ryuuko's eyebrows twitched as she groaned.
She'd never known living with Obito was so… difficult.
Oh, she'd be forever thankful, he was basically the only reason she'd been able to get this place so close to her chosen location. And she was thankful that he was an amazing cook.
… But, come on, dude! Put on a shirt! Stop making her so anxious that you're gonna suggest something she won't be able to deny!
Being quirkless certainly didn't mean he was harmless, it seemed.
She shook her head at the bad thoughts swarming in, cheeks warm.
This is all his fault.
Grinning nervously at the thought, she finished cleaning up the bathroom before taking a shower, the smells from the kitchen reaching her and urging her to finish quickly.
Finishing up, dressing in some sweatpants and a tank-top with her special headband in place, she came downstairs to find both Obito cooking and that he'd put on a shirt.
She'd pray for the loss of such a sight but giggled a bit at just biteable his neck looked in that top before blinking at her thoughts and then burning up.
Obito turned to see her before nodding. "Dinner's almost ready. It's some of the spiciest I could find in the market. I'll have to import some of that Indonesian curry, though, if we want something actually hot."
She nodded to that, Japanese curry was nice but it wasn't hot even though it had 'curry' in the name. Obito always seemed to find a way wherein she could enjoy some spice in it but it was simply never enough.
Walking over, she peeked around her taller housemate, the man's 5'9 frame giving her little leeway, especially with how broad-shouldered he was.
Obito's eyes flickered to Ryuuko, eyes trailing down exposed shoulders before flickering to her chest in that damnable tank top.
He refocused on his meal but groaned mentally.
Perhaps rooming a female wasn't a good idea? Obito wouldn't say he'd do something drastic, he was far more controlled than the average hot-blooded male but he was still a hot-blooded male.
He wouldn't lie, he was attracted to her. Obito wasn't sure how far that extended past her body and tried to keep things platonic. He wasn't sure how well that worked but she certainly hadn't been convinced that he was some horndog or some such so he had to be doing well, right?
Obito sighed mentally as he shared out some food for his similarly-aged housemate.
… Oh, he was starting to realize he was either going to need to proposition her or go find a red-light district.
And seeing as he was trying to keep this relationship of theirs platonic… for reasons he'd find later, he had one option left.
So, as they ate, he concocted an idea for tomorrow.
Too bad he'd been too busy focusing on Ryuuko to bother.
~NRK~
That following morning, Obito had a plan for the night later.
He followed his morning routine, cleaning up in the bathroom before going out for a run.
As he did, could see his housemate coming down the stairs with a yawn.
"Lllatterrr~," she said as she yawned, Obito giving a nod as he headed out.
His run around his superblock and the next one over, something he did about ten times to get a good sweat going.
When he reached back to his home front, there was a park across from it, he went through his exercises.
200 push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches were followed by 100 pull-ups and a similar number of lunges.
When he finished, he was drenched but he nodded.
He'd need to add more to this workout, he was getting used to it. A rather nice prospect.
He could still get more powerful.
So, as he jogged up to the door to the house in front of him, Obito blinked when Ryuuko came out in her own training sweats.
He passed her by, nodding to her which she reciprocated. Her nose sniffed and he nodded.
"I think I might have gone a little too long today, sorry," he said as he entered the house, leaving her to blush.
'He's frustrated,' she could smell it as much as she dreaded when it came to normal people.
With her quirk, one that was always 'passive' while having an 'active' sense to it, she'd also gained increased senses even when not in 'dragon mode' as she and many others dubbed it.
Her sense of smell was one of the most powerful ones alongside her great heat resistance which made cooking a lost cause for her.
So, when she sniffed Obito, it was involuntary like most people would, she'd been assaulted by his stronger than usual musk.
She'd never really smelt something like this usually unless she was around a far too big 'fan', her fellow heroes who'd made some passes at her, or… when she was feeling… Frisky.
Obito was horny and the fact that she knew filled her mind with awful imagery.
… Well 'awful' in the sense of how intense they were, not awful as in 'bad'. Another fact that had her running towards the park with haste.
Hopefully, she could work off all these thoughts.
She returned home tired but accomplished, rolling her shoulders as she stepped into her shared household.
"... Hey, Obito?!" she shouted into the home, sniffing the air only to frown. '... What is this?'
She smelled the bathroom from down here, so that meant he used it, right?
So why did she smell more people inside the house?!
Her head snapped around as she jumped from the door to the middle of the downstairs living room.
Her head was on a swivel as she sniffed the air.
Where-?
"Glad to see you've noticed," came a voice from up above, getting the dragon hero's attention as her head snapped up. "Hiya!"
It was a woman with eight eyes, a pair of fangs, and the scent of a spider dressed in a pink jogger's outfit.
Her skin was fair and eyes teal, her hair coming up in a low bun with two bangs hanging down from the sides of her face.
"Who are you?! Where's my housemate?!" Ryuuko roared, eyes dilating in anger. "If you hurt him-!"
"Calm yourself, dragon woman," the spider quirk user said as she dropped down from the ceiling, landing with grace. "Hm, your boy toy is fine, he just needed to be moved because he was so… rowdy," the intruder said with a grimace, back flaring in pain.
Where had such a quirkless person learned such martial artes that he'd almost bested her?
Keep a cool face, that bastard was already taken care of. It was the dragon hero who needed tricking.
Ryuuko's mind ran at a mile a minute as she tried to figure out what she was dealing with.
'Keep calm, keep calm, you've done enough training at UA and on the field to know how this goes.'
Hostage situations were always such a bad match-up for her, though. Dammit.
"What do you want?"
"Hmm, you, I guess," Ryuuko shot her a leer. "Oh, not like that. I'm not some insane fan of yours, we want you to show up at this location," the spider woman tossed a rectangular piece of paper at the dragon who fumbled before she caught it. "Hm, hm, cute. Go to that location, alone, and you'll see your man again."
The woman jumped out the door, Ryuuko rushing towards, looking all around, up and down included, but not catching hide nor hair of that woman.
She grit her teeth before hurrying inside.
A quick shower later and she was outside in her hero uniform.
'Obito, hold on, I'm coming for you!' she thought before running off.
~NRK~
He grunted as he was placed down somewhere, a thick blindfold over his eyes hiding his sight from the world.
"Hff, hff, fuck this guy," came a familiar voice of one of his attackers. "How in the world… Hff, did he put up such a fight? Fuck, my lungs."
"Hmph, he wasn't exactly fun to play with, I know," came the voice of his second attacker.
Where was the third one?
"Hmph, you've returned," came a voice that sounded mature. "So this is Ryukyu's weakness?"
"Well, if she's got one, it's got to be the guy she's livin' with, right?" came goon number one's voice. "Spy figured that he's worth somethin' to the ol' dragoness."
"Though, don't be fooled by his quirklessness," came the second underling's call, a grimace in her tone. "He's stronger than we expected… If Spy hadn't been able to ambush him we… we might not have been able to come back like this."
"?" their leader, Obito assumed he was, made a confused sound. "This quirkless man?"
"Yeah," came both subordinates' calls.
Obito heard a huff before his body was dragged, being tied to a chair and blindfolded didn't give him much ability to resist.
"A stronger than normal quirkless, huh? What, did you use the injector on him?"
"..." there was silence.
"Y… You used it on the quirkless freak?!"
"W-We didn't!" came the female goon. "It was Spy, she had to get us out… somehow."
"... Fine, fine, whatever, it's not like it's special," the leader said with a scoff. "That means we have to just get another one and use it on the dragon hero once she gets here."
"Ain't it 'Dragoon' hero?"
"Semantics! And it's a dumb subtitle anyway, just go with 'dragon' what more does the literal dragon hero need?!"
Obito felt them going up and figured he was in an elevator.
"So what are we gonna do with him?" came the female good as she shook Obito's seat a bit. "... Ya know… he's not exactly a bad-looking person."
"For the love of, are you horny 24/7? No, that's not what's going to happen. We set him up somewhere for the cops to find at some point. If we murder him and the whole damn districts out to get us. Don't do anything permanent."
"What I had planned wasn't permanent."
"... No, he's a hostage. Why in the world would I allow him to get some?!"
"... Court advantage?"
"Shut up."
There was some shuffling as Obito was placed down in an open area, the echoing of the clack of the wooden chair's legs against the floor filling him in on this hint.
"So we're leavin' him like this, right?"
"Yes, best to not give away anything. We can't take our chances, especially if what you told me is right… Which is still hard to believe."
"Nah, seriously, he's a freak of a diff'nt nature, he don't make sense!" came the male goon. "He wasn't scared of me when I used up my quirk."
"Or my knives," came the female goon as she let out a soft groan. "He broke them with his hands, chief. He's not normal, even for a quirkless."
"..." there was silence. "... Take him out the chair and hang him up, we gotta make sure we hold all the advantages."
"So it's purely for bait, huh?" Obito finally spoke, getting a group jump from his kidnappers. "Oh, did I scare you?"
"That mouth of yours can get you in trouble, I'll have you know," came the leader's voice. "You'd best play along."
"Or you'll what, sell me?" Obito joked, getting a low growl from the bastard. "You've already made it clear that you won't-can't- hurt me," he frowned. "You're just some more lowlives out to get infamy."
He was grabbed by the cuffs of his dress shirt, black slacks ruffling as he was gripped tightly.
"Listen you quirkless freak! I may have said that but I can easily change my mind!"
"Why don't you change your job?"
"You little bitch!" Obito found himself slapped and thrown across the floor but laughed all the same. "W-What?!"
"Was that supposed to be punishment?" he asked amusedly. "I've been hit harder by my roommate feeling my temperature."
"Rrrrrrr-!"
"Boss, don't! You said it already, if we do something permanent, we'll be in trouble!"
"So what?! We kidnapped him! No one will mind if he's missing a few fingers!"
Obito sighed but smirked as he found his feet untied and his body away from the main kidnapper.
He could feel the big stupid one come closer before lifting him up.
His feet came up and slammed into the man's chin, he thought it was his chin, getting him to drop him onto the floor.
Obito kipped up before strengthening his widened leg stance, hands coming out of their bondage to lift his blindfold.
What he saw caused him to raise an eyebrow.
The boss, the one he'd not seen before, was a tall, lanky, man in a red two-piece suit and black dress shoes.
His skin was pale, his eyes beady and red, and his mouth set in a sneer. His yellow hair set into a mullet that did the man no favors.
Goon number 1, on the other hand, was tall, burly, and about as dumb as he looked. Wearing a mechanics outfit, even the little hat, he sported a peach complexion, green eyes, that were currently closed in pain, and a short, black, buzzcut haircut.
Lastly, the female underling was a woman in a janitor's outfit that had no sleeves and was barely zipped up enough to cover her bust. Sporting long pink hair with green spots, tan skin, and two pitch-black eyes, she looked the weirdest out of the bunch.
All in all? What a weird bunch of kidnappers. The fact that they had an edge on the Akatsuki in weirdness was impressive.
Standing there in his white dress shirt and black slacks, Obito got into a loose stance, eyes narrowed.
"Ah shit," the bulky one said with worry as he looked up from his downed position. "Here we go again."
The pink one lunged at him, a knife coming out from her pockets but Obito caught her wrist before turning her charge into a throw that landed onto the floor beneath the former hostage, cracking the tiles with a wet cough.
"Kaugh!"
The blonde leader ran back towards a desk in front of a large set of windows, Obito making to follow him only to find his leg locked onto by a thick arm.
He cursed as he was swung around before being thrown towards the elevator doors, slamming into them with a curse before landing on his feet.
Obito looked up, locked onto some thrown knives, and snatched them out of the air.
The woman squawked before being besieged by her weapons, the blade slamming her back into the ground by sinking into her clothing.
Obito didn't have time to admire his work before the elevator ding, getting snapping heads from all in the room.
When the doors opened, the spider quirk woman took one look at the situation and then Obito before taking action.
Obito flipped back and rolled to the side as webs shot out of the woman's hands.
'Did something happen to Ryuuko?!' he thought worriedly, eyes narrowing as he faced the big dumb one's charge. 'Tsk!'
He towards him before slipping the side of the bigger male's charge and then slamming his foot into the thug's knee causing him to turn his run into a sideways roll that had him slamming into the wall by the elevator.
"Ohoooughhhhhh," he moaned as the spider woman grimaced.
This couldn't get wor-
The elevator dinged, its doors opening to reveal a pissed-off dragon woman.
…
Obito nodded to his housemate. "Glad to see nothing bad happened."
"Likewise," Ryukyu said with a frown, passing her roommate something that he caught. "Safety."
Obito looked at the weapon in his hands.
It was a three-section staff, a black, iron, weapon with white diamonds on the middle of each staff portion.
"Hmph," he nodded, holding the two ends of the three portions. "They want to capture you, by the way. They've been sending kidnappers over the past months as well."
The boss's, rummaging through his desk, eyes widened. "Y-You?! You dealt with them?!"
"Yes, I hope they found themselves some good places in jail," Obito said with a smirk as Ryukyu's arms grew scaled. "You'll find them soon enough, though."
"... I'm not sure what's actually going on, the fact that you're not captured is kind of confusing."
"It's fine, I handled some things while you were asleep, nothing big."
"... We'll talk later," the dragon hero said with a quirked brow before something black flashed into the air in front of her, a gun's barrel smoking. "What the?!"
"Be mindful!" Obito said, resetting his stance after he blocked the shot aimed for the dragon woman. "He's got a gun!"
"What the…?" the suited man looked shocked. "H-How?! That was still just like a gun!"
Ryuuko wondered the same but Obito's eyes snapped to the boss villain.
Her own narrowed before they ran towards the suit-wearing man, the blonde kidnapper's eyes widening before he scrambled to load another shot.
Obito's eyes narrowed as he and Ryuuko slid to a halt before sliding under a set of throwing knives before separating as a spray of webs slammed into where they were a moment ago.
Ryuuko growled as she swiped at the space before her, knives clattering to the floor as she knocked them away.
Obito, on the other hand, sent up several slashes, cutting through the webs of the spider woman.
'How annoying!' Both housemates thought in unison.
They made to fight more but Obito cursed out loud as he jumped back from a gunshot.
"I'm dealing with you, you quirkless freak!" came the blonde man's shout as he loaded another shot into his handgun. "Spidella!"
Obito frowned as he dodged a swipe of the hand from his opponent before lashing out with a section of his staff, getting a grunt from the spider woman before kicking her in the shin.
She buckled and Obito aimed for her chin with his other held section of his staff only to growl as he leaned back, another gunshot barely dodged as he backflipped before landing a bit away.
His eyes narrowed as the spider woman recovered somewhat but gained a good bit of satisfaction when the woman groaned and fell back to her knees.
"Tsk, dammit!" the boss gunman growled as he took aim once more only to dodge his other female goon as Ryuuko threw her at his desk, and him by proxy. "Shiyon!"
"Oooooohhhh," the janitor-dressed woman groaned. "I don't feel so good…"
"..." the blonde paled as Ryuuko and Obito turned to him, eyes narrowed, all his underlings groaning on the floor. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck!'
This wasn't supposed to happen! How was he to know that the quirkless freak was some kind of martial artes expert?!
He grimaced, his body couldn't handle an actual fight and he only had three injectors left.
With one loaded, he needed a quick shot…
His eyes widened as a swirl of darkness came at his side, alarming all those standing.
"Yamamato, when's the next…?" it was a shadowy individual.
Like, literally shadowy, they looked like a being composed completely of clouds with glowing yellow eyes. Wearing a bartender's outfit of a white dress shirt, black vest, and slacks, he was an odd sight.
"... I see, it seems that you acquire assistance," the figure said as he formed into a complete human shape. "... The newest upcoming pro heroine, too, at that and… a sidekick?"
"No, a quirkless pain," the now-named Yamamoto admitted. "He was supposed to be bait but he's proven to be more powerful than I expected."
"... I see," the cloud being said. "Perhaps he could be of use to us instead of a hero."
"... W-Wait, are you serious?!" the blonde said in disbelief.
"Yes, a body is still a body."
Obito had listened to enough, lunging at the two with his staff's ends in hand.
He lashed out with his weapon, aiming for the gun in the blonde's hands only to find his weapon gripped by the cloud person's hand.
"No, you-"
Obito didn't stop, swinging his staff around with the cloud man attached, sending him out the window, breaking the glass panes, and alerting those outside.
"Obito?!"
"Now's not the time!"
Obito refocused before ducking down as Yamamoto took aim at his face. His staff was swung up at the man's wrist, breaking it.
"AAHHHHHH, FUCK!" Yamamoto hit his knees as he gripped his broken limb. "W-What the fuck, man?!"
"Next time," Obito raised the end of his staff. "Don't go around kidnapping people-"
He made to knock him out only to find a shadowy portal at his side, Obito jumping away as a pure black hand reached out of it to grab his neck.
"Fucking!" Obito cursed as the shadow man came reappeared. "So it's a teleporting quirk, huh?"
"Hmm, your skill would be an apt benefit for a Nomu," he said before walking over to Yamamoto. "But we must leave, the people outside will soon alert the police."
"W-What about my peop-huh?" Yamamoto made to look around only to see none of his underlings. "W-Where?!"
Obito's eyes widened as he, too, looked behind him. "He took them?!"
Ryukyu's eyes widened. "Shit!"
"I hope we'll meet again, Obito," Obito growled as the shadow man slowly absorbed Yamamoto. "You'd be a good subject to work on."
Obito lashed out with his weapon, the cloud villain making to reach for it, only for the quirkless man to step forward and whip the weapon mid-slash.
It slammed into the metal casing that was around the villain's neck, the shadow's shouting as Yamamoto jumped away from the closing portal.
"What'd you do?!"
"He attacked me, I couldn't!"
"So that's your weakness," Ryukyu noted with a frown. "Good to know, we'll aim there if you try something else."
The sounds of sirens reached everyone on the top floor of the building.
"Time's up," Obito said, weapon at the ready. "Trust me when I say this, I can reach you before you disappear."
"... Quirkless, you said he was, Yamamoto?"
"Y-Yeah, I don't know what's up with this freak?"
"Weren't you similar?"
"I'm not."
"Hmph," the shadow man turned his arm into a portal, Obito already in motion. "Focus, quirkless."
Obito was already mid-lunge when a gunshot rang out along with a grunt from Ryukyu.
"NO!" he shouted, turning on a dime as he ran to catch his falling, hero, housemate. "Ryuuko!"
"Hmph, goodbye," the shadow man said as he enveloped Yamamoto before the blonde disappeared. "We'll find you, eventually," he said as he, too, disappeared.
Obito grit his teeth as he held his female housemate. "Ryuuko?!"
"O-O-O-Ow," she moaned as he held her, the sounds of feet against broken glass reaching their ears. "Oh, I-I'm fine, it didn't reach too far in… B-But I feel really sleepy."
Obito checked her side, blood was, in fact, there but he noted that where she'd been shot wasn't life-threatening.
"I am here!" came a loud call as someone heavy landed in the room. "Hmph?!" there was a surprised grunt. "Oh no! Nighteye!"
"I'm already-Obito?!" came the call of Obito's employer as he came into view, minding the three-sectioned staff at the brunette's side. "What happened?!" Nighteye asked as he saw his secretary's grimace.
Obito held Ryuuko firmly.
"Haa, I never told you but…"
~NRK~
Nighteye frowned as he and Obito watched Ryuuko Tatsuma get worked on.
"This is rather perturbing." the hero said with a cupped chin and a frown. "A month of kidnapping attempts? Why didn't you bring it up to me?"
"At first, I thought it was just an isolated attempt," Obito explained. "It may not be a good reason but I figured dealing with it the first time would be all that would happen. It was about a week later that another was sent to the house. I handled it, again, but I wasn't sure if this was normal behavior for a new hero or not."
"Once more, bad reasoning… wait, is that why you asked if I'd been the target for a kidnapping before?" Nighteye asked in disbelief. "Obito-kun!"
"I know what you'll say and I understand, I should have brought this up secretly, at least," Obito admitted. "That said, my idea was to eventually try to catch and interrogate, them. If I knew who it was, I could have handled this quietly."
"..." Nighteye's eyes narrowed. "Define 'quietly'. Obito-kun, I know I should not need to tell you that it's illegal to try and assert any power over this situation."
"I get that, I wasn't about to do what you'd believe I was going to… not to such an extent," Obito explained even as the hero frowned further. "There was going to be no vigilantism. I was planning on sending in a report about that couldn't be traced back to me."
"... Obito-kun, I've never asked this, I wanted to respect your privacy," Nighteye began, mouth set in a straight line. "But what is your upbringing? Throughout your time here, you've always seemed to approach situations with a cold-steel logic that not even most of my fellow heroes exhibit. Why are you this type of person?"
"... When I was young, my brother, Hisashi, and I, were orphans," Obito explained, getting a frown from the glasses-wearing hero. "We lived on the streets for a little bit, until he was 13 and I was 5. Back then, while we lived how we could, we learned of how the world worked down there. You had to be formulated, smart, logical, to survive. My brother… he was smart but he was naive. Even after our time off the street, he'd made a few… well, not enemies, but hateful admirers. We'd been those who'd want to be like us, who didn't deserve it, in my mind, who'd get jealous. It was only a matter of time and Hisashi couldn't see it coming."
"But you did?"
"Yes and I prepared appropriately," Obito said as he gestured to his weapon. "I'd taken up using this back then, a facsimile of what the real techniques were but I knew enough from watching enough performances. I baited those out and beat them to within an inch of their lives."
Nighteye was silent.
"I warned them and left them after calling an ambulance but they didn't stop until I was 10, where we moved and I left them with a horrid beating beforehand. I always kept an eye out for my brother, just in case, and he knows nothing about any of this."
"..." the dark green-headed hero frowned. "You seem far more intelligent than most your age after such a start."
"It wasn't an option to try and bleed such thoughts into my normal life. So I did the best I could, we could, and didn't put any burden on my brother. Sometime after that, he'd gotten into a relationship with a kind woman. I did my best for them and my nephew. I couldn't allow them to deal with these kinds of problems, my problems. So I stopped worrying but learned of real three-sectioned staff know-how from a hero who teaches nearby. Yoroi-Musha."
Nighteye's eyes widened for a moment before understanding took place.
"I see, the number 9 hero trained you."
"It wasn't for being a hero, just so you know," Obito said immediately. "The thoughts of becoming a hero were never in my mind."
"Because of your quirklessness?"
"No,' Nighteye looked surprised. "Oh please, even when I was 16, in the past UA festivals, I could have handed almost everyone on that field their own behinds."
"That's certainly high praise for oneself."
"Perhaps but I know the scopes of my abilities, the same way different heroes, with different quirks, know their own."
"... That is fair," Nighteye nodded. "So why not become a hero?"
"Because I don't deserve it," Nighteye frowned. "With how I was, I have no right trying to reinforce the moral horizon of the populace. I'm a darkened man and that's just the case."
"So?" Obito looked amused as he looked at his employer. "You were the top of your classes from your records, the highest in scores of the country, and you've been caught on record helping the elderly."
"That's… just a reflex," Obito said slowly. "They're people that need others around them, and I'm not even looking down on them. They just need help, usually, and I just… just do."
"Hmph," Nighteye now looked amused. "I see, rather down on yourself, are you?"
"A little but I've found what I'm looking for in my life," Obito said. "I've got family, even if not directly my own, to care for. A nephew to teach to use his own skills, he's also quirkless."
"Yes, I believe you've said this before."
"A brother who I have to seriously teach to come home more often and a job that allows me to see more than most do, even if it's the more paper trailed version of it."
"So you've found your balance?"
"Yes… I think I have."
Nighteye nodded, it'd been a rather enlightening conversation.
Both men turned back to the hero in the surgery room, Nighteye's gaze filled with conviction while Obito's was with resolve.
Allowing this to happen again wouldn't be allowed.
Sometime later, after being given a room in the hospital proper, Ryuuko Tatsuma awoke with a wince and slow drawl in her thoughts.
"Ughhhh," she moaned a bit, blinking as she looked up. "Mmmm… W-Where?" Ryuuko said once more, displeased with her mind right now.
What was going on?
"You're awake," came a familiar voice at her side, surprising her a bit.
"... Obito?" she asked as she looked around herself. "... I'm in the hospital?"
"Yes," Obito said as he closed his book and got off the chair by her bedside. "You were shot in the side by that cloud-like villain. He got away by the time All Might showed up."
"O-Ohh," she grimaced at that, slight shame filling her. "... Are you alright?"
"... Yes, I'm fine," Obito said to reassure her. "Though, I'm sure you should have asked about yourself when you woke up."
"I… had to check, I'm a hero, after all," she responded, wincing as she shifted in her medical bed, looking down at her side. "Shot, huh?"
Obito settled a hand on her shoulder and helped her sit up, the dragon woman giving her thanks when he did.
"Haaahhh," she slowly twisted her neck, hearing the cricks each time. "Hm, what happened?"
Obito filled her in on everything that happened when he was kidnapped.
From the home fight to his getting knocked out, to being dragged to that building where the two of them fought more.
"So she, the spider woman, was tellin' the truth?" Ryuuko asked, getting an odd raise of the brow from her housemate. "She'd said you'd given them some trouble, I never thought about it, not even that much when I got to that building as well. But, now, I'm confused. How'd you, a quirkless person, no offense, handle three quirk users?"
"Easily?" Obito said thought it came out more as a question, confusing the dragon quirk user more. "I don't know what to tell you, Tatsuma-san, all I did was fight. My arms, legs, intelligence, speed, power, and instinct. I was simply a better fighter than all of them. Had I not been caught off-guard, I'd probably have been able to stop them."
Ryuuko looked impressed. "No offense, again, but I didn't think you could have fought them off like that," she tapped her fingers together in her lap. "Yeah, sorry."
"No, it's a fair reaction to have," Obito said as he raised an arm, his sleeves rolled up so they could see it. "I train night and day because it's better to be prepared to fight off whoever might get any ideas than to not be. We live in a society in which I'm surprised more people aren't, at least, minorly trained."
"Well, there are the training centers," Ryuuko added. "Though, I think only people who are trying to become heroes go to actually train. Most people just go there to let loose."
"I understand that having a power to use and not being allowed to in your everyday life can be frustrating, at times, I believe."
"Yup," Ryuuko answered. "But, even then, you're just so… trained, I guess is the right word? You seem too good if that makes sense."
"I understand but, sadly, all I can tell you is that I take training seriously," Obito said. "Though I won't lie, I, also, thought I'd hit my limits, physically, by now. The fact that I haven't is confusing to me as well."
"Hmm, that's pretty cool," she said. "So you can still get stronger?"
"That's how it seems."
Ryuuko nodded, leaning back in her bed in thought. "What about the weapon? I picked up without thinking, thinking that you'd be able to at least protect yourself enough. But you blocked that bullet thing. That has to require some crazy skill."
"Well, I learned from Yoroi Musha himself," her jaw dropped. "Perhaps his teachings are just that good."
"HOW!?"
"He was teaching a specialized course to those who wanted to learn of arm combat in high school. You wouldn't know because you were in UA at that time, I believe."
"That's so amazing!" she said. "So it was only the three-section staff?"
"I dabbled in some of the other weapons but that one spoke out to me the most."
It did. Back in his old life, Obito kept using chains after becoming Madara's pawn.
He'd switched it up over the years but chains just seemed to match his skill set the most… And, horrifyingly, it probably also reminded him of Kushina-san.
God, he fucked up so badly.
Seeing Obito's annoyed expression, Ryuuko frowned. "Hey, now, none of that! I know I'm here but we're both alive!" the dragon tried to keep his spirits up.
She might not even be here if he hadn't blocked that first bullet.
Obito blinked at the fact that she thought he was annoyed by that, wincing at this fact. "Sorry, I didn't mean to look that way."
"I know, just, I don't know, cheer up?" she asked, completely unconfident in her words. "I may not be saying much but you need to be proud of yourself."
In a way, she was addressing his issues but so out of context, he laughed.
"Hm, hm, I guess," Obito said with a chuckle as she pouted a bit at him. "Look, I'm fine. You're right, in a way. I've come too far to look down on what happened in the past."
He'd messed up time and time again but, he hopes, in the end, he did what he could. He'd given everything he could to make sure they could defeat Kaguya.
His Sharingan, his Kamui, his life. He gave everything possible to enjoy that they all made it. Obito just hopes that it all worked out.
"Mmm, now that I'm thinking about it…" she looked nervous. "I'm gonna be out of action for a little bit, aren't I?" Ryuuko asked with a slightly pale expression before she slumped. "So much for my debut month."
"It's fine, from what the doctors say, your body wasn't as affected by that odd injector it could have been," Obito said, confusing her. "Those things that were shot at us were injectors of some sort. Nighteye said that it was a powerful sleeping liquid in a patch of that man's, Yamamoto's, cells."
"Oh, yeah, that guy!" she balked. "He wanted to capture me?! W-What for?"
"Before you spiral, I'm pretty sure it wasn't for that," Obito said flatly. "Even when one of his henchwomen had implied doing the same to me, he stopped it. He was trying to hand you off to someone and I think that cloud villain was that 'someone'."
"You told Nighteye, already, right?"
"Of course," Obito said with a grimace. "That's not the only thing they found. It was a board with pictures of heroes and sidekicks," he said as he pulled out a few pictures from his pockets.
Showing them to Ryuuko, the woman's eyes widened in disbelief.
"T-Those are former coworkers," she said in shock at all the 'X' covered pictures. "W-Why are these here?"
"I think… I believe that Yamamoto captured them already," Ryuuko choked. "That's why he was coming after you, he was trying to get you all to give to someone. The issue is, why?"
Ryuuko swallowed as she looked over her old coworkers' photos before something caused her to freeze. "T-There might be something," she said quietly, Obito leaning in. "We… Before I left to go pro, we'd all been working on a case of missing people, actually. I think… I think this Yamamoto guy might have been a part of the group we busted."
"So it was just random people?"
"Yeah, no heroes or anything. They were just grabbing people off the streets," she looked alarmed as she went through the photos. "If what you're saying is right, h-he's knocking them out and giving them to someone."
"... Remember when we were about to attack them and the shadow man appeared? You remember what he said?"
Yellow eyes narrowed. "... It was something about you being a good subject, right… Obito, he sounds like-"
"He was going to experiment on me, yeah," Obito nodded. "Something about being apt for a 'Nomu'," he twitched his fingers. "I don't know what that is… but I fear that your old comrades might have been experimented on."
"I see," came a voice from the door. "So that's the part we didn't know."
"Hah?!"
"You can come in, you know," Obito said as his housemate jumped. "There was no need to stand there for so long."
The door to Ryuuko's medical room opened to reveal none other than Nighteye and a detective.
He wore what would be the stereotypical get-up of brown pants, a dress shirt, a brown trenchcoat, and a fedora with a notepad in his hands.
His eyes were coal-black, skin white, and hair neat as he finished writing down in his notepad and looked up.
"Apologies for intruding," he said as he and Nighteye came in. "Detective Tsukauchi. I'm the main one working on this case alongside some other police and the heroes."
"Huh?" Ryuuko blinked. "Pleased to meet you, detective. I guess I should have expected something like this."
"It's fine," Tsukauchi said with a nod and smile. "You're the newest go-pro hero, right? Ryukyu, I believe."
"Y-Yeah!" Obito smirked at the woman's red cheeks. "T-That is to say…"
"Yes, she's the Dragoon hero, Ryukyu. She recently started patrolling this part of the city," Obito informed, Ryuuko nodding furiously next to him.
"Ah, sorry, I didn't know her husband was here," the two housemates sputtered in unison as the light glinted off of Nighteye's glasses, his smile seen by all around. "Sorry, sir. I just wanted to ask your wife some questions."
"Hm, hm, you may wish to revisit that relationship status, Tsukauchi," Nighteye said as he adjusted his glasses, Tsukauchi blushing as he was corrected. "They share no such relationship, they simply live in the same home."
"Ah, sorry!" he bowed to the two as Obito coughed into his fist and Ryuuko shook her head with fervor. "I-I assumed and, that is, that's unbecoming of a detective! Apologies!"
"Ahem, yes, right," Obito said. "Let's just focus on the important information for now. Your questioning."
Ryuuko burned bright red, nodding to that notion even as her mind went elsewhere.
Husband? Obito? I mean, sure, she doesn't think he's a bad person, much less bad husband material.
He cleaned, he cooked, he worked out. He was smart, g-good looking, and knew how to handle the finances.
So, that is to say, she knew that Obito was a good catch to most women...?!
She did her best to not focus on that train of thought, lest she envisions things that weren't to be.
Even if not trying was a guarantee on that.
They relayed everything that had been discussed, Obito's martial know-how noted as an aside, before the detective nodded at his notes.
"Are you harmed, sir?"
"Not in the slightest," Obito responded.
"This situation, 'Nomus', the kidnapping," Tsukauchi's eyes narrowed. "I'm worried that this might become bigger than we expected."
"Actually, about that," Nighteye spoke up. "Have kidnappings like these happened in more than our patrol space?"
Obito and Ryuuko's eyes widened at that.
"I hadn't thought about that," Obito said, the heroine next to him nodding.
"Well, I'd have to check," Tsukauchi said with a worried frown. 'If there have been, that means that it's not just you all being involved."
"Hmph, ominous," Nighteye said. "Please, keep in touch, we don't know when another situation like this will pop up."
"Actually, that's another thing," Tsukauchi said. "With both Ryukyu hospitalized, and the disappearing heroes case related, we might need to move her to a more protected location. Not just her, either, Mr. Uchiha, you've already spoken about this villain's interest in you."
"It's not untrue."
"So the question remains, where?" the detective rubbed his noggin with the back of his pen. "If anything, I'd want to move you to a more secured location with more heroes around. If not more, than more notable ones."
"... Hm, well," Obito spoke up. "I've moved here from Mustafu. Back there, I know that's where UA is, I was also taught there by Yoroi Musha, so he's nearby. Add on that that's also where another resurgence of new pro heroes have popped up, it might be the best bet."
"Hmm, you might be onto something," Tsukauchi noted that down. "Nighteye?"
"That's also closest to All Might. He was just vacationing today, he'll be back actually in Mustafu. He's supposed to be teaching at UA soon in the coming year."
"I'm assuming that's new information."
"Yes, it's to be kept quiet," Nighteye said, turning to Obito and Ryuuko. "That means all of us."
"Understood," Obito said.
"A-Alright," Ryuuko said. "So, what should we do for now?"
"The best idea is for you two to stay together," Nighteye advised. "With how recent this is, you trying to go outside might simply exacerbate any who are trying to find you. This move… Tsukauchi, how fast do you believe we could do this?"
"Well, it depends on how fast Ryukyu can leave. We could easily grab a hotel, apartment, anything temporary in a matter of hours, if necessary."
"Hmph, the doctors want you to stay for at least two more days," Nighteye said to the dragon heroine. "How do you feel about that?"
"What are they holding me for?"
"They want to make sure to recheck the wound in the morning and reapply their quirks if necessary," the older hero said.
"Alright," Ryuuko nodded. "I'm fine with that. Are you, Obito?"
"Sure," Obito nodded. "The only issue is clothes."
"The staff here should be capable of washing yours," Tsukauchi said. "Maybe they can lend you some hospital scrubs in the meantime."
"I'd be fine with that."
"Alright then, we'll take our leave for now but I already have some of the more nocturnal heroes patrolling this area specifically. I made sure of this, if any one of them comes to this room, they're to be considered as foes. They've been told to not approach the hospital unless it's for close ties. We have a few of the doctors keeping us updated as well."
"Alright, thank you, Nighteye-san," Obito said, the hero nodding as he adjusted his glasses.
"This is my duty, Obito-kun."
Night fell quickly for the two, only being three hours later that midnight came.
"How are you feeling about all this?" Ryuuko asked "Are you alright with all this? Me being around kind of brought you into something rough."
"I'm fine, I promise," Obito said from her bedside, reading an anatomy book. "I knew what I was possibly getting into when we first moved in together, I don't regret it."
Ryuuko blushed a little bit, scratching her cheek as she looked away. "T-Thanks, I'm glad we got to be housemates as well," she smiled. "I don't know what would have happened if whoever I ended up with had been some kind of perve."
"Thankfully, I'm not."
"Same but, still, thanks. I get the feeling I might not be here if you weren't around."
"It's fine, Tatsuma-san," Obito said with a nod as the woman looked the slightest bit embarrassed. "Hm?"
"Ryuuko," she said solidly. "C-Call me 'Ryuuko', it's a lot better than saying my last name like we're total strangers," the dragon woman admitted with slightly red cheeks.
Obito blinked before rubbing the back of his head. "... Very well, Ryuuko-san."
'... It's a start,' she thought before blinking. '... A start? Start to what?!' Ryuuko realized in quick measure.
What the hell?!
"Ryuuko-san?" Obito spoke up, standing by her bedside. "Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah, I am!" she said quickly. "Um, um… W-What's with the book?" she asked smartly.
"Oh, this? I'm learning how to apply more pressure point techniques," Obito said as the dragon woman blinked. "It'll be helpful to be able to stop my opponents' abilities to move. whenever I get the chance, in more than one way."
She considered his studious, martial, endeavor with thought. "... Hey, Obito?"
"Hmn?"
"Do you think you could teach me how to do some of that stuff?" she asked seriously. "I… I know some basic hand-to-hand but I usually just use my quirk to end fights. In that respect, when I was in that room with you, I couldn't transform like I wanted to."
That didn't leave her with many options. She could partially transform parts of her body at will, it should be noted, but only so much before they expand to unwieldy sizes.
If she knew how to deal with smaller opponents without her quirk, it'd certainly help narrow down her weaknesses.
"Sure," Obito said, getting a sharp-teeth grin from the dragon woman. "If you're up for it, I can demonstrate for you for now?"
"Seriously? Sure, cool!"
And so he did, getting up and moving to the front of her bed to go through the movements of his styles.
Not the best start to the day but it'd ended pretty ok.
She wouldn't mind having more endings like this, she guessed.
~NRK~
Yep, this is an Obito x Ryuuko fic.
This is gonna be a short one. I'm talking, literally, probably less than twelve chapters.
This is gonna be a faster-paced fic than most of my others.
I'm starting to get a hang of this 'hook in the beginning 10% of a story' thing!
I'm so glad to get this concept under my belt!
Words: 11.5k+
~NRK Out~