Chapter 1

The moment she steps out from her temporary housing she instantly shoots her hand up. Muscle memory kicking in to shield herself away from the glare, before pulling it back down after quickly realizing. There is nothing to shield from. There is no sun.

The crescent moon is looking pretty bright, though, for what little time it has before it is covered by the unlit clouds.

Shaking herself out from its sight, she swiftly leaps onto the roof of a nearby house and carefully lands without making any noise (padded feet are just the best). Then she straightens up as she surveys the area. Although she has to squint to make out roughly anything.

Night patrol.

This is completely new to her. Throughout her long years of being a Hero, just over ten years now, she had never seen the need for night patrolling. It doesn't help her fame. It doesn't give her much recognition, and it certainly won't help get her the top spot. How could it? No one will be there to watch her fight and spread the words of her heroic deeds. So why should she be here?

But tonight, for whatever reason, curiosity got the best of her.

She wants to see what it would take to patrol at times where most would not volunteer. She wants to see what the unknown has to offer. She heard that it is challenging, and she loves a challenge. Besides, she wants to experience something new, something fresh, and night patrols are the closest thing there is to it.

She was confident in her ability but now, after scanning the sight before her, she feels a little hesitant.

Just a little…

It's a lot darker than she expected. She picks up a lot less at night, and quietly wishes it'd be a bit brighter . All the details she had burned into her memory are just swallowed by a void of blackness. Her enhanced eyesight (thanks to her Quirk) does very little in aiding.

Still undeterred, she decides to tackle the new area. A place she had never gone through before and is further away from Musutafu, at least the central city. She had rented an apartment prior. Using the daytime to scour the area, mapping every single piece of information into her brain.

But this self opposed challenge is starting to seem a bit daunting.

Half of the things she remembers under the light of the sun are just gone. The darkness had messed up her memory too, causing her to hesitate for a split second.

She has to traverse carefully. The new profound cautiousness makes her relive the early days of her Hero work.

Before deciding to advance towards a particular haunting alleyway she needs to start somewhere familiar. Somewhere she could get an idea for the night patrol while also having a place to branch off from. It would-

"GAH!"

She shouts as her footing suddenly slips from underneath her on a streetlight. She manages to grab onto it before she could fall any further, quickly recovering. She pulls herself up until her feet touch the top of the lamp.

She curses under her breath. The lack of lighting had really messed up her visual. She had used these streetlights many times during her job, as evident from the dents she has created on it. Just now, she had landed a little too much to the left from her usual landing spot, and it had echoed through everything she had gone through on her way here.

Everything is just off in many different ways. It's already a telling sign things are going to be very difficult from here on out.

She arrives at a street she is familiar with. She had patrolled this area pretty regularly under the sunlight. It's quite crowded at night but it pales in comparison during the morning.

Regardless, less people means less witnesses – which means less boost in popularity. Which also means there are going to be less victims and casualties involved if something does ever happen.

Without previous hesitation, she hops onto the street and by nature, her feet instantly carry her through the usual patrol route. Her vigilance is on the higher side tonight, a lot more than the usual. Her journey here had already proven difficult. Imagine what could go wrong in a stressful situation. Muscle memories won't aid her here under the moonlight's gaze.

.

She notices during the patrol that she gets a lot of attention from the civilians around her despite the abnormal time. Most are looking at her with wide disbelief eyes, yet no one seems to step forward to greet her.

She suspects that people mind their own business during nighttime as to draw less attention to themselves. It's the complete opposite during the daytime where she would be swarmed almost half of the time she's out.

There are also significantly less Heroes around. During daytime, she would come across five Heroes every ten minutes or so. Now, she only met five after an hour of patrolling.

Even then, they admit they don't do this often.

Hearing their words, it makes her pause to think if perhaps she had been going about this all wrong. She had come here to gain some experience, but at this rate she isn't going to gain any valuable ones by doing what she would do in the morning.

This is not the right way to do it. She needs to think outside of the box.

She clicks her tongue.

It looks like she has to enter the shadows much earlier than expected.

She takes in her surroundings before heading straight for the first alleyway that catches her eyes. The moment she arrives at the entry way she is immediately greeted by darkness and strange silence, a giant contrast to the street she previously patrolled.

This is the more appropriate start.

Without any further delay, she walks into the dark alleyway.

Immediately, her senses are on high alert. Eyes squinting to make out anything out of the ordinary and ears perked to pick out any danger. The sound of the partially busy street quickly fades from earshot. The flashing lights of the stores grow dimmer the further she trudges onward. Her eyes begin to adjust to the shadows and her hearing begins to pick up the minute quieter sounds.

Her gut feeling is going haywire. It keeps telling her that something is here, somewhere, with her. Close.

Her eyes start imagining shapes that aren't there. Her ears are picking up noises that sound like breathing or footsteps that are not her own.

Her paranoia is running at an all time high.

This is so much different than when she faced powerful Villains under the gaze of many. It's a different kind of disadvantage that she can't brute force her way through. She needs to be strategic.

Villains at night tend to be secretive, achieving whatever they wish away from the public eyes. This makes it difficult to take advantage of them due to less information.

She continues on nevertheless just before halting at a crossroad. She frowns, confused yet intrigued. She picks a random direction and trudges through. The further deeper she walks, the more the realization dawns onto her.

This back alley system is a lot bigger than it first appears. The routes are complicated, almost like a maze. She knows the architects and engineers who built these buildings ain't maniacs; they don't hide a goddamn maze between buildings.

But being stranded between these tall walls that are almost indistinguishable from one another sure makes it feels like one.

It's like a mind game between her and the Villains.

What kind of maniacs would walk down these paths?

*rustle*

Her ears swivel towards the noise before she snaps her head to the same direction. She stops and immediately presses her back against the wall. She peeks around the corridor and her eyes catch a pair of suspicious figures walking down the narrow path away from her. She trails after them as silently as she can. The shushed silence tricks her to believe that she is much louder than she actually is.

Soon, she realizes they are arriving at an opening, an exit to this complex system and entering the main street. She silently watches them, peeking out from her cover. Her ears detect their quiet murmurs but she can't pick up what they are saying.

Then, without warning, the pair quickly reaches out and pulls something in and in response, there's a muffled scream. Her eyes catch something glinting from in between the pair.

Her body automatically reacts. With powerful legs, she leaps from her spot to the duo in one single pounce. Before anyone could react, her shin already connected with one of the pairs heads.

"Miruko!?" she hears the other shouts in utter bafflement as their partner falls onto the ground unconscious. After realizing an opening, the victim immediately runs away from the scene.

"What are you doing at this kind of time?!"

"Taking out shitheads like you," she answers before dashing towards them and does the same maneuver, knocking them out the exact same way. She checks the pair once more, making sure they are truly passed out and not in any way from escaping. Now that the fight is over, she releases a breath.

Well, that was much easier than expected.

Challenge? What challenge? HAH!

This is like a walk in the park for a Hero like her. Maybe all those warnings are nothing but bullshit all along. That back alley system must have gotten to her. To think that this is a daunting task. Pshh.

Her lips stretch into a satisfied smirk.

She can do this easy fucking peasy.

Now then… What is there left to do next?

She can't wait for the cops to arrive because… they don't know about the incident. Unlike what usually happens in the daytime when there are witnesses all around and reporting it while it is happening.

She decided to contact them directly. Taking out her phone, she dials the three numbers.

"Hello, what is your emergency?"

"Yo, it's Miruko."

"Mi- Pro Hero Miruko? What do you need?"

"Knocked some dudes down. Needs to be taken care of."

"Send us your location and we will send a squad over."

"Thanks."

That was quick. She expected a lot of questions asked or some procedures taken or some shit.

It doesn't take long for the cops to arrive with a police car and a van. She notices a few of the cops give her a curious glance as they cuff up the unconscious thugs.

"I am surprised you would be patrolling at this kind of time, Miruko," one of the officers directs to her as his colleagues put the Villains into the van, carefully laying them down so as not to jostle them around during transport.

"Just trying something new, y'know," she replies simply. "So what happens now?"

"Usually we'll contact your agency about your capture, but since you're an independent Hero you need to come to the station with us to handle the paperwork."

Immediately, her face twists into disgust while the officer grins.

"Can I like… not?"

She hates paperwork with every inch of her being.

"No can do, Miruko. This is one of the procedures of night patrol handled by independent Heroes."

She groans out loud as she drags her feet to the cop car.

"I do want to suggest the next time you catch a Villain, bring them straight to the station. It'll save troubles for everyone around."

"Yeah, whatever," she mumbles with a wave of her hand as she enters the passenger side of the vehicle. The other officer that is accompanying them gives her a sympathetic look, to which she jeers at as the car begins to move.

On the way, she notes that there is a procedure needed to be done for independent Heroes. By the sound of it, this is a regular occurrence. That's a right step forward.

"Word of advice," the first officer, who is behind the wheel, suddenly starts with a serious tone. "Don't get confused."

She merely waves a hand dismissively as she looks out the window, watching the city go by. When they stop at a red light, her eyes trail up towards a peculiar building.

Strange.

What a weird idea to put a single gargoyle on top of a building. But hey, she can't decorate for shit either. The only decorative skill she has is her buttkicking. But then the clouds begin to clear and the crescent moon appears behind the gargoyle. She immediately straightens up in her seat, squinting.

That's not a gargoyle.

That's a fucking person.

She can't see their form clearly; the brightness of the moon casts a shadow onto whoever is there. What she can see is that they're crouching down on the edge of the building, wearing all black that perfectly blends into the night. Something long and thin is circling around them too.

Apprehension bubbles from her chest. What are they doing?

Is it a Villain? Are they looking for a target?

Without any warning, she throws the door open and bolts towards the building, ignoring the cries of the officers behind her. She scales up the side of the building as fast as she can, using the stairway and any ledges her hands could grab onto to help. She throws herself onto the roof and turns towards the person.

But they are no longer there. There are no traces of their presence either.

Her sensitive ears had been on hyper mode when she climbed up the building. However she didn't hear them jumping off, in fact she didn't hear anything at all. And it took her less than ten seconds to climb the tall building, thanks to her skills and Quirk. Whoever it is, they must have sensed her and disappeared quickly.

It shouldn't really be that surprising, really. She's a newbie after all and these guys are well acquainted to the night.

Her heart sinks.

Whoever it is, is eerily undetectable.

Hello, it me

am bak wif mo EraserBunny

or is it? ;)