Koichi carefully walked inside Kazuho's room and quietly sat down near the head of the bed. She looked a lot better than she had before. A lot calmer too.
"You wanted to talk to me?" he asked carefully.
"I need to tell you something," she said after a long moment of silence, "I know about the conversation you had with Makoto."
He blinked. "The what?"
She went silent for another moment before exploding, "Her love confession, you idiot!" she threw up her arms. "How the hell do you forget something like that!"
Oh. He flinched slightly. Yeah. That had been weird. Flattering beyond belief and far more than he could ever imagine. After all, Makoto was smart and beautiful and successful and just great. He was... well...
Him.
"I kind of had more important things to think about," he replied, flinching as Kazuho's cheeks puffed up and flushed as pink as her hair "I was too busy saving you to think about it."
And he'd really need to think about it. Like why she'd told him he needed to talk to Kazuho.
She closed her eye and loosed a tired, exasperated sigh. "Remember that kid you saved? The one who you pulled out of the river?"
He nodded. "Yeah? I remember that boy. Never knew who he was though."
Kazuho's eyebrow twitched slightly. "You know what, dumbass... just..." she pointed at a package sitting on the counter across from the table. "Just give me that."
He nodded and retrieved the bundle.
"Here you go."
She took it out and carefully withdrew something wonderful. That brilliant crimson bisected by lines and circles of white and the hood and cuffs both in brilliant golden yellow. The proud bags proclaiming its presence to all. It could be only one thing. One wonderful thing...
"Is that a limited edition All-Might Silver Age Costume Hoodie?"
The single All Might hoodie he'd never worn as the Crawler - he had one, once, but he'd sacrificed it during his first attempt at heroism - given willingly to give warmth and comfort to that poor boy who'd fallen into the river. The very event that, until he was lifted up by the hand of All Might himself, he had felt had destroyed any chance he'd had at a career...
It was... beautiful...
She went silent- dead silent.
"What?"
"You're such an idiot."
"What?"
"You gave that kid you saved your hoodie..."
"And you got me a new one...?"
She took a long breath. A long, careful breath that was clearly to keep her from exploding before slowly losing it. And then she took another long breath. "Breathe." she muttered, to herself, "Just breathe..."
"What?"
"It's the same hoodie, dumbass!"
"I know, it's just like-"
"It's that hoodie!"
"Oh, you found the guy?" Koichi asked with a smile. "How's he..."
"It wasn't a boy!" she screamed, sounding almost desperate, "She was a girl!"
"Oh," he blinked, "Okay, then how's she-"
He paused mid sentence as his brain finally caught up with him.
He saved a girl.
He gave her his hoodie.
Kazuho has that exact same hoodie.
It was like he could hear the bell going off in his head.
Ding!
Oh...
Oh...
"Oh..."
She gave him a level stare with a face as red as strawberries. "Koichi, you've always been a hero... you saved me when I was little... and now you saved me again."
She closed her eye.
"Look... I... I like you, Koichi."
He frowned. Deeply. Kazuho liked him.
Kazuho.
Liked...
Like liked...
Him?
She was pretty and talented and smart and... he was... well...
Him.
"And I understand if you go for Makoto but... I just wanted you to know that and..."
And now he was trapped. He cared deeply about them both. He liked them both too much to hurt either of them. There were both among the most important people in the world to him. In most circumstances he'd have happily accepted the feelings of either of them and prayed to every god he could name for his good fortune every morning for the rest of his life, because both of them were so utterly out of his league it wasn't funny...
Instead he was being forced to choose. Choose which of the people dear to him he'd get to hurt by choosing the other.
While he cared deeply for them both, at this moment, he resented them both more than anything in the world. For forcing him to make a decision he couldn't make. He'd rather die than hurt either of them.
He stood up mechanically and closed his eyes before taking a deep breath.
"Koichi?" Kazuho asked nervously. "What are you doing?"
He opened his eyes. "I need to take a walk."
Manami was getting sick and tired of all the damned drama. Not that she minded drama, but this wasn't her kind of drama. Her kind of drama was passion and romance. The kind where she could lose herself for days at a time in an Otome Game, only emerging from her woman cave either because Gentle had staged an intervention, or she'd discovered the 100% completion golden ending.
That was her kind of drama. Not this. Though she had to admit this kind did have more food, water, and bathroom breaks.
But Danjuro wanted to talk to the girl he saved and wasn't going to leave until he did which meant she wasn't going to leave until he did... which meant waiting for that absolute putz Crawler to man up and...
The door opened as the skinny guy walked out with a look on his face- all tight and knotted and confused- that for some reason just called to her. There was something wrong here that just... registered in her gut.
Well, Danjuro was getting water for tea so she could spare a moment.
"What's your problem?" she asked.
He remained silent, quietly sulking in place.
"What, she broke up with you or something?"
He laughed. It was a dry, broken sound. "I wish it was that easy.."
She glanced up at him,then put her hands on her hips before nodding and hopped up onto the chair with well-earned grace.
"Well how about you tell me what's going on and..."
"You won't be able to help me," he murmured. "It's... complicated."
She grinned. "Is it about girls?"
He looked over to her and then slowly nodded, drawing a smile to her face.
Okay. This was her kind of drama. Finally something interesting. Like one of her games, but, well, real.
Dis gonna be gud.
"Well then," she said with no lack of pride, "Lucky for you're talking to La Brava. Quirk? Literally Love!"
He was silent for a moment then his shoulders slumped and he looked at her with the empty eyes of a condemned man. "I have a problem."
"I'd say you have multiple problems," she snarked, "But what's this one?"
"I have two girls who like me, but I don't want to hurt either of them," he replied. "Makoto-senpai and Pop-chan..."
Okay, she could see the thing with Pop. She was way out of his league, but, well Danjuro was way out of hers so sometimes people just got lucky in love.
"Who's this Makoto girl?"
He pulled out his phone and brought up an interview. Some American talk show. It was in English. It was subtitled but her English was good enough, thanks to her years of playing English language games, that she could understand spoken English even though she couldn't functionally speak it.
The woman in the interview was hot. Note: Woman. Because that girl was no girl, she was all woman. Trim figure, perfect proportions, and legs that stretched from here to infinity. She looked like a fashion model who'd gotten lost on her way to the runway, with her couture ladies power suit, with only those stupid visor glasses throwing her look off. But given she was the brand manager of a major Pro Hero, that was just understandable. Gotta wear the boss's merch, right?
Honestly, Manami was jealous just looking at her. But at the same time mildly dumbfounded. She could understand Pop Step going for him, he was a sweet enough guy she guessed, but this girl wasn't just out of his league, she wasn't even playing the same sport.
"How the hell did a guy like you score a woman like her?"
"I have no idea," he replied with blunt honesty.
"So what's the problem?" she asked, looking over to him.
"I don't want to hurt either of them," he muttered. "I care about them both too much."
She nodded. Alright. That she understood all too well. Love was like that. It could be selfishly selfless at times. "Alright. I'll need you to tell me everything. Start at the beginning."
"How far back? I mean..."
"How about you start when this all got tangled into a knot, dumbass. You can bring up anything relevant that comes to mind."
He nodded and began to tell her the story as she sat down in the chair next to him.
He began with the fact that this Makoto had made a trip from the United States to Japan, largely to cook him dinner and confess her love for him... but then told him to clear things up with Pop Step first, make it sound like she was actually giving the girl first refusal on the man she loved.
Holy hell. Woman was either an angel, didn't really like him that much - in which case why did she fly half way across the planet for this, or just really liked that Pop girl so much she would rather fall on the sword than hurt her.
Then there was Kazuho, who confessed to him - turns out he'd saved her life as a little girl but had thought she was a boy the whole time. Well that explained why Pop liked him. That was the kind of hardcore fairy tail romance stuff right out of one of her games!
She'd ship it.
Of course, then she'd basically told him that she'd overheard the other woman's love confession and told him that Makoto was the better choice. On an objective level, she agreed on that one. Pop was cute and they had that whole Otome destiny vibe going, but this Makoto chick wasn't even just on a different level. She was Stand Alone DLC. But... that was neither here nor there.
However this made it clear to her what the problem was.
This Makoto chick liked Pop Step too much to step in like a hussy and steal her man, even if they liked the same boy.
While she was sure it was in some part self-depreciation, it was the same with Pop Step who seemed to respect Makoto enough that she'd step to the side.
Crawler loved Pop Step and Makoto both enough that making a choice was too painful to imagine because it would cause him to hurt one of the people he loved. Which in turn, would hurt him making the girls kinda bitches for putting him in this position to begin with.
All in all, this was a feeling she understood because she'd honestly rather hang than cost Gentle his dream. Almost literally. And the almost was only because she was too short to be able to reach high enough to hang a noose.
"Alright!" she cried out as she jumped off her seat. "Time for an intervention!"
She was decided, if she had to be a hero she'd do it her way. This was her wheelhouse. Both by destiny and inclination.
"Come on, I know how to handle this!"
He blinked. "You do?"
"Yeah, Love's my Quirk, love's my game. Love Hero: La Brava is on the scene!" she exclaimed with a wide grin and a fist pump before grabbing his arm.
He quietly followed her back into Pop's room. She could clearly see that the girl's eye was puffy and red, she'd been crying.
"What the hell do you want?" Pop demanded of Crawler, turning bright red from outrage at his presence. "Get out, you asshole!"
Manami groaned.
Great. Fucking tsundere. She never got that shit. If you love someone, what righteous option was there besides Dere-dere? That hot-and-cold hard-to-get shit just led to mixed messages, broken hearts, and tons of needless sexual frustration!
She reached up and grabbed him by the shirt sleeve before he could obey the girls command.
"None of that shit," she barked out, "This is a love intervention!"
"W-what?" demanded a confused Pop, her brow furrowed, honestly looking at Manami like she'd grown a second head.
"Both of you. Sit down, shut up, and listen..." she then pointed at Crawler. "And you, call that Makoto girl. Put her on speaker!"
"O-okay."
"Crawler dutifully obeted while the two became more and more bewildered.
"Koichi!" she heard from the phone, "Thank god you called me! What happened with Kazuho! Is she all right?"
"I'm fine," Pop step blurted out.
"Thank god...," she muttered over the line.
"I'm glad you're glad she's okay," Manami spoke up, "But you can be relieved later, because this is an intervention! So girdle your loins, girl. It's love time!"
The line went silent for a moment. "Who are you?"
"She's Gentle Hero's sidekick?" Crawler offered weakly.
"Gentle Hero... Wait, do you mean Gentle Criminal, that buffoon on ViewTube?"
Manami's eyebrow twitched. She hated this bitch already.
"He's a Hero now," La Brava growled out, "One of All-Might's new sidekicks, just like your dumbass boyfriend..."
"W-what! Oh my god!" the women cried out, "Koichi! Is that for real! All Might? Oh my god! This is wonderful..."
"Yes, yes, very wonderful and I'm sure you'll all have time to say how great everything is when we're done here!" La Brava growled through gritted teeth.
The woman went quiet again, "So what exactly are we doing here?"
"Wouldn't we all like to know..." Pop asked, shooting her a glare.
La Brava puffed up her chest. "I am the Love Hero: La Brava and this is a love intervention."
"A what?" Makoto asked.
"Shuddup," she snapped, "Now I've talked to Koichi here and I think I know how to handle the twisted little love triangle you're stuck in."
"Why the hell should we listen to you!" Pop exclaimed.
"Well, you two could ignore me and go back to emotionally torturing Crawler-san here..."
Pop's eye went wide.
"Please leave me out of this...," the male hero groaned.
"How are we torturing him?" Makoto asked, uncomfortably.
She had their attention.
Yey.
"He cares for you both, a lot, and having to choose one would mean rejecting the other and he just can't do that."
They went silent.
"Now, continuing on, you... Makoto. Pop here overheard your love confession..."
"I..."
"Sussh. Talking here. Let me finish!"
"I... alright..."
"Good. Now as I was about to say, you clearly care about Pop here. Otherwise you wouldn't have even told this bonehead that he needed to clear things up with her."
"She's like a little sister to me..."
"I am?" Pop asked in a small voice.
"Sure you are. Yes, you're excitable and annoying..."
"Hey!"
"But that's what makes you you, so it's all alright," Makoto said with a soft chuckle that caused Pop to blush a pink as brilliant as her hair.
"Good feels, good thing!" La Brava exclaimed, "Now Pop! You clearly at least respect Makoto here, even if you're too damned Tsun-Tsun to admit it to anyone, least of all yourself."
"Hey!"
"Moving on," La Brava completely ignored the outburst, "You respect Makoto enough to be willing to just step to the side and let her have your hero. That's... a lot of respect even if you can't admit it. So the way I'm looking at things is this..."
"First, Pop, you like and respect Makoto too much to steal her man so you're basically giving her first refusal. Second, Makoto, you also respect Pop too much to steal her man so you're basically giving her first refusal..." she paused, "And meanwhile because the two of you can't decide anything, you've leaving Crawler here, who cares for both of you to the point that he'd rather drown himself than break either of your hearts, with the choice of whose heart to break."
Pop's singular eye widened with horror.
"Oh..." Makoto said "I'm so sorry Koichi, I'll... I'll just go and..."
"Hold up!" La Brava exclaimed, "Because I have the solution!"
Pop closed her eye. "Alright. Fine... what's your solution?"
"You both like the same boy, and he likes you both, and you both respect each other so much you'd rather bury your own hearts than break the others, so I can only see one fair outcome!" La Brava raised a single arm to the sky, her index figure raised as she triumphantly pointed to the sky. "This calls for a Golden Ending!"
"The what?"
"The Golden Ending! The best ending! The way to deal with this love triangle is simple! Both of you get the boy! And he gets both girls. You just have to choose not to choose!" She grinned, "And if you need to think about it, well, you're not sharing your boyfriend, you're getting a girlfriend instead! More love for everyone!"
"You're insane," Makoto exclaimed, "That's..."
"Unconventional?" La Brava scoffed, "To hell with convention, this is love! Since when was love ever conventional!"
"But I like boys! Not girls!" Pop exclaimed, maybe a little too frantically.
"Bah!" La Brava scoffed, "Anyone who says you need to outgrow a Class S relationship* is a heartless monster! Romance doesn't have to mean sex, it means a deep and profound care and dedication for the other and I'd say you two have a romantic friendship even if you don't realize it!"
"We do not!" Pop exclaimed.
"Stop with the Tsun-Tsun, start with the Dere-Dere," Namami scoffed.
"I am not a Tsundere!" Pop growled.
The room went dead silent.
"What?"
Crawler coughed, his eyes wide and his voice half-cracked, "B-but wouldn't people judge?"
"Fuck 'em. Right up the ass with a chainsaw." Manami proclaimed with a snort. "They're not living your life, so why let them dictate it!"
"I..." Makoto took an audible breath, "I guess can try this if you're both willing to."
Crawler just went slack jawed.
Pop gagged. "Wait, what? But your career!"
"I'm in America," she countered, "They're a lot more accepting with that kind of stuff here. At least as long as you don't make a show of it."
"Oh..." Pop blinked. "Well... I guess I could try... I just..."
Crawler began to make an incomprehensible gagging sound.
Huh. He was actually foaming at the mouth. So that really does happen.
Neat.
"What was that?" Makoto asked.
"Koichi?" Pop asked, "Are you okay?"
"I think you two just broke your man," Manami replied, "Anyways, my work here is done! So I'll let you clear things up once he's done with his seizure!"
"Seizure?" Makoto exclaimed over the phone, "What's going on? Kazuho! What's going on!"
"Nurse!" Pop exclaimed, "Nurse! Somebody, help!"
La Brava smiled as she walked past the insensate man and out the door, stepping to the side as the nurse rushed inside to see what was wrong.
Her work here was done and all was good!
She grinned as she returned to her seat in the waiting room. She'd really thought she wasn't up to this hero shit, but you know what? She could do this! Saving people was a wonderful feeling, she thought to herself as a doctor rushed past her to check the chaos going on in Pop's room.
It was official as far as she was concerned.
Love Hero: La Brava! She's on the scene!
She absently wondered if they'd give her a talkshow?
Either way, now that she'd saved the day, she just knew everything was going to be okay!
* S Class relationships are a complicated form of romantic friendship encouraged between middle school girls in Japan that's expected to be outgrown when they start dating boys. It's the reason for a lot of the schoolgirl lesbian shipping that comes out of Anime. See the "Romantic Two-Girl Friendship" trope for details
Number Six quietly sat in the prisoner transport silently fuming in his bonds as his mind went over his defeat again and again. Everything he'd ever worked for destroyed by the actions of the Crawler and that idiotic Viewtube personality, that so-called Gentle Criminal.
He'd been so close to fulfilling his master plan, to becoming Teacher's successor. Of becoming the famed and beloved Turbo Hero: O'Clock II. Instead he was here, in this damned van, being moved for trial. Him, on trial! For what? For doing what he had to do to establish himself? That was no sin! That was no crime! He was going to be the greatest hero in the world, what were the lives of a bunch of nothings compared to his rise!
And now it was all dashed, because All Might had decided to jump in, just like he had before. Just like at the Sky Egg. His master had warned about him, and he'd learned then to avoid the one who stood at the pinnacle of heroism. But how was he supposed to know that the entire time All Might had been there... testing them... and testing him.
He quietly looked up at the Pro Hero who was in the transport wagon with him. He had to admit, the man's focus was clear. His eyes were locked onto the middle aged blond man, who's near unblinking blue eyes were locked on him in turn. He recognized him. The Sand Hero: Snatch, a middle aged has-been nobody who these days worked basically as a go-fer for the police department when transporting dangerous villains.
He'd intentionally been the ideal prisoner, because the authorities were reactive. Lazy. They'd restrained him well, but not as well as they would have if he'd given them trouble. Instead of full body binds, he was simply wearing chains and a pair of villain-rated binders. After all, why go through all that trouble for someone who wasn't behaving like a flight risk?
Besides, at the slightest sign of perceived escape, Snatch could use his Sandstorm Quirk to flood the van and restrain him. It was a bad situation, but he would find a way. Teacher certainly would. After all, he was better than this nobody. He just needed to wait for an opportunity.
"All it takes is one mistake. One moment of distraction. Given time, opportunity will always present itself to the prepared mind."
He smiled as his eyes flitted to the ethereal form of his teacher, who watched over him even now. The Turbo Hero: O'Clock to whom he owed his everything.
He smiled.
Teacher was so wise.
Eventually, opportunity did indeed present itself.
The transport wagon hit a speed bump, a pothole, a plothole, or perhaps somebody's dog. He didn't know what, nor did he care. But for a moment, they were jostled and Snatch's head turned as his arm shifted to steady himself against his seat.
A distraction.
Only for a moment.
But a moment was all he'd needed.
He detonated his left arm at the wrist, freeing his limbs and in that moment he called upon the strength quirk given to him by his master, his right arm swelling with power, while calling on his teacher's former Quirk, Overlock, slowing the world around him to a crawl.
He had to admit, Snatch was quite on point as he could see his arms already starting to fade into sand, but not fast enough as his metal binder was transformed from a restraint into a bludgeon, striking the masked hero up the side of the head with the force of a cannonball, shattering his skull like an overripe melon and spraying the entire interior with the man's brain.
He gasped as Overclock dropped and the vehicle started to grind to a stop as the driver realized something was up.
"Snatch!" he heard over the intercom, "What the hell is going on back there?"
"Idiots," Number Six whispered to himself as he grabbed the falling body, and threw himself into the rear door, his right arm wrapped around the body, both to hold it up and secure it as a shield.
He pressed his right arm against the door, using the former hero's corpse as a shield, and then detonated his right arm with its full power and might.
The explosion knocked him into the front wall of the van with bone shattering force, the blow causing the van to lurch forward.
Laughing as his limbs and body started to regenerate, Six kicked the mutilated corpse of the hero onto the hood of the following police car, a wide, maddened smile on his face as he sprinted past the panicking officers and into oncoming traffic, dodging and weaving through the speeding vehicles effortlessly with the air of his teacher's power, the resulting accidents he caused further aiding in his escape.
He'd have to find someone to kill for their clothes once he was in the free and clear. A man covered in pureed hero, wearing a prison jumpsuit would be rather obvious, and if he was obvious, he wouldn't be able to have his revenge on those who wronged him...