MHA

Chapter-5

I was going over the information shared with HPSC about our latest mission with Kaina. It looked they had taken the advice; I had given about easing Kaina into the job.

The target was a serial killer, it looks he had the ability to sprout blades all over his body and had a penchant of slashing his victims to death. He had been creatively dubbed Slasher by the paper pushers of the HPSC.

I looked at the reports, it looked like Slasher had not been targeted by any Pro Hero for one simple reason, his targets were not rich enough.

I looked at the map of his activity and noticed, he stuck to poorer areas with populations who were destitute for a number of reasons. In the quirk-based Hero society, the most marginalised were the quirkless and after them the ones with heteromorphic quirks with bad appearances or the ones with so-called villainous quirks.

It was the ridiculous thing about the current society, even if a man looks like a leech, that has literally no bearing on his ability to run numbers or handle logistics but the Human Resources departments were absolutely certain that he would not be a good fit for the job even if he had exemplary grades and graduated with honours.

How do I know this? Simple, I met the man when I was a kid and he gave me some food to survive. He loved to spew vitriol and rail against the unjust society. I am certain, he is in jail somewhere now or dead.

I finished reading the reports and waited for Kaina to finish. Once she was done, I prompted her.

"Well, how will you catch him then?" I asked plainly

She looked at me blankly before making a thinking posture, I patiently waited while sipping on my coffee.

"He is always on the move and his targets seem to be completely random with nothing similar about any of them. He seems to attack whoever catches his eye first, the only thing I can think is that he seems to always have a gap of 2 weeks roughly between his murders."

I nodded at that and waited for her to continue, "First thing, we need to pull up his personal information from the quirk registry, Second, we need to visit the areas of his crime someone must have seen him and before he killed his victims some of them must have fought back with their quirks, which will draw attention."

I smiled that was quite decent for a rookie, "The first thing is redundant. Here" I showed her my phone, "We work for the HPSC, we have access to almost the entire quirk registry. HPSC should send this information instead of us wasting our time wading through the registry but no one ever said they were competent."

Kaina looked at the profile, I had opened up "Shinnosuke Hodo, a known criminal with previous records. So, we just have to find him then."

I nodded at her again, "Yes, I have given you access to the quirk registry as well. It makes our job much more easier. Now come along, we need to move."

Kaina and me were standing near a decrepit house which looked like it had been abandoned, but I knew better. I walked in with Kaina following along, the inside was strewn with junk and pieces of gear lying about.

I shouted out loud, "Taku, I need your help."

Kaina looked at me and I answered, "This is Taku's shop. He sells whatever junk he can get his hands on after fixing it up a little."

We heard a clanging coming from further inside before we saw a greasy old man walk towards us wiping his hand on a piece of cloth, He was short and almost bald with a trimmed beard which had silvered with old age. He had a pair of glasses on along with a vest and thick gloves.

He looked at us and grunted, "Yasu, you are back and brought along a brat as well it seems."

I smiled at the gruff response, "Yeah, this is my sidekick, Lady Nagant."

He looked at me incredulously, "Somebody wants to be a sidekick of a lousy bottom tier hero like you."

Kaina was about to respond angrily to defend my honour but I placed a hand on her shoulder,

"Hey, I do have some skills to teach. She will become a big name in the future and it will all be because of my awesome guidance."

Taku snorted, "You talk a big game, Yasu. I will believe it when I see it. Now, what do you want?"

I smiled at him, "I heard some new crazy is going around attacking people randomly. Something about people getting cut into pieces."

Taku shrugged, "Yeah, I heard about it. The latest serial killer is making a name for himself."

"And will you be willing share some more details? For a price, of course."

Taku looked at me and smiled, "I can give you a base of operations. It will cost you though."

I shrugged and threw a wad of cash at him, "This should be enough."

He looked at the cash and nodded before disappearing into the shop again.

Kaina spoke up after he left, "He is very rude to you, Senpai. Why did you stop me from saying anything?"

I didn't bother to look at her examining, what appeared to be some support gear from some hero, "That's because he was saying the truth. I am at the bottom tier of the hero rankings. Heroes at those ranks don't get sidekicks."

Kaina protested again, "Bottom rank heroes, don't work with the police to solve cases regularly and neither do they work with All Might nor do they investigate criminal empires formed by an ancient quirk stealing villain who All Might considers to be the most dangerous person in the world."

I smiled at Kaina who seemed more upset about my lack of recognition than I do myself, "That's because my rank is fake, Kaina. The HPSC needs someone whose actions are not scrutinised too closely to do their work. Why do you think my Hero name is so boring and drab?"

She still seemed upset though, "That's not fair though. Don't you feel bad when no one recognises your effort and the hard work you do."

I shrugged at her, "Not really. I don't care much about that. I am paid quite well by the HPSC for my actions and I get decent amount of free time where I can pursue my own things. I don't need anything else."

She looked at me as though I was an alien creature, "But why? Why do they need you to be thought of as incompetent?"

I looked at her and she seemed to be stuck on this topic for some reason, so I decided to be brutally honest, "Because I am an orphan picked up from the streets who has a history of committing crimes. The HPSC has deemed me unsuitable to be a role model for people. Nor is my quirk flashy to stun audiences and my style of work is quite dull and drab. There are no large fights and daring rescue just boring investigative work."

I looked around and continued, "If this was a country like America maybe my background would have been useful propaganda, a typical rag to riches story but Japanese cultural values take a dim view on people like me."

She seemed even more upset after I finished and was about to say something, but Taku had appeared waving a piece of paper about.

I grabbed it from him and nodded, "Thanks Taku."

He smiled at me, "Anytime. As long as you pay me."

I nodded and brought Kaina along to head back out. Once we were out and seated in my car. I pulled out the paper and saw it was a map of the ward with a house marked with an X.

I smiled and started up the car heading to my house to collect some gear for the mission.

Kaina still seemed to be upset, so I decided to comfort her, "Don't worry, Kaina. You will surely become a famous Pro Hero with a very high ranking. The HPSC won't force you to obscurity like me, they want you to succeed and become a famous hero."

I seemed to have missed the mark, as she just frowned even more, "That's not the problem, Senpai. It's just not fair that they do this to you."

I still didn't quite get why she was so upset but pointed out something which she should know anyway, "Life is not fair in the first place. Kaina, if you look for fairness and justice in the world, you will be sorely disappointed."

I decided to move the topic along, "Now, I hope you are ready for the mission, Kaina. This is an elimination not an arrest after all."

She looked at me like she wanted to say something but stopped herself before saying, "I will be okay, Senpai. Villains like him need to be gone to protect people."

I raised my eyebrows at that response, it looks like the HPSC is quite good at re-educating people. Perhaps, I judged her too quickly.

Kaina were me were positioned on the roof of a house, looking at the target's house me from a pair of binoculars and her using a scope which had sprouted from her flesh.

It was a fascinating quirk, a weird one using her elbow to form a gun and everything required to shoot accurately including a stand and a scope to fire her rifle.

We were positioned roughly 100 metres from his house, and the only reason for being so close was to get a clear line of sight, it was not necessary for Kaina's quirk to be able to see her target and she could sort of curve her bullets instead of a straight-line trajectory but why make things harder for yourself.

I had told her that I thought her quirk had a mental component which allowed her to gain her crazy skills which would be impossible for anybody else but she just shrugged at me. I couldn't help but lament about how something so fascinating like the functioning of a quirk and its facets were treated like a hum-drum thing.

I spoke up, "Well, I will be making my way down. Whether you succeed or fail, retreat and make your way to the rendezvous location."

I saw her nod while her face was absolutely focused and decided to head over to my location for the mission.

I might have decided to be a spotter for any other sniper but Kaina didn't need such things and she was almost certainly safe on the roof.

So, we decided to create a backup plan and I was to sit out near the target's house in a rented car which would do a hit and run if the target survived.

I was just opening the door before I heard a small sound of something flying quickly through the air and turned around.

It looked like Kaina had already spotted the target and fired even before I could make my way down. I ran next to her and peered through the binoculars and saw Slasher was dead, a shot to the heart.

I whistled at that, "That was quick. Good job, Kaina. Let's get out of here."

I saw her gun change back to an arm and she nodded at me with a grim face and we moved towards the exit.

We got into the rented car and I started heading back to return it, Kaina was good at her job which was good for the rental owner, as it means I can return his car to him instead of disposing of it.

I put on a cap to shade my face and motioned to Kaina to do the same, traffic cameras were a pain in the butt and I had even taken the precaution of disguising our original appearances when we met the rental owner. It would have been easier to just take one of the HPSC's vehicles but I wanted to teach Kaina about disguises and some operational skills.

The only loose end was Taku who knew I had asked for this information, but he knew to keep his mouth shut and even he could not prove anything with his testimony if he spilled. Kaina's bullets had various properties and this one would dissolve to nothing in some time and I was just investigating the villain.

What? Kaina's quirk was perfect for this kind of assassination, it had to be her. Sorry, both of us were in the HPSC office at the time which could be easily verified by numerous accounts.

I once again felt the jolt of satisfaction running through my body as we returned the car and made our way to my house.

I was on the phone with the handler for the mission and reported my success which was answered by a good job and the line was cut.

As I entered my hall, I saw Kaina sitting there blankly looking at my TV which was turned off.

"Moshi Moshi Kaina-san"

Kaina was startled from her thoughts and looked at me, "Senpai, sorry I was distracted. Are there any problems?"

I chuckled and ruffled her hair, "Not at all, everything went smoothly. There are no problems at all and the HPSC heaped on a lot of praise on us as is usual for them."

I smiled and said, "Who knows, they might even throw a party for us."

She snorted, "When pigs fly maybe."

I laughed again, "Well, at least you know what to expect from them. But that doesn't mean, we can't do something nice for ourselves. Let's go out for a meal, my treat."

Kaina started frowning again and looked at me, "Senpai, I don't feel like it. Maybe some time later."

I sighed; I knew this would happen. "Kaina, what has you upset? Talk to me."

She ignored me for a few minutes before opening her mouth, "Was it really the right thing to do to kill him?"

I expected something along these lines and had even prepared the usual platitudes which I decided not to use as I felt Kaina had the ability to gauge my honesty which was scary because we had been working together for a very short period of time,

"If you are asking me if murder is the right thing to do then I can happily tell you the most correct answer to that question." I paused for dramatic effect, "The answer is sometimes."

She looked at me with the usual stupefied face she made when I said or did something completely unexpected.

I laughed at that face; it would never get old.

She immediately punched me in the shoulder, "Senpai, I was being serious. How can you even joke about something like this?" She looked really angry this time though, so I immediately placated her.

"Sorry, sorry Kaina. I have been told multiple that I have a bad sense of humour." I raised my arms in surrender grabbing both of hands which had formed into fists and looked her in the eye with the gravest look I could make.

"Kaina, sometimes to ensure our society is safe, we will need to dirty our hands. If you ask a million people, if it was okay to kill Slasher. You will receive no correct answer to satisfy you, some would say it is okay to kill him, others would say all life is sacred and he should have received help to recover from his mental illness, some will say he got off too lightly and should have suffered more and others would say he should be behind bars."

I saw her expression turn pensive at that and she asked, "Then, how do we know the right thing to do?"

I smiled gently, "I can't answer that for you. You will have to decide that for yourself but I can share my own thoughts on the matter."

I slowly lowered her hands and held it between us

"I think there are times when we have to take actions like what we did today for the protection of our society. Kaina, our society today is so fragile and it could break into total anarchy very easily. Remember, before All Might, Japan was a very hard place to survive in." I paused and sighed

"This is not a perfect solution nor a good one but people need hope and Japan needs heroes. If me taking out villains and corrupt heroes can hide the rotten side of the world. Then, that would be an acceptable sacrifice."

I looked at Kaina and saw that she was looking more thoughtful now.

She opened her mouth, "So, we clear the dirty things, so that more children can have hope of better future and become the heroes of tomorrow."

I smiled at that but I didn't say my most honest thoughts.

The HPSC was fighting a losing game, the current way the society worked couldn't be sustained for long. Heroes were not the paragons of virtue that were portrayed in media, they were just like the rest of us. The idealisation of heroes and heroic quirks caused more problems, children with villainous quirks and appearances were bullied and ostracised. They didn't have any hope for the future at all, even as adults their prospects were dismal.

They would become the next generation of villains looking at the world with hate towards everyone and the heroes the targets of their envy. Heroes were taking up the jobs of the police, firefighters and paramedics with their quirks. The rate of recruitment for these services was dropping every year and people with jobs suited for these occupations were pushed to become heroes instead.

Heroes who had minimal oversight and with zero checks and balances other than the HPSC.

Right now, this society was functioning with the strength of All Might and the rosy news stories churned out by the HPSC propaganda department. If All Might died or the HPSC couldn't continue to cover things up then this situation would collapse immediately.

Heroes and Villains, the childish concept had to completely removed. Meta-abilities had to be used by their owners in productive fields which would contribute to society and the quirk-based discrimination had to be reduced as much as possible.

Fire, water, temperature control, super strength etc, I could think of a number of industries which could use people like them, but all the ones with truly powerful quirks were pushed and brainwashed into becoming heroes instead.

This society needed to change drastically but I couldn't think of a single way to do that with my capabilities, that's why I kept my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself and worked for the HPSC.

Eventually, things would change for better or worse and that's the future, I was looking forward to.

Kaina continued to look at me, "Senpai. I feel like you are not telling me everything."

I smiled at that, "I need my own secrets as well after all. Maybe, I will tell you my full thoughts when you grow up a little."

She just nodded her head while continuing to look at me, "Thank you, Senpai. I feel like my mind has cleared now." I nodded at that, but I saw her face reddening after she finished her piece, "You can let go of my hands now."

I was still holding Kaina's hand and released it when she mentioned it, while laughing at her embarrassment. I knew copying that movie would be a good idea, it was successful in distracting her from thinking too deeply.

"Maybe, we can go out on some other day. So, let me cook something for you." I spoke.

"You can cook, senpai."

"I sure can, I like cooking actually."

She raised an eyebrow and commented, "Not something, I expected you to do, senpai."

I shrugged, "I like to eat good food and going out to eat can become repetitive. So, I picked up some recipes. And you can call me by my name." I said as I moved towards the kitchen.

"Thank you, Yasu." I heard a soft voice say behind me.